It's Grεεκ To Me

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• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  June 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  The Man with the Golden Gun, Guy Hamilton, 1974.
  
  Nikon F SLR.
  

  

  
  Nikon F2 SLR.
  

  
  

  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  June 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  A View to a Kill, John Glen, 1985.
  
  Nikon, miscellaneous binokuli. Binoculars.
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
• CommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea

  June 2018 Posts: 8,266

  RichardTheBruce wrote: »

  
  
  Enter the Calypso Nikkor. A Calypso Nikkor prototype features in 1965 as the Geiger counter camera from Q Branch. All this on the way to the Nikonos and other Nikon products.
  
  
  
  

  Thunderball, Terence Young, 1965.
  
  

  
  [
  
  
  

  
  A lot of great information here.

  
  https://casualphotophile.com/2018/01/22/the-legendary-cameras-of-james-bond/

  
  
  

  
  Is that clever?
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  July 2018 Posts: 13,807

  If it can take pictures in the dark with an infrared film...
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  July 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Galatea / Γαλάτεια /ˌɡæləˈtiːə / noun
  1. name for the ivory statue created by Pygmalion
  2. a sea nymph loved by Cyclops Polyphemus
  3 a Greek female given name
  
  Greek (Galateia, a milk white female).
  
  Galatea (Γαλάτεια): a Nereid (water nymph, one of fifty) loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon and Thoosa. (The same cyclops encountered by Ulysses returning from the Trojan War.) Galatea in turn loves Acis. When Cyclops Polyphemus finds them in liaison, he crushes Acis with a boulder. (Idylls VI and XI, Theocritus.)
  
  Also, Galatea as the name popularized since the 18th Century for the ivory statue carved by (former king, now sculptor) Pygmalion of Cyprus. Pygmalion grows to love the statue, which comes to life through the help of Aphrodite as an answer to his prayers. They enjoy wedded bliss.

  
  Pigmalion, Jean-Philippe Rameau, 1748. (opera)

  

  Pygmalion scène lyrique, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762.

  

  Il Pigmalione, Gaetano Donizetti, 1816. (opera)

  

  Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw, 1913. (play)

  https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3825/3825-h/3825-h.htm

  Pygmalion aux pieds de sa statue qui s'anime ("Pygmalion at the feet of his statue that comes to life"). Falconet, 1763. (sculpture) Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, displayed as Pygmalion and Galatea.

  

  
  Galatea and Pygmalion. (Konstantin Makovsky).
  
  
  
  Galatea and Cyclops Polyphemus. (Giovanni Ianfranco)
  
  Galatea and Acis.
  
  Galatea and Acis and Cyclops Polyphemus.
  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  July 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Moonraker, Ian Fleming, 1955.
  Chapter XVI – A Golden Day
  
  …
  "Why are you called Gala?" he said to break his hot crouching thoughts.
  
  She laughed. "I was teased about it all through school," she said, and Bond was impatient at the easy, clear voice, "and then through the Wrens and then by half the police force of London. But my real name's even worse. It's Galatea. She was a cruiser my father was serving in when I was born. I suppose Gala's not too bad. I've almost forgotten what I'm called. I'm always having to change my name now that I'm in the Special Branch."
  

  "In the Special Branch."
  
  "In the Special Branch."
  
  "In the..."
  
  When the bomb falls. When the pilot miscalculates and the plane hits short of the runway. When the blood leaves the heart and consciousness goes, there are thoughts in the mind, or words, or perhaps a phrase of music, which ring on for the few seconds before death like the dying clang of a bell.
  
  Bond wasn't killed, but the words were still in his mind, several seconds later, after it had all happened.

  
  

  

  
  
• j_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'

  July 2018 Posts: 9,041

  Finally: My opportunity to show the world the real "Gala Brand":
  
  "Gala" was the main coffee brand of the Eduscho company in Bremen, sold in its own stores, and after Eduscho was taken over by its main competitor, Tchibo, it is now the latter's consumer/supermarket shelf brand.
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  July 2018 Posts: 13,807

  I'd love to try it, @j_w_pepper. This coffee alternative is also a natural.
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  July 2018 edited July 2018 Posts: 13,807

  Gala Brand's father served on the HMS Galatea.
  
