At first I thought this was an eclipse reference, but that's not this week.

The kids do actually have that Monday off, too.

Officially, there's no promotion of the Holy Cult of the Eclipse. But every science class, every kid has to make an Earth-Sun-Moon orrery, and the best can be prominently displayed for years. And it's so prominently mentioned in all the emails to parents...

Also going camping, also our public university has this Friday off, seems like a Good one to take off to me. My chaotic work life wouldn't let me leave early though, so I decided to catch up at work by commenting on an eclectic etc.

I'm told that fast food restaurants in California are raising their prices in preparation for the minimum wage rise, so my Holy Sandwich will be more expensive this Good Friday.

Yesterday I played hooky to watch Dune. It was so bad!

Studio fucks murdered it.

And yet three days later it rose as Dune: Messiah.

8: applause!!!

The studio fucks literally murdered the Coyote vs. Roadrunner movie. I'm legit pissed off about that.

Public holiday today and Monday and then we are flying away for a long weekend in Greece the next weekend which should be nice.

Unfortunately, I will probably have to work most of this weekend, even though I'm on leave, because I have two big reports due this week, and the people I've delegated bits of it to can't write worth a shit.

I've been reviewing a pre-IND Briefing Document and the associated proposed protocol synopses that are supposed to go to the FDA at the end of the day, but now I'm done.

10. There's a change.org petition with 20k signatures, and it'll get leaked eventually, one hopes. I'm pretty bummed that they pulled a bunch of looney tunes from HBO, including all the best Chuck Jones work.

13 to 12.

We have today off because Cesar Chavez. It's not a crypto-Easter thing, they don't usually coincide, but having Easter also fall on the trans day of visibility is leading to predictable jokes about eggs.

Someone crashed into the "Safety Corridor" sign.

Why doesn't the Vermont government pay Noah Kahan to sing about other states?

Antisemitism.

Speaking of that and the holiday, in Ohio the missal reminds you that you can't blame the Jews then or the ones now. In Pennsylvania, I think they must figure they have less of a problem.

Re: the recent discussion of places named Swastika, we were a bit startled to come across a picture of a train painted with a swastika logo (albeit an other-handed one) in a book of historical pics* from northern New Mexico. Turns out that was the logo of the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain and Pacific RR. Mostly likely derived from the coal town of Swastika (now Brilliant since WWII) as its line was called the Swastika Line. Despite the grandiose name, the RR only operated in the vicinity of the coal fields around Raton and Cimarron. Presumably the name was derived form the symbol's use by the Navajo. although the town is a fair bit east of the what I am familiar with as Navajo lands; it is just east of the Sangre de Cristo near the Colorado line, Ted Turner owns the whole townsite now, and many miles around it.

*Was looking through it at a B&B on a historical ranch we were staying at near Cimarron which I will plug as it is pretty much the most accommodating and beautiful such establishment I've stayed at in the States; Casa del Gavilan It is nearly completely surrounded by Philmont Scout Ranch.

Heebster, are you at a state park? For the eclipse I tried for a day pass to Enchanted Rock but as expected that was just a day of phone holds and failed callbacks and we ended up with a pass at Dinosaur Valley SP for now (seeing if I can snag a cancellation at Colorado Bend or similar). I assume you have viewing plans.

Presumably the name was derived form the symbol's use by the Navajo. although the town is a fair bit east of the what I am familiar with as Navajo lands; it is just east of the Sangre de Cristo near the Colorado line, Ted Turner owns the whole townsite now, and many miles around it.

Interesting! I doubt there's any Navajo connection, as you are correct that that is well to the east of Navajo country. I'll have to check the Placenames of NM book I have when I get home to see if it discusses it. I would guess the name is just from Victorian orientalism but I'll see what I can find out.

That area would have been Jicarilla Apache or Ute. I don't know if they used swastika designs but it's possible. The Jicarilla were known for their basketry (the name refers to a type of basket), which is a medium well-suited to the rotational symmetry of the swastika.

If basket-making leads to Naziism, that would fit. I was near where Longaberger was.

I for one think more companies should make their headquarters look like their products.

Found a local Santa Fe historian who says this in an article on the swastika in New Mexico.

Located five miles west of Raton, N.M., there once was a town named Swastika. The St. Louis, Rocky Mountain and Pacific Companies owned the little hamlet. The railroad conglomerate named the town because of its Sanskrit meaning for of good fortune.

But did not see a reference.
https://historyinsantafe.com/a-much-maligned-symbol/

25: I was all about drawing imaginary maps. One time I turned my dresser top into a map of an office park based on that concept. So a toric Timex building etc.

