In yesterday’s battle of two lawgivers, Anonymous Pigeon writes:
First of all I would like to start with a question: Who did more for humanity? Hammurabi did with his code. Sure Alison Bechdel did help for females and yada yada yada but just imagine having a little stone on your wall, it has a completely hilarious law and is signed by Hammurabi. THAT would be great.
Interesting. But I googled *Hammurabi pigeon* and came up with this, sur des « pigeons farcis entre chair et peau façon babylonienne ».
So, if you’re a pigeon, the penalty under Hammurabi’s code is . . . death! And, yeah, I know that, according to some law professors, each executed pigeon saves 18 innocent pigeon lives, so capital punishment of pigeons is morally required—but I’m skeptical. What data do we really have on Babylonian fowl? Let’s show the birds some mercy.
And if we’re not gonna go with the law of Hammurabi, we need to follow the law of Bechdel. Next round may very well feature Diana Rigg, and for that contest to past Bechdel’s test, it will have to feature at least two women talking to each other about something other than a man. So Alison it is.
Today’s matchup
A spy versus a traitor! Both serve the crown. Who will advance? Rigg’s got the moves, but Arnold has the plans for West Point.
For a child of the 1960’s, Diana Rigg stirs feelings perhaps better left unexplored in the 2020’s.
So I’m going with Benedict Arnold for my own protection.
Diana Rigg’s character had some wonderful comments about ethics in “The Detectorists” that readers of this blog would likely appreciate. I’d like to hear more.
I re-watched “The Great Muppet Caper” a few years ago, which was better than I remembered. Diana Rigg is in it; Benedict Arnold is not. As “… the Muppets are caught up in a jewel heist while investigating a robbery in London” [Wikipedia], Ms. Rigg can no doubt comment on Anglo-American relations, so we don’t need Arnold for that. Plus, from his Wikipedia page, he seems truly unpleasant.
Diana Rigg exploits as an spy, albeit fictional, are memorable. The second Mrs. Arnold would stand more than a fighting chance against her, as she knew everything about cryptography, invisible ink and the like. But even the absent Mr. Peel seems more interesting than his husband.
It’s not against any religion to want to dispose of the pigeon.