An MRT train station that provides comic relief?

I had mentioned on Sunday that a possible train station name might be Pending Station (after the road of that name), which will be possibly confusing unless one is aware that in this case, "pending" is a Malay word, not the English word meaning "provisional" or "tentative".

On Monday (20 Dec), the editorial piece in The Straits Times ("Naming the past for the future") defended two other possible choices -- Kangkar and Kadaloor. Critics had noted these sites had no nearby street name or familiar feature in mind.

But ST said: "Let's not snub the Kangkars and the Kadaloors of the country's past. Kangkar, which means 'river mouth' in Teochew, used to be an area of fishing villages and plantations scattered along river banks before it became Sengkang.

"Similarly, Kadaloor means 'seaside town' in Tamil, a reference to the erstwhile characteristics of that particular part of Punggol. Such names, like Kreta Ayer from before, enrich the present by recalling the past."

I can see ST's point. But new residents of these places are unlikely to feel any emotional affect towards them.

Meanwhile, letter writer Thomas Lee Zhi Zhi (Today, 23 Dec, "An MRT station by any other name...") urged the Land Transport Authority to review the Chinese names of some existing stations, some of which, he said, "make no sense nor have any relation to their vicinity".

He continued: "One example would be Somerset station. The Chinese name 'shuo mei se" is a direct translation of the pronunciation but it has no meaning, literally translating into something like 'rope beauty stuffing". Another example, he said, is Dhoby Ghaut station -- "duo mei ge" or "many beautiful song".

Hmmm. Rope beauty stuffing? That's a good one... now, if it had been "rope beauty strutting" I can imagine a world first by Singapore: the first pole dancer to strut her stuff not on a pole but on a vertical rope. I think only one candidate can do that: Singapore's female magician "Magic Babe" Ning!

As for "many beautiful song" I dread to imagine "song" as a euphemism for what tour guides, once upon a time, when shepherding Singaporeans into coaches bound for the more remote holiday spots in, say, rural Malaysia or China, would lay down this rule: "If you need to si si (pee), please don't use the toilet on the coach [it will stink, and he or she ain't about to double as toilet cleaner]. Just say you want to 'sing song' and I will stop the bus somewhere, even if you have to use the bushes."

I don't think tour guides do that these days but I can't imagine Dhoby Ghaut station being the venue for melodious pee-oetry in motion. Just make sure there are no bushes around that station.