When one cannot speak every language that might, one day, be relevant, and when one does not have command of the finer points of etiquette among every race and class on every continent, I think that one could do worse than amicably and curiously bumbling through the world. Take, for example, the great Giovanni Battista Belzoni: Italian-born circus strongman, builder of hydraulic machines, and a father of Egyptology. He was, like most of his contemporaries, little more than a grave robber, but he kept better records than most. Luck trumps plans, charm is better than luck, and even history falls before you with the clever application of battering rams and a bit of rope.