Some Random Odds and Ends (Mostly Odds)

It's Friday afternoon, and seems an ideal time for a roundup of some of the odder bits and pieces that didn't fit naturally into my normal (?) blog posts this week:

•  An essay in the Egypt Independent, perhaps a little overdone in places ("the semiotic sum of all dissident expression against the tyranny of the status quo"?) of the Egyptian interjection/exclamation/expression of contempt "aha" (or "a7a" in online-ese), which everyone agrees is vulgar though there are contending explanations of why.There's a doctoral dissertation waiting out there, folks ...

• Al-Arabiya (link is in Arabic) quotes a Saudi newspaper (Okaz) as saying that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (aka the religious police) were "surprised" when, while raiding a "den of sorcery" in the holy city of Medina (really), they found a "naked sorceress" who surprised them by flying. Not fleeing, flying. She later fell from the ceiling and was arrested. For good measure, it notes she was African. I think I've got that right; my Arabic vocabulary is a tad light in the witchcraft and sorcery department. Why wasn't this on CNN?    

• A Daily News Egypt article introduces "The One Real Chinese Restaurant in Cairo," one that is run by and for ethnic Uyghurs from China studying at Al-Azhar. 

• On a serious note, a piece in Ahram Online about land theft and bulldozing that has invaded the ruins of old Fustat on the edge of Cairo, Egypt's earliest Islamic capital.