In 2010, the lawyer acting on behalf of the then recently deceased Professor Abdurrahman Ali Awzya Faba, Egyptologist and author of several books on ancient Egyptian literature, found an unusual clause in the late Professor Faba's last will and (...)
Remakes of Hollywood films are often disappointing because they do not match your perceptions of the originals. Never mind the version of ‘Gambit' starring Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz. In my microscopic opinion, the 1966 version with Michael Caine (...)
Strange things may happen at sea, but even more bizarre phenomena were reported in ‘The Sunday Sport,' a British newspaper that catered for the credulous. To be sure, many bought this paper ‘for a laugh', especially since the report of the discovery (...)
As you approach your front door after a day's work, you notice a black rubbish bag propped up in the corner, half-hidden by the plastic refuse bin that is already full of items that were once edible, but as a result of exposure to room temperature, (...)
The last seven days have not been kind to cats. Between Saint Fatima Square and Hegaz Square there are two feline corpses, which are not fresh. As to whether the puss remains on the tramlines are bloated, decomposing or dry. Meanwhile, the dead dog (...)
This week's drama lesson was about developing a voice. No, not the silly voices on cartoons summoned of by 8-year-olds when they want to wind up their parents. Nor the sentimental words uttered in squeaky voices by ventriloquists intended to raise (...)
Within three months of starting secondary school, five of us boys in a first year class could do passable imitations of some of our teachers. Every verbal quirk, every facial expression, every gesture and every word was fed into our mental recording (...)
On the railway viaduct across the road that passes through the campus of Ain Shams University was a large green rectangular panel with the name of an insurance company in white letters of a distinctive Arabic font. Underneath in Roman letters was (...)
In what Charles V of Spain (1500-1558) termed “los buenos dias viejos" and Taha Hussein in 1948 – “fii-l-ayyaam al-2adiima-TTayyiba" (the good old days), a man could leave home with LE20 on a trip to the supermarket for a bar of soap, and, three (...)
The exhortation ‘Remember, you found it on ‘Yellowpages.com.eg' sounds almost like a reproach, especially with regard to the Automobile and Touring Club of Egypt (ATCE), which is located at number 10. Not the famous namesake in London, the official (...)
The United Nations and the World at large, today celebrate World Water Day. The event aims to raise activities at both local and international levels to increase awareness as to water consumption and to work on finding new sources of drinking water, (...)
The occasion of Mother's Day could rank among those issues that open the sluice gates of indignant letters to the broadsheets about the use and abuse of the humble apostrophe. By the way, authors of such letters rarely notice mixed metaphors. Such (...)
Pet hate number 43: The look of utter puzzlement on the face of a shop assistant on being asked if an article is available. This person should know, for goodness' sake. He works in this flaming shop, doesn't he? Whether this person is ‘new' or not (...)
A sledge hammer is never near to hand when you want one, is it? By the way, ‘sledge hammer' in Arabic is ‘shakuush kibiir 2awi', in case you need to rush to Gomhuria Street and buy one, return to the scene of a near accident and apply this tool to (...)
On November 1, 1965, an electric bus that was travelling along one of the streets along the Nile, veered out of control and plunged down a 6.5 metre embankment into the river. Seventy-four passengers were drowned in the waters. Another 19 survived. (...)
“The time for sleep and rest has finished." This sentence is not only for students who are starting the second term, but also for mothers. The beginning of second term means the start of a long, fatiguing journey that ends on the last day of (...)
The problem with the Internet is that writers misspell words that they should have been taught in first year at school. If today's trendy parents who might send toddlers to piano lessons had their way, their offspring should know the alphabet by the (...)
The Armenian-English dictionary screamed ‘Buy me! Buy me!' No sooner had I picked it up off the top of a little pile, I found its companion, an English-Armenian dictionary, also clamouring to become one of my purchases. And the Spanish dictionary, (...)
Finally, the standard lamp in the corner of the lounge goes out. You do not notice until the patch of darkness where an amateur oil painting (30 centimetres x 20 centimetres) of an unknown seascape is left in unflattering darkness. Yet, the (...)
This week, one is going to explore the subject of persons. No, not ‘people', but grammatical persons. This writer admires the equivalents of first, second and third persons in Arabic grammar. Looking after number one as ever is the first person (...)
This time twenty years ago, this writer was the proud owner of a Chinese-made bicycle and he was a bachelor for the second time in his life. Now that he is married, he is now bike-less. Perhaps there is much to be said in favour of the institution (...)
For the software that you feel you cannot do without, the Internet is not always the most co-operative of channels. For example, you want that programme to read PDF documents, because some individuals insist on sending you material in that format. (...)
His authority, allegedly conferred by the Spirit in the Sky, was absolute. He had to say only ‘wine' and his advisors, drawn from the ranks of the aristocracy, i.e. his relatives, would be at the Great Rectangular Table in two shakes of a flunkey's (...)
December 3 must have been a special day, but there was no announcement in the press or on television to this effect. Blissful in my ignorance, I sauntered down to a branch of a well-known money transfer agency in the hope of enlightenment regarding (...)
Still holding a hammer, Number One rested one hand on his hip and smiled at his handiwork. Although he had had the help of six other men to accomplish the task, he thought of the idea first. And now it began to rain. Number One felt he had done his (...)