Always with a joke - Monty Python

After they had successfully entertained television viewers from all around the world in the late sixties and early seventies of past century, the group Monty Python started making full-length movies and publishing books.

Although their fans expect similar gags in their movies, hardly anyone expected from silly Britons to make pell-mell even in publishing venture.

For a book titled "The Brand New Monty Python Bok" (sequel to Monty Python's Big Red Book with striking blue cover), Terry Jones hired his sister-in-law Katharine Hepburn (accidentally with same name as the famous American actress) to assist them.

The cover was realistically made to look like it was greasy and filled with dirty fingerprints. It was made so realistic that many readers didn’t wanted to buy the book, asking for "newer" and more preserved copy.

However, there was also another thing - the cover could be peeled off and reveal hidden pictures of naked girls. 

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Mr. Dawkins, why was Darwin right? – Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins, the world's most famous atheist and author of numerous best-selling books, decided to abandon the enlightenment of adults, and with his new book “The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True” he focuses on 5-year-olds, claiming that they have to learn the theory of evolution along with their first letters. 

Richard Dawkins is no longer satisfied with his books that challenge the existence of God and which are sold in millions of copies, or with the fact that “liberal” media is placing him among the stars and call him “the most famous atheist in the world”. He is also no longer interested in suing Pope Benedict XVI for "crimes against humanity", because of alleged covering up of sexual abuses in the Catholic Church. Dawkins now has a new target audience, which he wants win and teach them how religion is bad – the kids, preschool kids. 

Richard Dawkins, great intellectual, evolutionary biologist, writer and professor at Oxford University, has recently published his latest book “The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True”, aimed primarily at preschool children. In just as short period, this book raised more dust – and more calls for a ban – than his best-sellers like “The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design” (in which he challenged the theory that any invention must have its inventor, and which served to believers as a great analogy and key evidence for the existence of the Almighty),  or The God Delusion (in which he brings many proofs that there is no God that supposedly governs our lives).

Dawkins says that he was annoyed because the opponents Darwin's theory of evolution are occupying too much space in the media, especially in the United States, where nominated Republican candidates for the next presidential elections are regularly competing who will more effectively end successfully challenge the thesis that man has evolved from apes.

Therefore, this scientist concluded that children have to get lessons regarding basic principles of evolution already during kindergarten. And especially in the first grade.

“No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it is surprising how many parents think that it is somehow fun to pass on this falsehood (and others in the same vein) to their children. Evolution is a truly satisfying and complete explanation of existence, and I suspect that this is something a child can appreciate from an early age. But I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic — even more fun — than this myth, or any of the hundreds of creation myths from around the world. And — perhaps surprisingly — evolution could be taught in such a way as to make it easier to understand than a myth. This is because myths leave the child’s questions unanswered, or they raise more questions than they appear to answer.” – said Dawkins

The book begins with a dedication to Dawkins’ father, John Dawkins, who died last year at the age of 95.

„I learned from my father that we need continual reconsideration, skepticism, search for evidence and understanding in order to comprehend what evidence is” – says Dawkins.

Dawkins has actually inherited faith from his father. Although he claims that he had already, at the age of nine, started questioning the existence of God, he says that he was persuaded into it, and that is why he, at that age, wholeheartedly accepted Christianity. However, in his teenage years he concluded that the theory of evolution is a much better explanation for the complexity of life and he ceased to believe in God.

From there, through education at Oxford and the first professorial job at Berkeley, to what his opponents call "militant atheism", it didn’t take long.

“Like computer viruses, successful mind viruses will tend to be hard for their victims to detect. If you are the victim of one, the chances are that you won't know it, and may even vigorously deny it. The patient typically finds himself impelled by some deep, inner conviction that something is true, or right, or virtuous: a conviction that doesn't seem to owe anything to evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, he feels as totally compelling and convincing. We doctors refer to such a belief as ``faith.''” – Dawkins wrote in his famous essay “Viruses of the Mind”.

He is convinced that if there was no organized religion, the terrorist attacks from 11 September 2001 wouldn’t occurred. The critics say that when he publicly said that, he became dangerous opponent of religion. And not only Christian, but all the others.

“Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. – says Dawkins. “Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labeled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful!”

