This & That, Ceci et Cela

Apparently in Bhutan, the penis symbols are often used to adorn houses in order to bring fertility and repel evil influences. It is also a polygamous AND polyandrous country; the current king is married to four sisters, each of whom maintains her own house ...

Four Saudi women teaching in a remote village school have married their driver so they can live closer to work, Al-Watan newspaper said on Monday. The newspaper said the women from Al-Baha province in south-west Saudi Arabia were impressed with the man's "good morals" and decided to marry him and live together in the village where they teach -- avoiding a tiring daily commute. They were married in ...

Old prostitutes find work in rural Australia: Prostitutes as old as 70 continue to work in rural Australia, pushed out of the cities due to strong competition from younger and more attractive sex workers, the author of a study said on Tuesday. Brothels are legal across most of Australia, but states have strict laws against soliciting and running brothels in residential areas, and near churches or ...

WOTD (Word Of The Day) Billet-doux n. /bil-ay-DOO/, plural billets-doux /bil-ay-DOO(Z)/: A love letter or note. http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2005/11/29.html Interesting proverb: "Reculer pour mieux sauter" = "Move/step backwards to leap forward better". Also used sarcastically when someone is procrastinating... Therefore mieux, here, doesn't really refer to the 'quality' of your jump. But rather to its inevitability.

Good news for inmates who aren't already tattooed: Canadian prisons are opening tattoo parlours. The government has opened tattoo parlours in federal prisons and is looking at handing out clean needles to inmates who inject drugs. For $5, federal prisoners can now get their favourite design or phrase -- but nothing racist or gang-related -- etched into their skin by a fellow inmate. The ...

A leader of Bolivia's coca growers who is pushing for greater state control of the country's vast natural gas reserves and more rights for the Indian majority leads rivals ahead of next month's presidential vote, according to a poll released Tuesday. Morales has vowed that if elected he will stop the U.S.-backed policy of eradication of coca leaf. Coca is used to ...