  The HMS Galatea was a Royal Navy Arethusa-class light cruiser built by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock, Scotland. Assigned to Mediterranean waters during World War II. Afloat 1934 to 14 December 1941, when it was sunk by German U-boat U-557 off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt.
  
  [U-557 in turn was sunk 16 December 1941 as rammed by Italian torpedo boat Orione, which likely mistook it for a British submarine.]
  
  HMS Galatea
  
  
  
  
  U-557
  

  
  

  
  
  

  

  
  HMS Galatea motto: Nobis Mare Patria (The sea is our Fatherland).
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  July 2018 edited July 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Cerberus / Κέρβερος / ˈsər·bə·rəs / noun
  1. the Greek three-headed dog preventing exit from the Underworld
  
  Latin (Cerberus). Greek (Κέρβερος Kerberos).
  
  Cerberus (Κέρβερος): the three-headed dog monster known as The Hound of Hades. Guardian of the Underworld, standing at the gates. With a serpent's tail and snakes sprouting elsewhere. Born of Echidna (half woman, half snake) and Typhon (a giant serpent), as were: Lernaean Hydra (with many snake heads); Orthrus (a two-headed dog, guardian of the Cattle of Geryon); Chimera (having heads of a lion, goat, and snake).
  
  From Homer: the capture of Cerberus is the twelfth and last labor of Heracles (Roman Hercules). The impossible task, from King Eurystheus of Tiryns, assigned to the hero that doesn't know it can't be done.

  Heracles and Cerberus
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  July 2018 edited July 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming, 1954.
  Chapter III - The Visiting-Card
  

  … Slowly, out of the turmoil and the smoke and the shattering noise of the drums, which, for a time, drove everything except their impact from the mind, the details began to detach themselves… Backwards and forwards, very slowly, the dancers shuffled, and at each step their chins shot out and their buttocks jerked upwards, while their shoulders shook in double time. Their eyes were half closed and from their mouths came again and again the same incomprehensible words, the same short line of chanted song, repeated after each iteration, half an octave lower. At a change in the beat of the drums, they straightened their bodies, and flinging their arms in the air while their eyes rolled upwards, spun round and round… At the edge of the crowd we came upon a little hut, scarcely larger than a dog kennel: 'Le caye Zombi'. The beam of a torch revealed a black cross inside and some rags and chains and shackles and whips: adjuncts used at the Ghede ceremonies, which Haitian ethnologists connect with the rejuvenation rites of Osiris recorded in the Book of the Dead. A fire was burning, in which two sabres and a large pair of pincers were standing, their lower parts red with the heat: 'le Feu Marixiette', dedicated to a goddess who is the evil obverse of the bland and amorous Maitresse Erzulie Freda Dahomin, the Goddess of Love.

  
  Beyond, with its base held fast in a socket of stone, stood a large black wooden cross. A white death's head was painted near the base, and over the crossbar were pulled the sleeves of a very old morning coat. Here also rested the brim of a battered bowler hat, through the torn crown of which the top of the cross projected. This totem, with which every peristyle must be equipped, is not a lampoon of the central event of the Christian faith, but represents the God of the Cemeteries and the Chief of the Legion of the Dead, Baron Samedi. The Baron is paramount in all matters immediately beyond the tomb. He is Cerberus and Charon as well as Aeacus, Rhadamanthus and Pluto.
  

