Interesting reading...

From The Week Magazine.
Feb. 23, 2007

It wasn't all bad.

A Thai woman who got lost 25 years ago has returned home. In 1982, Jaeyaena Beuraheng left the remote southern province of Narathiwat to shop across the nearby border, in Malaysia. But on her way back, she mistakenly got on a series of buses that eventually took her to Chiang Mai, 745 miles north of her hometown. Unable to make herself understood, she ended up living in a homeless shelter until three students from Narathiwat, visiting the shelter on a research project, recognized her native Yawi dialect and pieced together her story. Last week, Beuraheng was reunited with her seven children, who had long assumed she was dead. "She remembered all of her children's names," said a local official.

Bad week for

Fatal attractions, after a 70-year-old Japanese woman went on a trial for bombarding a 79-year-old man with more than 200 love letters and forcing her way into his home seven times. When the object of her affection did not respond, she told him, "If it comes down to it, you could die." (Naloko na...masama palang tamaan si lola.)


Workplace

What drives co-workers crazy
The people you work with might say otherwise, said L. M. Sixel in the Houston Chronicle, but they really hate your cute ring tone. Ringing cell phones annoy 30 percent of working adults, according to a Randstad USA survey. The only workplace pet peeve that ranked higher was loud talkers. In fact, your co-workers can't stand anything about your cell phone. Besides the distracting ring tone, they don't like the ensuing conversations. People tend to discuss more "personal, medical, and romantic issues on their cell phones in front of their co-workers." They're not interested in your furniture deliveries, dental appointments, and marital spats.

A few rules of cell phone etiquette will keep your co-workers happy, said Cynthia Hubert in the Sacramento Bee. The moment you step into your office, put your phone on the vibrate setting. When calls do come in at work, let them roll to your voice mail. If you must take a call, walk to a private spot to speak. Forget about the bathroom. "Chances are, the person you're talking to won't relish the sound of flushing toilets in the background." If you can't leave your workplace, tilt your chin downward so that you're speaking toward the floor. Then your voice won't carry so far.