I went on a used book shopping spree last weekend. Among other things I ordered Stingray : The Lethal Tactics of the Sole Survivor and 101 Survival Secrets: How to Make $1000,000, Lose 100 Pounds, and Just Plain Live Happily. I have a whole shelf in my library dedicated to psychological warfare books. And the original Survivor was probably the best piece of psyop action that I have ever seen on TV. Although the books seem to be of bathroom reading quality, I just could not pass them up for a dollar twenty five + shipping.

I also learned something interesting about the Survivor theme song, Ancient Voices. The chant that goes "ei i oh - e - eoh e - ohli - la a i i oli oli" sounded kind of Russian to me. And guess what - I was not mistaken.

"Landau was quoted as saying the theme was "part of an ancient Russian folk song that I've totally bastardised'' by Entertainment Weekly in June."

I think what he means by that is that he used a generic chant of "oy luli-luli-luli" that is very common in Russian folk songs. Sort of like Russian "yippie-ka-yee".

While I was searching for links I found this funny story on Usenet.