February 9, 2006 | Funny Bits

Spelling test: Grapefruits and Care Bears

When it comes to the Internet, one lil ol' spelling mistake can read "trouble" for innocent web crawlers. Case in point: Two websites are in the news this week for their spelling conundrums, called out separately for having confused grapefruits and Care Bears for pornography.

In one case, a Vietnamese business owner was turned down when he tried to register an Internet domain name that officials deemed "very sensitive." The man, a grapefruit wholesaler, attempted to register www.buoi.com.vn, according to Australia's The Age, but was advised by the Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre to look for a new name because "buoi," which means grapefruit in Vietnamese, also means penis.

"In written Vietnamese, the two words are distinct, with the citrus fruit using a rising-falling tone, while the part of the male anatomy has different 'u' and 'o' and a falling tone," an official explained. In the western alphabet, however -- which is used most commonly in Vietnamese websites -- the words are identical.

In other news, AVN Online reports that a little girl in Kansas City, Mo., was searching for the Care Bears online  when she accidentally stumbled upon a creature of another sort.

 "All of a sudden, here comes up a lady and her pants were pulled down and she was showing her bottom," the girl told a local television news station. Instead of www.care-bears.com, she had typed www.carebares.com. The girl's mother was "repulsed" and promised to supervise her child more closely online.

So, if you want to stay away from porn online, it seems that you'd better learn to spell. Of course, if porn is what you're after, then by all means, put that dictionary away!

• Vietnam knocks back grapefruit 'sex' site [The Age]
• Care bares aren't cartoons [AVN Online]