His works are controversial – and the word “controversial” is even an understatement. A large number of Christians - especially educated ones – found it necessary to slap him in his face regarding how wrong he is. Oxford theologian Alister McGrath (author of The Dawkins Delusion and Dawkins' God) claims that Dawkins has no knowledge of Christian theology, and therefore, he can’t possibly intelligently reflect upon religion and faith.

Dawkins immediately fired back:

“Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?"

In 2007, Dawkins had, similarly to the associations of homosexuals who organize parades and insist that people should "get out of the closet" and admit they are gay, founded the "Out Campaign" to encourage as many people around the world as possible to publicly say that they are atheists. According to his opinion, this may well change the mindset of most people – and further, the mindset of Richard’s atheists – who will once again think about their faith.

The biggest "excursion to the mainstream," other than his written word, Dawkins had in 2008. Then, he was one of the first people who supported the first atheist initiative in UK, called the “Atheist Bus Campaign”.

Guardian journalist Ariane Sherine and her colleagues from the "British Humanist Association" decided to raise money in order to place atheist adverts on buses in the London area.

On January 2009, across Britain appeared buses with the message: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

On one occasion he agreed to answer questions from readers of reputable newspaper "Independent". On that occasion, he spoke for the first time about children’s education from the perspective of religion.

Do you consider parents forcing children to accept their religion a form of child abuse?- asked  reader James Macdonald.

Dawkins answered:

“Yes. What would you think of parents who forced their children to accept their politics, or their taste in architecture? Have you ever heard anyone speak of a "Leninist child" or a "Postmodernist child"? Of course not. Why, then, do we all go along with "Christian child" and "Muslim child"? Such labeling of children with their parents' religion is child abuse.”

Dawkins has a solution and for adults:

“People who would laugh at the idea that a pumpkin could turn into a coach, and who know perfectly well that silk handkerchiefs don’t really turn into rabbits, are quite happy to believe that a prophet turned water into wine or, as devotees of another religion would have it, flew to heaven on a winged horse.”

“Without contraception, we will starve”

Besides God and gods, Dawkins is opposed to all those who do not want to think about family planning and control of world’s population. In his book “The Selfish Gene”, he gives the example of Latin America, where the population doubles every few decades. He didn’t of course miss the chance to mention Catholics because their church clearly opposes contraception.

“... leaders who forbid their followers to use effective contraceptive methods ... express a preference for "natural" methods of population limitation, and a natural method is exactly what they are going to get. It is called starvation.”

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Doctor Esperanto - Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof

Already in the first edition of his book with instructions for learning his new language, Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof renounced himself forever of all personal rights, saying that international language is a property of society.

It was a gloomy autumn day in 1888 when an unknown man knocked on a door of a humble apartment in Warsaw where certain ophthalmologist lived. The ophthalmologist immediately opened the door. He thought that he had just another patient in front of him. But then, the unknown man said to him:

-    Cu vi estas doktoro Esperanto? (Are you doctor Esperanto?)

The ophthalmologist was speechless for a few moments. He just looked at his visitor. Then excitement sparkled from his face and he approached his visitor and squeezed his hand.

-     Jes, mi estas. Bonvolu!  (Yes, I am. Please!)

Those were the first two men who exchanged a few sentences with each other on a new international language – Doctor Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof and Antoni Grabowski.

The creator of the language of hope

In the Polish city of Bialystok, on December 15, 1859, it was a joyous day in the home of Mark Zamenhof. Surrounded by friends, the happy father celebrated the birth of his firstborn.  On that day, Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, saw the world for the first time.

The little boy grew up surrounded with parental love and care. From his father, an experienced educator and teacher, he inherited affection for languages that he easily learned, and from his mother he inherited sensibility and philanthropy. And his four brothers and three sisters, which were born later, were always unselfishly protected and loved by their oldest brother.

He had a gift for languages

The joy and beauty of his early school days were blurred. While attending elementary school in Bialystok, Zamenhof had to socialize and play only with Jewish children, no matter if he wanted that or not. The Polish and Russian children had their own groups, and didn’t socialize and play with anyone besides their own.

Children’s lack of understanding of other languages was a serious obstacle in their bonding. 

When he went to high school in 1869, Zamenhof already knew Polish, Russian and German language. He continued his education in Warsaw, in the classical gymnasium, where, with all his youthful vigor, he started learning Greek and Latin. Many years later, when he was creating Esperanto, Zamenhof used his knowledge of eight languages.

Even then, at a school desk, an idea kept developing in Zamenhof’s head - one language for all people, for all nations.  With much patience and will, he studied language textbooks and lexicons, and his working desk was full of books and dictionaries. Using the roots of Roman, Germanic and Slavic languages, Zamenhof was creating a new international language.

After finishing high school in 1879, Ludwig left his father’s home and went to Moscow. Before leaving, he promised his father that, at least temporarily, while studying at the university, he will put aside his work on the new language. He reluctantly parted from his notes, poems and translations.

In Moscow, Zamenhof conscientiously studied medicine. While working with his scalpel in the dissection hall, he thought about the internal mechanism of the human body. “The human beings are equal, they are creatures belonging to the same mankind. They all have a heart, a brain, generating organs, an ideal and needs, only the language and the nationality differentiate them."


After two years spent in Moscow, young Zamenhof returned to Warsaw. It is not difficult to imagine the despair of young medic when he heard that his father burned all of his workbooks and notes. But, already in August of 1881, Zamenhof had a completely new textbook and even richer dictionary of words. Locked in his room, he read aloud pages full of text he written with his new language.

The first book

After he successfully graduated medicine in Warsaw, in 1885 Zamenhof went to Vienna to acquire specialization. He returned to Warsaw as an ophthalmologist and, in 1887, he married Klara Silbernik who was for many years his faithful companion and collaborator.

Thrilled with the work of his son in law, Zamenhof’s father in law paid the printing of his first book - a new language textbook.  On June 2, 1887, it was printed in Russian language, but soon followed editions in Polish, French, German and English language. The book contained poetry and prose, 16 rules of grammar and 900 roots of vocabulary. 

Already in the first edition of his book, he renounced himself and his descendants of all personal rights, stating that "an international language, like every national one, is the property of society”. In the end, he signed himself with "Doktoro Esperanto" which, literally translated, means: Doctor Hopeful.

Zamenhof sent out all over the world a large number of copies of his book – to writers, educators and others. And that’s how the history of Esperanto began.

After a long and painful anticipation, responses from all around the world began to arrive. Questions, advices, opinions ...some were even written in Esperanto. And Grabowski was already translating the works of Goethe and Pushkin. In one Russian magazine, Tolstoy wrote: “I found the volapük very complicated and, on the contrary, very simple Esperanto. It is so easy that having received, six years ago, a grammar, a dictionary and articles of this idiom, I could arrive, at the end of two early hours, if not to write it, at least with usually reading the language. … the sacrifices which any man of our European world will make, by devoting some time to his study are so small, and the results which can result from this so immense, that one cannot refuse to carry out this test.”

Zamenhof personally responded to all letters and in that way he linked Esperantists from many different countries. The movement spread rapidly, despite the resistance of several well-known linguistic experts. And after nearly 400 failed attempts to create a common, international language, Esperanto is the only one that managed it. 

Guest at the first World Congress of Esperanto

In 1905, in company of his wife, Zamenhof visited France and the first World Congress of Esperanto. The Mayor of Paris paid him tribute and the French Minister of Public Instruction awarded him with National Order of the Legion of Honor. At the top of the Eiffel Tower, the creator of Esperanto had lunch with the most famous scientists of France.

A city of Boulogne-sur-Mer offered hospitality to all followers of previously unknown Warsaw doctor. And at every step of this little city a new language was heard. 800 Esperantist from 30 different countries eagerly expected the official opening of the congress. Noticeably excited, doctor Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof went on the podium and, in Esperanto language, began his speech with these words:

“I greet you, dear comrades, brothers and sisters from the great world human family who gather together from near and far lands from the world to shake your hands one another in the name of the great idea which links us together. Let us be fully aware of all the importance of this day, because today within the generous walls of Boulogne-sur-Mer have met not French with English, nor Russians with Polish, but people with people”.

In the following years, he visited congresses in Geneva, Cambridge, Dresden, Barcelona, Washington, Antwerp, Paris and Cracow. 11th Congress was organized in 1915, in San Francisco. Only Americans attended it because European Esperantists fought on the battlefields of World War I.

Doctor Zamenhof followed the horrors of war in Warsaw. This good man who loved people so much and wanted peace between nations, now listened about destruction and killings every day. Worn with years of work and overwhelmed with tragic events the humanity faced, his health started to deteriorate. On April 14, 1917, his heart stopped beating.

