#pyarmids

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.

October 11, 2020 | The Book of Brilliant Bugs (2020)

I finished reading the Book of Brilliant Bugs (2020) by Jess French and illustrated by Claire McElfatrick. It’s a well designed and produced children’s book on bugs, in my opinion. There is a variety of insect examples. Egypt as a location wasn’t referenced, but Egypt as a time mark (and an object of wonder) was: “The oldest termite mounds have been around since the time of the ancient Egyptians—and they are every bit as fascinating as the pyramids!”

I notice that Egypt is oftentimes referenced to emphasize age. How old? As old as the pyramids!

I did some Googling and found an article on termite mounds on Live Science. The article, titled “These Ancient Termite Mounds Are As Old As the Egyptian Pyramids. And They’re Visible from Space,” begins as so: “The roughly 4,000-year-old termite mounds—there are about 200 million of them—are so immense that each has nearly 1,800 cubic feet (50 cubic meters) of soil in it. Taken together, these termites have excavated more than 2.4 cubic miles (10 cubic kilometers) of earth, which is equivalent to the volume of about 4,000 Great Pyramids of Giza, the researchers said.” The body of the article doesn’t actually go into comparing the age of the mounds to the Egyptian pyramids but rather simply states that the results of the soil samples the scientists collected “showed that the mounds were filled between 3,820 and 690 years ago, making them about the same age as the world’s oldest-known termite mounds in Africa” and, assumedly, "as old as the Egyptian Pyramids.”

The Sphinx and pyramids at Giza, Egypt, 1850s, photos by Felix Teynard.

The Sphinx and Pyramids of Giza, Egypt, 1965, photo by Eliot Elisofon.