Did Maui Poke the Big Fish?

He did and he didn’t. According to the legend, Maui, demigod and a hero of Hawaiian folklore, had been mercilessly teased by his older brothers for being a poor fisherman. He kept  begging them to take him fishing, but they steadily refused. In one version of the legend, he hid in their canoe and revealed…

Classics Also Quarrel: Russian Pot Pie

The rich also cry, as we all know. It is less known, however, that the classics also quarrel. We tend to perceive them as larger than life, rather not susceptible to flaws and frailties  of us, ordinary humans.  Take, for example, Leo Tolstoy, “the greatest apostle of non-violence that the present age has produced” (Mahatma…

Magical Birds Lay Fish Eggs

Once upon the time there lived a magical bird called Phoenix, AKA the Firebird. If you believe the legends, it is still alive and hanging around somewhere because it self-immolates every 500 years and then rises from the ashes. A Phoenix named Fawkes, nurtured after every immolation by Professor Dumbledore (we do get the joke,…

Did Maui Poke the Big Fish?

He did and he didn’t. According to the legend, Maui, demigod and a hero of Hawaiian folklore, had been mercilessly teased by his older brothers for being a poor fisherman. He kept  begging them to take him fishing, but they steadily refused. In one version of the legend, he hid in their canoe and revealed…