Mata Hari

I must have heard that name, referenced in a book or a film, a million times in my life. The most I absorbed was that, at a time when there was no question, she was a woman. (She/Her)

And she was an entertainer, somewhere around the turn of the 20th century. (In France?)

So, I am watching "The King's Man," and it uses names of real people who were prominent at the time of WWI, but that is as far as the history lesson goes. The film is, otherwise, farcical if you're the sort who is anal about historical accuracy. The worrisome thing is that, millions of people get what they think is historical knowledge in this way. From movies and TV shows. That's why they're all freaked out over the fact that the climate tends to change. And then they go out and vote for Liberals or Democrats.

One of the characters is named, "Mata." It hit me that Mata was probably Mata Hari, I decided that this could not go on any longer. I paused the movie and did a search. I had to know who this mysterious person was.

I started reading the Wikipedia article. Wow! It's fascinating.

By the way, as I was reading through it, one entry got my mind darting off in a different direction, as it always does, while Icehouse, "Hey Little Girl" plays on in my mind.

"One enthusiastic French journalist wrote in a Paris newspaper that Mata Hari was "so feline, extremely feminine, majestically tragic, the thousand curves and movements of her body trembling in a thousand rhythms.""

When I read that, I immediately thought of Chris Mathews describing an Obama speech as giving him a thrill up his leg.

"So feline, extremely feminine, majestically tragic, the thousand curves and movements of his body trembling in a thousand rhythms gives me a thrill up my leg."

Hope and Change.

What a fucking clown show.