Eating Pizza Elastic Loaves While Reading Lolita in Tehran

Because Iran's oppressive government isn't oppressive enough, it has now decided to ban the word pizza and some 2,000 other terms.

"The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into the language," reports the AP. "The presidential decree…orders all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words deemed more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi, or Persian Academy, the Irna official news agency reported."

The replacement for pizzas? "Elastic loaves." Which makes me think the Persian Academy must be ordering from Pizza Hut.

In other changes, a "chat" will now be known as a "short talk" and a "cabin" will now be known as a "small room."

More here.

Hat Tip: Hit & Run regular John Gilmore.