Word: basilisk
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Rumor has it that tunnels exist below Harvard Square, connecting each House in a large web-like maze. Acquire access to these tunnels. It will be like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, except without the basilisk (just beware of giant cockroaches...
Most recently, McMahon gained attention for his work explaining the mechanisms behind the ability of the basilisk lizard--also known as the "Jesus Christ Lizard"--to run so fast across rivers as to appear to walk on water...
Another domestic mammal has the lead in Michael Patrick Hearn's The Porcelain Cat (Little, Brown; $12.95). A medieval sorcerer wants to bring a feline statue to life. For that he needs an ingredient not sold in stores: basilisk blood. Out goes his assistant, a boy destined to encounter a witch and a centaur before he brings about the ironic ending. Hearn has obviously been spending time with the Greek myths, but his narrative is modernized with paintings by Leo and Diane Dillon, who know a few enchantments of their...
Such semantic fastidiousness is more common in philosophy than in fiction, and Adler's stories are more successful as illustrated lectures than as riveting narrative. It should be added that Adler is almost always a riveting lecturer. Like the legendary basilisk, she can look at a subject and turn it to stone. Speedboat is a cascade of smooth and shiny pebbles...
Enter the villain, Basil Yanko, a Yankee basilisk whose mysterious firm, Creative Systems, runs Harlequin's computer operations. He makes two announcements to Paul Desmond, Harlequin's loyal aide: 1) he is prepared to buy out Harlequin, for a suspiciously high figure, and 2) computer print-outs show that Harlequin himself has embezzled $15 million from his own company. It is clear, of course, that Yanko and his minions (this is the sort of novel in which the villain has minions) have framed Harlequin. But can this be proved to the international banking community? And what about Yanko...