Topic: Mythical mermaids big business in Zimbabwe

[Demosthenes]

"In landlocked Zimbabwe, mermaids have a bad reputation, with some believing they are responsible for torture and murder..."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-29/mermaids-feared-in-landlocked-zimbabwe/3978462?section=world

Unsurprising but worth sharing.

[Citizen Skeptic]

The whole mermaid thing never turned me on. Not even Darryl Hannah.

[Obsequious]

That would explain this evangelist/con artist, whose recent mission to Texas promised to liberate people from possession by mermaid spirits.

I wonder if there are Zimbabwean expats in Texas who would believe this garbage and constitute her target market, or if this is just an example of really inept PR. In other words, did she put that mermaid spirit business in her ad without realizing how absurd that would sound to American ears?

Mermaid spirits aren't the only thing she can help you with, by the way. Check her testimony page, and you'll learn that she can also use her magic powers to prevent the heartbreak of giving birth to a daughter instead of a son!

I was praying for a baby boy since I already had my first baby, which was a girl. During the programme, Child for the Barren 2002, I attended it already pregnant, but I was believing God for a male child. I also believed God can do everything, even to change the sex of the baby. The ministration that year took on a different dimension...

[snakeman]

The whole mermaid thing never turned me on. Not even Darryl Hannah.

This seemed appropriate.  I give you 'The Mermaid" by Great Big Sea:

Great Big Sea - The Mermaid

When I was a lad in a fishing town
Me old man said to me:
"You can spend your life, your jolly life
Just sailing on the sea.
You can search the world for pretty girls
Til your eyes are weak and dim,
But don't go searching for a mermaid, son
If you don't know how to swim"

'Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
Her face it was a work of art,
I loved that girl with all my heart
But I only liked the upper part
I did not like the tail

I signed onto a sailing ship
My very first day at sea
I seen the Mermaid in the waves,
Reaching out to me
"Come live with me in the sea said she,
Down on the ocean floor
And I'll show you a million wonderous things
You've never seen before
So over I jumped and she pulled me down,

Down to her seaweed bed
On a pillow made of a tortoise-shell
She placed beneath my head
She fed me shrimp and caviar
Upon a silver dish
From her head to her waist it was just my taste
But the rest of her was a fish
'Cause ...

But then one day, she swam away
So I sang to the clams and the whales
"Oh, how I miss her seaweed hair
And the silver shine of her scales
But then her sister, she swam by
And set my heart awhirl
Cause her upper part was an ugly fish
But her bottom part was a girl
Yes her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
Her legs they are a work of art,
I loved that girl with all my heart
And I don't give a damn about the upper part
Cause that's how I get my tail.

[Citizen Skeptic]

LOL.

Well, now that I think of it, there was this mermaid on the old Chris Isaak show who was pretty hot.

[Sordid]

Oh, when you said "mermaids are big business", I thought someone has set up a mermaid harvesting operation like this: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=25967.0
Yes, that's a 24-page thread on how best to harvest mermaids in order to carve their bones into totems and crafts and sell them for massive profit. That's Dwarf Fortress in a nutshell right there for you.