Who wants to be a Chinese Mucus Monitor? The local government in Beijing says it's launching a campaign against the common habit of hocking up lurgies in public. According to the BBC. But in 2003 the Scottish Sunday Herald explained that fines were already being enforced due to the outbreak of SARS. And while many sites claim spitting is illegal, I pretty much spat the dummy just trying to find out what countries it actually was illegal to cough one up.

In Victoria, Australia it's a definite no-go on the trains, in Singapore it is certainly a minor prison offence, and in Lousiana, U.S.A it is mentioned in the HIV-Specific Exposure/Transmission Statute. There are several interesting cases in which spitting features - in Sri Lanka a case of torture in which the victim had someone infected with tuberculosis spit in her mouth, North Carolina Police Officers become victims of fast food restaurant workers, and in the World Of Soccer spitting at the fans could end up with you sitting on the bench. Bu then there is the sport of Kudu Dung Spitting in which the whole point is spitting. Spitting dung. Dung of the Kudu. And while we are over that side of the globe, how about a look at the mozambique spitting cobra? Or why llamas spit? Apparently public spitting is on the decline in Australia, where signs aren't even necessary anymore, although they are still necessary in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia (and this quite amusing pic of a sign I found at - of all places - the MS resource center UK). And if all of this has barely begun to whet your whistle - how about the role of gobbing in punk, a look at what spit is, or a peek into the bizarre world of spit fetish [SFW]? Or perhaps a break and a nice round of spit-wad sandwiches?