Hi Una!

I'm wondering if we can use some old eclipse beliefs to do some good? I'm looking at this one in particular:

The Batammaliba, who live in Benin and Togo, used a solar eclipse as a teaching moment. According to their legends, an eclipse of the Sun meant that the Sun and the Moon were fighting and that the only way to stop them from hurting each other was for people on Earth to resolve all conflicts with each other.

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Use pinhole projection, people. It's super safe. Your back is to the sun!

But Little Tommy will get impatient for his turn and look over his shoulder and squint up at the sun, and the teachers will be defusing squabbles over whose turn it is and showing the kids Yet Again how it works, and won't catch Little Tommy before he gets retinal burns.

Or, if they've made all their own viewers, Little Billy won't be able to get his to work and won't wait for help and will just look at the sun himself.

I don't blame the admins for wishing this was happening on a weekend when it would be the parents' fault for kids being kids.

I just checked, and I'm going to get 89.7% of hte eclipse from my office window, just before lunch. Cool.

I like that, Jesse. Doesn't give us a lot of time to resolve all conflicts, though.

I think eclipse is what tells us it's time to resolve conflicts, not that we have to have it done by then?

Ah, yes, that makes sense.

A number of roadwork projects are shutting down that day - they're worried about accidents ... which I can kind of understand. The people who drive down the highway at top speed talking on their phones will probably be among those who will try to view the eclipse while driving.

In kind-of-related news, I saw someone had a sign asking for a sign if Trump should be impeached ... blocking out the sun or something. Maybe in the next week.

I should not post this on FB, because of family reasons, but some white people sure put a lot of energy into making sure we don't rename shit named after Confederate generals. Did you know that Robert E. Lee was a scout during the Mexican-American war and saved lives?

I didn't! And I still don't give a shit!

some white people sure put a lot of energy into making sure we don't rename shit named after Confederate generals. Did you know that Robert E. Lee was a scout during the Mexican-American war and saved lives?

Man, I had some lady go off on me on a friend's post, saying that I need to study this country's history before I open my mouth, and we need to stop waving PC flags (I did NOT reply that she seems okay with waving Nazi flags), there are more important things to discuss than war heroes who have been dead for 100 years, and this isn't real.

When I replied that white supremacy is very real and is a very real danger, her response devolved into an unpunctuated ASSCAPS wall of text that culminated in "BUT I HAVE ALOT MORE EDUCATION THAN YOU DO I AM SURE SO I AM NOT GOING TO READ THIS ANY MORE WHY DONT YOU SHUT UP". (I swear to god that is an exact quote.)

I feel bad for my friend whose post this occurred on. It's awful to see your friends reveal their total batshit ASSCAPS crazy.