Lecture: How to Build a Boat, Egyptian-style

They had me at "Egyptian." At 7 p.m. Sunday, the Children's Museum will present a free lecture on the art of Egyptian boat-building. The speaker is Cheryl Ward, who is billed as "the world's leading expert" on the topic. She recently finished a full-scale reconstruction of a punt ship from the time of Hatshepsut.

And here's a fun fact for you: The ancient Egyptians were terrible sailors, and they hated having to travel on the Mediterranean Sea. They were spoiled by the easy navigation of the Nile, where they simply had to float downstream or row upstream. So, when they had to go into the Mediterranean, they used the same basic techniques and stuck as close to the shoreline as possible. Funny, huh?