And then I wrote...
by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"
... that I delayed writing this today until the partial eclipse had happened. Should not have bothered. I realize we were in the 85% or so area, but it seemed a bust, after weeks of hype. Cloud cover didn’t help.
I suffer from that disease quite common to older people, called retention deficit disorder, but I think the one in 1979 was more impressive here. I remember a couple of the young photographers at the newspaper set up on the roof to photograph it, after making elaborate plans.
And I remember when my Navy-trained “artful dodger” photographer, unhappy with an eclipse photo, used a flashlight and two round discs, one white and one black, and made a beautiful representation in his darkroom. Drew raves after publication, and we never told!
You younger folks will get another chance to see a partial here, in April of 2024.
I remember as a young lad watching a movie starring Bing Crosby, called “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. “A modern day man was somehow transported back many years, and he knew of the approaching eclipse and so astounded the old timers. I think it was based on a book of the same name. Goggle it if you care.
One thing I did look for was to see if the bees abandoned their work on the golden rod outside my window as it grew darker. They did not. Good to see the bees back this year after they were missing last year. Also, good to hear a cicada now and then.
As someone who retains a land line, I am subjected to lots of those robo calls. I tell folks I know that if they call me, they better start talking fast, or I will have hung up!
Recently, one of the callers started quickly enough that I heard the starting pitch, something to the effect that they had been trying to reach me to remind me that my warranty has expired. I hung up, because the last thing I bought that had a warranty was my 15-year-old car, and that expired a long time ago.
But I can’t help but wonder what she was referring to. “MY” warranty? On my life? I had to get a copy of my birth certificate when the Navy wanted to give me a higher security clearance, and I don’t recall seeing any warranty information on it! Still, at my age... maybe if she calls again I will listen long enough to find out what she’s talking about.
“There is nothing new under the sun,” Shakespeare said.
Diet suggestions to my diabetes group in recent years have encouraged use of a “new” product, quinoa, pronounced keen-wa. Imagine my surprise when reading a book about the early Mississippi River Indians to discover they used it as early as 1050 A.D. It was called goosefoot.
