Word: snakes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Penang's snake temple has a problem. The deadly pit vipers that have made this Chinese Taoist temple their refuge since the 1850s have, according to a tourist brochure, "mysteriously" disappeared. "One day they just stopped coming," says the temple's custodian. We are standing at the back of the shrine where the view, which once stretched over the vipers' nesting grounds to the mountains beyond, is now blocked by a semiconductor plant. "Yes, it's a mystery," he says, with a wink and a nod toward the factory...
...enough of schmoozing and are ready for more action, head down the street to Pravda 116 (116 Boylston St., 482-7799) to party the rest of the night away. Try to arrive early, as the line for this popular bar/lounge/nightclub tends to grow quickly and snake around the block. The red interior and glittery chandeliers ooze with Russky decadence, while crimson lighting casts the entire place in an alluring hue. Flash that million-dollar smile as you squeeze your way past the perpetually packed long bar or escape the madness by cozying up in one of the intimate banquettes...
...whittled away by fictitious expenses or are nonexistent. But for mind-numbing work like netting fish on a jermal, children are the ideal employees - cheap, docile and easily cowed. "They said I could go home after three months," Andy recalls, clutching his right hand still swollen from a sea snake bite. "But there was no replacement so they said I had to stay...
Meanwhile, the telemarketers' sales pitches, once based mostly on price, have dived deep into the fine print. Says Dwight Paul, 62, a retired airline pilot: "They seem to play on our inability to understand all these ifs, ands or buts. It's like the old snake-oil salesmen who used to come to town...
...Zaki Badawi, principal of London's Muslim College, warns that "the idea that you can cut off the head of al-Qaeda and the body will wither is not going to happen." Ranstorp agrees. Though al-Qaeda's lair in Afghanistan may have been smashed, he says, "The snake has already laid a thousand eggs, which are hatching and slipping off in all directions." Foremost among them Britain...