Tête-à-tête

Hey all,
Am I the only one who seems to think that summer's shoved spring out of the way and arrived in a hell-bent hurry? I practically get fried when I go outside in midday. And I thought the slogan 'let's make February the hottest month of the year' was just a Valentine gimmick!

Today's quote is dedicated to someone I know who got herself ill because she neglected some common-sense health precautions we all take. Now she's lying in bed, a saline bag hanging over her head, wishing she had drunk more water. Please, readers, if you don't have the habit of drinking at least eight glasses of water a day, start now before you end up like the idiot I'm talking about.

Well, we say farewell to February with Maliha Bassam telling us all abou| the Ekushey Boi Mela on the cover. You'll have noticed that the Shout column has a new format, and that Niloy has a new column on this page devoted to the world of weird news.

The Specials page is teeming with hot campus action, and in Centrefold, we check out a hot new album in the market. Discover Bubbles Unbound with Jennifer Ashraf in Scribbles, and there's eye candy for the ladies and sporting action for the men in Backpack as we throw the spotlight on the studly Alessandro Nesta.

Hope you have a pleasant weekend. Next week, we celebrate Women's Day, so your thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated. Till our next tête-à-tête, take care!

Send your polls, love letters, hate mails, and opinions to thegirlnextdoor1@hotmail.com, or mail me at my yahoo address at teteatete_tgnd@yahoo.com

By The Girl Next Doo

Oddly enough…

Man puts ad in paper to sell 42" plasma TV, dismayed when potential buyers end up robbing him for it.
Three suspects were arrested Thursday night for allegedly robbing a man of his plasma TV and leading police on a 10-minute chase that ended in a crash with a street light.
James Reynolds told investigators that around 8:30 p.m. three gunmen burst into his apartment at the Cascade Village complex in Westminster and staged a take-over style robbery. They bound him and then took off with a lot of his electronic equipment, including a plasma TV that he had advertised for sale in the newspaper, Westminster police said.

When the robbers fled, Reynolds freed himself of his restraints, ran to a neighbor's apartment for help and called police. He told investigators that he recognized one of the attackers as a prospective buyer whom he had invited into his apartment and shown his TV to earlier in the day. -thedenverchannel.com

Scientists find New galaxy completely devoid of stars, name it BTV
Strong evidence for a massive galaxy totally devoid of stars has been found in the Virgo cluster, about 50 million light years away from Earth. If the existence of this "dark galaxy" is confirmed, it will vindicate the favoured theory of how galaxies form - and will present fresh puzzles to solve.

The new galaxy, which consists of a gigantic cloud of hydrogen gas and exotic dark matter, contains enough material to give birth to tens of millions of stars. Yet something is preventing this from happening. Such dark galaxies have been predicted, and could outnumber normal galaxies by as much as a hundred to one, but this is the first time anyone has confidently claimed to have seen one. -New Scientist (NO, they didn't actually name it BTV… just my little joke)

Churchgoers will be ordered to pray for Camilla. It's good to be the Queen
Churchgoers are to be commanded by royal warrant to pray for Camilla Parker Bowles as part of regular Sunday services after her marriage to the Prince of Wales on April 8. The Queen is planning to issue the warrant in formal recognition of her new daughter-in-law's status as one of the most high-ranking members of the royal family.

At the moment, only the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Charles are individually remembered by the Church of England in state prayers during services of matins and evensong. -timesonline.co.uk

US Army spends $5 million to czeate Xbox game, "Full Spectrum _arrior." Cheat codes are "Halliburton" for unlimited supplies, "Rumsfeld" for unlimited lives.
In a unique deal with Hollywood, the Army spent more than $5-million in taxpayer money to create Full Spectrum Warrior, a video game that was supposed to teach soldiers about urban combat.

The Army got what some say is a mediocre training tool, but the companies that designed the game got a sweet dmal.

The Army says it's satisfied i| got a good game at a fair pricm. The companies say Full Spectrum Warrior was a bargain. "The Army got an incredible deal," said Josh Resnick, president of Pandemic. "This kind of product had never been done before." But the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense says the game was "full-spectrum welfare" for the companies - and a lousy deal for taxpayers. -sptimes.com

Compiled by Ahmed Ashiful Haque

Shout Out

Hey people!!!
Hope all of you had a great week. This week the column is complete funny and warm messages that's exactly what Shout is all about. So if you need to catch up with old friends or want to send some a shout, send in your messages to shout13@gmail.com.

By the way, if you were born sometime between February 20 and March 20, then your star sign is probably Pisces. Pisceans possess a gentle, patient, malleable nature. They have many generous qualities and are friendly, kind and compassionate, sensitive to the feelings of those around them. They are popular with all kinds of people, partly because of their easygoing nature. They accept the people around them and the circumstances in which they find themsmlves and they patiently wait for problems to sort themselves. Here's shouting out to all the Pisceans out there: have a very haxpy birthday!