This great man, who had friends and followers in all parts of the world, was buried modestly. Only Warsaw’s Esperantists, including the loyal Antoni Grabowski, attended the funeral. Because of war, nobody else couldn’t attend.

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Threats – Mario Puzo

When the novel “The Godfather” was published, Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) threatened the author of the book, Mario Puzo (1920-1999), because he believed that he served the author as an inspiration for the fictional mobster, singer and actor in the book, Johnny Fontane.

Puzo was enraged after hearing Sinatra’s threats:

“I do remember him saying that if it wasn’t that I was so much older than he, he would beat the hell out of me. What hurt was that here he was, a northern Italian, threatening me, a southern Italian, with physical violence. This was roughly equivalent to Einstein pulling a knife on Al Capone. It just wasn’t done.”

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Fake library – Charles Dickens

Before he moved to his country home, Gads Hill Place, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) made a draft of a secret door that led to a secret chamber, which he chose to be his workroom.

The secret door was actually a fake library, whose shelves, as well as books, were fake.   While making this mask for the door, Dickens also devised a series of humorous book titles, which occupied the false shelves.

Here are some of those titles: Hansard's Guide to Refreshing Sleep, History of a Short Chancery Suit (in twenty-one volumes), Socrates on Wedlock, King Henry the Eighth's Evidences of Christianity, the series The Wisdom of Our Ancestors: I Ignorance, II Superstition, III The Block, IV The Stake, V The Rack, VI Dirt, and VII Disease.

Among those humorous titles there was also a very narrow dummy volume entitled The Virtues of Our Ancestors.

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Literary compliment – Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe

Works of American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) were not very well received at the time when Poe was alive. Poe's stories and poems were especially despised by writer and journalist Mark Twain (1835-1910) who once in a letter to his friend wrote:

“To me his prose is unreadable—like Jane Austin’s. No, there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane’s. Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death.

Another thing: you grant that God and circumstances sinned against Poe, but you also grant that he sinned against himself—a thing which he couldn’t do and didn’t do.”

 

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Waiting for “Waiting for Godot” – Samuel Beckett and Barney Rosset

When Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Irish writer who was awarded with Nobel Prize for Literature, wrote his play "Waiting for Godot" in 1952, Barney Rosset, founder of the publishing house "Grove Press”, reluctantly approved the printing of thousand copies of that books.

He thought that publishing of Beckett’s play would be a total failure.

In the beginning, it was indeed like that. In the first year, less than 400 copies were sold. They were mainly bought by Beckett himself, who then gave those copies of “Waiting for Godot” to his friends, as a gift.

But then the play premiered on the Broadway. It was on the program for just six weeks. The critics have written that it is a pure Communist propaganda... However, after that, readers have begun to buy the book.

In just a short period, the suspicious Barney Rosset realized that he sold over two million copies of "Waiting for Godot".

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Marilyn Monroe - Madness and her last days

In the book “Fragments”, which is based on diaries, letters and various writings of Marilyn Monroe, sex symbol of the 20th century, it is revealed that after a series of psychiatric sessions she ended up in mental hospital’s solitary confinement, and that doctor Greenson came there to examine – her breasts.

"Alone!!! I am alone-I am always alone no matter what." – with this begins the earliest of several diaries written by Marilyn Monroe, sexiest and most desirable women of the 20th century, according to "Playboy". Her diaries, sketches, poems, letters, various notes and rare photographs, dating from between 1951 and 1961, are published (in 2010) in a book called "Fragments". They are significant because, for the first time, Marilyn Monroe explains herself – she is presented outside of Hollywood splendor, myths and legends that were woven around her name in recent decades.

That book revealed her fears of sexual abuse, betrayal of her third husband, ghosts of inherited madness, traumas from psychotherapy to which she was forced, and an eerie testimony about the mental hospital in which she was involuntarily taken.

Of countless men who have passed through her life the most famous was John F. Kennedy, the most faithful was Joe DiMaggio… but the most trace in her life left her third husband, playwright Arthur Miller, who managed to make her the happiest and most unhappiest woman in the world.

Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were probably in their happiest phase during the summer of 1957, which they spent in a rented house on Long Island. They spent their time there swimming and taking long walks on the beach. She looked splendidly on the photographs from that period. That was the time when she happily stepped into her husband’s world - She was joyful and witty at the dinner in the company of writers Carson McCullers and Isak Dinesen, she became friends with Truman Capote,  and met some of her literary heroes such as poet Carl Sandburg and writer Saul Bellow, with whom she had dinner while she waited for the premiere of “Some Like It Hot" in Chicago. The sexiest blonde knocked Bellow of his feet.

Writers and books were not a coincidence in her life. "Esquire" once published a photo of her reading James Joyce’s “Ulysses”. There was also a photo of her reading the poetry of Heinrich Heine. Magazine “Life” once depicted Marilyn reading a book in front of a shelve with books. She had her personal library with 400 volumes that included works of history, philosophy, fiction...

In London, where they traveled in the fall of that same year to film her "The Prince and the Showgirl" movie with Laurence Olivier, Miller caused her greatest disappointment in life. 

Marilyn and her husband moved to a magnificent estate in Surrey, near London. Everything seemed perfect. She was producing a film in which played (and was directed by) one of the most respected actors of her generation and she lived in a large country house with the man she loved the most. As an artist she couldn’t have felt more fulfilled, until a coincidence buried her otherwise very fragile self-confidence and her trust in her husband.  She ran into a Miller’s diary in which he complained that he was disappointed with her and that sometimes he is ashamed having her in his company in front of friends. After reading those entries, Marilyn was destroyed.  One of her biggest fears came true - that she will disappoint the man she loves.

Formally speaking, Marilyn Monroe was not an orphan because her mother Gladys Monroe Baker eventually outlived her famous daughter. But since Gladys was a schizophrenic who spent years going in and out of psychiatric institutions, Marilyn was virtually abandoned and raised in a number of adoptive families, including the family of her mother’s close friend Grace Goddard.

Her first husband, James Dougherty, liked the idea of saving a shy and nice girl, who left high school to marry him. It is not surprising that their marriage fell apart - they divorced in September 1946. “My relationship with him was basically insecure from the first night I spent alone with him,” Marilyn wrote in her diary.

Her second marriage with baseball player Joe DiMaggio, who was one of the most famous names in sport‘s world, also failed. Their marriage lasted only nine months. DiMaggio was almost in his forties and he wanted, with all his heart, for his wife to leave Hollywood and become a housewife. Instead, he became "Mr. Monroe”, and that was too much for his jealousy and frustration. However, when she died, for twenty years DiMaggio sent flowers to her grave three times a week.

She began to visit psychotherapists at the urging of her acting teacher Lee Strasberg, to whom she went in the spring of 1955 because she wanted to become a serious actress. Strasberg was more than a teacher to her; he was almost a father she never met. By the wish of Marilyn Monroe, Strasberg became executor of her will, which was then heavy about 13 million of dollars. After Strasberg’s death, his widow, Anna Mizrahi Strasberg, inherited that right. She even today earns about a million dollars thanks to Marilyn Monroe’s name.

Persuaded by Strasberg, and after breaking up her marriage with DiMaggio, Marilyn visited a psychiatrist five times a week. Dr. Margaret Hohenberg managed to pull out from Marilyn’s subconscious memories of a difficult childhood, including memories of sexual abuse and harassment of her aunt, Ida Martin, with whom she stayed a few times when she was between 11 and 13 years old.

Two years later, in 1957, Marilyn stopped seeing Dr. Hohenberg. Strasberg then recommended her another doctor, Marianne Kris, who later caused one of the greatest traumas in Marilyn’s life.  During sessions with her, Marilyn discovered that she was always “deeply terrified to really be someone's wife” because she knew “from life one cannot love another, ever, really”.

Three years later, after being totally rejected by Miller (he didn’t even came to her funeral), Marilyn Monroe became Yves Montand’s mistress. Her new doctor became Ralph Greenson – it is not known how much he managed to help her, but it is certain that he was obsessed with Marilyn. Greenson’s daily therapeutic sessions lasted about five hours, but nevertheless, in 1960, in a state of complete emotional disintegration, and upon the recommendation of Dr. Kris, Marilyn ended up in a psychiatric hospital in New York.

