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i wish i was the moon tonight

3/18/2011

2 Comments

 
i've had the moon on my mind. i have always been fascinated by the night sky... i suppose that's like saying "i like to breathe" ... but, i do enjoy both.
the supermoon http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/18/supermoon-rises-biggest-moon-18-years-occurs-saturday-night/  happening on saturday has me lunar obsessing ever so slightly more than usual... so, this seemed like a good place to collect my favorite moon musings... 
here's some brainy MOON FACTS but, generally i am interested in the silly, crazy or creepy secrets about any topic... so here are some of my favorites: 

-Do you think the full Moon has some unexplainable effect on our behavior? Early psychologists had no doubt about the Moon's effect on our mental states. The "lunatic," (derived from the Latin "luna" or Moon) was separated from the chronically insane, and extra staff were called into the asylums on the occasion of a full Moon. Special allowances were often made before the full Moon. The English laborer Charles Hyde was acquitted on murder charges on the grounds that he was under the spell of the full moon. The American Institute for Climatology concluded, "crimes with a strong psychotic motivation, such as arson, kleptomania, destructive driving, and homicidal alcoholism, all showed peaks when the Moon was full and that cloudy nights offered no protection against this trend." 

-Werewolves have long been said to come out on a full moon. An Eighteenth Century psychologist describes it like this: "The desire to run comes upon them. They leave their beds, jump out of a window, and plunge into a fountain, after the bath, they come out covered with dense fur, walking on all fours, and commence a raid over fields and meadows, through woods and villages, biting all beasts and human beings that come their way. At the approach of dawn, they return to the spring, plunge into it, lose their furry skins, and again regain their deserted beds."  

-Greek authors Aristotle and Plutarch, and Roman authors Apolllonius Rhodius and Ovid all wrote of a group of people called the Proselenes who lived in the central mountainous area of Greece called Arcadia The Proselenes claimed title to this area because their forebears were there "before there was a moon in the heavens." This claim is substantiated by symbols on the wall of the Courtyard of Kalasasaya, near the city of Tiahuanaco, Bolivia, which record that the moon came into orbit around the Earth between 11,500 and 13, 000 years ago, long before recorded history.

-Ages of Flashes: Aristarchus, Plato, Eratosthenes, Biela, Rabbi Levi, and Posidonius all reported anomalous lights on the moon. NASA, one year before the first lunar landing, reported 570+ lights and flashes were observed on the moon from 1540 to 1967.
 -Moons Over My Hammy-A sandwich made popular by Denny's restaurants... makes you feel like an idiot to order it... but, I've been told they're not half bad ... here's how to make your own  How to Make a Sandwich Like Denny's Moons Over My Hammy | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4721586_like-dennys-moons-over-hammy.html#ixzz1Gz8hALqW and... look, NASA likes it... http://www.theonion.com/articles/lateworking-nasa-scientists-discover-moons-over-my,868/

-The most literal meaning of blue moon is when the moon (not necessarily a full moon) appears to a casual observer to be unusually bluish, which is a rare event. The effect can be caused by smoke or dust particles in the atmosphere, as has happened after forest fires in Sweden and Canada in 1950 and 1951,[10] and after the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, which caused the moon to appear blue for nearly two years. Other less potent volcanos have also turned the moon blue. People saw blue moons in 1983 after the eruption of the El Chichonvolcano in Mexico, and there are reports of blue moons caused by Mt. St. Helens in 1980 and Mount Pinatubo in 1991
-Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" uses the word "moon" more than any other play ever written. 

-It was once commonly believed that the Man in the Moon enjoyed drinking, especially claret (the most common wine exported from France before the 18th century) . An old ballad goes like this: "Our man in the moon drinks claret - With powder beef turnip and carrots- If he doth so, why should not you- Drink until the sky looks blue." ... so cheers!

Picture
Song about the Moon ~ Simon & Garfunkel

If you want to write a song about the moon
Walk along the craters of the afternoon- When the shadows are deep-And the light is alien- And gravity leaps like a knife off the pavement

...
If you want to write a song about the heart
Think about the moon before you start
Because the heart will howl-Like a dog in the moonlight-And the heart can explode
Like a pistol on a June night
So if you want to write a song about the heart
And its ever-longing for a counterpart
Write a song about the moon

...



Look Down, Fair Moon ~ Walt Whitman

Look down, fair moon, and bathe this scene;
Pour softly down night's nimbus floods, on faces ghastly, swollen,
purple; On the dead, on their backs, with their arms toss'd wide,
Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon. 


Picture

The Moon And The Yew Tree~ Sylvia Plath

...
The moon is no door. It is a face in its own right, 
White as a knuckle and terribly upset. 
It drags the sea after it like a dark crime; it is quiet 
With the O-gape of complete despair. I live here. 

...


2 Comments
Alison
3/19/2011 04:59:22 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D-lqNMgfUg

Dawn Upshaw/Golijov: Lua Descolorida

Moon, colorless, like the color of pale gold. . . take me silently to the space of your journey. . .star of the orphan souls, I know you cannot illuminate sadness as sad as mine. . .take me to a place where I won't be remembered, neither in this world nor in your heights above

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Luna
3/21/2011 01:21:41 pm

I saw a list of causes of death from the 1700s and among the pox and consumption was "struck by the moon". I'd like to think that means they were so struck by the beauty of the moon that they died of it. I could imagine myself turning a corner, suddenly catching a glimpse of the moon low in the sky and keeling over dead with a smile on my face.

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