Subject: Brazil Factoids Date: Mon, 31 Mar 97 09:38:14 -0500 From: Miranda BarrowsGreetings to all on this rainy Monday morning. (At least it isn't snowing...yet.) I am happy to report that my jury service on Friday went very well. I was impaneled on a jury at Marlborough District Courthouse and named foreperson. (I think they do this alphabetically.) The trial ended that day, so I don't have to worry about jury service again for at least another three years. I got many and varied responses to last week's jury message - too many in fact, to send them all as this week's message. However, I would like to share them, so I will try to organize them somehow and perhaps get them posted on the mmc web page. Thanks to everyone who responded! For today, I have some amusing "factoids" about Brazil, collected by Sue Moon. And, as always, please make your way to the lounge at 10 for coffee, edibles, and fellowship. -Madam Foreperson --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Brazil hopes to raise $24 billion in property sales Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 15:21:05 PST BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuter) - The cash-strapped Brazilian government hopes to raise up to $24.5 billion by selling off property it does not use and in some cases does not even know ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ it owns, an official said on Monday. Subject: Brazil Senate allows women to wear slacks Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 10:22:14 PST BRASILIA (Reuter) - The Brazilian Senate has lifted a 17-year ban on women wearing slacks in the legislative chamber, a spokesman said Tuesday. The spokesman said the upper house's new president, Senator Antonio Carlos Magalhaes, who took over at the start of the legislative year in mid-February, had ended the trouser prohibition because it ``no longer made any sense.'' ``Trousers were banned for women in the Senate in 1980 and they were required to wear dresses and skirts. It's not quite clear why,'' ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ he said.