Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

openculture.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 421 posts

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#131

Post by jrockway »

adamsmith143 wrote: post #23
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #20

I feel sorry for the poor guys who never missed a day of work and gave their all to building that damn pyramid, 3200 years later nobody even knows who they were.

I hope the parallel of SWEs working for Mega-Billionaires is not lost on the HN crowd.

I'm sitting on a comfy chair in a climate controlled apartment eating a cheeseburger that someone else made for me and brought to my house, while a machine washes my clothes and I read some discussion on the Internet during a paid lunch break. I'll take this over manual labor any day, even if someone else is getting richer than me.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#132

Post by tragictrash »

tigerlily wrote: post #130
ARandomerDude wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that the dates are "Month 3 of Summer, Day 24" etc. The curious bit to me being the enduring use of 4 distinct seasons, when there are obviously other ways to mark a year. Is anyone aware of a culture that did/does not have exactly 4 seasons?

I once heard Canadians in Winnipeg joke there were but two seasons, Winter and Construction. I think this was in reference to road maintenance. In NZ these days I feel like we have two: Drought and Mudslide.

I needed this today, thanks!

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#133

Post by gibspaulding »

dylan604 wrote: post #86
jwally wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really is kind of a circuitous solution for an all powerful deity, no? Moses: um...lord, we're kind of tired of being slaves. Could you look into that? Lord: Ok! I'll issue 10 plagues of increasing discomfort until Pharaoh breaks!!! Moses: Couldn't you just teleport us to the promised land or something. These guys are jerks, but do you need to kill their kids? lightning crashes Moses: OK OK! Point taken. We'll do the…

Don't forget that the $promisedLand was already inhabited, so you have to kill every man, woman, child before you can have it. What's that? More questioning my authority? Let's see if 40 years in the desert strengthens your faith.

That time we listened to a bush and ended up wandering around the desert without a clear exit strategy..

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#134

Post by moffkalast »

blakesterz wrote: post #54

The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634

> Year 40 Penduauu: month 1 of Spring, day 14 (DRINKING WITH KHONSU)

"Khonsu, you have any good ideas?"

"I have a bad one."

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#135

Post by welfare »

mnw21cam wrote: post #68
reaperducer wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me a few months ago: "I need to take a PTO day tomorrow." Boss: "What for?" Me: "It's P." She never asked again.

Please Turn Over? (I'm guessing you mean Private Time Off?)

It means Personal Time Off, essentially any time an employee has a paid day off work. (There's also unpaid PTO)

Basically paternity / maternity leave, sick leave, vacation, jury duty, bank holiday, or whatever else is in the company's PTO policy...

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#136

Post by cardiffspaceman »

OJFord wrote: post #109
omnicognate wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was joking about mega conventionally meaning a million of something [1]. I agree it's certainly "mega" in the informal/Aussie sense. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix

Nobody (in English at least) uses SI prefixes for currency though? £1M (happens to have the same shorthand, but) is never called 'a megapound'.

Megapound sounds like something one of Eric Idle's Monty Python characters would have said. But back then it would have only been possessed by the guy who paid Lennon and McCartney.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#137

Post by jonathankoren »

moffkalast wrote: post #134
blakesterz wrote: post #54

The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634

> Year 40 Penduauu: month 1 of Spring, day 14 (DRINKING WITH KHONSU) "Khonsu, you have any good ideas?" "I have a bad one."

Suddenly, Moon Knight makes more sense

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#138

Post by stevenwoo »

Aardwolf wrote: post #115
blakesterz wrote: post #54

The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634

Any idea what "WITH HIS BOSS" means in there? Is that also an excuse of absence, or is that what was marked when not absent?

The British Museum link has it buried under curator's notes (have to expand it)- it means they worked directly for their boss on the boss' project.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#139

Post by JoeAltmaier »

blakesterz wrote: post #54

The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634

Fetching stone for the scribe?

Wrapping the corspe of his mother? Is that like "My grandma died?"

Trouble with his eye - maybe all that stone dust.

Strengthening the door - I wonder what door...

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#140

Post by JoeAltmaier »

ALittleLight wrote: post #7

I used to live in a scorpion-rich environment and can attest that a sting should disqualify one from manual labor for a day. I found that every time I was stung though the effects were less and less. The last time I was stung was a minor nuisance at most. I would advise, if you find yourself living with scorpions, to check your shoes, by shaking them out, before putting them on.

My nieces grew up in Oklahoma. Mom would come home and sometimes there was a drinking glass somewhere in the house with a scorpion trapped under it. The kids (5 or 6yo!) would casually capture them in this way so Mom could deal later.
Post reply on HN