Tie Me to the Mast

"Then I stopped the ears of all my men, and they bound me hands and feet to the mast as I stood upright on the crosspiece; but they went on rowing themselves. When we had got within earshot of the land, and the ship was going at a good rate, the Sirens saw that we were getting in shore and began with their singing." -The Odyssey (trans. S. Butler)

Anecdote

A Russian colleague told me this anecdote today:

An American:
- We have Barack Obama, Stevie Wonder, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash.

A Russian:
- We have Vladimir Putin, no wonder, no hope and no cash.

Major discoveries

That song they play at Leningradsky Vokzal when you arrive in Moscow: "Moskva" by Oleg Gazmanov.

And,

"Since 1965, the song "The Hymn to the Great City" (composed by Reinhold Glière and has been adopted as the hymn of Saint Petersburg) has been playing, when the Red Arrow leaves Saint Petersburg at 23:55." (Wiki)

Knowing what things are called is cool.