L'Égypte est partout

April 6, 2024 | Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan

When I was in Ueno Park, in Tokyo, Japan, I had wanted to visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum but did not end up doing so. I did get to check out its shop, which had hippos "made in Egypt" and stencil plates of hieroglyphics for sale.

Its online shop also has some Egyptian or Egyptian-inspired products, such as the Egyptian Acrylic Coaster Eye of Horus and the Egyptian Acrylic Coaster Tutankhamun.

August 30, 2023 | "Egypt imposes new restrictions on Canadian travellers"

According to the article (and reiterated on Canada's travel advisory website), "As of Oct. 1, Canadians travelling to Egypt will have to visit Egypt's embassy or a consulate in Canada to apply for a visa before they leave the country." Previously, Canadians could obtain a visa online or upon arrival at the airport.

November 4, 2022 | Microsoft Bing

One hundred years ago, Howard Carter and company discovered the tomb of King Tut, which had remained untouched for thousands of years. In commemoration of this event, Microsoft Bing included a mini image of the king (pharaoh) in his golden mask n the Search bar as well as some articles on interest: “Who was King Tut,” “Secrets of the tomb revealed,” and “Inside Egypt’s pyramids.”

September 17, 2022 | Bata Shoe Museum

The Bata Show Museum is a museum of footwear and calceology (the study of footwear) in Toronto, Canada. 

At the lowest level of the museum is its permanent exhibition, All About Shoes, which takes you through over 4,500 years of history. It begins with Ötzi’s shoes. Ötzi is the naturally mummified remains of a man who lived some time between 3350 and 3150 B.C., and the shoes he wore were made of bearskin and stuffed with hay. The museum had a recreation of these shoes.

Next in this exhibition is about the Ancient Egyptians and their shoes. A label reads:

Egypt’s hot climate meant that sandals were the most common type of footwear. Typically, they were made from leather, straw, or plant leaves, but privileged individuals wore sandals constructed out of precious metals. 

The second photograph is of a cartonnage (Ancient Egyptian, 300 B.C.E. to 1 C.E.). Cartonnage is a type of material used in ancient Egyptian funeral preparation, and it is made of layers of linen or papyrus covered with plaster. In this specific piece, “the underside depicts conquered enemies painted on the soles of the sandals.”

The numbered footwear are described as such:

Cartonnage made of linen and gesso and depicting sandaled feet for the mummy (Ancient Egyptian, 1–200 C.E.)

Pair of sandals missing its original thong (Ancient Egyptian, 1500–1200 B.C.E.)

May 26, 2022 | Sleepytime

Do you like tea? I like tea. A tea I often drink in the evening (and maybe in the day if I am stressed) is Sleepytime, by Celestial Seasonings, which is a herbal blend of chamomile, spearmint, lemongrass, and more. The chamomile, however, is not just chamomile; it is “floral Egyptian chamomile.”

I briefly looked up “Egyptian chamomile” on Google, and most results are marketing copy by tea companies. 

Wise Ape Tea Co. briefly outlines “The History of Chamomile”: “Chamomile is old school. It’s been used since ancient times. Both the Egyptians and the ancient Romans used chamomile in tea, salves, creams, incenses and other beverages. In Egypt, chamomile was prescribed as a cold remedy.”

According to Herb Co., “Popular varieties [of chamomile] include German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) and Roman or English chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile). For tea, Egyptian chamomile, which is M. recutita that is specific to the Nile River Valley region, is considered to be the most flavorful. However, this species may be referenced in the literature under the synonymous botanical names Chamomilla chamomilla, Chamomilla recutita or Matricaria suaveolens.”

If Herb Co. is to be trusted, then Egyptian chamomile is not a species of chamomile but simply Matricaria recutita—commonly known as German chamomile—grown in Egypt.

Therefore, it is not necessary to go to Egypt to get this plant as this plant grows elsewhere, but if you want to call it “Egyptian chamomile,” then it has to have been grown and picked in Egypt.

I could have saved myself some research into whether this was a species of flower or not if I had just looked at Celestial Seasonings’ Frequently Asked Questions webpage, where they answer the question “Where do your ingredients come from?” Egyptian means from Egypt.

September 15, 2021 | “Egyptian Desert” Microworld by Benny Productions

Lately I have been watching YouTube videos by the digital artist Benny (Benny Productions), and one of his Photoshop projects is to create microworlds, which look like 3D “worlds,” like cubes taken out of the earth. In one of his YouTube videos, titled “This is NOT 3D SOFTWARE? | How I Create ‘Microworlds’,” he describes his process of creating these microworlds in Photoshop. The microworld he creates is the “Egyptian Desert.”

He takes stock images and “fits” them into a template cube image. I assume the underground portion of the microworld may not be accurate, though (I say this not knowing what kind of rock is under the Sahara Desert even, so why am I even commenting? Heh.). 