Here's the entry for Swastika in Robert Julyan's The Place Names of New Mexico:

The word swastika comes from Sanskrit and means "good fortune," an appropriate name for the coal-mining town the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific Co. established here as a sister community to Brilliant (see entry), a mile N. The two camps co-existed until 1935, when Brilliant closed; during WWI [sic] Swastika changed its name to Brilliant II. But by then the demand for coal was dwindling, and now both camps are abandoned.

The entry for Brilliant doesn't add much of substance.

Stormcrow, definitely get this book if you come across it while you're in the region. It has tons of information and includes a lot of very obscure places.

Thanks for the rec; I'll look for it. There's a great map store, Travelbug, that seems to have a lot of local stuff, decent chance they have it.

29,30: Am pleased that the place I'm staying has a copy of the WPA guide to New Mexico. A nice snapshot from just 20+ years into statehood. Of course sometimes a bit jarring:
Whatever the partisanship of the people today, politics remains one of the favorite preoccupations, for the Latin temperament delights in the special kind of intrigue and excitement that politics affords.

Wise words.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russia-bans-gasoline-exports-6-months-march-1-2024-02-27/

Wholesale fuel prices in Russia have risen since the start of the year. According to Feb. 26 prices on the St Petersburg international mercantile exchange (SPIMEX), 92-octane gasoline had risen by 22% since Jan 1, while 95-octane gasoline was up by 32%. Since the announcement of the export ban, 92 has fallen 3.3%.

It seems like hitting refineries is a lot more effective than economic sanctions.

34 But it also punishes American consumers?

Lots of American consumers are assholes.

Surely our good friends in Saudi Arabia will make up the difference.

I joke, but "don't give the Arabs any leverage" probably really is pretty high up on the Biden Administrations list of strategic priorities right now.

Did someone break the blog and then fix it? Thanks.

That was me. I probably shouldn't be allowed near it.

Just keep you away from the back end.

Said the actress to the bishop

Heebster, are you at a state park? For the eclipse I tried for a day pass to Enchanted Rock but as expected that was just a day of phone holds and failed callbacks and we ended up with a pass at Dinosaur Valley SP for now (seeing if I can snag a cancellation at Colorado Bend or similar). I assume you have viewing plans.

Aargh. I'm in mental agony over this. Under normal conditions, we're about 45 minutes from the edge of totality.

My friends are either going out days ahead of time or saying the traffic will be so bad that you'll be stuck for hours, either on little country roads going west or I35 being the only major N-S artery.

I just can't evaluate how bad the traffic will actually be! Like, can I outsmart everyone by finding a strip mall in San Antonio? I guess you really have to get into nature? argh.

I don't see why you need to be out in nature. Wouldn't the moon block the sun just as well from a strip mall parking lot?

A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and a strip mall parking lot.

I'm thinking ambient electric lights? Would that make it less special?

Just shoot the lights.

how long does it take to go 30 miles on country roads if traffic is going 0 mph?

Should we walk?

Is there a mass bike ride option?

Should we walk?

As the old song notes

I said to the brakeman, can't you speed up a bit?
Said he, You can walk, if you don't like it
Said I, Old man, I'd take your dare
But the folks don't expect me till the train gets there

My rec would be to find a way to get into the totality, and "nature" (aside from the sky) is optional. The only totality we were in was in 2017 at my son's then place in Oak Ridge TN which was just inside the edge of totality. We were going to drive someplace more in the middle but in the event just stayed at his place and it was pretty good. (Enough so that we are doing a long drive to get to this one.)

We are staying the night before in San Angelo (not in totality) and have a several hour drive to the state park(unless weather makes us head elsewhere). Coming in from the west like that I do not anticipate issues; getting down to Austin to meet friends afterwards may be more trying. After the last one I enjoyed studying the Google map traffic patterns--biggest issues were interstates leading back to urban areas, so in Texas I think I-35 back up to Dallas/Ft. Worth and I-10 and US 290 back to Houston will be awful. But I think back roads into the hills would work. Especially if you bring a picnic afterwards and hang out for a while.

Before I got the state park pass, my plan was one of the small town parks--most have something set up,. Side of the road probably even works, but the degree to which a lot of the Hill Country is aggressively enforced private land made me leery of counting on that...

Bottom line: Give it a try (says the man not facing a day with 4 kids potentially trapped in a car).

And unless I am misremembering where you live, you should be much closer than 45 minutes from the edge of totality. No need to go to the middle.

See map here:
https://nationaleclipse.com/states/2024-total-solar-eclipse-texas.html

That says it's 99.88 obscuration at our house... is that close enough to feel pretty amazing?

Also how long will you be in austin for?