  … The drums changed and the Houngenikon came dancing on to the floor, holding a vessel filled with some burning liquid from which sprang blue and yellow flames. As he circled the pillar and spilt three flaming libations, his steps began to falter. Then, lurching backwards with the same symptoms of delirium that had manifested themselves in his forerunner, he flung down the whole blazing mass. The houncis caught him as he reeled, and removed his sandals and rolled his trousers up, while the kerchief fell from his head and laid bare his young woolly skull. The other houncis knelt to put their hands in the flaming mud, and rub it over their hands and elbows and faces. The Houngan's bell and 'agon' rattled officiously and the young priest was left by himself, reeling and colliding against the pillar, helplessly catapulting across the floor, and falling among the drums. His eyes were shut, his forehead screwed up and his chin hung loose. Then, as though an invisible fist had dealt him a heavy blow, he fell to the ground and lay there, with his head stretching backwards in a rictus of anguish until the tendons of his neck and shoulders projected like roots. One hand clutched at the other elbow behind his hollowed back as though he were striving to break his own arm, and his whole body, from which the sweat was streaming, trembled and shuddered like a dog in a dream. Only the whites of his eyes were visible as, although his eye-sockets were now wide open, the pupils had vanished under the lids. Foam collected on his lips…

  
  
• Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl

  July 2018 Posts: 3,176

  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  July 2018 edited July 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  A Silent Armageddon Issues #1 & #2 (& #3 & #4), John M. Burns, Simon Jowett, 1993.
  https://mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/asa.php3
  
  Villainous organization Cerberus has the world's smartest computer.
  And a computer program that has gained consciousness. And villainy.
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  Shattered Helix Issues #1 & #2, David Jackson, Simon Jowett, 1994.
  https://mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/sh.php3
  
  Villainous organization Cerberus is out to retrieve the world's deadliest virus from the Antarctic.
  (The South Pole!)
  

  
  

  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  July 2018 Posts: 13,807

  
  

  The Adventures of James Bond Junior 003 1/2, R. D. Mascott, 1967.
  https://wikivisually.com/wiki/The_Adventures_of_James_Bond_Junior_003%C2%BD
  
  Merck: German villain.
  Satan: Merck's male Alsatian.
  Cerberus: Merck's female Alsatian.
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  July 2018 edited July 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Charon / Χάρων / kair·uhn / noun
  1. mythical Greek ferryman, deliverer of souls to the Underworld
  2. a ferryman (used with irony)
  3. satellite of the planet Pluto
  
  Charon / Χάρων: minor god of the Greek Underworld. Born of Nyx (goddess of Night) and Erebus (god of Darkness). As were the goddesses Nemesis (Vengeance) and Eris (Strife). And gods Geras (Old Age) and Thanatos (Death).
  
  For souls delivered by Hermes to the banks of the River Acheron (the River of Pain), Charon and his skiff provided passage across. For a fee. Ideally a coin (value not really a concern, but indicating proper rites of burial) in the mouth of the dead. Minus that and denied passage, the dead must wander the earth for a hundred years. Those that crossed to Hades face the Judges of the Dead and individual judgment.

  
  Alexander Dmitrievich Litovchenko (1835-1890)
  

  
  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  July 2018 edited July 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming, 1954.
  Chapter III - The visiting-Card
  
  ...
  Beyond, with its base held fast in a socket of stone, stood a large black wooden cross. A white death's head was painted near the base, and over the crossbar were pulled the sleeves of a very old morning coat. Here also rested the brim of a battered bowler hat, through the torn crown of which the top of the cross projected. This totem, with which every peristyle must be equipped, is not a lampoon of the central event of the Christian faith, but represents the God of the Cemeteries and the Chief of the Legion of the Dead, Baron Samedi. The Baron is paramount in all matters immediately beyond the tomb. He is Cerberus and Charon as well as Aeacus, Rhadamanthus and Pluto.
  
  

  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  August 2018 edited August 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  The Judges of the Dead
  
  Aeacus / Αἰακός / ē·ə·kəs / noun
  1. Greek king of Aegina
  2. judge of the dead in the Underworld
  Greek (aiaktos, aiazô, as wailing and lamentation).
  
  Rhadamanthus / Ῥαδάμανθυς / ra·də·ˈman(t)·thəs / noun
  1. Greek king of Crete
  2. judge of the dead in the Underworld
  
  Minos / Μίνως / ˈmī·nəs / noun
  1. Greek king of Crete
  2. judge of the dead in the Underworld
  
  Aeacus (Αἰακός): born of Zeus and Aegina (daughter to river god Asopus). King of the island of Aegina, ruler of Myrmidons as created from ants. Known for justice, in life a judge for matters of gods and men. In death, guardian to the keys of Hades and a judge of the dead , one of three. (Focus: Europe.)
  
