Monday, October 15, 2007

Femme Fatales

Today in history, October 15, 1917, the Frogs executed Mata Hari by firing squad for spying for Germany. According to Wiki: "The idea of an exotic dancer working as a lethal double agent, using her powers of seduction to extract military secrets from her many lovers fired popular imagination, set the legend and made Mata Hari an enduring archetype of the femme fatale."

Just last week, I was e-mailing back and forth with my former co-worker, Robb, and we were discussing of all things, the Middle East, and I remembered the story of Mordechai Vanunu, back in the '80s. Most people have forgotten about him by now, but the Mossad totally caught his ass by sending an operative named "Cindy" to convince the guy to fly to Rome with her for the weekend. Poor dude got to Rome and "Once in Rome, Mossad agents captured him, drugged him and smuggled him to Israel on a freighter, beginning what was to be more than a decade of solitary confinement in Israeli prisons."

So I asked Robb: "I wonder if 'Cindy' was hot or if Vanunu was just hard-up?"

And he answered: "I'm guessing she was not hot by today's standards, but she was probably the best looking woman who had ever paid attention to Vanunu. Poor guy. That's freaking dirty pool."

And you look at Mata Hari, and she's not all that hot by today's standards. Probably wasn't all that hot by 1917 standards either. . . But that's the thing: most guys are pretty much retarded when femenine wiles are properly used. Tale as old as time. Which is why the Circe story fascinates me so.

5 comments:

Andi said...

I've been told it's not what you've got that's important, it's how you use it!

Jamm-o-rama said...

I really think that goes for anyone, not just women. Judging by the picture I think Mata Hari looks pretty sexy. She has a nice hour glass and full womanly shape.

Jack Gordon said...

I agree with both of you, Andi and Jamm-o-rama. The picture is definitely a good one, but check out her mug-shot on Wiki. . . Plus, "sexy" and "pretty" are two very different adjectives, and you can be one without the other. "She was not known for being remarkably beautiful, but her spirit was overflowing with eroticism."

Jamm-o-rama said...

Oh yeah, wow. The old mug shot is not looking so good. Woof!

Andi said...

Oh c'mon, nobody looks good in a mug shot! Take the "beautiful people" in Hollywood, for example -- they look just as crappy in their mug shots as everyone else.