55: Probably not long, just the one night. It's complicated by the fact that we are house-sitting and have constraints on getting back to Santa Fe. We were going to just hightail it back to New Mexico but old friends unexpectedly turned up in Austin to visit their son+ eclipse I will reach out via email to see if anything could work.

Yeah, not sure if 99.89 is close enough for the effect. It would probably be quite good there, but just don't know how it compares; I've only been in either totality of say 50% which is quite different.

Expect hours. The last eclipse went through Utah and the national parks were overrun. One hour drive took eight hours kind of thing. We were at 92% totality which was pretty great.

Oh jesus. That's exactly what I'm scared of.

But this is the kind of guilt trip that I keep seeing!

If I were you I'd go to the totality in the direction that I thought would have the least people, with relatively little concern for the scenery. For example, my first idea in your case (if I remember right where you live) would be to go to the small town of 3k people 15 miles northwest of you and hope that it's too inconvenient from the cities and also not as scenic as the lake to your west and so will be not as completely insane as other places. Of course parking will still be a big problem which I don't have a great idea for.

We had around 95% here for the last eclipse, and at 90% it's literally not noticeable at all, but 95% was already kinda cool, so I expect that at 99.89 it'll be pretty interesting. But everyone says there's a big difference if you have totality vs. not.

I don't want Carly Simon to write another song about how I'm an asshole, so I'm avoiding any total eclipse even if I don't need to fly to see it.

I thought that song was about me!

Were you even born when it was released?

I was born that decade.

I was at least born.

I have family who live on the totality centerline so we're going to stay with them this weekend. In theory a 7 hour drive there; I don't know if there will be traffic going there on Saturday afternoon? Leaving is going to suck since there's exactly one major highway back to the east that is probably also the primary route people will take back to NYC, unless the NYC people all go to northern NY instead of western. I'm expecting to have to drive all night and get home around 4am.

Maybe if I'm paying attention to how outrageous the traffic reports are over the weekend, that will help inform whether or not I want to be anywhere in the vicinity on the day of.

I think if it was a two hour drive to cover 10 miles, I'd be okay doing that. That feels like a day trip at least. If it's more like four hours each way, that seems a lot worse.

It looks like it's about 13 miles to the path of totality.

For example, my first idea in your case (if I remember right where you live) would be to go to the small town of 3k people 15 miles northwest of you and hope that it's too inconvenient from the cities and also not as scenic as the lake to your west and so will be not as completely insane as other places.

That city is kinda a tourist trap, so it would probably be a mess, unfortunately.

Maybe there's somewhere to pull over well before you get to the town? The map of the totality is:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1Hnwl6iLY8XveFnBixXx9IkY8mys&hl=en_US&ll=29.953551147570806%2C-98.0338041589974&z=12

Of course if you're right at the border you only have a brief totality, but I think some totality is better than none.

Not sure what the rules are on breweries and kids where you are, but the breweries before you get to that town seem like they could work.

What you really want is some friends who happen to live in suburbs in the right direction...

And who have the traditional chicken wings for post-viewing snacks.

I'm looking at Montpelier vs St Johnsbury. I guess both are likely to be overrun.

I think you misspelled "overcast."

IMO, totality is everything.

We had some traffic on US95 in Idaho in 2017, but it wasn't a deal breaker.

There's a brewery just inside the totality, and they're having an eclipse party. They're asking for RSVPs (at 500 already) but also saying first come/first serve, and their parking lot holds 150 cars. They open at 10 am. The eclipse is at 2.

But what does that mean? Get there at 6 am? Get there at 10 am?

Maybe I should just try to find a picnic table scenic overlook and get there by 6 am?

Reddit with a map of all the picnic areas in Texas!

Maybe it's worth aiming for a proper rest area, with a bathroom. Get there by six am. Hang out with the freeloaders. Leave by 2:15. Eat sandwiches and vending machine food. Maybe?

None of those are close, though.

This is very stressful.

Attn. (esp.) Doug:
https://inmoscowsshadows.buzzsprout.com/1026985/14799429-in-moscow-s-shadows-141-sex-drugs-and-rock-roll-kinda

We're expecting 300k+ visitors in county of 140k people. But at least the football stadium is set up to be able to handle a lot of parking, which will take some of the pressure off other places.

If it helps you to relax, the Earth is blocking your view of the sun right now and that's pretty much the same thing.

78: Ah, sorry I brought it up...

