Jockstrip: The world as we know it

RUSSIANS THINK LEAP YEAR IS UNLUCKY

Moscow has been unfortunate lately -- a parking garage roof of a department store collapsed as did the roof of a water park.

A geyser of dirty cold water spurt out from under the ground near Danilovskaya Square that soon turned the square into a lake.

With fears of more construction problems ahead, a rumor is circulating throughout the Russian city that its misfortune is because 2004 is a leap-year, Pravda reports.

PTA PRESIDENT ACCUSED OF STEALING FOR TANS

A former New York City PTA president has been arrested for stealing almost $6,000 to pay for tanning sessions, hairdos and manicures.

Brenda Battaglia, who headed the PTA in a Queens public school, has been charged with grand larceny and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, the New York Daily News reports.

"The defendant used a PTA debit card as a ticket to the good life," District Attorney Richard Brown says. "Her conduct was a betrayal of trust of the parents who elected her to serve as their leader."

Battaglia has denied the allegations to neighbors but prosecutors say she charged a long list of beauty treatments to the PTA account.

NURSERY RHYMES BASED ON SEX, POLITICS

Nursery rhymes actually are based on sexual, religious and political innuendo, according to a British amateur historian.

Chris Roberts, a 37-year-old librarian, says he was researching material for a walking tour of London when he stumbled across the story behind a nursery rhyme and then started researching the meaning of poems read to children, Sky News reports.

Roberts says the original version of "Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Three Men In A Tub" actually was three maids in a tub. It was about a medieval peep show and people going to the fair to ogle women.

"Jack and Jill" were indulging in premarital sex when they went up the hill rather than fetching a pail of water, according to Roberts

POLICE VISITING RELATIVES BEHIND BARS

An investigation finds some police officers in New York City had been making regular visits to inmates -- their relatives behind bars.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly sent a memo on Feb. 4 that requires police officers to ask superiors for permission before visiting family members in jail or prison.

"Cops aren't supposed to be hanging out with criminals and there are a lot who are and we want to know about it," an Internal Affairs Bureau source tells the New York Post.

However, critics say the policy intrudes on an officer's off-duty activities and likely is unconstitutional, the Post says.