News In Brief

hail to the king

Elvis fans can now buy a new record - in ancient Sumerian. Dr. Jukka Ammondt, a Finnish academic whose quirky Elvis recordings in Latin have gained cult status, planned to wear a loincloth and blue sandals when he unveiled his version of "Blue Suede Shoes" in Sumerian, spoken from 4000 to 1800 BC in Mesopotamia. He had to make a few compromises, though: The refrain translates "but my sandals of sky-blue leather do not touch!"

I'm all ears, honey

If you plan to whisper sweet nothings to your sweetheart, make sure you do it through the left ear. So says Teow-Chong Sim of Sam Houston State University, whose study found that emotional words got through to people better when spoken through the left ear, not the right. Research involved speaking sets of emotional and nonemotional words to people in both ears, then asking them to recall the lists.

'Millionaire' continues to dominate Nielsen ratings

Some 9.8 million Americans tuned in to watch contestants get rich on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" in three separate editions during the week of June 25 to July 1, according to prime-time ratings by Nielsen Media Research. Millionaire, hosted by Regis Philbin, has consistently been one of the 10 most-watched shows this year. The US's most-popular TV programs, followed by the number of viewers last week in millions of households:

1. "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire-Thursday," ABC 9.8

(tie) "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire-Tuesday," ABC 9.8

3. "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire-Sunday," ABC 9.2

4. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS 8.8

(tie) "Primetime Thursday," ABC 8.8

6. "48 Hours-Monday," CBS 8.5

7. "Weakest Link," NBC 8.4

8. "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS 8.1

9. "60 Minutes," CBS 7.6

10. "Law and Order," NBC 7.3 - Associated Press

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor