The title of this post worked out better than I thought. It's a pun. Someone once said that puns are just lazy writing, and they're probably right, but punners are in good company. The ancient Egyptians were famous for their puns and enjoyed them thoroughly. The civilization that brought us the Pyramids, the Great Library, the Great Lighthouse, poetry (the first recorded example) and organized labour, including history's first recorded strike (I'm not kidding), seem to have been lazy writers. I suppose when all your writing consists of pictograms (hieroglyphs) even a short story is quite an undertaking, you have to economize where you can. The ancient Egyptians, it seems, economized with lazy humour.
I'll explain the title now. Since my semester schedule is better for getting hours at ACTTAB, I've been getting better (more) hours at ACTTAB. Although I haven't been overworked, I've still managed to get in some solid time, which translates to some solid cash. Unfortunately, it meant that I couldn't see this year's ANU Law Revue. I'll have to get a precis of it from someone.
The ANU Law Revue, an annual comedy lampooning put on by law students, ran Thursday-Saturday but commitments interfered every day. Thursday was blocked by umpire training and a visit with some family friends, while Friday and Saturday were taken up by work.
On Thursday, I met up with some family friends, Roman and Oksana, who were in Australia for Oksana's friend's wedding. Oksana is originally from Australia but has lived in Canada for a number of years while Roman, her husband, is a Canadian through-and-through. They were kind enough to pass along some stuff, mostly clothes, from my mother. I met up with them at the Canberra Hyatt, Canberra's oldest and possibly nicest hotel, and then they were gracious enough to take me out for dinner. I showed them around Garema Place and we finally decided on the Tongue & Groove, a new, trendy restaurant/cocktail lounge. If you can get a table there, you're somebody. We were seated and had a fantastic dinner. Afterwards, I thanked Oksana and Roman for their companionship, the dinner and the parcels.
Earlier I discussed ancient Egypt and I figure I'll say a little more on that fascinating civilization, in case you still don't believe the assertions I made earlier. With regards to poetry, the first recorded poem is an ode to the sun written (probably dictated) by Amenhotep IV, popularly known as Akhenaten. Among other things, he was Tutankhamun's father. Akhenaten was a very unusual fellow and moved the capital to a place now called El-Amarna, or Tel-El-Amarna. He instituted what was known as the Amarna Revolution, completely changing Egyptian religion. Although polytheistic, Akhenaten declared there to be only 1 God, the sun God Aten (hence the name change and the ode). It was history's first monotheistic religion. As well, art was changed to show the royal family in a more realistic way. After his death, the old religion was restored but such was the upheaval that, for whatever reason, Tutankhamun's name was erased from the List of Pharaohs.
As for organized labour, the Egyptians were famous for not using slaves in the construction of their monuments. Slaves were only used domestically, and sometimes in the brick works and quarries. All the Egyptians who toiled away for decades to make the Pyramids and other monuments were paid, and quite well. There were actually two very good reasons for this. Firstly, most of the work was done during the flood season when stones could be shipped closer to the monuments. At this time, better than 95% of the population was, effectively, unemployed, so the monuments essentially became vast public works for employment creation; lessons for today, I think. Secondly, I think there was a sort of spiritual aspect and that the Egyptians believed that you could not truly appreciate what you were building, essentially ensuring the Pharaoh's immortality, if you weren't an Egyptian. Getting to the first strike, around 1480 BCE there was a brick works near modern Deir-El-Medina. Like most people, they were promised goods (in this case grain, I think) in lieu of cash. At one point, they were not paid their wages and so the workers stopped working. They returned to work after being promised their wages but when those were not forthcoming, they went on strike again. They only returned to work after the Mayor of Waset (Thebes), I think, personally came down and delivered their allotment. I think the ancient Egyptians could teach us all a thing or two.
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