The Big Book of Interesting Stuff

 I found a very interesting book. Full of witty sayings and interesting facts.
The Big Book of Interesting Stuff

Strange News

Deccan Chronicle, Feb, 11^th: page 11, col 1

“Vampire” man addicted to blood

In an unusual diagnosis, doctors have described a 23-year-old man in Turkey as suffering from “vampirism” after he was caught several times trying to stab people and drink their  blood, according to a report.

The man became addicted to drinking human blood after he started slicing his own arms, chest and stomach with razor blades, and gathering the blood in a cup so he could drink it, doctors say. He soon became addicted and started turning to other sources to feed his habit, which he described as “being so urgent as breathing”, the Daily Mail reported. He even got his father to get him bags of the bodily fluid from blood banks, according to the report published in the journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

The man, whose name was not revealed, was arrested several times after stabbing and biting others to collect and drink their blood. The man did not experience any negative physical effects from his habit. – PTI

Blow Hot Blow Cold, fore-with.

I despair of ever understanding the subtleties (and, “vagaries”, said with a dour smile) of the English language. The same word can connote opposite meanings in different contexts and combinations and leave deep furrows of worry on your forehead – mark the underscore below ‘fore’.

I will start with the foregoing lines. (‘Will’ – future tense.) That was how I began my letter to a friend of mine. He made fun of me at my use of the word, ‘foregoing’ employing long complicated Latinised words, and advised me to look up the word in the dictionary. All this while I was under the impression that ‘foregoing’ referred to that which was about to follow – I was suitably chastised when I looked up the meaning of the word in the dictionary! I was chagrined too, at the way the English language had tricked me into error. (“As usual,” my friend had retorted.)

Look, the tag, “ing” at the end of the word “foregoing” had duped me into believing that whatever was to come was in the future. ‘Fore’ refers to the past, my scholarly friend explained patiently as in – foregone conclusion, forefathers, forenoon, foretaste, foreword, etc, etc. My eyes were opened. But then I had to shut them tightly and scream inside my head, as an impish voice started mocking at me in glee.

How about, forehead? Is it in the front or the back? Ah, forefront; if you are in the forefront of a column of soldiers, are you standing in the front, or before the ‘front’ – say just behind the first person in the column? Forelock, shouted at me, “Am I in the front or back?” The bedlam in my mind was further intensified when, forearm, forecast, fore-with, foresight, foreboding, and forethought joined in, pointing their forefingers at me, and bellowing with laughter. I kept my eyes shut for a long time, not knowing what to do fore-with.