Friends, think back to when you were young, or if you ARE young, think back to when you were even younger (!), just for a moment (!).
Did you ever run away to join a circus? Most of us did, didn't we, at one time or other, some of us more than once (!). It seems like a life of excitement beckoned, but there are downsides, something most runaways don't think about on that cold morning when they creep out of the house to sign up. Just saying!
One of the biggest employers of circus clowns - stores trying to publicise their sales with clowns on the pavement outside the store - are cutting back. This mattress warehouse at nearby North Piddle is now offering far fewer openings for off-duty circus clowns, to put it mildly.
All in all, this Friday proves to be something of another "lazy day" for me (78) and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois (also 78) - weathermen are calling for thunderstorms most of the day, but this proves to be an exaggeration.
Something hanging over my head is a presentation I've got to give next month to our local U3A History of English group, on the subject of "Scots English" - a language 'in its own right'.
I've got a book on the subject (see picture above), but so far, all I've been able to find to characterise Scots is what I would just call "Bad English" - words like 'youse' instead of the standard 'you',
Or "Are those his pieces?" "Naw, they're mines [sic]!" ('pieces' means sandwiches, apparently, which I suppose is short for 'pieces of bread)' (?).But watch this space - I'm sure I'll get to the bottom of this subject eventually, and produce a "zinger" of a talk to our group next month! [I'm not holding my breath! - Ed]
I can see that it's nice for Scots to have their own language, but if it's just a case of "covering up mistakes (!)" then I'm a bit sceptical. However, I can see, also, that to produce a book, say, entitled, "Bad English - Common Mistakes Often Made by Scots" would not sell well, especially north of the border, so fair enough!
Only joking haha! I love to hear Scots talk really - especially when Lois reads me out some of her current book about Para Handy and his jokes and poems, Like this "doozy" - "There was a young fellow called Skinner, invited a lady to dinner. By half past nine, they had finished the wine and by half past ten, it was in her ! Not Skinner! The dinner !'" Oh dear, they don't write 'em like that any more, do they [That's something to be grateful for, at least! - Ed]
14:00 Lois and I can see we aren't achieving much today anyway, so "Why not take a shower and get back into bed?", I hear us both cry. Well, wouldn't YOU if you had the chance? And when somebody rings our doorbell (twice), about 3.30pm, we decide we can't be bothered to go downstairs, which is always a sign that we're enjoying it, which is good.
Lois tells me this afternoon that the important thing is to keep laughing. And here's where clowns come into focus again (see earlier in this post for today's "clown stories" (!)). You see, Lois has been reading this week's "What Scientists Are Saying" article in her copy of "The Week" magazine, which "plopped" through our letterbox yesterday, an article which, among other things, emphasises the importance of laughter and clowns in curing minor illnesses:
Fascinating stuff, isn't it.
20:30 We go to bed on an interesting documentary on the PBS America channel. We're on an almighty Ancient Egypt 'jag' at the moment. I think it was last night we saw something about 'Egypt's Forgotten Queens' or some-such nonsense, so while we're in the mood we decide to watch this one about Cleopatra, who very much saw herself as the successor of those 4 "Forgotten" Queens.
Recall, Cleopatra started her reign as joint-ruler with her brother Ptolemy III, who, in accordance with Egyptian custom, was also her husband.
Cleopatra (18) and her brother Ptolemy (10) when they came to the throne
And all went well for these 2 little "noggins", until Julius Caesar arrived with a small force in 48 BC, planning to take Egypt into the Roman Empire. This caused Cleopatra to fall out with Ptolemy - she was pro-Caesar, while Ptolemy and their other sister, Princess Arsinoe, were for resisting him. And Cleopatra ended up being exiled by the other two.
To get her throne back, Cleopatra decided to seduce Caesar and get his help: she got into his quarters rolled up in a carpet, and then sneaked into his bed while he was out at work, conquering somewhere or something similar.
Cleopatra entering Caesar's quarters clandestinely,
wrapped up in a big carpet...
...and, here, waiting to surprise Caesar when he got home from work...
It's become a bit of a cliché, hasn't it - getting rolled up in a carpet and then getting into somebody's bed until the doorbell rings. A bit like Lois and me this afternoon, except that neither of us bothered with the carpet stage, and we didn't get up to answer the door, either.
Getting rolled up in a carpet is, after all, the "textbook" approach to these situations, though, isn't it. You know the kind of thing - and I expect you've done something similar yourself, maybe several times, if you think back!
In the end, Caesar helped Cleopatra to get her throne back, while poor Princess Arsinoe wound up getting imprisoned by the Romans in the massive temple at Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey.
the probable tomb of Cleopatra's sister Princess Arsinoe
in Ephesus, modern-day Turkey, discovered in the 1990's
In the 1990's, archaeologists found the probable tomb of Cleopatra's younger sister Princess Arsinoe in Ephesus, and have examined her skeleton. And scientists are now able to reconstruct her face, the way they tend to do these days. Presumably she resembled her sister Cleopatra, so the reconstruction tells us a little bit about how Cleopatra probably looked.
At the end of the programme, we see Arsinoe's "reconstructed face" for the first time (see picture above), but as a climax it falls a bit flat. We've been watching some actress play Arsinoe in this dramatised documentary for the last hour or so, and guess what, the programme-makers have cast a woman like the one in the reconstruction, so this reconstruction hardly comes as much of a surprise.
Just saying! It's a small point, perhaps. But future documentary-makers please note!!!! It's not exactly rocket science is it! [All right, we get the idea! - Ed]
But what a crazy world we live in !!!!
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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