Beard Facts

Seventeenth century French dramatist and actor Moliere claimed “All the power is with the sex that wears the beard.” But there’s a Danish proverb that goes “If beard were all, the goat would be the winner”. Here are some beard facts stolen from the most reliable source of knowledge in the twenty-first century – the Wikipedia:

- In the course of history, men with facial hair have been ascribed various attributes such as wisdom, sexual potency, or high status, but also a lack of cleanliness and refinement, or an eccentric disposition.

- Several rulers including Queen Elizabeth I and Peter the Great of Russia levied a tax on beards

- During grief and mourning a Roman would let his hair and beard grow while the Greeks on the contrary used to cut off their hair and shave their beards on such occasions

- The nations in the east generally treated their beards with great care and veneration, and the punishment for licentiousness and adultery was to have the beard of the offending parties publicly cut off. They had such a sacred regard for the preservation of their beards that a man might pledge it for the payment of a debt.

While I don’t care much for beards (sorry Santa), I do have a fascination for handle bar moustaches. It takes a lot of wax and grooming to maintain an elegant and twirable moustache but it’s well worth the effort.

If you happen to sport a beard, moustache or other variety of facial hair (including sideburns, goatees, hairy moles) that you are particularly proud of, then you can have a shot at glory. There's still time to enter the Beard and Moustache Championship taking place in New York City on May 16, 2006 (http://www.nycbeard.com/). Ladies do not despair – there’s an “artificial” category created just for us.

Tryst with the Men in Black

Just came back from a friend’s wedding in Seattle. The night before the big day, some of the girls decided to throw an impromptu bachelorette party at the local redneck karaoke bar. Intoxicated singing and revelry ensued. There were a couple of guys (also out-of-towners like us) who were flirting with our karaoke nightingales. What they lacked in terms of “brain” they made up for in “brawn”. The following afternoon as the ladies were scurrying around in their saris, they were somewhat surprised and amused to run into the same group of buff men at the hotel. This time they donned black suits, dark glasses and ear pieces. Turns out they were secret service men preparing for Dick Cheney’s visit. South Asian chicks and secret service men – weird combination indeed!

Doppelganger?

I floated a thought to some friends that Pope Benedict and Uncle Fester from Addams family were in fact long lost twins. How else can you explain the uncanny resemblance? There were no takers on that theory...... but look what I found on the web :-) A picture is worth a thousand words - eh? I guess this means that the Pope won't have to spend a dime on Halloween costumes ever again.

Excerpts from "Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

Vandalism as Art

Frequently dubbed as "guerrilla artist", Banksy is one of the most creative dissenters of our times. He has sprayed walls in various cities with satirical graffiti (inlcuding the West Bank barrier), sneaked his own irreverant artwork into some of the world's best known galleries and produced several outrageous sculptures. Of course the fact that Banksy strikes covertly makes his art more fascinating. Here's a link to his website:

http://www.banksy.co.uk/menu.html

Cost of War

The National Priorities Project keeps a running tab of the cost of the US war in Iraq:
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

Although people are well aware that the Iraq invasion is a drain on public resources, this website drives the message home. The money spent on the war so far could have fully funded global anti-hunger efforts for 11 years, paid for AIDS programs worldwide for 27 years or ensured basic immunizations for all the world's children for 90 years!

It's even more appalling if we start looking at the human cost of war. There are a couple of websites that keep track of US (http://icasualties.org/oif/) and Iraqi casualties (http://www.iraqbodycount.org/)

Moreover, there is no end in sight and the situation is getting progressively worse...... although the US Administration refuses to acknowledge it, Iraq is in midst of a civil war.

And all this for what? Is the world really any safer?

The documentary "Why we Fight" sheds some light on the issue and looks into the forces (political, corporate and DoD) that shape American millitarism.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/storyville/why-we-fight.shtml

Dicks and the City


The phallus looms over Washington DC in the wake of spring..... The Washington Monument is a popular landmark erected (no pun intended) in honor of George Washington


Now this one is a real dick. I bumped into Cheney while walking past the White House. Of course I ran for cover before any shots were fired. I am a lady not a bird..... but I was afraid he might not be able to tell the difference.

Roman Holiday

Rome was a remarkable blend of the old and the new. On one hand, it's the fashion capital of the world and the streets were speckled with hype young Romans and exuberant tourists. On the other hand, ancient ruins were strewn all around and I couldn't help feeling a sense of loss thinking about the glory days of the ancient roman empire (not that I would want to be part of that era) and its subsequent downfall. Percy Shelly's beautiful and haunting poem "Ozymandias" echoed in my head. It's part wistful and nostalgic and part ironic. Still one of my favorite poems after all these years..... I think originally Ozymandias may have been written with Egypt in mind since it refers to "a traveller from an antique land" and alludes to a desert.

"I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Furry and Ferocious

I took these pics of the bashful panda cub at the Woodley Park Zoo. It looks so cute, cuddly and utterly harmless. But appearances are deceptive when in comes to pandas. Apparently they are quite vicious when provoked and have powerful paws and a mean bite. This is what the Wikipedia has to say:

"The Giant Panda has long been a favourite of the public, at least partly on account of the fact that the species has an appealing baby-like cuteness that makes it seem to resemble a living teddy bear. The fact that it is usually depicted reclining peacefully eating bamboo, as opposed to hunting, also adds to its image of innocence. Though the Giant Panda is often assumed docile because of their cuteness, they have been known to attack humans, usually assumed to be out of irritation rather than predatory behavior." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Panda)

The same goes for koala bears.....

Wedding Tales

Here are some interesting wedding stories:

A Sudanese man was forced to marry a goat after having "used it as his wife" (I love the sanitized language)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4748292.stm

A Kenyan polygamist married 100 times and divorced 30 women! His family was so big that he had to build a church just for them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/661527.stm

A Thai woman who holds the world record for spending 32 days in a cage with 3,400 scorpions married a guy who spent 28 days with 1,000 centipedes - awwww truly a match made in heaven! Lets just hope the guy doesn't develop an inferiority complex since his wife's record is more impressive than his own. Centipedes don't come anywhere close to scorpions.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4653398.stm

Online dating is commonplace but an Internet wedding ceremony is a completely different story. An Indonesian man married a woman in California over the Net. The couple got to know each other online but never met. The internet wedding ceremony lasted 25 minutes and cost $21.30. Cost-effective indeed!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4610462.stm

A Chinese dating agency is catering to couples interested in a sexless marriage and it has 127 clients! The niche marketing seems to have worked..... Go figure :-S
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4267519.stm

If BBC Online were a guy, I would be married to it (or at least have an affair with it). Afterall I spend more time with BBC than I do with anyone else :-)

Stocks Up for Bangladeshi Men

According to an Al Jazeera article "Bangladeshi workers banned from Malaysia because local women find them too attractive are apparently now being smuggled in as students."

http://www.iranian.com/Anyway/2006/March/bang.html

I am having a hard time buying this story.... The article talks about how Malaysian women "succcumbed to the good looks and charm" of Bangladeshi men. The "good looks" part is highly questionable but "charm" is absolutely impossible. I would have an easier time believing that pigs have wings

But BBC reported the same thing http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4802796.stm

What can I say - one woman's trash is another woman's treasure :-D