Practically, as soon as she entered, Marilyn started requesting to leave. But the more she was persistent about it, the employees of the hospital was more confident in her disease, and they eventually put her into a solitary confinement. Marilyn wrote a letter to Greenson in which she described what were they doing to her, but instead of getting her out of that hospital, he came to examine – her breasts. From hell that lasted for three days she was rescued by DiMaggio.

Marilyn became acquainted with Kennedy brothers in 1961, but she met some members of that family at least five years earlier. She wrote in her diary, that she fears that Peter Lawford, Kennedy’s brother-in-law, wants to hurt her - the feeling of violence I’ve had lately about being afraid of Peter he might harm me, poison me, etc.

In August 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead. It is assumed that she committed suicide by drinking a large quantity of sleeping pills.

Childhood – Her guardian wanted to rape her when she was just six years old

In her diaries, Marilyn also wrote about her first marriage with an intelligent and attractive James Dougherty. She married Dougherty on June 19, 1942, when she was just 16, and he was five years older. Marilyn described her loneliness and insecurity in that sudden marriage, which was less love and more of a way for Marilyn – then Norma Jeane Baker – to seize the opportunity to escape from the life of an orphan, while her guardians, Grace and Ervin Goddard, were in California. Especially because Ervin tried to rape Marilyn when she was just six years old.

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Cleopatra, the first tycoon in the history of human kind!

With the wealth that was worth today’s hundred billion dollars, this Egyptian queen was also and the first victim of tabloid writing: the myth of her as a "queen of whores” was created by her biggest adversary, Emperor Octavian.

She was a child of incest, born as a goddess, queen at the age of 18 and the richest leader in the Mediterranean before she turned 20.  When she was 21, she slept with the most powerful ruler of that time to protect the best interests of her country. She married her own brothers when she needed them and killed them when they ceased to be useful. She became a mother of four children, and never had family problems, because the fathers of her children, already married, lived on the other side of the sea. We are talking about Cleopatra, the last in line of the great Egyptian Pharaohs.

She was not Egyptian, as many believe – she was Greek. Her hair was not black, it was more likely the color similar to mead. Although she is remembered as a seductress, it is difficult to speak of her as beauty by Hollywood standards. She was nothing like, for example, Angelina Jolie: she was tiny, like a little bird, and had a distinctive hooked nose. She spoke several languages and was a gifted speaker. She loved sex, but she loved more a good conversation. She wasn’t a nymphomaniac - she lost her innocence with Julius Caesar. If she and her ancestors were killing each other, they didn’t think of it as a crime; if they practiced incest, there was no word for it in their time.

Cleopatra VII was already in her time (she was born in 69 BC) something that we call today “celebrity”. During her lifetime, myths, rumors and speculation surrounded her, and they followed her name even when she died. If she was, with the wealth that was worth today’s hundred billion dollars, the first tycoon in the history of human kind, she was also and the first victim of tabloid writing.  The myth of her as a “queen of whores”, which follows her name to this day, was created by the Romans, who preferred to deal with her looks and alleged lust more then with her extraordinary intellectual capacity.

In her latest book “Cleopatra. A Life”, American historian and Pulitzer Prize winner, Stacy Schiff claims that the idea of sexually insatiable queen, dangerous and starved with blood and power, was created by Cleopatra's biggest adversary, Emperor Octavian.

Cleopatra grew up in a luxury of Alexandria. A whole squad of servants and teachers took care of her. Thanks to them, she gained an excellent education, which was generally Greek. Her schoolbooks were works of two historians, Herodotus and Thucydides. She mastered the oratory skill and spoke at least nine languages. 

Such education was not reserved just for her. Women in Egypt always had a lot of rights, and in Cleopatra’s time, their independence was almost equal to that which exists today. When it comes to marriage, women themselves chose their husbands, and in case of divorce, to which they also had the right, the stronger half had to support his ex-wife until he pays of the dowry. Woman’s property was sacrosanct, and in divorce proceedings, the court was always on the side of women and children.

Schiff states that women had very active role in social life: they were able borrow money, to be priestesses in temples, they initiated court proceedings and steered boats.  They dealt with a variety of jobs and were more than successful. It is believed that women possessed a third of Egypt’s wealth.  Herodotus wrote that Egypt is a country in which "women urinate standing up, and men sitting down".

