Kamiya’s Ancient Imagery

As I read Kamiya’s “Let us now praise editors,” the following sentence about a poorly-written piece he was editing stood out for me: “Seizing my Rosetta stone, I descended into the foul-smelling cave and emerged hours later, having successfully translated the cryptic runes.” Having no concept of Rosetta Stone beyond its function as the moniker of a band I’m only vaguely familiar with, I headed to that glorious, proceed-with-caution online information depot, Wikipedia, for clarification. Thankfully, good ole’ Wiki taught me that the Rosetta stone was an ancient Egyptian artifact which was instrumental in achieving our modern understanding of hieroglyphic writings. Whew. I knew it was a great image Kamiya had set up, and once I understood it I liked it even more. I think it’s those little things, like knowing what the Rosetta stone is, that help us write the sentences people actually find funny and interesting.