I accidentally parked next to this. I never knew it existed, and I think it turned out to be one of the best parts of my Blitzkrieg tour of the National Mall. I think we should put one of these in every town center in America.

Inscribed on the back: "Joy and amazement of the beauty and grandeur of this world of which man can just form a faint notion ...". It's a sentence fragment, and I'm curious to know how it ends. Maybe: "...is appropriate."

I recognized the last two equations on his little cheat sheet (photoelectric effect and E=mc^2), but I had to look at Wikipedia to figure out that the first one is the general theory of relativity. So... there you have it.

I loved the shot I got of the guy on camelback, but the rest of the picture was super dull, so I chucked it and slapped in a jazzier background. Does it look a little off? Yeah, maybe... but I like it anyway. You wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't told you, so shut up!

That edit aside, this image still represents a pretty inaccurate portrayal of a tourist's pyramid experience. For one; the guy on the camel is basically Giza's version of the teenager in a Mickey Mouse costume at Disneyland. He dresses like how you'd expect an Egyptian to look and jumps in your shot with a dopey pose for a fee. I was lucky to catch him in a candid moment.

Secondly, when you get up close to the pyramids you'll see that they are surrounded by piles of garbage that no one seems interested in picking up. It sort of puts a dent in the majesty of the things.

Still, it's completely worth it.

The second time I met up with him, Joker had been picked up by the police for operating a felucca without a license. His friend thought that as an American I might have some influence over the situation, but I begged out of any involvement, as I'd only known Joker for one day, and anyway I was skittish around Egyptian cops.

I hired Yasser to take me to Banana Island, a little upriver from downtown. There were puppies and a small alligator and all the plantains you cared to eat. They even had a pool table which Yasser gladly used to murder my confidence in whatever Billiards skills I ever had. We left when the sun went down.