I went to the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit at the de Young museum yesterday.
Within a yard of the doorway, stretching as far as one could see and blocking the entrance to the chamber, stood what to all appearances was a solid wall of gold. For the moment there was no clue as to its meaning, so as quickly as I dared I set to work to widen the hole.
Quotation from Howard Carter, on entering King Tut’s burial chamber
Jack the Giant Killer is my least favorite fairy tale. Jack climbed up the beanstalk and he stole gold coins from the Giant. He went back a second time and stole a hen that laid golden eggs. Lastly, greedy Jack stole a talking harp that cried out to the Giant for help. And for that, Jack is considered a HERO??? Jack probably grew up to be CEO at a major investment bank.
What about the poor Giant?
Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishmun.
Be he ‘live, or be he dead,
I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.
~Quotation from the fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk
It’s rumored he became a hedge fund manager.
When dollars were first printed in the United States, they weren’t considered money. They were Promissary Notes backed by gold or silver coins. Now it seems, cowry shells (the shell most commonly used worldwide as currency) may have more value than the once almighty dollar.
I feel like sitting on a beach and watching a pretty sunset.
Bernard Madoff arrested over alleged $50 billion fraud (Reuters)
The last time as ever i see him, poor thing, was with my own blessed motherly eyes,
Sitting as good as gold in the gutter, a playing at making little dirt pies.
Poem from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood
A wind has started a little whirlpool
of sand where the carpet ought to be,
and shells lie
by the preposterous feet
of that woman who frets me, annihilates me,
O’ she will kill me yet.
Poem from Hilda Doolittle, Halcyon