My friend Ken F. chastised me for a seeming lack of caring for my fellow man (and woman) driver for failing to pass along a USA Today story on the increased risk of getting a speeding ticket because municipalities are looking to make up for lost tax revenues. So here it is: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-30-speeding-cushion_N.htm.
As Sgt. Phil Esterhaus used to say on Hill Street Blues: “Let’s be careful out there.”
IO Update: Inanimate Objects (IOs) continue to plague me. Since my report 10 days ago about a replacement car window regulator, replacement water heater regulator and new microwave, here’s the latest damage report:
* Gilda’s hair dryer almost set her hair on fire. An undetected frayed wire started sparking. Luckily, she noticed it before any injury.
* The screen door leading from/to our garage needs a new screen or total replacement.
* Our dishwasher started making strange noises. A call to the repairman is in order. Good thing we have a second dishwasher, installed when we remodeled back in 2001.
Technical Problems: Apparently I’m not the only one done in by an IO. During last night’s Yankees-Red Sox season opener, no sooner had Michael Kay described a new pitch count and pitch speed feature to be shown after each pitch on YES Network baseball broadcasts than it broke down. It was quickly reinstated, but the point was made—technology is not to be trusted, especially when you talk about it.
Extra Commandments: Since I had several days before I had to return The Ten Commandments to the library, I took the time over the weekend to watch the extra features on the DVD, including a voice-over commentary throughout the film by Katherine Orrison, author of Written in Stone: Making Cecil B. DeMille’s Epic, The Ten Commandments.
I often wondered why the Egyptian government cooperated on a film that portrayed their ancestors as the bad guys and the Israelites as the good guys. Keep in mind The Ten Commandments was filmed from 1954 to 1956, that Gamal Abdel Nasser had just deposed King Farouk and was espousing pan-Arab nationalism. The answer, Orrison related, harked back to DeMille’s 1935 movie, The Crusades, and its positive portrayal in Nasser’s eyes of Saladin, the Islamic leader. Nasser effectively gave DeMille the keys to the kingdom, even making the Egyptian army available as extras.
Some other tidbits from Orrison:
* William Boyd was DeMille’s first choice to play Moses. Does the name sound familiar? It should if you were a fan of Hopalong Cassidy. Boyd turned down the part because he was too identified with the cowboy character he portrayed. Charlton Heston was chosen because he resembled the Michelangelo sculpture of Moses. DeMille also wanted Audrey Hepburn to play Nefertiri, but she did not look right in the form-fitting wardrobe and wigs created for the princess/queen of Egypt. So the role of Moses' love interest went to the more curvaceous Anne Baxter.
* DeMille incorporated ancient Egyptian practices as he saw them through the eyes of an American public of the 1950s. Aristocratic Egyptians had shaved heads, to ward off lice. So pharaoh, played first by Sir Cedric Hardwicke and then Yul Brynner, appeared bald, as did the priests. Though Moses was a prince of Egypt, Heston had short-cropped hair because DeMille did not think the public would accept a bald hero. Middle class Egyptians had pencil thin mustaches, but DeMille passed on that affectation. The lower classes wore shoulder length hair.
* DeMille also eschewed the elaborate eye makeup worn by upper class Egyptians. He didn’t think the public cared. The makeup, said Orrison, actually was a form of insect repellent.
* Camels, according to Orrison, were not part of ancient Egypt (some historians believe they were not domesticated until around 1100 BCE, about 100 years after the exodus). Yet DeMille used them in his film because the public had been conditioned to believe camels and Egypt were synonymous. It didn’t hurt that the popular cigarette brand showed a camel in front of a pyramid.