  Rhadamanthus (Ῥαδάμανθυς): born of Zeus and Europa. Brother to Minos and Sarpedon. Kind of Crete, then exiled by Minos to Boeotia. One of three judges of the dead. (Focus: Asia.)
  
  Minos (Μίνως): born of Zeus and Europa. Brother to Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon. King of Crete. His son Androgeos died fighting the Minotaur; then Minos punishes Athens with a tax (seven boys, seven girls) for delivery to the beast dwelling in the Labyrinth under the palace in Crete. His daughter Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. With successes in naval power and education, created a Greek legal code leading to his role as a judge of the dead in the Underworld. (Holder of the third and final vote.)
  
  Three new Judges of the Dead became necessary after Cronus and the end of the rule of the Titans. With the new rule of the Olympians under Zeus, Hades observed the legacy judges had lost the ability to see good and bad, were easily misled by an individual's appearance. So Zeus appointed his sons best suited to deliver judgment.

  
  
  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  August 2018 edited August 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming, 1954.
  Chapter III - The visiting-Card
  
  ...
  Beyond, with its base held fast in a socket of stone, stood a large black wooden cross. A white death's head was painted near the base, and over the crossbar were pulled the sleeves of a very old morning coat. Here also rested the brim of a battered bowler hat, through the torn crown of which the top of the cross projected. This totem, with which every peristyle must be equipped, is not a lampoon of the central event of the Christian faith, but represents the God of the Cemeteries and the Chief of the Legion of the Dead, Baron Samedi. The Baron is paramount in all matters immediately beyond the tomb. He is Cerberus and Charon as well as Aeacus, Rhadamanthus and Pluto.

  
  Interesting that Fleming jumped to Pluto (the Roman version of Hades) over the third judge Minos.
  
  
  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  August 2018 edited August 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Hades / Ἅιδης / ˈhā·dēz / noun
  1. the Greek ruler of the Underworld
  2. the Greek Underworld
  3. Hell
  4. an extreme amount (as thick as Hades!)
  
  Greek (Aḯdēs Ἀΐδης, Awides, unseen).
  
  Hades (Ἅιδης): born of Cronus and Rhea. With his brothers defeated the Titans and the Olympians took over as rulers: meaning Zeus (the sky); Poseidon (the sea); and Hades himself (the Underworld). Abducted Persephone, daughter of Demeter, to be his wife. In response, her mother Demeter left Olympus and the world became dry and barren. Zeus and other gods failed to convince Demeter to return absent her daughter. Eventually a deal was struck allowing Persephone to be with her mother, but also requiring her to return to Hades and the Underworld part of the year--creating the seasonal changes.
  
  Hades is usually shown with Cerberus, the three-headed dog. Also known by the Greek name Ploútōn (Πλούτων, the wealth giver), later the Latin Pluto, used to avoid speaking "Hades" aloud. Hades came to mean the Underworld itself, and later Hell.
  
  Hades
  
  
  Hades and Persephone
  
  
  Hades and Cerberus
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  August 2018 Posts: 13,807

  
  

  On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Ian Fleming, 1963.
  Chapter 15 - The Heat Increases
  
  ...
  Bond, out of any possible line of vision from the eye in the ceiling, did his trick with the door and she was gone with a last whispered goodbye.
  
  Bond eased the door shut. He let out a deep sigh and went over to the window and peered out through the snow-heaped panes. It was thick as Hades outside and the fine powder snow on the veranda was whirling up in little ghosts as the wind tore at the building. Pray God it would let up by nighttime! Now, what did he need in the way of equipment? Goggles and gloves were two items he might harvest over lunch. Bond went into the bathroom again and rubbed soap into his eyes. It stung like hell, but the blue-grey eyes emerged from the treatment realistically bloodshot. Satisfied, Bond rang for the 'warden' and went thoughtfully off to the restaurant.

