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Ah, 1963. Cleopatra. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. That time when I was able to enunciate perfectly prior to the cultivation of that southern drawl I’ve both acquired and learned to loathe. 1972. Antony and Cleopatra. Hildegarde Neil and Charlton Heston. Too late for my perfect enunciation, grammar, and syntax. Alas, I became a hick in some feeble attempt to try and fit in with my cohorts …

Cleopatra
aka Cleopatra VII
aka Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator
circa 69 BC – August 12, 30 BC

Cleopatra, last Egyptian pharaoh, died today in the year 30 BC. It is the general consensus that she died as the result of intentionally inducing an asp (Egyptian cobra) to bite her upon the death of Antony, her consort.

She ruled Egypt as a Hellenist who learned Egyptian, embraced their deities, and represented herself as the incarnation of an ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis, goddess of wisdom.

The Ptolemaic dynasty was vastly inbred.

Cleopatra VII had four great grandparents and six (out of a possible 16) great-great-grandparents. Four of those six were descendants of the other two.

Upon her death Egypt became a Roman province. She remains a popular figure in Western culture and her image appears on numerous pieces of art and her story is the stuff of literature and has been dramatized on stage and screen.

History has it that philosopher Blaise Pascal commented that Cleopatra’s profile — which he describes as classically beautiful — changed world history.

“Cleopatra’s nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed.”

Blaise Pascal
French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and philosopher

I don’t know about all that but if you have ever seen portraiture of Blaise Pascal you would understand that he certainly knew noses.

Well I guess we’re all getting older. The local paper touts this vision of a senior citizen population growing by 123% by the year 2030 … that will put me at 75 if I’m still around.

The article talks about the children of the elderly switching rolls and having to take care of their parents and the processes by which they make keep their aging parents safe.

Looking for behavioral changes is high on the list. It would seem that the possibility for dementia rears it’s ugly head even further as we get along in age.

Me, I intend to remain active as long as possible. I don’t really have plans to retire per se … unless I’m actually forced to by circumstances beyond my control. I’m one of those people who needs somewhere to go.

Then there is the caregiver — or in my case the lack thereof. Seeing how I don’t have anyone to look after me I’m going to need to try and look after myself.

I guess dementia is relative inasmuch as I hear how much of a nut I am presently. Could the possibility remain that I could get even more nutty as I age?

Be all of this as it may I try to stay grounded in reality — and keep real when everyone else is going crazy. It doesn’t always work out but I still make the attempt.

Surely I’m no more crazy that the world has become with all the fiscal predation set upon the world for which none of the perpetrators were held to account.

All they had to do was slink into that obscurity called seclusion with their booty and live sequestered in fenced in compounds declining all interview requests.

Me … I have to work for a living.

I once took a class in genetics. I did nothing for it and it did nothing for me. My studies outside the classroom lent a bit more in the way of understanding the stuff of Punnett Squares and the terminology but it wasn’t until the details of chromosomes and meiosis were laid out that I became remotely interested.

Something about Gregor Mendel and his pea plants and the ubiquitous fruit flies simply weren’t compelling whereas poloidy and Triple X syndrome, XYY Syndrome and other manifestations of nondisjunctive genetic abnormality were.

William Bateson
August 8, 1861 – February 8, 1926

British geneticist who was the first person to use the term genetics to describe the study of heredity and biological inheritance.

He popularized the ideas of Gregor Mendel secondary to the work of Hugo de Vries and Carl Correns — who rediscovered Mendel’s work at the turn of the 20th century.

He was the first to suggest the word “genetics” in description of the study of inheritance as well as the science of biological variation April 18, 1905.

He first used the term “genetics” publicly at the Third International Conference on Plant Hybridization in London in 1906.

Bateson and Reginald Punnett discovered genetic linkage and they founded the Journal of Genetics in 1910.

I have long known of the legendary Mata Hari. She has been mentioned periodically my entire life; typically when conversation turned to treachery and betrayal. When I was a child I understood Mata Hari as an incarnation of evil.

As an adult I am left wondering if this was yet merely another contrivance of man. It would seem that the facts of the case against Mata Hari were questionable to say the least for a woman who was executed as the result of testimony delivered in a formal trial.

Margaretha Geertruida Zelle
aka Margaretha Geertruida Zelle MacLeod
aka “Grietje” Zelle MacLeod
aka Mata Hari

August 7, 1876 – October 15, 1917

Stage name of Margaretha MacLeod who was a Dutch exotic dancer, concubine, and accused spy who — as so many other accused persons was possibly innocent yet executed by firing squad in France for espionage for Germany during World War I.

Radio messages transmitted to Berlin describing the exploits of a German spy code named H-21 by the German attache for military affairs were intercepted by French intelligence who extrapolated from the information that the agent was Mata Hari.

The code utilized in these messages were known to be broken by the French by the German agents leading to broad conjecture that the information was intended to manipulate anyone intercepting it.

In retrospect; following her execution there were innumerable questions regarding the veracity of an exotic dancer posing as a lethal double agent capable of all for which she was accused.

Then there is the expanse of rumors generated by her comportment during the last day of her life which also cast doubt upon the legal proceedings as well her guilt.

The accounts of her execution revealed a soft spoken and stoic individual who faced her killers without being blindfolded with a forthright resolve and calm demeanor equal to any other described in history.

The underlying facts of the case were always vague — and sealed for a century. In 1985, biographer Russell Warren Howe gained access to the file from the French Minister of National Defense whereby it is claimed that Mata Hari was innocent of her charges of espionage.