Here we are, gathered on this bleak Monday, a band of hardy stragglers huddled together in a sheltered corner of the internet. We are the last survivors of Earth’s weekend “Supermoon” encounter.
Saturday evening’s 14% larger-than-normal full moon came as a boon to photographers, lunatics and doomsayers. The full moon has always had some baggage and is regularly blamed for episodes of weird human behavior. The moon’s elliptical orbit brought it to its closest Earth approach at the same time fullness arrived, causing worldwide consternation even though nothing was out of the ordinary.
© Copyright Adrian S. Pye
But theater people already know what great dramatic effects can be wrought with timing and careful manipulation of the lights. And how little those effects will mean if you perform them while the curtain is drawn, as it was here in the Twin Cities on Saturday night.
Still, we live in a particular place and at a specific time when things that are bigger and brighter than normal are revered. We like the concept of “super-ness”, whether it’s applied to football games or french fries. Even a small fragment of extra power is alluring, and some wondered if a close-approach moon might trigger a rash of earthquakes and tsunamis. It didn’t, but it did shake loose an avalanche of online articles about the “Supermoon”, and how there was really nothing to fear.
In the end, paying closer attention to what goes on in the night sky can’t be bad, and I know some learning happened. For example, until I encountered and made myself pay attention to the “Supermoon”, I was unsure if the word “elliptical” had two or three “L’s”. Now I know!
Here’s a nice educational flyer from space.com with more handy information.
Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration
All Supermoon needs now is a song.
Here’s one idea, to the familiar tune of “Moon River”.
Moon … Super! Wider than a mile.
Calamity’s your style … they say.
You seem bigger, you quake trigger.
The closer you look the more we pull away.Space drifter, raising up our tides
Upsetting our insides, don’t scoff!
Our planet is nearing it’s end! It’s chaos you portend.
You’re a lousy friend, Moon – Super! Back off!
Are you unsettled when someone stands too close?
Trail Baboon 
Good morning. Yes, I don’t like my space invaded by someone standing too close. I think I need at least a couple of feet between me and another person to feel comfortable.
I’m not feeling too comfortable this morning because I just got a new computer and I have a lot to learn. It’s a Mac and I always had PCs. If I seem a little crazed this morning, it’s probably due to my problems learning to use this computer and not due to lunar madness.
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Jim Just ask it, the Mac will answer most anything you ask it. I am a Mac user for about 5 years now. I was computer ignorant before Macs. Gosh I don’t like anyone too close either.
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Thanks for the advice, Steven. I will start asking my Mac questions, but I hope it doesn’t hear when things go wrong and I say a few things that it might not want to hear.
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I think, Jim, that you should get an iPhone now, one of the new ones that has that gal Siri inside it. She’s really clever about answering questions, and I’ll bet she knows Mac real well. Meanwhile, don’t worry. You sound a lot like you used to when you were just another Windows guy.
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When you learn it, you will be in love.
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i bet you’ll like it. bet your kids know the tricks to get it going.
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Jim, there is a learning curve, but once you get it, IT IS SO MUCH EASIER!
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I bought a PC laptop the last time I got a new computer, a) because it was half the price and b) because then I’d be using the same system at home and work, but I do miss Mac! Everything was so simple to find. PC hides files in odd places whenever I’m not paying enough attention during saves/downloads, very annoying.
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Thanks for all the comments and advice. I need it.
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I’ve had a Mac for about 6 months and I like many things but i have had the opposite experience from CG. When I download, I don’t quite know where things go, especially pictures. I also REALLY miss the bar at the bottom where I can see all the things that are open. Once, when things started really lagging, I tried to shut everything down and Safari wouldn’t close. It turned out that I had 47 iterations of Safari open but couldn’t see them.
Still learning here.
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nice poem to start the day dale,
the only time getting really close gets me is when it is accompanied by bad breath. in dealing with european and chinese the culture is different and close is relative and amplified. there are some parts of chinese diet or grooming or both that leads to tough conversations in close proximity. i just got back form an international show where i ran into lots of opportunities to chec my theories and they still hold up.
big old moon
hiding hind the clouds
not crying out too loud to me
you big faker
you news taker
if a moon falls in the forest
where no on can see
big old moon
we all anticipate
the news it overrates your deal
so next time you enlarge
of the clouds take charge
ride that celestial barge
big old moon be real
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Nice. 🙂
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tim, we’re all wondering . . . did you do game night or did you catch Loudon Wainwright?
