THERE'S NO BETTER WAY TO START 2008

The new year is upon us and in my never ending quest to share the unimportant with you, I give you JANUS !

Janus is the Roman god of beginnings and ends, as well as doors, gates and doorways. Images of the Janus head consists of two faces looking in opposite directions. Janus symbolizes change or transition.

BUST OF JANUS.

Janus can also represent time itself with one face looking forward into the future and the other seeing the past. Ergo, the month January gets its name from Janus, (as the first month, he can see the upcoming year as well as the events of the previous one).

Because of his link as the keeper of doors etc, the word janitor also comes from Janus.

Additionally, Janus was worshipped at the beginning of harvest and planting season, plus, marriages, births and other beginnings. He also acted as an intermediary between; barbarity and civilization, rural and urban concerns and clashes of the young and old.

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It is not my intention to make fun of the Afghani people or anyone else. This particular nugget of information is not a joke, it was published in last week's computer news.

Apparently there was a recent Afghan holiday in which giving to the under privileged is encouraged. A man was driving his car and saw somebody selling a camel. He bought the camel, had it slaughtered and brought it to an impoverished part of his town.

THIS IS A STOCK PHOTO OF A CAMEL...NOT THE CAMEL IN QUESTION

His good deed fed many hungry people. His good deed also killed 23 of them and sickened many more. Later, it was discovered that this was a diseased camel, suffering from anthrax. Those who partook in the holiday feast, experienced severe symptoms and those who succumbed, died within a few hours.

I guess the moral of the story is: never eat camel meat that was gotten from the trunk of a guy's car!

P. S. I think the same moral should also include shrimp.