Born in Arizona, Moved to Babylonia

A good Memorial Day weekend to all. I’ll pick up posting again on Tuesday.

In the meantime, various notes on current things, which I usually don’t bother with.

Note to Messrs. Skilling and Lay: Buck up, gents. There’s always seppuku. Not strictly speaking, of course, since you’re of the merchant, not warrior, class. Still, there’s something to be said for captains of industry who go down with their ships. Especially those who sank their own ships.

I read that about 35 million people watched the season finale of American Idol. This would be a little less than 12% of the population of the United States, which certainly is a lot of people, but it makes me think that roughly 265 million Americans didn’t watch it. Even disregarding very small children or the infirm, that might be 250 million or so who ignored it. My headline (worthy of the Onion): “Vast Majority of Americans Ignore Worthless American Idol.” I’m in the majority for once.

The latest King Tut megashow has come to the Field Museum. I’d see that before American Idol any day, and pay some money too, but ancient Egypt just isn’t compelling enough to justify $25 per adult, especially when the whole family can go to the Oriental Institute in Hyde Park for less than that, and not have to put up with a dozen other people crowded around each exhibit all the time.

The closest the original Tut megashow got to San Antonio in 1978 was New Orleans, and I knew a few kids whose parents took them to see it. But I’m not sorry I missed it, because the very next year I got to see a big Pompeii show in Dallas, traveling there with the Latin Club (I was a member of the Texas State Junior Classical League, I was). Rome or Egypt? Not a hard choice for me. SPQR!