It’s only coincidence; there’s no such thing as mummy magic. I thought I’d seen every episode of the old Twilight Zone, but the other evening while flipping channels I discovered one I’d missed: “Queen of the Nile.” The plot centers on a beautiful woman who uses a scarab beetle to drain the life out of her lovers and then give that life to her – a process that has extended her youthful life from the days of the Egyptian mummies. The next day – 12/5/2011 – I saw the “Mummies” exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

It’s of course a dazzling and multi-faceted exhibition, but the first thing I happened to focus on was the 800BC mummy of Nesperennub. The label said the case may be the very first in a series of mummy cases. There were images painted on the case including that of a “winged scarab beetle” – images that “insure resurrection of the dead person.”

That evening when I climbed into bed in my 100-year-old house there was a small blackish beetle crawling up the wall behind my head. I of course flushed it. But J.C. keeps looking younger . . .