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game night but loudan was on bob edwards this morning and i got my fix. i sure enjoy him. his new autobiographical recording he is touring on has phenominal stuff on it. http://www.theconnextion.com/loudonwainwright/loudonwainwright_index.cfm
double lifetime with ramblin jack elliot is a blow your face off number . a song in c is fantastic and my meds is a riot along witha duet called i remember sex he does with dame edna.
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It really depends on a number of things. How well do I know the person, how much do I like the person, personal hygiene and bad breath all factor into my comfort level. I have a musician friend who I like very much but who simply has awful breath; I try to keep him at some distance. Unfortunately he’s a soft spoken person, and my hearing is compromised, so sometimes in order to hear what he’s saying I get closer than is comfortable for me. It’s one of those situations where I sometimes wonder whether I should tell him about this breath. I think most people from time to time have bad breath, but with him it seems a perpetual state of affairs.
I have a couple of other friends I don’t like getting very close to because they wear Patchouli oil. I was not crazy about Patchouli oil during the hippie heydays when it was popular, and now when it seems an anachronism, a whiff from the past, if you will, I like it even less. It’s embarrassing to admit that something so minor really gets in the way of how much I enjoy these two friends.
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Margaret – I’m so glad to hear you say this. Patchouli oil drives me around the bend. In fact, just this past weekend, I asked to be re-seated half way through our meal at a local restaurant because a woman came in drenched in it and was seated at the table next to us. ISH!
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Patchouli is one scent where less really is more. A LOT less. As in, one drop in a full bathtub. The Alchemist at the Renaissance Festival sells a rose-patchouli essential oil blend which is probably one drop patchouli to about 30 drops of rose ( and that in about an ounce of carrying oil). It’s very nice, about as subtle as patchouli is capable of being.
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The woman at the restaurant must have had the recipe backwards. She had one drop of bath water to a tub of Patchouli!
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Back in the sixties, I worked in an art supply store. The employees there referred to patchouli oil as “eau d’ hip” and when a customer came in reeking of it (patchouli always reeks), we would scramble to foist that customer on each other. It’s even more unbearable than potpourri-scented gift shops.
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I think people who wear patchouli may become patchouli-aroma immune. A college pal was fond of the stuff and it seemed to progress from a slight whiff when you were nearby to “oy, that makes me sneeze” amounts over a period of time. Pal has (thankfully) mostly given up on the stuff.
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I don’t know what Patchouli oil is. However we were at a show yesterday and someone around us had a very strong perfume. I’ve smelled it before and it almost takes my breath away.
(By the way, saw ‘Spring Awakening’ at the Rarig Center, U of M. Amazing show!).
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Strong perfume is awful. While in the TCU, two of the African nurses wore exotic perfumes and I really could not tolerate them getting close to me; it made me nauseated. Don’t know why they didn’t have a no-scent policy in a place like that.
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It’s so interesting to hear that others don’t like the smell of patchouli oil either. I’ve never liked it but I always felt like a heretic or something if I said anything about it. I’m so glad to hear there are others who don’t like it either.
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like wow man
never noticed..ya know
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msn.com has some cool photos too:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/06/11564767-your-views-of-the-supermoon?lite
As PJ said, depends on the person. Usually if a NEW person gets in to close, I find myself backing away a bit, especially if they’re very tall. But if it’s close friends and family, I assume they want to tell me something that not everyone should hear, so “come on, let’s hear it”. I would be fine in Europe, I think, just might have to adjust expectations.
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Rise and BACK OFF Baboons!
I am a personal space kind of gal. I like my own little bubble until I am familiar with the people around me. I don’t like to be grabbed and hugged, although once I am used to a particular person or group I am affectionate. (I especially became stand-offish in my Child Protection Days, when I had to investigate the persistant head lice complaints! The school was mandated to report persistant head lice after 3 or 4 repeated “findings” on the same child. I would scratch my head for days after those investigations).
That said, I’ve noticed of late that moon has been lovely. If this is a result of the geographic placement of the moon, I like it. The only problem with a full moon is that it does seem to affect the mental health of some humans, so at work we feel barraged by strange circumstances.
Krista, of the mighty morel mushroom from Sunday, my rain gauge held 3 inches and one green worm after the weekend rains. I tried to mow the front lawn last night, but it defeated me with moisture and density, killing the lawnmower motor and leaving me panting. So this morning, it looks even worse than when I began the job at 6pm last night. Maybe this evening the weather and the grass will cooperate. Unfortunately, I have found NO morels in the yard.
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Just another baboon with an immorel lawn. Mine too.
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Snicker. That morel we found was certainly immorel.
