Olympic Mascots Get Name Change   
With less than two years until the Olympic torch is lit in Beijing, the news surrounding the games is nothing short of riveting.  On Tuesday, all major Chinese newspapers reported the quiet and sudden name change of the Olympic mascots, formerly the "Five Friendlies".  And looking at these Chinese teletubbies, they might just be a little too friendly.  The embodiment of everything Olympic--colorful, athletic, varying eye-width, the Friendlies, as of today, will be known simply as "Fuwa", the anglicized spelling of their Chinese name.  In Mandarin, "Fu" translates to "blessing" and "Wa" means "lovely children".  So now, instead of the "Five Friendlies" (which sounds a bit Motown to me), the mascots are the "blessing of lovely children."  Cause that's catchy.  The name change, which received no formal announcement from the Olympic Committee, came in response to more than a year of public outcry, mostly from bloggers who claimed that the English name did not suit the honorable stuffed animals.  As reported in the China Daily, a China Radio International broadcast urged the committee to change the name for three reasons.  One, the term "friendly", as in European football, describes a non-competitive game that counts for nothing.  Fair enough.  The Olympic games certainly do not fit this description.  Two, the term "friendlies" has a similar pronunciation to the word "friendless".  And to that I'd say: Florida State's mascot, the Seminole, sounds a lot like "semen hole" and you don't see them changing it.  And three, and by far the most absurd, the word "friendlies", if divided into its two syllables, spells "friend lies".  They must be kidding.  Is this a kindergarten class?  Thank heaven the name of each individual mascot remained in tact.  The individual names together create the sentence "Beijing Huanying Ni" which means "Beijing welcomes you."  Also, the five mascots represent the five Chinese elements of water, wood, fire, metal and earth.  My choice for the English name would have been the "The Five Fruity Fur Balls".  If you have a better name, post a comment.

•China Daily: Mascot Renamed