According to Geography’s “The Geology of the Sahara”:

Named for the Arabic word for desert, sahra, this vast region sits on top of the warped, deformed, and folded African Shield, composed of some of the oldest rocks on the planet, forged when life was limited to single-celled creatures living in the oceans. These older rocks underlying the present-day Sahara are mostly granite, schist, or gneiss, all mixtures of igneous and metamorphic rocks forged deep beneath the surface. The rocks that form the African Shield were laid down near the surface, buried, remelted, re-fused, and returned finally to the surface. The African Shield comprises the hard bedrock of Africa and has held the continent together during the hundreds of millions of years that it has been split, shifted, twisted, and rammed into Europe as a result of the movement of the crustal plates.

What all of that looks like from a cross-sectional perspective, I have no clue.

You can see all the microworlds he has made on his website. The Egyptian Desert is #10.

January 17, 2022 | On Writing Well

I read William Zinsser’s On Writing Well (originally published in 1976) out of interest and out of a hope that my own writing would improve from his recommendations. Perhaps I did learn a few things. In any case, it is fairly highly rated on Goodreads, so at least other readers thought it was a worthwhile read.

Anyways, I found a few (ancient) Egypt mentions.

(a) In chapter 5, “Audience,” Zinsser includes an excerpt from James Herndon’s How to Survive in Your Native Land (1971), which is a book describing Herndon’s “experiences as a teacher in a California high school.” The excerpt includes a “lesson about Egypt.”

(b) In chapter 9, “The Lead and the Ending,” Zinsser includes an excerpt from one his earlier articles, “Thank God for Nuts,” which is about his visit to the National Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He likens his interest at looking at a piece of elm (“a botanical relic”—“the kind of bark [Burleigh] Grimes [a baseball player] chewed during games ‘to increase saliva for throwing the spitball.’”) to that of looking at the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone is “a stele [...] inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. The decree has only minor differences between the three versions, making the Rosetta Stone key to deciphering the Egyptian scripts” [Wikipedia]. It is named Rosetta as it was found in Rosetta, Egypt. The Rosetta Stone is located, since 1802, in the British Museum in London, England. A replica can be found in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

(c) In chapter 9, “The Lead and the Ending,” Zinsser includes an excerpt from Joan Didion’s piece “7000 Romaine, Los Angeles 38.” After the excerpt, Zinsser writes about it: “What is pulling us into this article—toward, we hope, some glimpse of how Hughes operates, some hint of the riddle of the Sphinx …”. This is yet another example of the sphinx.

(d) In chapter 13, “Writing about Places: The Travel Article,” Zinsser uses visiting Egypt as an example of a travel destination. Were you moved when you saw the pyramids for the first time?

(e) In chapter 14, “Writing about Yourself: The Memoir,” Zinsser lists some memoirs that he “most vividly” remembered reading, one of which was André Aciman’s Out of Egypt: A Memoir (first published in 1980). Out of Egypt is a recounting by “the son of a flamboyant Jewish clan” of “his family’s move to turn-of-the-century Alexandria, its many colorful members, its pursuit of wealth and happiness, and its struggles with anti-Semitic and anti-Western nationalism” [Goodreads]. Perhaps I am way off with this, but the book’s title reminds me of a line from the Old Testament: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Exodus 20:2).

(f) In chapter 18, “Writing about the Arts: Critics and Columnists,” Zinsser speaks about “true wit.” “It’s far easier to bury Caesar than to praise him—and that goes for Cleopatra, too.” Cleopatra VII, but really any of the others too, were Egyptian, etc.

January 3, 2022 | Amazon Prime's “Cleopatra has a change of heart”

I was scrolling through Instagram when I saw an advertisement for Amazon Prime that had an ancient Egyptian vibe to it. 

The full 30-second advertisement, titled “Cleopatra has a change of heart,” can be seen on Amazon’s YouTube account.

The narration is as follows:

Cleopatra was the most powerful woman in Egypt, but no one likes a diva, hun. Watching Prime Video, she realized rulers could give back, so she ordered some gifts with Prime. After that it was more of a one-team-one-dream kind of vibe. Couldn’t give up all the gold though. Prime changed everything.

The advertisement features “Cleopatra,” who is being carried in a litter and is decorated with golden uraei. In the background are the Pyramids of Giza. 

May 25, 2022 | Knives Out (2019)

At the beginning of the film Knives Out (2019), we see a door from the inside of Harlan Thrombey’s attic room. (On the other side of the door is the housekeeper, who is calling out, “Mr. Thrombey, you up there?”) On the door are tacked drawings, illustrations, and a page from presumably a book. One of the drawings is of a bearded man standing on the east bank of the Nile river, looking at the Giza pyramids—or at least that is what I interpret from what I see.

I tried to find this drawing online (with key words and a reverse Google image search); however, I was unsuccessful. There is text at the bottom of the drawing, but I cannot read it (these are screenshots, after all). It definitely looks to be an older drawing (vintage? antique?). Also, can we call it a plate, as in a book? I do not think the prop team would create this drawing from scratch; therefore, it must be ... somewhere, right?

