We're less than a half-hour away from the lunar eclipse here in Texas. Did you know that this was the same regular eclipse that saved Columbus from angry natives? It's a very cool story. Matthew points out that "Tintin" creator Herge knew about the Columbus story, and incorporated it as a solar eclipse plot device in "Prisoners of the Sun." Thundering typhoons!
Tintin and the lunar eclipse
Wednesday February 20, 2008
Categories: Varia
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Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Here in Fort Worth we got to enjoy the eclipse for a little while! We went to choir practice tonight, and when we came out the moon was almost completely obscured (about 9 p.m.). We had to run a quick errand on the way home so we did get to see the eerie dark shadowy moon for a while, but once we got home and it began to reemerge those pesky clouds spoiled the second half of the show.
The fun part was being with my homeschooled children who suddenly understood all those experiments involving flashlights, a tennis ball, and a basketball in a way that was more concrete than before!
Major clear and windy night tonight; I had the great pleasure of burying my beloved dead cat in the garden as the night sky paid its respects.
"I saw it written and I saw it say, Pink-a Moon is on its way, Pink-a moon. Pink, pink, pink, pink, pink. Pink-a Moon." (Thank you for that, Nick Drake.)
A timely eclipse to save our heroes features in Rider Haggard's enduring adventure yarn King Solomon's Mines!
Perfect viewing conditions in NC as well - cool, but not too cold, and clear as a bell. We let our daughter stay up to watch it (she flaked out about 10:30, before the shadow began to pass away) and we had a grand time photographing it and experimenting with the effects you can create with long exposure times.
I personally don't find the Columbus story very cool. Perhaps if he hadn't set a standard for mistreatment and exploitation of the natives in the first place, he wouldn't have resorted to base trickery in the first place. It's not like his Wookie innocently followed the scent of raw meat and got their party caught up in a large net. It's too bad that Columbus didn't have better ethical programming than C-3PO.
I am sorry that I missed the eclipse, though.
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