OK People ! New topic that we never give a second thought about, sooooo of coarse I had to give it a second thought. You'll be surprised, I was !
Bellybutton names
The belly button has many names, including the fairly technical term "navel". "Navel" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word "nafela".
The Romans called the belly button the "umbilicus".
The Greeks called it the "omphalos". So if you add the Greek word "tomê" (meaning "cutting"), you get "omphalotomy". This word means "cutting of the umbilical cord".
Omphalos also means "knob" or "hub". The Greeks erected a holy stone, or fetish stone, in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi (on the slopes of Mount Parnassus near the Gulf of Corinth). They called this rounded conical stone the Omphalos (or Navel), as they thought that it marked the exact centre of their universe.
The tallest mountain in Bali is Gunung Agung. One Balinese myth says that their deities had mountains as their thrones, and that the highest mountain of all was Gunung Agung. The Balinese call this mountain the "Navel of the World".
The original inhabitants of Easter Island called it "Rapa Nui" ("Great Rapa") or "Te Pito te Henua" ("Navel of the World").
Literature and bellybutton lint
The blue colour of Belly Button Lint is specifically mentioned in The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman, by Louis de Bernières. A town is being held under siege by bloodthirsty and cruel religious crusaders. Elders from the town go and ask a mad Englishman, Don Emmanuel, for his advice on how to annoy the crusaders as a form of guerrilla warfare. In his reply, Don Emmanuel speaks of BBL as "dingleberries". Strangely, he admits that he does not perform his own BBL removal, but has Felicidad do it for him . . .
"Don Emmanuel grinned, scratched his rufous beard and then his pubic region, and said, 'I will give you all the advice in the world if only you can tell me why it is that the dingleberries excavated from my navel by Felicidad are always composed of blue Lint, when I possess no clothes of that colour.' "
Belly to breast
Plastic surgeons are now able to insert breast implants via the belly button. The advantage of this is that it leaves no obvious scar.
The surgeons cut in through the belly button, and insert an endoscope tube under the skin. They work their way over the ribcage until they get to each breast, and then make an opening between the breast and the ribcage. They then insert a rolled-up breast implant into each breast. Once it's in place they fill it with salt water.
Innie vs outies
Your normal belly button is concave, with an attractive upper hood. The base of the belly button usually joins onto the muscle wall of the abdomen. Around the belly button there is subcutaneous fat. In the "outie", there is a protuberant mass of subcutaneous scar tissue between the bottom of the belly button and the muscle wall of the abdomen. This scar turns the concave "innie" into a convex "outie".
Hair track directs joeys
Marsupials give birth to their young outside their pouch. The joey (the baby kangaroo) has to find its way to the pouch, by following a "track" in the fur of the mother kangaroo. Inside the pouch lies the source of life, the nipple.
Is nature giving us a clue about the origin of BBL? The joey follows the hairs; does BBL take the same path?
Bellybutton cleaners
A few different people sent in Belly Button Dusters. I didn't know that these devices existed before our survey. They have one job only - to remove BBL from your belly button.
One person sent in a small article from the South China Morning Post (10 September 2000) which tells of a different style of belly button cleaner. This Stick-on Belly Button Cleaner is a Japanese invention. It's an adhesive pad which you apply "over and into the offending area, and then remove it after 10 minutes (making sure you dispose of the evidence discreetly)". They're available from the Lung Shing Dispensary Company in Hong Kong at a cost of HK$48 for six adhesive strips.
I reckon it'd be cheaper just to yank the lint out manually - or you could use a friend's or relative's electric toothbrush . .