I really do not think you are going to get those huge delays just going into the hills above your place. Biggest jams in 2017 were out west in areas with few roads but sort of nearby large population centers. So I-5 in Oregon and I-25 in central Wyoming (and apparently Utah), In 2017 we snuck out of Oak Ridge immediately after the eclipse on back roads through the Cumberland Mts. and they were absolutely deserted. Even the interstate when we got to it was not so bad (but admittedly not the preferred route for any pop. center to the totality--I-40 back from east Tennessee to Nashville was bad as was I-85 in South Carolina (but they cleared up faster than the out west ones did).

I have been checking Texas SP day passes but for the most part other than ones in extreme NE Texas they are booked for that day (I'm guessing you may have an account if you camp in them). The one exception seems to be McKinney Falls which is right outside of Austin. maybe there's a catch? Or maybe just too close and no one thinking of it?

I think you misspelled "overcast."

Actually, the long term forecast currently says cloudy in Texas, clear in Vermont. I'll believe it when I see it, though.

83: Yeah, I was waiting for something like that to happen...save heebie the stress.

What is this fucking bullshit .heic format google wants to turn images into

Fuck April Fools' Day.

It looks like it's just barely touching the northern corner of Vermont. I don't know if my family is driving 100 miles north (101, to be exact) from their house to see it, but I'm not joining them. I went to college in Rochester, New York. If I had started planning over a month ago and been willing to take time off for this, maybe I could have looked up some friends in the area and imposed on them, but at this point, I think I'm going to miss it.

This one would be convenient for me to see with my in-laws house in California. Well, they probably won't be alive by then, but we might still have their house.

I think I'm going to rent a car and drive four hours to Plattsburgh.

59: what? At 92% totality we were making shadow boxes and looking at the crescent sun (indirectly) and taking pictures of the crescent shadows. 92% was a lot of fun.

(We didn't go to Idaho for totality bc Pebbles was a baby.)

Fuck this forecast.

Fuck heat. Fuck humidity. Fuck sunshine.

Good, tell all the NYC people to go north and stay off the Thruway.

The I90 part that is. 87 who cares.

Fuck Kyrill.

Fuck that guy with the broken muffler.

The images coming out of Al Shifa hospital are truly horrific, like Mariupol + Bucha. I didn't think I could be shocked anymore after the last 6 months but here we are and with no end in sight.

Fuck whoever didn't camber this road.

I'm driving to upstate NY with a friend, but now this projected snow storm means we probably won't be able to avoid traffic by driving up on Friday.

Fuck this person and their ugly rat dog.

||

I spent almost exactly a week sitting in Dad's hospital room with Mom, working remotely from there or the waiting room. I'm back home now and other relatives are tagging in. They did a small surgery on Friday, tracheostomy, so he could breathe without horrible tubes in his throat. However, since then he has been even less responsive than before, which sucks. I'm reflecting how while the procedure may have been quick and simple, no general anesthesia is a small matter, especially for someone in their 70's or more. They're working on transferring him to a long-term/rehab acute care hospital. A relative who's a different-specialty surgeon at an elite hospital elsewhere thinks the care has been great & they have covered all their bases.

|>

I'm sorry Minivet; that's really sad, and hoping for future recovery.

Yes, I'm sorry to hear that he is still not responsive. I hope the rehab hospital can help. I do know people who have been greatly helped in a rehab hospital.

And the one they're touring today has a neurological focus.

Is Lily Gladstone enrolled Blackfeet now?

Looks like no. One of the comments expresses confusion because she's not enrolled, and that comment is liked by Lily Gladstone herself.

Oh, Minivet, I'm so sorry.

So sorry Minivet, ugh.

(And I now I wish I'd read what was going on in this thread before dropping random questions into it.)

Very sorry to hear that Minivet

My daughter in Burlington VT gets full ecllips- over 3 minutes -- from home. She was totally psyched when she thought she would see it before anyone else in the U.S., but it turns out it reaches Texas first and Vermont/New Hampshire/Vermont last.

By the way, who's the idiot who scheduled an eclipse for the Lake Ontario/Erie coastline? Higher odds of rainor snow from Syracuse to Toledo there than literally anywhere else. I have complained to the manager.

Thanks, all.

I will endeavor to stop killing threads.

Leave that to Zuckerberg.

During the 2017 eclipse, I dropped Rory off for her first year of college at a school within the totality. She's now a planetarium director, so something something stars in alignment. This one I will be a few hours away from the path of totality but will probably go check it out with my new colleagues in a public defender gig.

Is that a type of sailboat?

113: gawd, I feel old hearing that Rory is a planetarium director. Are you working as a public defender now?

I hope everyone in the ROC was missed by the earthquake.

Not missed, but unharmed. Thank you.

Cue aftershock.

Well take care if there are more aftershocks.

I strap on my hard hat as we type.

Lieberman managed to write a post-death op-ed, but maybe someone else finished it for him.