  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  August 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Ourobouros / οὐροβόρος / yo͝or·ə·ˈbô·rəs / noun
  1. a circle formed by a serpent swallowing its own tail, indicating infinity or a repeating cycle
  2. a symbol of alchemy
  
  Greek (οὐρά / oura, tail; βορά / bora, food; βιβρώσκω / bibrōskō, eat).
  
  Ourobouro (οὐροβόρος: popularized in Egypt. Later in Western Culture through Greek magic practices. Symbol used in Gnosticism, Hermeticism. Also alchemy, from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, for magic. More recently to indicate introspection. Or completion of a cycle--for example: creation, destruction, repeat. Life, death...resurrection.

  
  
  
  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  August 2018 edited August 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming, 1954.
  Chapter IV - The Big Switchboard
  
  ...
  They went over the reports of the US Coastguard Service on the comings and goings of the yacht Secatur and also the comments of the US Customs Service, who had kept a close watch on the boat each time she had docked at St. Petersburg.
  
  These confirmed that the yacht had put in at irregular intervals over the previous six months and that she always tied up in the Port of St. Petersburg at the wharf of the 'Ourobouros Worm and Bait Shippers Inc.', an apparently innocent concern whose main business was to sell live bait to fishing clubs throughout Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and further afield. The company also had a profitable sideline in sea-shells and coral for interior decoration, and a further sideline in tropical aquarium fish—particularly rare poisonous species for the research departments of medical and chemical foundations.
  
  According to the proprietor, a Greek sponge-fisher from the neighbouring Tarpon Springs, the Secatur did big business with his company, bringing in cargoes of queen conchs and other shells from Jamaica and also highly prized varieties of tropical fish. These were purchased by Ourobouros Inc., stored in their warehouse and sold in bulk to wholesalers and retailers up and down the coast. The name of the Greek was Papagos. No criminal record.

  

  Chapter XIII - Death of a Pelican
  
  ...
  'Yes,' said Leiter thoughtfully. 'Before you arrived over here you could have counted the mistakes Mr. Big has ever made on one thumb. Now he's made three all in a row. He won't like that. We've got to put the heat on him while he's still groggy and then get out, quick. Tell you what I've got in mind. There's no doubt that gold gets into the States through this place. We've tracked the Secatur again and again and she just comes straight over from Jamaica to St. Petersburg and docks at that worm-and-bait factory - Rubberus or whatever it's called.'
  
  'Ourobouros,' said Bond. 'The Great Worm of mythology. Good name for a worm-and-bait factory.' Suddenly a thought struck him. He hit the glass table-top with the flat of his hand. 'Felix! Of course. Ourobouros — "The Robber" — don't you see? Mr. Big's man down here. It must be the same.'
  
  Leiter's face lit up. 'Christ Almighty,' he exclaimed.
  
  ...
  The side-road ended at a small weather-beaten wooden jetty that reached out twenty feet on barnacled piles into the bay. Right up against its open gate was a long low corrugated-iron warehouse. Over its wide double doors was painted, black on white, 'Ourobouros Inc. Live Worm and Bait Merchants. Coral, Shells, Tropical Fish. Wholesale only.' In one of the double doors there was a smaller door with a gleaming Yale lock. On the door was a sign: 'Private. Keep Out.'
  

  Against this a man sat on a kitchen chair, its back tilted so that the door supported his weight. He was cleaning a rifle, a Remington 30 it looked like to Bond. He had a wooden toothpick sticking out of his mouth and a battered baseball cap on the back of his head. He was wearing a stained white singlet that revealed tufts of black hair under his arms, and slept-in white canvas trousers and rubber-soled sneakers. He was around forty and his face was as knotted and seamed as the mooring posts on the jetty. It was a thin, hatchet face, and the lips were thin too, and bloodless. His complexion was the colour of tobacco dust, a sort of yellowy-beige. He looked cruel and cold, like the bad man in a film about poker-players and gold mines.
  