Does anyone know who the artist is? Which drawing this is?

Regarding the film, I enjoyed it! It is a murder mystery–comedy about the death of patriarch and “renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey” (played by Christopher Plummer). “[T]he inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc ([played by] Daniel Craig) is mysteriously” hired to investigate the death and therefore must interact with the eccentric family, who are played by, to name a few, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Michael Shannon, as well as the nurse Marta, played by Ana de Armas. [IMDb]

The second Knives Out is coming out ... eventually. I look forward to seeing it.

January 18, 2022 | “Amumu: The Curse of the Sad Mummy”

I was looking through saved photos, documents, etc. to clean up my life (specifically, my desktop), and I found a League of Legends image of a sad mummy (below) and remembered its related song, “Amumu: The Curse of the Sad Mummy,” written and sung by Riot composer Christian ‘Praeco’ Linke. Amumu is a “cursed mummy boy who felt his heart no more.” A friend, who actually plays League of Legends—I never got into it, showed me this. Sad stuff, but good memories.

January 3, 2022 | Now You See Me 2

And after rewatching the first film, I rewatched the second: Now You See Me 2 (2016). The Horsemen, minus one but plus another, end up in Macau. During their time there, they visit a magic store to get supplies. Thaddeus Bradley, played by Morgan Freeman, and Dylan Rhodes, played by Mark Ruffalo, also visit the shop, which has a “coffin to the beyond,” which is in the shape of an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. 

January 3, 2022 | Now You See Me

I rewatched Now You See Me (2013), a heist thriller film featuring the Four Horsemen: (1) J. Daniel “Danny” Atlas, played by Jesse Eisenberg, an illusionist and street magician; (2) Merritt McKinney, played by Woody Harrelson, a hypnotist, mentalist, and self-proclaimed psychic; (3) Henley Reeves, played by Isla Fisher, an escapist and stage magician; and (4) Jack Wilder, played by Dave Franco, a sleight of hand illusionist, street magician, and pickpocket [Wikipedia].

The film begins with the following narration by Thaddeus Bradley, played by Morgan Freeman, a former magician turned magic debunker: 

There is a legend of a secret order born in ancient Egypt called “the Eye.” It is said they perfected sleight of hand to steal food from the Pharaohs and give it to the slaves. Their purpose? Using magic and illusion to even the scales of justice. Are the Horsemen next in a long line of fools to believe this myth?

The symbol of this fictional secret society of magicians originates from the Eye of Horus, which is shown in the third screenshot above.

(Some thoughts, though perhaps I am being nonsensical: If you believed the pharaoh was a god, would you steal from him? Can we then assume that these magicians did not believe the pharaoh was a god? Also, if you did not believe the pharaoh was a god, could you still believe in the gods Osiris, Horus, Isis, etc. and thus was okay to use a god’s symbol (e.g., an eye) for your own secret society? And by slaves, do you mean non-Egyptians who were enslaved or poor people in general? Or just enslaved people in general and not just anyone who was poor?)

Though the Eye is fictional, I am reminded of Penn and Teller’s trip to Egypt for their Magic and Mystery Tour (2003; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWaE5vROvs0&t=2082s). The pair travels to three countries to explore their street magic. In Egypt Penn and Teller explore cups and balls and meet with Gali-Gali men, “a group of magicians with an extensive history made popular in the West by Luxor Gali-Gali. They film several Gali-Gali shows and visit the relatives of Luxor Gali-Gali. Luxor Gali-Gali’s original cups, seen on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1949, are still in use by his descendants in Cairo” [Wikipedia]. The pair also travel to China, exploring the Chinese linking rings, and India, exploring the Indian rope trick.

January 3, 2022 | The Word Is Murder

“She planned her own funeral. But did she arrange her own murder?” 

Anthony Horowitz’s The Word Is Murder (2018), the first novel in the Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery series, is about Horowitz’s fictional murder mystery adventure with disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne. The pair travels around London, England, and then a bit afield to investigate the murder of Diana Cowper, the wealthy mother of a famous actor. Diana had begun her day planning her own funeral; she ends it being dead.

This novel is not related to (ancient) Egypt in any way; however, there is one mention! During this adventure the pair is in the presence of a male body (I will not spoil whose body). The deceased has “both of his hands ... bagged,” and his body is “wrapped ... in polythene ... sealed with gaffer tape.” “The process turned him into something that reminded [Horowitz] of both ancient Egypt and Federal Express.” Mummy, packaging. To be carted off into another world, another place.

February 6, 2022 | Africa Cup of Nations

January 15, 2022 | National Geographic’s History (January/February 2022)

I just saw that this month’s issue of History, from National Geographic, features the bust of Nefertiti, the “iconic queen of Egypt.”