The favourite tool of our legal and marketing departments, the asterisk was originally an "ideogram" used by the ancient Egyptians.
   When the discovery of the Rosetta stone allowed translation of ancient hieroglyphs it was revealed that the * symbol carried the meaning "tighter than a cat's...."

   Although today the asterisk is used to separate marketing spin from the cold, hard facts, the flavour of the original meaning remains.

* - not to be confused with "Asterix," the little French guy.