  Bond and Leiter walked past him and on to the pier. He didn't look up fro
  m his rifle as they went past but Bond sensed that his eyes were following them.
  'If that isn't The Robber,' said Leiter, "it's a blood relation.'
  
  A pelican, grey with a pale yellow head, was hunched on one of the mooring posts at the end of the jetty. He let them get very close, then reluctantly gave a few heavy beats of his wings and planed down towards the water. The two men stood and watched him flying slowly along just above the surface of the harbour. Suddenly he crashed clumsily down, his long bill snaking out and down in front of him. It came up clutching a small fish which he moodily swallowed. Then the heavy bird got up again and went on fishing, flying mostly into the sun so that its big shadow would give no warning. When Bond and Leiter turned to walk back down the jetty it gave up fishing and glided back to its post. It settled with a clatter of wings and resumed its thoughtful consideration of the late afternoon.

  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  September 2018 edited September 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Labyrinth / Λαβύρινθος / ˈlab·ə·rinTH / noun
  1. a maze having a single complicated path
  2. the Minotaur's lair built by Daedalus
  
  Late Middle English (labyrinth). French (labyrinthe). Latin (labyrinthus). Greek (laburinthos). Minoan (labrys, double axe, symbol of Minoan mother goddess of Crete).
  
  Labyrinth (Λαβύρινθος): the complex structure created by Daedalus for King Minos of Knossos on Crete to hold the Minotaur. Daedalus and his son Icarus were later imprisoned in the labyrinth--famously escaping with wings made of feathers and wax.
  
  Theseus promised his father King Aegeus he would kill the monstrous man-bull, to end the annual sacrifice of 14 Athenians. Theseus entered the labyrinth as part of the tribute, but with sword and a ball of string from the daughter of King Minos, Ariadne. He successfully kills the Minotaur and exits the labyrinth, but Theseus' return is marred by his abandonment of Ariadne and the failure to change ship sails from black (mourning) to white. And so Aegeus, seeing failure in the distance, kills himself making Theseus ruler of Knossos. The labyrinth experience represents his transformation from young man to king.

  Theseus and Ariadne
  
  Theseus and Minotaur in the Labyrinth
  
  Daedalus and Icarus
  
  
  Greek coins of the Knossos Labyrinth
  
  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  September 2018 edited September 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming, 1954.
  Chapter XV - Midnight Among the Worms
  
  ...
  He was in the aquarium-fish section, and as he examined the labels he caught flashes of coloured light from the deep tanks and occasionally a piece of living jewellery would materialize and briefly goggle at him before he moved on.
  
  There were all kinds - Swordtails, Guppies, Platys, Terras, Neons, Cichlids, Labyrinth and Paradise fish, and every variety of exotic Goldfish. Underneath, sunk in the floor, and most of them covered with chicken wire, there were tray upon tray swarming and heaving with worms and baits: white worms, micro worms, Daphnia, shrimp, and thick slimy clam worms. From these ground tanks, forests of tiny eyes looked up at his torch.
  

  There was the foetid smell of a mangrove swamp in the air and the temperature was in the high seventies. Soon Bond began to sweat slightly and to long for the clean night air.
  He had moved to the central passage-way before he found the poison fish which were one of his objectives. When he had read about them in the files of the Police Headquarters in New York, he had made a mental note that he would like to know more about this sideline of the peculiar business of Ourobouros Inc.
  
  Here the tanks were smaller and there was generally only one specimen in each. Here the eyes that looked sluggishly at Bond were cold and hooded and an occasional fang was bared at the torch or a spined backbone slowly swelled.
  
  Each tank bore an ominous skull-and-crossbones in chalk and there were large labels that said VERY DANGEROUS and KEEP OFF.

