Fruit of labour

Banana split

Bored with bananas? Well, US firm Chiquita International definitely is. Which is why strawberry-flavoured bananas may soon be hogging shelf space at a departmental store near you! And company boss Fernando Aguirre hopes you will be tempted to bite into one. In fact, an entire range of flavoured bananas are set to emerge from the company’s laboratories, which would command premium prices and attract a new range of clients who have never thought much of the tropical fruit. Just how the zing would be added to the bananas is a secret the Cincinatti firm wishes to keep, but genetic engineering has been ruled out. The fruit is to be tested in European and American markets next year, to see if it finds any takers. All said, let’s hope Wimbledon doesn’t serve them with cream!

Dial P for Potter

The teenage wizard with a scar on his forehead is a character who needs no introduction, what with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban sweeping the audience off their seats in every corner of the world. But in case you are wondering where the bespectacled hero got his name from, J.K. Rowling has just given it away. The author recently divulged to an English tabloid that the name came from, would you believe it, the telephone directory! And not just that, she also revealed how she had rummaged through everything from baby books to war manuals to find names for the characters in the Harry Potter books. And then, there were the odd ones, like Dumbledore, which actually means bumblebee in Old English; Snape, which is a place in England and Hedwig, the name of a saint. But don’t think Rowling bumped them all off handbooks. Quidditch, she swears, is original.

So what if dutch channel SBS6 dumped her for being a lousy anchor? Rebecca Loos is back on the tube with a bang, this time as a whip-cracking school mistress in the British TV reality show, Celebrity Back to School. Gr8, is all we say. But will Becks agree?

Get into the groove

Interested in graduating from casual toe-tapping to shaking a leg? Mumbai girl Aanchal Gupta could be your guiding light. The 25-year-old, who gave up a corporate career to pursue her passion for dance, is coming up with a swank, 850-square feet studio called Arms in Motion, which would teach everything from Indian classical forms to ballet and salsa. All for a hefty price, but that shouldn’t be a put-off. In case you’re game for the alternative, belly dancing’s on the cards.

Blame it on the box

Telly factor

If you happen to spot your 12-year-old nephew spending hours in front of the mirror trying to trace the still-invisible facial hair under his nostrils, the TV could be playing catalyst. Researchers from Florence University have inferred that watching a screen — regardless of subject matter — represses the production of melatonin, a hormone which slows down the advent of puberty in children. Melatonin levels were seen to rise by 30 per cent in children deprived of television and computers for seven days. Now, that’s remote control!

AWARD OF THE WEEK

Goes to Roque D’Souza and Sagar Rane, contract loaders with Jet Airways, who succeeded in nabbing Vilas Sawant, an alleged bag-lifter, while on duty at the Santa Cruz domestic airport in Mumbai.