Just in time for holiday — cuddly critter corpses

Brian Tracey Associate editor • Profile

Look into any child's toy box and you'll usually find at least one stuffed animal that has seen better days — a teddy bear with an eye missing or an arm nearly torn off. Now a British company wants to give you that look right out of the box with its line of  "roadkill" plush toys.

The first to be launched is Twitch the Raccoon which comes with its own body bag, reports U.K newspaper Metro.

Twitch also has an identity tag revealing it was "run over over by a milk [delivery truck] last Thursday."

A zipper on each side of the toy allows the owner to remove Twitch's internal organs and stuff them back in again. A truck-tire print runs across its back.

The product's creators, Compost Communications, call themselves "toy terrorists." 

"We squash and burn and bludgeon and maim," the company was quoted as saying on its Web site. "But we're also toy fanatics like you. We love toys."

Toy creator Adam Arber, 33, said: "I got the idea from looking at my mother-in-law's dog which is quite ugly and I thought it would make a great toy. A friend of mine had taken some pictures of road kill and the two things gelled into one idea."

He said he thought the toys, which cost $50, would appeal to people with a sense of humor and "probably not anyone easily upset".

Twitch is set to go on sale starting in December at London's Play Lounge toy store and online at roadkilltoys.com. Coming soon are other characters including Grind the rabbit, Splodge the hedgehog and Pop the weasel.

What, no baby deer called Slambi?

Texting for toilets
A new service promises Londoners they'll never have to spend much time looking for the bathroom. Westminster City Council, which covers London's bustling Oxford Street, the West End, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, this week launched "SatLav" — a toilet-finding service for cell phone users.

Tourists, theatergoers, shoppers and pub patrons in London's West End can now text the word "toilet" — and receive a text back with the address of the nearest public facility.

The system, which covers 40 mostly free public toilets, pinpoints the caller's position by measuring the strength of the phone signal.

The texts cost about 50 cents each, which we think is a small price to pay when you're on the go and have to go.

Undress code
This is taking the casual-business-attire thing a bit too far: A Taiwanese lingerie company reportedly encouraged its female staff to go to work in their underwear for a day.

The Audrey Underwear company in Taizhong named November 21 Camisole Day to celebrate record sales, according to Taiwan's Strait News.

All 500 women working in the firm's headquarters were encouraged to wear only camisoles and panties — much to the excitement of their male colleagues.

"We have been waiting for this day all month. Today, we are super high, and don't know where to put our eyes," salesman Cai Mingda told the newspaper.

More than 90 percent of female workers reportedly went along with the spirit of the day and worked in their underwear.

Zhang Yufeng, 32, a mother of two, admitted: "I have been on a strict diet to get ready for the day. When I was trying on my outfit at home, my husband told me I should dress like this every day."

And Liao Wenshen, 30, added: "The men were red-faced all day, and were becoming so polite to us. It's so funny!"

Huang Bihui, PR manager of the company, explained: "We introduced eight new camisoles into market and sold more than 20,000 in less than two months so we named the 21st as Camisole Day."

Employment lawyers said there was nothing illegal in the move so long as it was voluntary.

But isn't it discriminatory if some of the men wanted wear women's underwear too?

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