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Head lice are certainly capable of psychological warfare. I am scratching my head just from reading your post. I, too, appreciate good personal boundaries between myself and others, except for the cats and the dog and the husband, of course.
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A note from Daughter’s school that lice has been found (again) in the classroom is enough to make me start feeling itchy and tickle-y. Hate those critters.
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like wow man pyranate a 2000 man
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Snorting tea at “Rise and BACK OFF Baboons!”
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Morning all. My space bubble is actually a lot smaller than it used to be; I attribute a lot of this to the time I spent in China. The Chinese do not have the same concept of personal space that we have here. The baby and I (& the other families who were part of our group) were a source of fascination and amazement to the Chinese; more than once we were surrounded by locals, sometimes 5 and 6 deep. Touching strangers is also not the big cultural taboo there that it is here. We even had one little old Chinese woman yank back the diaper (before I realized what was evening happening!) to see if the baby was a boy or a girl!
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I get it, Sherrilee. Despite what people are saying today about the reticent Japanese style greeting, when my family moved there in 1949 foreigners (gaijin) were still enough of an oddity that we children were constantly being handled and touched. It was the first time many Japanese had ever met a gaijin. Kids would crowd us on the playground (yes, 5 or 6 deep!) pawing at our hair and faces. Grandparents would touch us too. Strangers on the street. It was not fun at all for a shy kid. People would talk about us in our presence as though we were inanimate things. Payback was that we understood every word and when we protested out loud, everyone would back off about 4 paces still trapping us inside the donut hole. That was another era to be sure. It changed dramatically by the ’60’s and is not like that at all any more.
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This Anonymous would be Robin.
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What happened to me? Where did I go?
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We were just warned of this by a teacher at my daughter’s school. She is the main staff leader for the trip my daughter’s class is making next month to China, and she told me that both my kid and my husband, who are quite tall, might be looked upon as a bit odd, and that they might have folks asking to touch them or take pictures with them. Should be an interesting trip for them!
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tie quay
means too much.
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As I grow older I grow more tolerant of people who invade my physical space and less tolerant of strangers who invade my psychic space by criticizing me for things I have done (or things they imagine I have done) that they don’t like.
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Admittedly, I have fairly rigid personal-space boundaries for a neurotypical. Arms-length is about the closest I’m comfortable getting to another human being, no matter how much I like them. I avoid touch when I can do so without hurting other people’s feelings, but some of my friends suffer from an inexplicable obsession with farewell hugs, so I put up with far too many of those. I think they’re under the impression hugs are good for me for some poorly-defined reason . Thank Goddess none of them are kissers, I really don’t think I could cope with that. I do so wish Americans would adopt the Japanese bow–highly nuanced and totally hands-off, what could possibly be better?
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dont go visit the eskimos
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You know that kid who compulsively kicks the seat in front of him in theaters and sports stadiums? I get seated in front of that kid every time. Or if I manage to avoid him, I’ll be seated next to the kid waving a large plastic toy around.
Reminder – Anne Fadiman at the Highland Park library tonight.
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Sadly, not gonna make it.
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you can turn around and tell him to knock it off ..real loud. only takes once
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I come from a long line of stoic Norwegian Minnesotans – even if we’re going to “snuggle up” for warmth, we still keep a hands width between us. I have had to adjust my comfort zone, though, as Daughter is definitely a snuggler – a much higher need for physical contact than her mother has, that’s for sure (I’m her mom, so I don’t begrudge her this…but I do sometimes find myself telling the furry critters “I am all ‘touched out’ – no belly rubs for you, I am in the zone of ‘no touchies the animate objects’…”) I’m kinda with CG – a nice, distanced, Japanese-style bow to show esteem would be fine by me.
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Morning–
I’m a snuggler at heart. But only if I know you well. I most certainly do not want strangers in my space. Farm auctions being the exception; you gotta get right in there and wiggle your way to the front if you want a chance at the goodies.
I saw a print ad for the new Mazda CX5 featuring something called ‘Skyactiv Technology’ which doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the sky. Except cash in the latest full moon?
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ben i dont think you should let people wiggle around in front of you while they touch your goodies even at farm actions.
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I’m not so uncomfortable with someone being too close – if they are a very good friend.
I was recently thinking about this topic because I’m extremely uncomfortable in stores. I like to look at the products and read the label before I put something in my basket. It always seems as though I’m the first one there and I’ve got the place to myself, but within seconds there is this throng around whatever it is that I’m reading. I’ve even been pushed out of the way! So, I guess my answer is no – I really don’t like it when people stand too close. It seems to me that other people don’t have a similar need for a large personal space. I always feel crowded at grocery store check-outs.
