August 2008 – Egypt Buff

wasps redux

The wasps are dead mostly, you still can’t go into the closet but that’s because of the insecticide stench not the wasps. At least my son & daughter-in-law can sleep in their own beds now.

The DNC is over & the RNC is about to start, every 4 years we go through this but the conventions are now a redundant party for the party faithful. As a person who is old enough to remember the 1956 convention (Oh, dear Huntley & Brinkley I miss you) with all the negotiating and back room deal, these conventions are just plain BORING! Have the reforms in selecting the convention delegates produced a better class of candidates? No, they have not. 1960- Kennedy vs. Nixon or 2000- Bush vs. Gore? Gore at least was Vice President and most probably would have received the nomination anyway but Bush? Harry Truman please come back to life, he said –I just tell the truth & they think it’s Hell. I’m paraphrasing of course. He would have made mincemeat of the fools slinging mud today.

And speaking of W.A.S.P.s please look at the top of the Republican ticket. Now you do know how I feel about wasps, don’t you?

wasps

I loath wasps. Yellow Jackets especially, they are aggressive, ill tempered, and territorial to the max! Also a “mild” allergy to insect bites makes me especially leery of them. “Mild” allergy because I’m careful to wear insect repellent and walk away carefully so not to get bitten. So what happens? We have a nest of them in our attic space. Now never have I had to be hospitalized for a bite, but even a black fly bite will raise a muscle sized bump on my skin. You don’t want to know what mosquitoes do to me. My son has called an exterminator servvice that will come today to eliminate the problem. Very important as the nest is directly above the master bedroom. We can see it now, peaceful sleep interrupted by marauding wasps! More anon.

Government Idiocy

These last few days I have been filled with nausea at our federal officials. Really do they expect ANYONE to take their warning to Russia seriously? First they tie up our troops in a futile, pointless war that is killing our beloved troops( yes I do mean Iraq) then they set up situations that will prod the Russians into action, then we wring our hands about the inevitable. The poor Georgians did not learn a thing from the 1956 Hungerian Revolt, but the Russians did learn from the seperation of Kosovo from Serbia. Oh wait that was different, yes we supported the breakaway Kosovars so it was OK. Now Poland has signed an agreement to host ICBM’s that just happen to be pointed in Russias direction. No at Russia , but at “rogue states’. Hmm, for some reason the Russians told the Poles that this makes them a target, even for nukes. How will we ever recover from the idiocies of this administration? We have record debt ( that is what a deficit means folks), our military stretched too thin, our reputation in shreds, and no coherent explanation for any of this.

But no not fear, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, & Micael Savage tell us that we never had it better and we are just a bunch of ingrates to complain about this regime in Washington. They are the Nixon administration minus the brains!

Why Egypt?

It occurs to me that an”Egyptbuff” who doesn’t write about Egypt is confusing. So… I first fell in love with ancient Egypt when I was 9 and saw faces that looked like mine in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dark eyes, full lips, olive skin. Wow, my blond hair was the only difference. Since then I have learned much about the ancients and still love and admire their civilization. I was fortunate to live within walking distance from the museum, and live in a time when you could allow a child to go to the museum with a friend of the same age. No way will I allow my grandchildren to do that today. What, walk a mile & a half to go UNESCORTED to a museum filled with strangers?

I would visit the museum at least once a month. All the collections were familiar to me. This came in handy when I started teaching, the class could get at least one trip and all it would cost was the fee for the half day school bus. I had the least expensive trips in the school and lots of parents who came to help watch the kids. My classes filled me with pride as the very well dressed people from the upper east side would ask if we were from an international private school. I loved telling them that we were a parochial school in southeastern Queens. That that you elitists!

Today I have more books on Ancient Egypt than most branches of the libreries. My kids could research their papers right at home. I try to keep current of the latest finds and refinements of the history of Egypt. Dr. Hawas and Salima Hakram are my idols. Someday I may even visit Dier El Medina and Dier El Bahari myself, costs and politics have always gotten in the way. So now gentle reader you know why I’m Egyptbuff.

Thunderstorms

Yesterday we had a great thunderstorm come through our area. I love them and respect them. Please do not ever go under a tree during one. This might seem as common sense, but just this week 6 people were injured and some were killed when they did just that. I’ll never understand that. I do love the storms, but I’m careful of my life And limb. Here at home I get a terrific view of the storms effects. The lightning and thunder, the wind and rain make the trees around our house dance. One dead tree in the back was hollow and broke in half. I felt sorry for the squirrels who lived there. One of my memories of my mom was being with her during a storm. My mother & I would always rush to the windows to see as much as we could. My darling mother-in-law was terrified of the storms. As a girl in Europe she saw flooding and fires caused by thunderstorms. The sight of both going on at the same time shook her and to the day she died she would sit in the middle of the room until the storm passed. My mom grew up where hurricanes were frequent and felt that thunderstorms were just junior league. She relished them. As I said previously, just random musings no great thoughts.