A friend of mine & I were in the dance class waiting room last week when she suddenly told me to come over and look at her shirt. It was a cute Halloween shirt with three teddy bears, trick or treating in costume on a front porch. There was a house number sign on it, "7734." She told me to look over her shoulder at it, upside down, the way she would see it if she looked down at her chest. I did, and it read, "h*ll!" She was quite upset, and we wondered if it was intentional. Seems to me it had to have been. Now why would the manufacturer do something like that? And with teddy bears! Sheesh!

By Eve on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 08:00 pm:

That IS bizzare! It sounds like it was on purpose! Someone with too much free time on their hands designed it, I guess!

By Bobbie on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 09:46 pm:

Oh how nice........ I would say typical...

By Mommyathome on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 10:25 pm:

LOL Ditto. That is just plain idiotic. Normally, when there is a print with a house number on it it will read "1234" To put "7734" someone must have really been thinking.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 01:18 am:

I think that is what we learned as kids (probably from some other kid) to punch 7734 into a calculator and then turn it around. I can't imagine it on a cute t-shirt, though.

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 05:27 am:

If I were the person who bought the shirt, I would take it back to the store where I bought it and complain, as well as complaining to the central management of the store if it is a chain. You can bet they'd then be in touch with the manufacturer or distributor, who would then be in touch with the designer. It is one thing to produce potentially offensive stuff when the people buying it want offensive stuff (sadly, many do), but to sneak it in like that is over the line.

And think of the kids who saw it and recognized it, and talked their parents (who might not have seen it) into buying it for them.

By Marg on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 07:15 am:

how sad how our society can take something so cute and fun and destroy it

By Sunny on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 09:06 am:

I guess I don't see what the uproar is if it can only be read upside down. Have you ever punched in the number 7734 on a calculator and turned it upside down? There are a lot of words you can make with numbers when you read them upside down. Whoever designed it may have had that in mind, or not. If she's really offended, she should take it back and get a refund.

-MicHELLe

By Tunnia on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 09:16 am:

LOL MicHELLe!

By Laurazee on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 09:45 am:

I thought of calculator thing too. You can also make the word "boobies".

By Trina~moderator on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 01:26 pm:

LOL, Laura! Try 55378008. That would be ME. *EG*

Either take the shirt back and complain or use permanent marker and change it/doctor it up.

By Bellajoe on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 02:27 pm:

I also thought of the calculator thing. We figured those goofy things out in school too. We'd put in 35007, to make it say "Loose" and stupid stuff like that. So what if it says h*ll upside down? If it bothers her that much, she should return the shirt.

LOL, Trina!