Erm, no, not cute, just really, really high. Nobody should be driving in that state.

Whoa. And that's before we get into Egyptology conference snark, and some innocent civilian in the audience brings up the famous DNA "identification" of royal mummies of the Amarna period. I would like to put signs up at the entrances to every Egyptology conference saying, "Nobody here is going to live long enough to…

Thanks! Basically, the short answer is university. Egyptology sounds really cool, but at the end of the day, it's an academic subject, and whilst you can get involved in Egyptology societies or volunteer at museums, if you want to get anywhere professionally, you have to get the qualifications. Quite a few…

First time I went down there with a friend, the lights weren't working properly because the electrics had been washed out by a recent storm and flash-flood, and as it's a series of corridors with side-rooms full of the jars in which the mummified baboons and ibises were donated (as well as the baboons and ibises…

Sounds pretty standard - one of my professors hates the Amarna period and snarked on Zahi Hawass at least once every lecture. However, I think Amarna and all that is fascinating, particularly within the greater political/social/economic context of the 18th and 19th Dynasties. Sure, there's a whole load of superficial…

Well, to quote the great Dr. Henry Jones, Jr., ninety percent of archaeology is done in the library, but of the remaining ten percent, I'd say it's definitely more like 65/35, depending on how you define "ancient ungodly evil". For me, anything ranging from scary underground catacombs full of mummified baboons to…

Before we get bogged down, the link to Salima Ikram's original paper is here:

Also, bless you for that .gif!

Oh yes. I liked the ones with Emma Watson, too. When I was commuting to London every day for uni, I used to buy the Elle magazine every month, so that, if I had nothing to read for seminars, I had something to flip through on the train with pretty pictures to look at, and I did love those ads. Some of the features…

Very true.

Well, I thought I'd better say it, given the depth of the collective Hiddles-love on here! I do love Hiddles, because he is brilliant and charming and witty and all of that, but just not that much.

HERESY ALERT: Never mind Hiddles, I'm here for Eddie Redmayne because he is just SO PRETTY. *melts*

Ooh, that is a really good idea. Sybil was the best. Maybe she's been hiding out in secret with Shirley MacLaine to get out of the aristocratic rat race, and could make a dramatic return to liberate her daughter and possibly Branson from the tyranny of the established patriarchy (maybe put the revolution on hold, in…

Thank you!

I want Daisy and Anna to commit a series of fiendishly clever and totally untraceable murders, which nobody will ever suspect them of being behind, because, duh, it's Daisy, and sweet, kind, intrinsically good Anna. They could start with Mr. Bates, because everybody wants to kill Bates (let's be honest) and everyone…

The thing is, as far as I can tell (and when this first came out, it was done to death on my local news, because we're in the same broadcasting region as Cambridge), Wills is studying at Cambridge on the basis of doing a tailor-made ten-week crash course in agricultural management issues in the 21st Century put…

I had no idea what those were, but that is waaay too many toes. I'm slightly creeped out by that, actually.

True story: I visited Sir Isaac Newton's family home, Woolsthorpe Manor, this summer, and walked into his bedroom to find a cat stretched out on the bed, being fussed by a bunch of kids. The room guide told me that the cat's name is Tiger, and he doesn't actually belong to the house - they took him to a local vet's to…

When I was a teenager, I was thisclose to having a major thing for Orlando Bloom, except every time he opened his mouth, it seemed, he managed to speak fluent Goddamn Idiot, and even at the age of thirteen, I was like, oh no. Please just don't speak. It will be better for everyone.

Bypassing the fact that I am now totally jealous of you (but also totally pleased for you, because OH MY GOD), I'm an Egyptologist, but art history (in a very specialised sense) is a big part of the study of ancient Egypt because so much of what's left is basically visual representation, and I have a personal…