Myth Box

Singing Seductress

Siren, the beautiful enchantress from Greece. Anyone of you who have read Greek mythology will be familiar with this creature that has the body of a bird and the face of a woman. Some ancient myths say the sirens are the daughters of the river god Achelous. Approaching sailors were drawn to them by their enchanting singing, causing them to sail on the cliffs and drown. It was prophesied when any ship was able to sail past their island without succumbing to the sweet song, the Sirens would leap into the sea and drown. In early Greek art the Sirens were represented as birds with the heads, and sometimes chests, of women. Later, they were represented as female figures with the legs of birds, with or without wings playing a variety of musical instruments. However, later in history Sirens were sometimes also depicted as beautiful women (whose bodies, not only their voices, are seductive), or even as mermaids (half woman, half fish).

In modern literature, mythological sirens have influenced everything from plant names to comic book characters (Marvel Comics' superhero Siryn). In television, sirens have appeared in shows ranging from sci-fi and fantasy to action. Sirens also appeared in the animated film “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas”. The story retained the sirens' ability to lure sailors to their deaths by song; women were unaffected. So next time any of you guys are on a marine voyage, don't listen to the singing women, you don't want to drown, do you?

By Nishita Aurnab

A new Web site promising to simplify the lawsuit process by pairing lawyers and potential litigants is a bad idea, tort reform advocates say. Legal Newsline reported Tuesday that critics say the SueEasy Web site encourages people to be litigious. Darren McKinney, spokesman for the American Tort Reform Association, said the site is the "latest distillation" of an attitude promoted by trial lawyers.

"It's an attitude that runs against personal responsibility and seems to promote the notion that whatever negative happens in your life somebody else can be blamed and thus sued," McKinney told Legal Newsline.

On its Web site, Mountain View, Calif.-based SueEasy says its "primary concern is for you to register a genuine complaint or grievance as quickly and as simply as possible." Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute Center for Legal Policy, said he worries about the quality of lawyers that might cull an Internet site for potential clients. "The main problem with this is quality control," Olson said. "If this were a dating service, you'd have to wonder -- whichever side of the dating you were on -- what kind of dunce are they going to bring me?"

It's a good thing suing isn't so easy in Bangladesh.

Roll it up

You spend a lot of you time with this object every single day…after you wake up and till you go to bed. But never do you care about it. You are oblivious to its existence. Guess what I'm talking about? Tissue paper rolls!

This week, we'll learn how to make something really pretty out of a tissue paper roll, something like a pen holder, but you could always put it to any other use. Better yet, you might just want to keep it as a decoration piece.

Things you need:
1. Chart paper
2. Glitters
3. Poster colour
4. Sequins
5. Glue
6. Scissors

Step- 1
Measure and cut out a rectangular piece of chart paper and wrap the roll with it. Seal one of the open ends of the roll with paper using glue.

Step- 2
Color the chart paper with water/poster color. For the colors to stand out, you could use white chart paper.

Step- 3
Next comes in glitters and sequins. Get creative and try coming up with designs to draw. You could even add stickers of your favorite cartoon characters. And if you don't want any colors at all, then sketch something on the paper.

By Nayeema Reza

Laff lines

A new meaning
A little boy walked up to the librarian to check out a book entitled "COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE FOR MOTHERS." When the librarian asked him if it was for his mother, he answered 'no.' "Then why are you checking it out?" "Because," said the little boy confidently, "I just started collecting moths last week!"

No thinking
"You can't believe how much hard work it is to con people into thinking that you're productive when you're unemployed. Always thinking up things to tell them you're going to do tomorrow, having to exaggerate every minute of your nowhere day...it's worse than having a job. At least when you're employed, when people ask about your day you can tell them to shut up and mind their own business."
--Drew Carey

Quick thinking
Resolving to surprise her husband, an executive's wife stopped by his office - and found him with his secretary sitting on his lap. Without hesitating, he dictated, "...and in conclusion, gentlemen, shortage or no shortage, I cannot continue to operate this office with just one chair that is safe to use."

The Khobors

Today's little snippet of news is a very important one: “Don't kiss too much, or you may cause your loved one to become deaf.” I thought this was a very important breakthrough in the science of men and chemistry of love, considering the mass amounts of pure (and impure) bhalobasha floating around within the pollutions of our beloved country.

As a note of empathetic warning to those love birds who are smooching day and night, "A strong kiss may cause an imbalance in the air pressure between two inner ears and lead to a broken ear drum." These are not my words but the words of Shanghai daily. A woman from some where in China (too hard to pronounce, log in to bbc.co.uk and type in “kiss of deaf” for details) appeared in the hospital, deaf, a few days ago; the cause: excessive kissing. Talk about extreme romance and a soul sucking vampire guy huh? Although I am sure most of you girls right now are befuddled and are dying to experience that kiss of wonder, let me remind you of what the China Daily wrote, "While kissing is normally very safe, doctors advise people to proceed with caution." Stay vigilant and on your toes at all times, even while kissing, you never know; if the air pressure imbalance thingy is true, some scientists claim it even has the potential to make you blind. Take about a blinding kiss huh!

With lots of rest and prescribed medicine, the young woman is expected to regain her full hearing within about two months; to quote, an additional prescription was the following: “No kissing for the next two months, to the least.”

By Adnan M. S. Fakir

They said it

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a
good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible.
-- George Burns

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
-- Socrates

Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.
-- Victor Borge

Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential
food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
-- Alex Levine

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
-- Mark Twain

I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's
time for my nap.
-- Bob Hope

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
-- Groucho Marx

Re: Writers wanted

Application submission deadline for the post of 'Feature Writer' for Rising Stars was December 4, 2008. Yet, we continue getting calls and mails with queries about what will happen. Currently we are sorting all the entries and also trying to crawl our way out of all the mail we have received.

We will shortlist the candidates for interview and inform them by phone. Out of that we will select only 10 applicants for the post. All this will be informed by phone as well as through RS. Till then, everyone chew on your nails.
Watch this space for further details.