Just few more notes on Egypt (and sex)
Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 07:36AM 
The surviving face on the big stone guy you see at the left is probably the most famous mug carved in temples and monuments all over Egypt. It's not King Tut, but King Rameses II. Our guide was rather proud that RII lived to be about 90 years old and fathered between 90 and 100 children. (Fact checked on Wikipedia.) On first glance, that does seem pretty impressive. You can see why a condom branded Rameses is somewhat ironic.
But let's do a little math here. Let's say RII started his procreative career at 15 and continued until he was 75, that leaves 60 years of being Pharaoh or Pharaoh-elect and getting carnal access to an unlimited number of women. And the statues and paintings certainly make those ancient Egyptian women out to be pretty darned cute. 
(To paraphrase Mel Brooks, "It's good to be the Pharaoh.")
Given those conditions, I don't think 1.5 children a year is anything to brag about. Even one kid a month would have resulted in 780 little princes and princesses running about. Of course Christmas and birthdays would have gotten pretty darned expensive.
While we are on the delicate topic of sex, The Geezer has a rant, "Get a Room," on a news story about a couple being arrested for having sex while driving. My response was 'Let he who is without sin write the first ticket." If Geezer's memory wasn't going, I bet even he might recall some personal indiscretions along this line from his own youth. He suggested it might be just those hot-blooded Scandinavians acting up. First time I've ever heard a Norweigian called hot-blooded.
The funny thing though is this - my guess is that having sex while driving is less distracting than texting - especially after you've been with the same partner for a while. (LWW, you are the exception to the rule if you are reading this.) I'm saving my outrage for those who Twitter and drive, not twiddle and drive.
One thing about the Cairo traffic, drivers seemed to be focused - at least on where the next lane change might come.
Like many "developing nations" Egypt has a trash/litter problem. It's ubiquitous and at least to my eye, very disturbing. Somehow I think the trash must become invisible to the people living there and changing a culture to value neatness may not be practical. And I am sure there are economic reasons for this condition as well.
Here is my solution: Give a Pulitzer Prize to the first person who invents a plastic that biodegrades, say, after one month of being exposed to sunlight. And I mean true biodegradation, not just 
the plastic being dissolved into ever smaller little pieces of plastic that are then consumed by ever smaller creatures as happens now. One of the scariest chapters of Weisman's The World Without Us was the decription of giant whirlpools of plastic now circling in our oceans.
OK, one last one. Many of the homes and buildings of flats in Egypt look unfinished, with missing top floor windows and rebar still extruding from the roof.
Our guide explained that this was done purposely since Egyptians do not have to pay taxes on a building until it's finished. Of course they move into the building during its very loooong construction phase.
I am fascinated by the ingenuity humans through out history have shown in avoiding taxes. The Nederlanders build tall skinny houses since they were once taxed on how much house faced the street. Our Victorian houses in the Midwest often had closet-less bedrooms since closets were taxed as additional rooms. The armoire works just fine, thank you. Even the house we moved into that was built in the mid-90s had a room without ceiling tiles installed so it couldn't be assessed as a bedroom. Tax Avoidance Through History and Cultures - unless someone has already written it, might make an interesting retirement project some day.
Reader Comments (5)
Sounds like you had a great trip. When we were in Egypt a couple of years ago I asked the same question about the unfinished buildings, and our tour guide said that people do this because land in Cairo is so scarce that if a daughter or son gets married, they can't get a new apartment or house, so the family builds another story on the house for the extended family. Knowing this, it's easier to just leave the rebar ready to go when that happens. He also said that people live in the cemetery in their family crypts because there is no other open land in the city, and partly to make sure some other family doesn't move in.
I don't know if it's your residual jet lag, but your ability to meld such disparate topics as math, sex, history, traffic, trash, and Egyptian taxation without completion is damn impressive. In less able hands the mesh of these topics would make for a discombobulated mess. In your hands it all makes sense . . . I think. I have to admit that even though you were absent from your blog for 6 days or so, I checked your blog every day just to be there when your first, fresh thoughts were posted from your Nile River getaway with your own little Cleopatra cupcake. One day I clicked your site and . . . nothing . . . . No connection. I tried again . . . nothing. No connection. I tried a third time. Nothing. My first thought? Damn! Doug Johnson has been taken prisoner by some Nile River ne'er do wells (pirates?) and they've taken him and his little connubial Cleopatra hostage, and all of his blog readers are hitting his site in an effort to find out what's going on. How else to explain the inability to connect with the Blue Skunk Blog? It has never happened before. You had us worried sick there for a day or two. . . or at least me. Your postings and musings on whatever topic strikes your fancy are a pure pleasure to read.
Hi Sylvia,
We did have a great trip. Of course, we just plain like to travel anyway.
Interesting story about why the re-bar exists. Makes sense since Cairo is definitely over crowded.
Thanks for the info,
Doug
Hi Keith,
My only excuse for the entry is that I was suffering from jet lag when I wrote it!
Thanks for the kind words. I tend to write to amuse myself and sometimes I get lucky and amuse others as well.
Doug
i had sex before
Rory,
With another person?
Doug