The exclamation mark was added to Boo!'s name later to make sure people knew her name was related to Halloween. "It was the joke that became reality," Boo!'s mother, Erika, said. "I love the exclamation mark. 'Boo' is wimpy without it ... and Halloween now is extra fun."
The child's name wasn't too popular at the beginning, the parents said. Erika Elliott's mother "hated it," and Drew Elliott's father accused him of condemning his daughter to years of abuse at school. But the name did have some unexpected benefits.
"Nobody ever forgets her name, and all of her (preschool) classmates learned what an exclamation mark is," said Boo!'s father. And Boo!, who removed the exclamation mark for a few months during the first grade, likes her name. "I took it off in first grade because I was embarrassed about it, but now I like it," said Boo!. "It's something to show off."
The Allure of the Seas, a new $1 billion cruise liner built in Finland, passed under a bridge in Denmark with only 20 inches of clearance:
Ed Del Grande, a plumber, has an advice column in The Seattle Times. He responded to one query about home toilets by describing how the color of a toilet may indicate its vintage:
A large rock stands out in the middle of a plain in Mongolia. The Taikhar chuluu is covered with inscriptions dating back as far as Turkic rule in Mongolia. Those inscriptions were followed by more in the Mongol language, then Tibetan, and even more modern graffiti.
