Went to the New Orleans Museum of Art today for the members’ preview of the The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt exhibit.

As the exhibition title suggests, the focus was the ancient Egyptians’ “denial of the physical impermanence of life”. Featured were works of art, jewelry, sculpture, funerary paraphernalia, an actual mummy, and a recreation of the burial chamber of King Thutmose III. Not as much bling-bling, but more artifacts than King Tut.

Numbered exhibits also included narration through handheld radio players, which was very useful in explaining the complex hieroglyphic detail rendered on the interior walls of the burial chamber and the story it told.

As we exited the exhibit, we were suprised to see the man himself, Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, signing copies of his book Secrets from the Sand: My Search for Egypt’s Past. But that wasn’t what made the day strange…

On the way to the museum, on a side street we often take in this area of town, a vehicle slowed in front of us. In the back seat was a woman berating the other occupants of the car as she tried to exit the vehicle while it was still moving. Her escape was impeded when her sandal became trapped under the rear wheel of the car as it stopped.

The driver then backed up slightly to allow her to free her foot, but she continued to complain as she again attempted to exit the car. As she did, someone still inside the car tried to keep her from leaving (escaping?), apparently, by holding onto her dress, a knee-length denim shift, which quickly rose above her waist, and then– when the buttons down the back of it disengaged– came completely off!

So here’s this blonde standing stark naked, and I do mean nekked— except for the aforementioned sandals– in the middle of the street, holding her dress, and continuing to curse at the occupants of the car (who, incidently, did not happen to share her ethnic background, if you get my drift). The driver then pulled the car off to the side as the woman, still ranting, slipped back into her garment. It seemed like a good time, at that point, to continue on to the museum.