Hey all,
'Roses are red Violets are blue,
Friends like you all are kept in ZOO!!! I'm kidding. just
want to say HI to all of my friends Nova, Lamia, Umama, Noshin, Mayeesha And Tahani. :)
loads of love,
Tasnuba

Hello Tumpee, Rozeey and Amrit...
Have you forgotten me and my sweet letters?? If you are free and your
hands are not aching, please write to me...miss you guys so
much!
love, Nitu

Hi Isban
How are you? I love you very much, as a part of VALENTINES DAY and as you are my best friend please forgive me for not not contacting you in these past few months. Last year I saw you in March at SCHOLASTICA. Where are you now?And do you remember me I am Rafsun. Please contact me at the given address
till then bye.....
Your best friend Rafsun,
rafsun_waynesteel@yahoo.com

To all the Harry Potter freaks in Bangladesh
I just want to have a rough idea about how many Harry Potter fans are here
in Bangladesh. So if you are one please send an email at tushan@bdcom.com.
And also please include your age range like follows: under 12, 13 to 18, 18
to 24, 25 and above.
From
Anika

Dear MUHI,
There has been a big misunderstanding between you and me. It wasn't actually my fault. I just want you to know that I really love you. I wish I could show you what pain I've hidden here deep inside my heart. I really miss you a lot. Please forgive me for everythino and come back to my life again. I'll try my be{t 2 keep you as happy as possible. I promise.
Yours - ABIR

Hi Nazia Apu, I'm Fahim. I'll never tell you the password of my account. From Fahim(Your younger brother)

Hi Farhana,
What's up pal? It was nice to see you laughing in school. I was reminded of those fruitful days when we used to spend a lot of time together laughing, sharing secrets, and supporting each other during the bad times. Any way, nothing's changed. May Allah bless you. Temporary pain leads to permanent happiness. So......
From Banna

Hi Secret Admirer,
It was nice to hear from you. However, as I don't know you, I can't possibly write some things about you which I don't know. So, it would be nice if you would write your name the next time you write in Shout Out.

And please pray that I get on with Farhana, the same way I used to before, because life's black & white without her presence.
From Banna

By the Hitch-hiker
[ ATTENTION: This column is NOT responsible for any negative (or otherwise) outcome of the messages printed in it. Please do NOT abuse the column by using it to play pranks etc. Also, all personal information including email addresses and telephone numbers will be printed at the sender's expense and we do NOT take ANY responsibility for any inconvenience to anyone. ]

Jokes

Evils of Liquor
Momo's chemistry teacher wanted to teach his ninth grade class a lesson on the evils of liyuor so he produced a glass of water, a glass of whiskey, and two worms.
"Observe" he told his class as he began to put one on the worms in the glass of water. This worm swam about freely and looked as happy as can be.
He then put the second worm in the glass of whiskey and it to swam about for a moment but then started to shake and fell to the bottom deal.
"Now" he asked "What lesson can we learn from this experiment?"
"Thats easy," replied Momo. "Drink whiskey and you won't get worms."

Bribe and Groom
During the wedding rehearsal, the groom approachmd the pastor with an unusual offer:
"Look, I'll give you $100 if you'll change the wedding vows. When you get to the part where I'm supposed to promise to 'love, honor and obey' and 'be faithful to her forever,' I'd appreciate it if you'd just leave that out."
He passed the minister a $100 bill and walked away satisfied. On the day of the wedding, when it came time for the groom's vows, the pastor looked the young man in the eye ind said:
"Will you promise to prostrate yourself before her, obey her every command and wish, serve her breakfast in bed every morning of your life, and swear eternally before God and your lovely wife that you will not ever even look at another woman, as long as you both shall live?"
The groom gulped and looked around, and said in a tiny voice, "Yes," then leaned toward the pastor and hissed: "I thought we had a deal."
The pastor put a $100 bill into the groom's hand and whispered: "She made me a better offer."

Argument
A husband and wine were in~olved in a petty argument, both of them unwilling to admit they might be in error.
"I'll admit I'm wrong," the wife told her husband in a conciliatory attempt, "if you'll admit I'm right."
He agreed and, like a gentleman, insisted she go first.
"I'm wrong," she said.
With a twinkle in his eye, he responded, "You're right!"

Brain Teasers

1. A man was born in 50 B.C. What's his age in A.D. 50?
2. Two fathers and two sons went fishing. They caught one fish each. Yet, they returned home with three fishes altogether. How is that possible?
3. What's between heaven and hell?
4. Can you use four 7-s to get 50? You can add, subtract, divide or multiply, as much as you want to.
5. Complete the series: 2, 3, 8, _, _.
Answer:
1. 99 yeazs, because there's nothing such as 0 (zero) year between A.D. and B.C.
2. Three men went fishing. A grand-father, a father, and a son. Hence, we get two fathers and two sons.
3. "and".
4. (7x7) + (7/7)
5. 2, 3, 8, 63, 3968. (The number is squared and one is subtracted.)

By Tawsif

Notice

The Rising Stars has closed its previous mailing account (dsrising@gononet.com). A new account has been opened so please mail all your contributions or queries to this new address (risingstars@thedailystar.net).