Saturday Trivia

Drink like an Egyptian
Response Source

A new non-alcoholic wellness drink being launched in the UK is putting the sparkle into ancient Egyptian recipes.

Pharaoh’s Wellness Drinks are non-alcoholic, bottled drinks in five refreshing adult flavours: carob, hibiscus, tamarind, peppermint and liquorice.

Their launch comes as interest in all things Egyptian is set to soar with the opening of the “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” exhibition in London this week (15 November) in the UK for the first time since 1972.

Pharaoh’s make a pleasing alternative to the usual non-alcoholic alternatives, and as the Christmas season approaches, are ideal for drivers.

Their inspiration comes from the ancient Egyptians, who three thousand years ago used the fruits, leaves and roots of the carob, hibiscus, tamarind, peppermint and liquorice plants to prepare medicinal recipes.

It takes as long as it takes
Guardian Unlimited

You know the kind of thing. You are reading the word 'mildew' at the precise point someone says 'mildew' nearby, on Radio 4, most likely during the powerful and ever-fascinating piece of destination-listening which is You and Yours. Or you're two-thirds of the way through typing the word 'bhunthsiachtra' when the first nine letters come up on Countdown

I had my moment this morning, having finally got round to unpacking the suitcase, whose reproachful fat gaze I had been avoiding for so many weeks that it is actually too embarrassing even for me to put into print, and also it would make my mum and now my girlfriend cry (I mean those as separate people, of course. Although it would make for an even more interesting premise for something called, say, You and Yours). It had been a while, anyway; and I had to have a wee sit-down halfway through, to gather breath and to muse on whether there could be any greater and more splendidly awful difference in terms of time between that taken to pack and that taken to unpack. And I had my minor jolt when I looked at the paper and read about Tutankhamun. Not just because there were obvious and savage analogies, all involving spirited nostril-holding in the name of awed historical discovery, between the mask-lifting stuff with kid gloves inside a glass case in Luxor and the bag-opening stuff with Cillit Bang! inside a running shower in Doughty Street, but because, suddenly, I had my analogy. Only once before, in history, had there ever been such a singular chronological difference between the time taken to pack something and that taken to open it up.

Take, first, King Tut. Boy King. Time taken to pack up into mummied slot: year or so. Time taken to open up, to reveal a face which resembled to a startling degree that of Trisha Goddard: 3,000 years.

Mummy with a Weave
National Geographic

So some of the poseurs on America’s Next Top Model got weaves last night. It hurt. A lot. “I just felt like my scalp was bleeding,” said Ebony. Girlfriend, women have been crying over weaves for 5,000 years.

That’s the age of the weave (pictured, above) found in an ancient tomb by archaeologist Renee Friedman, director of the Hierakonpolis Expedition. The hair extensions were woven to the mummy’s real hair were … also her real hair. She must have grown it, cut it off, then had it woven back on for a little hairdo height. (Big hair was really popular in 3600 B.C.) The weave woman also dyed her hair with henna for color that really lasted – we’re talking millennia!

Game: New releases of Luxor from MumboJumbo
Business Wire

Eager fans of all ages will be turning their eyes to LUXOR this holiday season. Leading casual game developer and publisher, MumboJumbo, proudly announces the expansion of its own epic, action-shooter puzzle franchise, LUXOR. The latest chapters include LUXOR 3 and LUXOR: Pharaoh’s Challenge, both offering casual gaming fans new Egyptian worlds to explore and addicting puzzle play to conquer.

Since first launching in 2005, the ancient Egyptian franchise has been downloaded over 65 million times worldwide and has sold over 500,000 units at retailers nationwide. MumboJumbo enlisted their recently acquired development team, Ritual Entertainment, to integrate its traditional game development expertise into LUXOR 3, presenting never before seen features and animation. Winner of numerous awards, including the #1 casual game of 2005, the franchise truly reaches new heights in design quality and gameplay mechanics with LUXOR 3.

Amazing adventures: the Lost Tomb
Wired Blog Network

Amazing Adventures: The Lost Tomb is definitely not a casual game that everyone is going to enjoy. It's one of those find-the-image games, where you must locate a list of specific objects in a room crammed to the rafters with random junk, which for some players amounts to little more than eyestrain. Others may find its simple challenge to be oddly relaxing, despite the ever-present timer.

The rooms of The Lost Tomb are all related to the game's Egyptology theme, but that aesthetic largely ends with the backdrop for the scenes you'll search. The objects you have to find have little to do with tombs, lost or otherwise, unless King Tut stashed a fire extinguisher, high heels, and a harmonica in his sarcophagus and I just don't know it.

Aida at The Coliseum
The Observer

The first production of Verdi's Aida, in Cairo in 1871, was designed with the advice of the eminent French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. English National Opera's new staging, its first for more than 20 years, is designed by the wacky British fashionista Zandra Rhodes. O tempora, O mores! In the wake of other such recent hirings by ENO - its new policy, in the words of artistic director John Berry, of 'engaging with practitioners from different art forms' - this seems proof positive that the current regime is intent more on visual than aural treats.