  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  September 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Thrilling Cities, Ian Fleming, 1963.
  Chapter III - Tokyo
  
  ...
  Don't confine your experiments in the wide and rich field of Japanese
  cuisine to the tourist's stand-bys: sukiyaki and tempura. The
  first is an indifferent beef stew which the Japanese seldom bother to
  eat themselves; the latter is just deep-fried fish, which is tasty
  enough but not outstanding. If you must try it, sukiyaki is
  available at any Japanese-style restaurant; the best place for
  tempura, among hundreds of good places, is the Hashizen in
  Shimbashi.
  
  You do not need to be daringly venturesome to try yakatori, which is
  charcoal-grilled chicken or duck, interspersed with green pimento and
  Japanese onions, and spiked à la brochette on bamboo needles. There
  are as many cheap and gay yakatori restaurants and bars in the
  swarming labyrinth of alleys around the Ginza as there are tempura
  and noodle shops.
  

  Be certain not to miss the magnificent supponnabe, or snapping
  turtle, which is combined soup and flesh cooked at the table in private
  rooms at a celebrated restaurant behind the Ginza. (Addresses are
  almost impossible to give in Tokyo but your hotel will write the
  location of any of the Tokyo restaurants mentioned for your
  taxi-driver.) Only the poor in spirit will refuse to taste sashimi
  (sliced raw fish); only the deficient in taste will refuse to repeat
  the order. And, as is well known to all Tokyo old hands, no one ever
  has a hangover, no matter what his excesses have been, if before going
  home he halts briefly and happily at a reputable bar for some sushi
  (rice topped with raw fish).

  
  
  
• Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl

  September 2018 Posts: 3,176

  It's been too quiet around here.
  
  Bond meets the Sphinx at Giza in Egypt (TSWLM), but sphinxes or sphinges are a Greek phenomenon too (see the story of Oedipus).
  
  Not to be confused with the Sphynx, a breed of hairless cat:
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  September 2018 edited September 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  Sphinx / Σφίγξ / spʰíŋks / noun
  1. Greek mythical creature combining a woman's head, a lion body, and wings
  2. Egyptian creature combining a man's head (or ram's or hawk's) and lion body
  3. an enigmatic or mysterious person
  
  Greek (Sphinx, from sphingein meaning draw tight, or sphíngō, to squeeze). Latin (Sphinx). Middle English (sphinx).
  
  Sphinx (Σφίγξ): daughter of Orthu, and Echidna (or maybe Chimera). Human head, lion body, eagle wings, serpent tail. Near Thebes city limits, acts as a sentry challenging travelers with a riddle. Those without the correct answer are eaten.
  
  The first riddle: What creature has one voice and four feet in the morning, two feet in the afternoon, and three at night?
  Answer:

  A Man. A baby crawls on all fours. A grown man walks on two feet. A elderly man walks with can, a third foot.
  

  The second riddle: Of two sisters, one gives birth to the second. And the second gives birth to the first. Who are the sisters?
  Answer:

  Day and Night. (In Greek, Iméra and Nýchta are both the feminine form.)
  

  
  The Sphinx eventually confronts Oedipus, who correctly answers both riddles. The Sphinx uses the opportunity to kill herself, representing a transition to newer Olympian deities.
  
  Oedipus and Sphinx
  
  
  The Egyptian Sphinxes are male, with a human head and lion's body. They act as kind-hearted but strong guardians of temples and important places. The most famous stone Sphinx is at Giza, Egypt.
  

  
  The Sphinx
  
  
  The Sphinx and Oedipus
  
  
  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  September 2018 edited September 2018 Posts: 13,807

  

  The Spy Who Loved Me, Lewis Gilbert, 1977.
  
  The Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt.
  

  http://huntingbond.com/the-giza-pyramids-egypt-from-james-bond-the-spy-who-loved-me/
  
  https://screenmusings.org/movie/dvd/The-Spy-Who-Loved-Me/images/The-Spy-Who-Loved-Me-0224.jpg
  
  

  
  
  
  
• Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl

  September 2018 Posts: 3,176

  Obelix, no! :(
  
  
• Thunderfinger Das Boot Hill

  September 2018 Posts: 45,489

  The Islamic State has promised to blow up both the pyramids and The Sphinx. They aren t the first. The Muslim Brotherhood has advocated it before.