There’s Something About a Pharaoh

Back in the 1950s, one of the great things about being a kid was Saturday morning cartoons. Another was comic books. And both of them showed “memes” of Egypt: pyramids, hieroglyphics on stones, people walking sideways with their hands at funny angles.

Thebes, tomb of Ramses IX, says my grandfather’s penciled inscription.

And pharaohs: kings and princes of a desert land (but don’t forget the Nile River) who wore ornate robes, with headgear that draped ornamentally around…