"While witches enjoy popular support in Romania..."

"... many in the government view them as swindlers whose presence makes their country seem superstitious and backwards.... It seems that tensions will diffuse when witches feel respected by their government and Romania feels respected by the West."

"There was a moment during the test when my mind drifted to her funeral and melancholy began to overtake me."

"At that point, I noticed a scent of hairspray—the same one my grandma used for the past 60 years. I teared up, knowing that she was right there with me and she was proud of me."

IN THE COMMENTS: Everybody's talking about what their grandmothers smelled like. Mine smelled like: 1. lemonade, watermelon, and chicken & dumplings, and 2. knitting wool and African violets.

"Arriving angry at Bush's Texas ranch over the president's position on Israel and Ramallah, Abdullah quickly decided he wanted to leave."

"But the prince spots a turkey on the road -- and takes it as a good omen, a sign from Allah!"

"Family Becomes Extinct, To Be Replaced with Feminism and Gender Equality."

A headline in Pravda.

The Russians gradually lose interest in marriage and family. Recent opinion polls conducted in the Krasnoyarsk region showed that 72 of each 100 marriages end with divorce. Demographers say that family as a social unit became irrational because of the financial crisis. Psychologists explain the current trend with the development of new culture and substitution of notions. It is not ruled out that the institute of marriage will vanish in the near future....

What makes Russians live in loneliness? Every specialist would have their own opinion regarding the subject and all of them would be right in their own way.

As long as I'm reading Pravda...

"Pregnancy: Mystical Condition Full of Superstitions."

It was believed that by denying a pregnant woman’s request, people incurred all kinds of misfortune. If a pregnant stranger knocked at someone's door, she had to be let in, fed and given overnight shelter. You could not raise voice at or scold a pregnant woman.

"Hellish hairy sea monster cast ashore." (Oh, now I may have to skip dinner.)

"Belka and Strelka: 50th Anniversary of Space Dogs Flight."

Russia on Thursday marked the 50th anniversary of the space flight of two dogs who became the first living creatures to circle the Earth and come back alive.

How many came back dead?

"Cat crosses Siberia to find its home."



"Bush's Legs Strike Back." What?!

American chicken legs, widely known in Russia as Bush's legs...

???!!!!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is right about this.

On the one hand, it is absurd for a world leader to be attacking an octopus, but superstition is a sign of a deficient culture:

"Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values."

I agree. Let us aspire to perfection, love sacred values, and turn away from superstition.

(Via First Things.)

Paul was right!

"If Paul gets it wrong tomorrow, nothing is going to happen to him, to Paul. Paul has proven his mettle so far and there is nothing bad waiting for him round the corner if he gets it wrong. It could happen to anyone. Even an octopus can get it wrong."

7 new Supreme Court cases — including a win for Jeffrey Skilling.

Start reading!

Especially conspicuous:

In Skilling v. United States (08-1394), the Court affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded in a main opinion by Justice Ginsburg.  The vote is unanimous on the “honest services” question in this case, but three Justices would have ruled that the honest services statute is unconstitutional:  Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy.  There are an array of other concurrences in the case, including a partial dissent by Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Breyer and Stevens.

• Holding: (1) Pre-trial publicity and community prejudice did not prevent Skilling from having a fair trial. (2) the “honest services” statue covers only bribery and kickback schemes.  Part of the opinion vacates the Fifth Circuit’s ruling on Skilling’s conspiracy conviction.  In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor disagrees with the Court’s conclusion that Skilling had a fair trial before an impartial jury.

SCOTUSblog falls prey to the statue-for-statute typo. I picture a ghostly statuesque demon that swipes at the hands of anyone trying to write statute. We all know how to write statute, and lawyers and lawprofs have far more occasions to type the word statute, but something drags us to statue. Perhaps it isn't anything supernatural, but a desire to escape from the legal structure we've imposed on our lives and to experience the freedom and beauty of art. No, no, not another statute! I would prefer a statue!



But of the subject of imposed confining structures: Will Jeffrey Skilling, the Fiend of that Terrible Corporation Known as ENRON, break free of the iron grip of federal prison? From the opinion (linked above):

Whether potential reversal on the conspiracy count touches any of Skilling’s other convictions is also an open question. All of his convictions, Skilling contends, hinged on the conspiracy count and, like dominoes, must fall if it falls. The District Court, deciding Skilling’s motion for bail pending appeal, found this argument dubious, but the Fifth Circuit had no occasion to rule on it. That court may do so on remand.

Skilling was convicted 5 years ago, by the way. Isn't it disturbing that justice takes so long, even — especially? — for a very rich man?

I wonder what Obama and his cohort will make of this new opinion, which limits the ability of federal prosecutors to go after the nefarious men who run corporations.

"Gamblers, please stop smoking... "

"... vulture brains."

"A thousand years ago, popular birth control methods in the Western world included spitting into the mouth of a frog, eating bees and wearing the testicles of a weasel."

Actually, all those things work.

"If you ate the brains, you could make a wish."

Squirrel casserole.

"If I get a fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant, I mean, of course, even I have a tendency... I mean, of course, I would hardly throw it out!"

"I mean, I read it, I read it, and I just instinctively sort of, you know, if it says something like: 'Conversation with a dark-haired man will be very important for you,' well, I just instinctively think, you know, who do I know who has dark hair? Did we have a conversation? What did we talk about? In other words there's something in me that makes me read it, and I instinctively interpret it as if it were an omen of the future, but in my conscious opinion, which is so fundamental to my whole view of life, I mean, I would just have to change totally to not have this opinion, in my conscious opinion, this is simply something that was written in the cookie factory, several years ago, and in no way it refers to me! I mean, you know, the fact that I got--I mean, the man who wrote it did not know anything about me, I mean, he could not have known anything about me! There's no way that this cookie could actually have to do with me! And the fact that I've gotten it is just basically a joke! And I mean, if I were to go on a trip, on an airplane, and I got a fortune cookie that said 'Don't go,' I mean, of course, I admit I might feel a bit nervous for about one second, but in fact I would go, because, I mean, that trip is gonna be successful or unsuccessful based on the state of the airplane and the state of the pilot, and the cookie is in no position to know about that."

That fortune cookie passage I was talking about... after we got the fortune cookies that didn't seem to understand us very well.

ADDED: Cookie #1 told me to look for people who generate light and not heat. Cookie #2 told Meade not to ask anyone to do for him anything that he wouldn't do for himself.

"We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody."

"The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat.... We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat."

Lucky 13.

Has Friday the 13th been good to you this year?

A 2-year-old boy has been "married" to a dog to ward off the evil signified by a defective tooth.

"The 'bride's' father, Parakrama Munda, said: 'This is just a ceremony to please the tribal deity - in the great epic Mahabharat a dog helped the Pandavas reach heaven.'"