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OT: for those of you who requested a picture of the morel mushroom, if you have access to Facebook, I posted one of my pictures there yesterday. If you search for me, Krista Wilkowske, on Facebook, you should be able to see one of the pictures. My friend, Trudi, posted another picture that someone took of her holding the monster. My friend, Michelle, knew of a contest in Nicollet to find the biggest morel. She took the morel in and had it measured and weighed. At the time she took it in, it was the biggest that had been registered. I think the contest goes for a week. I’ll try to find out if “our” morel won and let you know. I have some other pictures that I could e-mail but it will have to wait because they’re on my iPod and I need to do that from home.
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I sent a friend request because when I click on photos, I don’t see anything.
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Look in my wall photos. I don’t have many photos up. I shared another picture of Trudi holding the (im)moral on Facebook today. I’ll add a few more when I get home.
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I can see the big honker now. Yum.
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are you sure youre not on bens facebook site?
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Yep, I did too.
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Ditto.
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This morel is becoming legendary! Like some sort of mythical forest creature. The Sasquatch of fungi. Might require an entire post sometime – I can just see it now, the mighty morel fighting for its life, as the struggle to bag it raged on… 🙂
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I was just at Seward coop this afternoon and the morels were something like $47 a pound! Like eating gold.
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This is Robin again. I seem to have been erased.
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We used to be able to collect them and sell them at the St. Peter Food Coop but someone cracked down on the Coop and told them they have to have a foraging license. A few years ago they were paying $25/pound for them!
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how much is a foraging lisence?
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Snuggling and being a “touchy-feely” kind of person are tangentially on-topic from Dale’s question, I think, but tangential is usually close enough for us. 🙂 One of the most confusing, terrible and fascinating experiences of my life was getting back in the dating game when I was in my 60s. I’ll briefly share two revelations that came to me as a result of that.
First, the person we are when we are in the company of some other person is not necessarily the person we will be in the company of someone else. Some things don’t change, I suppose, and yet different people call out different responses in us. One quick example would be that it is easier to be kind and generous when in the company of someone who is kind and generous.
The second revelation was more personal and was much more surprising. I was frequently told by my former wife that I was physically cold and unloving, particularly when it came to those little gestures like goodbye or hello kisses. I lived with that truth for some 30 years. Imagine my astonishment when I found, while dating, that I am the total opposite of that . . . a real touchy-feely kind of guy. I don’t push physical to the point of being annoyingly clingy, I think, but it was actually shocking to learn that my former coldness was apparently the result of my relationship to one person.
Perhaps the only good thing I can say about dating is that being intimately friendly with different people gives us the chance to learn more about who we really are.
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First sentence should read “off-topic.:
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That’s good insight Steve…
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I’m thinking that, although I see it was hard, you are a lucky guy to have discovered all this, and that whatsername is now Erstwife!
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Watch out, Barbara, the next time I see you! You are in line to get a big hug 😉 .
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I’m a mixed bag, personal space wise. I am uncomfortable if people stand too close when talking but love hugs and take ’em where I can get ’em. I have loved watching the videos of people offering free hugs around the world and wished I would find myself near someone with such a sign. I think it was after the St Patrick’s Day hoopla in St Paul that #2 son and I were walking back to the bus stop when a few young people approached with the Free Hugs sign. I took full advantage.
The standing-close-while-talking touches the fact that #2 son is on the autism spectrum. I have always had trouble with eye contact myself although, oddly, my son doesn’t. Sometimes, after talking to someone for a number of minutes I will realize that I have been looking at their mouth instead of their eyes. I can look at someone’s eyes much better while they are talking but when I am talking, my mind goes blank if I look into the eyes. It’s as though he/she is boring into my brain with his/her gaze. (OT I wish he/she/they would come up with an acceptable construct for the his/her/their business – I’ve mixed it up here because I don’t like either option)
I feel uncomfortable watching characters in movies having a heated conversation with their heads 3-4 inches apart. It just doesn’t look natural to me.
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Me too! In Woman On the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy, she had come up with a lovely lexicon – tey (he/she), ter (her/him)…
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There are numerous options for nongendered pronouns out of the trans* community. Ze and zir are pretty popular, from what I can tell. When writing I go for “s/he”, but unfortunately it’s impossible to pronounce!
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In this group, at least, I will test out using either CG’s or BiR’s words: tey/ter or ze/zir and see how it goes.
