Scoubidou

Scoubidou is also a song by Sacha Distel and was formerly the title of the cartoon Scooby-Doo in French. The manga and anime series Ebichu, for example, features an office lady character, appropriately named OL, and the warrior characters Linna Yamazaki from Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 and Arisa and Kyouko from All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku have day jobs as office ladies. In July 2004 German and Dutch research showed that scoubidou appears to contain an excessive amount of phthalates. OL stock characters are frequently found in josei manga and anime, often portrayed as clever and wistful individuals bored with their jobs, overpressured by their families, and facing psychological issues, though they are usually attractive. For examples of Scoubidous in popular culture, see the cult movie Napoleon Dynamite (2005). Additinally, more businesses are being started by female entrepreneurs, who may be choosing to strike out on their own as an alternative to the traditional, conservative, male-dominated atmosphere of established businesses. Most of the knots used in Scoubidou were already used in Bast fibre, while the creations possible with Scoubidou are also similar in many ways to traditional corn dollys and to macrame. The OL phenomenon is changing as more and more Japanese women pursue higher education, especially abroad.

Key chains, friendship bands and other trinkets are common, although more complicated shapes and figures can also be created. Office ladies are usually full-time permanent staff, although the jobs they do usually have little opportunity for promotion, and many OLs leave their jobs to get married. They are used to make various items by binding them together with special knots. Like many unmarried Japanese, OLs often lives with their parents into the adulthood years. They are sold in various colours, sizes and types. An office lady, often abbreviated OL (Japanese: オーエル), is a female office worker in Japan who performs generally white collar (or, some would say, pink collar) tasks such as serving tea and secretarial or clerical work. Scoubidous are supple, round, hollow plastic tubes ususally about 80 centimetres in length.

It uses commercially supplied plastic strips or tubes. It came back into fashion in various countries, including the United Kingdom, in 2004 and 2005. Scoubidou (Scoubi, Scoobie, or Boondoggle in the USA) is a plaiting and knotting craft, originally aimed at children, which originated in France, where it became a fad in the 1960s.