Next Time, Leave Your Ladles in the Kitchen

I know I haven't posted for a while, so I thought this short post could provide a sparkplug for me to start writing again. Also, I couldn't go without making sure my fellow readers got as much enjoyment out of this article as I did. I mean, who's this guy think he is? An Asian Emeril Lagasse?? (Note: that was my "cubicle worker who does stand up comedy at the local club every other Friday" joke)

Also, please note the pun at the end of the article. I have put it in bold, and am pretty sure that it was not meant to be a pun in such a serious news clip.....

TOKYO -- A veteran sumo wrestler who attacked a junior grappler with a cooking utensil has been ordered to take a salary cut for his violent outburst.

Toyozakura, whose ladle-wielding assault left the 18-year-old victim bleeding and needing eight stitches, will take a 30 percent pay cut for three months, Japanese sumo officials said on Thursday.

The same punishment was meted out to gym chief Magaki for beating a junior wrestler with a bamboo sword in the latest in a series of incidents that has tarnished sumo's image.

Toyozakura, 34, apologized after admitting he used a ladle to hit the apprentice on the head.

"I asked him to do something, which I don't remember exactly, but he couldn't do it," Toyozakura said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Sumo dates back some 2,000 years and retains many Shinto religious overtones, but the sport has been plagued by scandal in recent months.

Violent hazing, or beating during training, has long been seen as customary, contributing to the sport's struggle to attract new recruits. But there was a public outcry over the death last year of a teenage apprentice who was beaten with a beer bottle and a baseball bat.

Japan's government has weighed in on the issue, ordering sumo officials to clean up their act.