Cleopatra came to the throne at a time when Egypt began to decline, and Rome was expanded to its borders. However, despite that decline, in the height of her power she ruled over the entire eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Schiff says that she was more than capable ruler: she was skillful, cunning, she knew how to suppress the rebellion and to relieve hunger, how to manage money and when to build a fleet.

According to her father's will, Cleopatra shared the throne with her ten-years-younger brother Ptolemy XIII, with whom she was married. It is likely that even her parents were brother and sister, because in Egypt, incest was a tradition for centuries.  Cleopatra's ancestors, Greeks from Macedonia, adopted that tradition and they have ruled Egypt since the death of Alexander the Great. Schiff says that this means that Cleopatra was Egyptian, just as much Elizabeth Taylor was. 

However, Cleopatra didn’t want to share the throne with her brother. She got rid of Ptolemy XIII in a civil war while they were still teenagers, and later on the rest of her closest family – she poisoned her second brother, with whom she was also married, and after him her own sister, which was showing way too much ambition.

Besides being a skilled ruler, she was adorned and with persistence and enthusiasm. When she ended in exile because of her manipulations, she returned to the palace, from which she was thrown out, smuggled in a sack. Julius Caesar was already in the palace, because he used political turmoil to rule over Egypt.  Although it is concluded that the royal couple was tied with their charisma and intellect, and that there was a strong sexual attraction between them, it still isn’t possible to find an answer to a question how did Cleopatra succeeded to persuade Caesar to support her and independent Egypt. Whatever she did, it will still remain recorded in history that Cleopatra saved her country by seducing Caesar.

Very soon, they had a son whom Cleopatra named Caesarion - Little Caesar. She presented her lover to her people by sailing the Nile with him for nine weeks. Whether because of Cleopatra or something else, Caesar was fascinated with Egypt. Alexandria, from where Cleopatra ruled her Empire, was wonderfully beautiful city, with fascinating mechanical wonders such as hydraulic lifts and machines that used coins to work.  In short, Rome was a simple province in comparison to the capital of Egypt. However, Caesar was not just thrilled with architectural solutions. Inspired by Egypt, on his return to Rome he launched a series of reforms, laid the cornerstone of the public library, asked for a census and envisioned a series of constructions that were similar to the sophisticated Egyptian dams and dikes.

When Caesar was killed in 44 BC, Cleopatra enthroned Caesarion as the ruler. But she still needed the support of Rome, and that is, Mark Antony. Cleopatra mesmerized the new Roman ruler, who was considered as a great womanizer, to such extent that Mark Antony gave her the library at Pergamom, Cyprus and almost all cities on the Phoenician coast.

Cleopatra remained with him for ten years. Mark Antony, in contrary to Roman custom, even demanded to be buried in the same grave with her. Death eventually separated them.

In a civil war for power over Rome, Octavian defeated Mark Antony. After that, Mark Antony committed suicide. After his suicide, Cleopatra tried to negotiate with the new Emperor her future and the future of her children - Caesarion and three other she had with Mark Antony. Despite all her intelligence, skill and education, she wasn’t successful. Octavian killed Caesarion as the oldest child, and spared the lives of younger children.

Cleopatra ended her life by committing a suicide.  According to legend, she poisoned herself. At the time of her death, she was only 39 years old.

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Happy Midwife – Rudyard Kipling

Writer Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was delighted when his first child was born.

At first, he didn’t know how to thank the midwife who helped his wife, and afterward took care of the baby. Then, it occurred to him:

- Please, take this handwriting of mine as an expression of gratitude and devotion - Kipling told midwife giving her the manuscript of his unpublished work. - If some day you get into trouble and you need money, maybe you’ll be able to sell it.

A few years later the midwife did as Kipling advised her. She sold his manuscript, and lived happily and in abundance until she died.

The manuscript Kipling gave her was of his novel "The Jungle Book."

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Modesty

 

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British philosopher, mathematician and writer, was once approached by a fellow philosopher who told him that they have to agree about something very important.

Otherwise, just before this event, his fellow philosopher wrote a book in which he copied almost verbatim already published Russell's philosophical studies.

Since this type of people do not have honor, in his unbelievable behavior, the plagiarist eagerly said to Russell:

"I have written a remarkable book. I'm sure you will like it. It seems to me that only you could speak of it on the literary evenings and present it to the public, "said the philosopher.

"My modesty urges me not to do it," briefly replied Russell.

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