The Seven Silly Wonders

Once upon a time, the world felt much smaller to the native ancient inhabitants of the planet, because they didn't have the Internet, or even snail mail service. They did not have planes with which to fly over and survey the entire planet, though they did not have inefficient security measures in airports to delay their travel either.

They came up with a list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, based upon their limited exposure to their neighbors and their construction projects. Modern man has decided that this could be a fantastic money making venture, and in case you missed the momentous event, a new set of Seven Wonders have been chosen, by those who felt it was important to spend the money and therefore, cheat the system, by voting more than once for their local tourist attractions. (Hooray for the Spanish speaking countries...) Because if your attraction got named on this list, it meant that you made even more money.

I personally felt hurt and shocked that Stonehenge did not make the final seven; anyone who has been there cannot deny that it has a primal energetic pull. When I visited, I was ready to build a house on the grassy area and live there the rest of my life. I also felt that given globalization and the ease of travel, restricting the modern list to seven automatically left out several worthy candidates. Ten might have been a more realistic number.

But my pain does not match that of the Egyptians, who boast the only remaining original Wonder, and one of the many sites that did not make the cut this time around. Egypt will not accept being an "honorary" member of the list and claims that by being removed from the list by a so-called popular vote, all humanity has insulted ancient history and the importance that the Pyramids played in the development of the modern world as we know it.

Let's face it, politics and history aside, it comes down to money and tourism. They simply didn't get enough people who were willing to pay extra to name them. They should find comfort in the fact that the Pyramids have forever changed the look of the dollar bill, Mummy horror movies, the secret rituals of Masonic lodges, and the Kosher for Passover industry.