TIDBITS 10/21/07

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We encourage you to forward this email to friends and colleagues. ====================================== Keiserens nye Klæder ... by Hans Christian Anderson. Translated into English from Danish it reads: The Emperor's New Clothes. Dear old Hans ... he told the story of an emperor who was duped by his clothiers into thinking he was buying new clothes and ended up walking the streets of his kingdom in his skivvies.

Original story ... eh wot? Or was it? One can never beat a tantalizing "or was it?" ... can one?

Let us hark back why don't we. Shall we say the 14th century B.C.? Let us walk the streets of Ancient Egypt. Down the back alleys where the local tailors worked in mini-pyramid homes ... toiling away with gold threads. Yes ... that's right ... they made clothes of gold back then. For the elite of course. And you want to talk about sheer. Why ... some of those golden threads were see-throughs. Very fine gold linen dear souls ... as sheer as modern day nylon stockings. Quite fashionable in those days. Worn by both men and women. So sheer one could clearly see their Fruit-of-the-Looms ... or ... if they were not wearing any that particular day ... well ... one could see what they were not wearing too.

Look! The emperor isn't wearing any clothes. Not so dear lad. He is wearing clothes ... made of gold no less ... so thin one can barely see the material. I digress. You think Hans Christian Anderson had it wrong in his tale?

And then there's Selket ... a scorpion goddess ... destined to wear one of these dresses ... as a statue of her was made of gilded wood representing her in her revealing finery as she graced the tomb of Tutankhamen ... leaving our teen-aged pharaoh to enjoy the view of this hot semi-nudie for all eternity ... even to this day I imagine.

And you thought gold was only for jewelry ... right? Nay nay sweet boids of yute. Gold is also for clothes. See through clothes. The best kind. I tend to think there are certain traditions that should have been upheld. Stand up you jewelers of the world. Stand up, I say. And make some golden see-through dresses. The women of the world are waiting. Maybe the men too.

For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits...may I direct you to my home page at

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where you will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says Current Tidbits ... and then click on it in order to view image of a statue of Selket in all her see-through golden glory.

And there ya have it. That's it for this week folks. Catch you all next week. Benjamin Mark