Albion's Seedlings

Allah in the family

According to reports, Yahoo has banned allah – standing on its own or as part of a family name, like Callahan, say – as an email address. God, Jesus, Jehova, Messiah, Buddha and a truckload unpleasantries – no probs. This came to light when someone with the family name of Callahan couldn’t get Yahoo to accept the email address she wanted and wrote to Yahoo’s helpdesk, only to receive bland, canned instructions for opening an email account. Not, needless to say, addressing the question. Dirty Harry Callahan

However, someone with the name Kallahar in his family history who had used the name as an internet pseudonym for a long time, was also told by Yahoo that this name was unavailable. He thought he might have opened an account some time in the past and forgotten it, so he tried kallahar385753984753. For the 38th trillionth time - no!

Yahoo will, however, accept Islam.