So last night was one of those optical illusion moonrises -- where the moon sits all fat and gaping on the horizon for so much longer and seems to dwarf the trees and streetlights. One of the two things I remember from studying physics is that nobody can explain why the moon looks so much bigger when it's on the horizon -- it doesn't have to do with any physical properties of light, the atmosphere -- and it really does look bigger. I don't remember what the second thing I remember is...
I just finished Bill Bryson's latest book, "A Short History of Nearly Everything." The book is basically split into two parts: part one is how we got here, part two is how we're going to be utterly annihilated at any moment. It's funny because Bryson is at Dartmouth, where I went to college so many years ago -- and one of the pithy little end-of-the-world statements comes from the same professor, John Thorstensen (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~physics/faculty/thorstensen.html), who shared that observation about the moon. We called him "Thor." He was full of gleeful doomsday remarks. I think it comes with the territory of being an astro-physicist. I also remember him making the observation that "if you weren't alive in the sixties, you have no idea how little your government actually cares about you."
Overheard snippet of conversation at the Exxon station: "...section eight. It's guaranteed money. What's your problem?" This from the two boys in the silver mob-car, sweaty necks and arms in their wife-beater t-shirts, cigarette smoke drifting around the open car doors.
The stayings and goings of a Songwriter in Maine
Jud Caswell