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This is just a huge issue with me, related to my fm or whatever syndrome I have. It would take too long to explain why, but space is sometimes an overwhelming issue, a neurological issue. Cannot be in crowds. Don’t want to be touched, especially unexpectedly. Perfumes and scents make me ill. With my bad hands I do not want to shake hands, especially with testosterone-driven people. Crowded space puts me into fight-or-flight. I trip over things, bump into things, drop things.
Nope, stay out of my space. Or rather, I will do everything I can to avoid being anywhere near your space.
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That’s unfortunate, Clyde, mostly because it means that so many people will misinterpret you. The culture expects us to shake hands in many situations.
My best outdoors buddy is a doctor who is almost obsessed about cleanliness. He long ago realized that people are going to shake his hand or feel bad because he has inexplicably rebuked them. So he shakes. But after shaking hands he smiles and holds his hands behind his back until he gets the chance to nip into a rest room where he can scrub down again.
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Krista and I visited with Clyde at his place last year and had a very good visit. When we we were leaving I forgot about your neurological condition, Clyde, and shook hands with you. I guess it was the kind of kind of hand shake that you can tolerate because you said it wasn’t a problem.
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It is not always an issue. Depends on my pain levels, etc. I do not remember it, so it was not an issue. If I had been bad, I would have demured from a handshake because I know you well enough to say so.
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I’m a hugger, but my current injury to my upper right arm makes for some very awkward hugs at the moment as I’m afraid that people will forget the injury and squeeze too hard. Husband, especially, is apt to forget that he can’t just grab me, or pat me on the shoulder. That said, I don’t wan’t him to forget that I like hugs. Clyde, I have arthritis in my hands, so I can fully appreciate what you must feel when in a flare-up. Some people’s handshakes are uncomfortable even if you don’t have a problem with your hands.
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I’m Italian-American, and we hug. It’s just what we do. I also live in South Florida, among a great many Latinos who are very huggy-kissy even upon meeting you for the first time. I am a lot less put off by close physical proximity than many others, I suppose. But I do have limits, and those limits are severely tested pretty much anytime I’m in line at a Starbucks and I can feel/hear/smell the breathing of the person behind me. As if standing THATCLOSETOME is going to make my transaction go any faster…
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It’s true about standing in lines for check-out. People seem to lose their respect for personal space and crowd right up next to you. I was in a grocery check-out once and I couldn’t even get to the credit card machine to swipe my card because the lady behind me was pushing me forward as she unloaded her items onto the conveyor!
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People walk as they drive and people drive rudely.
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i am always careful on thehello or good bye kiss that no tongue is involved unless i know them real well
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This is doubleyooteeeff, isn’t it?
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She’s gettin’ all informal with us.
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Heheheh! Yup, you’ve outed me, Barbara. I am The Artist Formerly Known as DoubleyooTeeEff. That’s still the name of my blog, but I figured it was a wee bit confusing/annoying for people to have to refer to me by that name, so I changed my user name. Although Tim has already informed me that he will still be using his own preferred way of addressing me (dub) , which is fine by me. I’m easy like Sunday morning, y’all! 🙂
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Nice choice, Holly. How do you do it?
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anna go to etsy for sequins vintage retro
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whoops replied to the wrong baboon
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By now I’m looking forward to these. 🙂
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Uh oh… what will happen if I miss a day?
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Too late, Holly. You’ve got us hooked!
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Get me a dress like Ella was wearing and I might just forgive you for missing one…maybe. 😀
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There was that one day that Jacque went all quiet on us and we survived but we couldn’t go more than a day.
Thanks for Ella and Nat. Funny camera work/staging but they were very cute together.
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Greetings! While I enjoy and need my solitude, I don’t mind being physically close to folks. Between sports, dance and karate you almost have to get used to it. In karate, we do a lot of physical contact in sparring and practicing self defense moves. The owner/teacher loves to playfully “attack” a student and roughhouse a little. Male, female, young or old — he does it to everyone to some extent. He’s like Kato from Pink Panther to keep us on our toes, I think.
The one place i need my space, oddly enough, is in bed. I’ll snuggle for a few minutes, but that’s it. That romantic notion of sleeping tangled up together in bed is gone real quick. When i need to sleep, it’s hands off! Plus, i just get too warm generally.
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Me too – start off together, then off to my bed.
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What is really too cozy is when the dog and the cat both want to snuggle up in bed. My husband and I are both big, tall people, so the extra two creatures make it hard to move or stretch out. The dog has a tendency to growl and snap if she is shoved around as we stretch out. It is also hard to not get too warm with an 16 pound cat sleeping on your feet.
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