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My name is Katep and I am the son of a scribe. My father is well educated and regarded with respect. He is a Royal Scribe at the court of the Pharaoh. The government officials require him to write their reports and sometimes their thoughts. He is often sent out into the country to record the volume of the grain harvest or to tally the Pharaoh’s herds of cattle. Other scribes become priests at the temple and they have the sacred task of writing down the magical formulas that guide the dead safely to the gates of the underworld. My father however, says that his favorite pastime is writing down the stories he remembers from his own childhood. I love to hear the tales that he reads aloud to me under the stars while the waves of the river Nile lap the shore.

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Egyptian scribes like Katep’s father, had to study as long as 12 years. They learned arithmetic, reading and writing. But their writing consisted of several hundred picture signs instead of an alphabet as we know it. These picture signs are known as hieroglyphs.

Each hieroglyph is a small picture that represents a different word or idea. For instance, a set of wavy lines symbolized “water”. A circle within a circle represented the sun. A man with his hand to his mouth could be the hieroglyph for “eat”, but it could also mean “silent”.

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Many of the images used in Eyptian writing were of familiar plants and animals. These hieroglyphs could be read as the plant or animal itself or as a symbol of an idea. Here are a few of the symbols we would recognize and what they meant:

• Scarab: sunrise
• Feather: truth, justice, morality
• Circle: eternity
• Cobra: protection against enemies
• Lotus Flower: creation and rebirth
• Palm Frond: age; each notch in the frond represents a year

Here are some totally cool, totally retro inventions from the 1950s. It is surprising how many things were invented in that decade. How many of these inventions do you recognize?

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What peculiar pinkish substance stretches without breaking, yet can be snapped off cleanly, bounces higher than a rubber ball and floats if you shape it one way, yet sinks if shaped another way?

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Hank Hot Rod and Della Deluxe are so cool, they’re totally retro! Classic 1950s is written all over their whitewall tires, fancy paint jobs and shiny chrome and their radio stations are set to rock and roll. While Hank cruises the Main on Saturday afternoons, Della like to plays it cool at the soda shop. Saturday nights you’ll find them both at the drive-in movies.

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Sir Reginald is mounted on his trusty steed, tensely facing his opponent. Each has a long and heavy lance in one hand and a shield in the other. They will soon be jousting, measuring their skill and courage against one another.

This is a tournament designed for the entertainment of royalty and that’s why it is full of pageantry. The horses are draped with luxurious fabrics and adorned with jeweled harnesses. The saddles are ornately tooled. All the events are announced with grand fanfare and Sir Reginald knows that if he wins he will be honored with riches and glory.

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Have you ever noticed how one knight in armor looks a lot like another knight in armor? How can you tell who’s who? A knight carried a shield that acted like a huge business card. It identified him and his family. The shield was decorated in strong colors and bold images so that it was easily recognized from across the battlefield. The images, called “charges”, were often real or mythical animals chosen for their ferocity or courage.

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Did you know that the very first phone call was made on March 10, 1876? By today’s standards it was a short call over a short distance. Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, were literally just down the hall from each other in a Boston machine shop. The message was a single sentence, “Watson come here, I want you!”

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If you read last week’s edition the Tribune (which we know you did), you learned all about three of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The Pyramids of Egypt, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon and The Statue of Zeus at Olympia. It’s now time to learn about the other four.

These four structures are just as amazing and spectacular as the first three and they all have an interesting history. We mentioned last week that you might be familiar with some of the ancient wonders but you probably have not seen any of these structures since only one still stands today.

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Have you ever looked at a building or statue in awe of its size and beauty? Well, thousands of years ago, people were also impressed by amazing structures built by different civilizations.

A list of seven amazing and spectacular structures was originally compiled around the second century BC but the final and complete list was documented in the Middle Ages. This is the list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. You are probably familiar with some of these structures but not all.

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“Soon after that she had a little daughter, who was as white as snow, and as red as blood, and her hair was as black as ebony, and she was therefore called little Snow White.”

“Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the king, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, ‘I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold.’”

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