Random facts about eclipses. Interesting words. Denmark. Transfers. Fires and the environment.

 Well, we didn’t get to see the eclipse from our house, which is what usually happens with celestial phenomena. I have since learnt that the three way alignment where the moon passes directly between the sun and the earth is known as  a syzygy. There you go!

In ancient times the Chinese reportedly believed that the cosmic order was being threatened by dragons, while in India the disruption was blamed on a demon’s disembodied head. We know better than that now but still we flock to places where we can stare in wonder. It was a Greek philosopher, Anaxagoras, who first suggested a scientific explanation, after he witnessed an eclipse in 478 BC. So we’ve known about it really for quite some time. And good old Columbus is said to have used his knowledge of an approaching eclipse o frighten Jamaica’s Indigenous people into giving him food after they had refused.

Here’s a picture os a spectroscope designed to look at the sun, the sort of machine used by the astronomers Pierre Janssen of France and Norman Lockyer of Britain when they discovered the element helium during the 1868 solar eclipse over India.

So syzygy is my latest new word. And here’s something about Scandinavian vocabulary from the letters page of the Guardian:

‘Confusion over the names of mealtimes also reigns in Scandinavia. Breakfast in Norway/Sweden is frokost/frukost, but morgenmad(morning food) in Denmark. Lunch in Norway/Sweden is lunsj/lunch, but frokost in Denmark. At least they can all agree on the main meal of the day, which is middag(midday/noon) but served in the early evening.

If attending a wedding party or function in Denmark, don’t be surprised to be served natmad (night food) around midnight. It is used as a friendly indication that the event has come to an end, hence its colloquial name of skrub af mad (fuck-off food).
Gary Calder
Chandler’s Ford, Hampshire”

Apparently Denmark is the place to go to for international marriages, post brexit rules having made such marriages more difficult to arrange in the UK. Here’s link to an article about one couple’s experience.

Here are a couple more cartoons of POTUS  being transferred secretly from plane to plane:

And as wildfires still keep going, the latest grassfire having destroyed houses in the Midlands, here’s an environmentally-based  cartoon:

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!