What we did get, however, was a winter solstice, which in itself is reason enough to misuse the word party as a verb this week, without having to use the excuse that a couple of thousand years ago an underaged girl was being forced to bring an unwanted baby into an uncaring world (plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose).
On the subject of the End of the World ™, that gayest of 'manly' world leaders, President Vladiboy Putin gave us some unintended mirth this week (I don't know who else noticed so I'll tell it anyway).
In an attempt to appear intelligent (never a good sign in a Russian leader) he officially pronounced that the earth has an expected life span of around seven billion years (s'true, folks … the Bible tells us that the sun will eventually run out of hydrogen and will have to start burning helium, which will force it to expand to a red giant phase and burn the earth to a crisp - as well as making the sun's voice go comically falsetto) and that as we have already had four-and-a-half billion years of that, we can expect the end of the world in around four-and-a-half billion years from now.
Good to see they still teach arithmetic in Russia.
Back to solstice celebrations …
As you can see from the photo, the crowds of Christmas shoppers in Norwich are a little like the crowds of Christmas shoppers in London, in that they don't exist this year.
This year, the poor have nothing left to give; if the rich want us to spend our way out of their recession they're out of luck; this year they'll have to lift their fat asses up off their yachts, haul some of their offshore billions back here and spend it themselves … or we're even more fucked than we are now.
In the meantime, enjoy your festive week; celebrate the turning of the seasons with the rest of us mercifully godless heathens.
And make the most of it … thanks to Putin's arithmetical inadequacy, the world will end two billion years earlier than he expects. Eek!
5 comments:
LOL! Bah! Humbug to you too, Dive!
You took lovely pictures, and I am pleased that the days will start getting longer, even if just by moments every day.
I don't think it gets quite that dark here at 4 pm. Does the U.K. have even shorter days than we do, or do you have earlier sunrises? (That sounds like a stupid question, but hopefully you know what I mean.)
And thanks for the math lesson. I guess the official zombie apocalypse won't happen until long after we and ours are dead and buried and ready to become undead. Merry Christmas to us, then, yes?
I actually don't worry about things like the end of the world because first, there's nothing we can do about it (outside of raging against the use of fossil fuels, etc.) and second, we'd all go together. Since we're over here on D.C. Metro ground zero, I figure our whole family would be going towards the bright light if Putin or some nut decides to drop the big one before the sun can explode. All I can say is, "See you on the other side, hon!"
Now get cheery, will you? Hmpf.
I thought it was 6 billion, give or take.
I've decided to have a nice Christmas despite the recession. Tonight I'm making granola (the cereal barons lost me long ago), tomorrow cookies, and cranberry salad. Not all to be eaten at the same time.
Happy Christmas, everyone.
The lights on and around the store look pretty, Dive. I like the delicate blue. The lighting and activity in front of the store sort of resembles the animated scene from the Ayres display. Norwich looks appealing and must be a lovely place to live.
And now, we count the days to spring by the lengthening minutes allotted to us in daylight. In a month, the additional time will be noticeable.
Your photos are excellent, as always. And I'm glad the Solstice has passed, so we can creep back into longer daylight again.
As for the end of the world, let's just cakewalk into town...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPkdf9y9o6s
Hi, Katherine; I'm afraid we have way shorter winter days and way longer summer nights than you, being up at the latitude of the bottom end of Hudson's Bay. Midwinter here, it's pretty much dark at three in the afternoon, but midsummer, it's daylight at three in the morning. Add in enough rain to make Seattle look like a desert and you begin to see why I am as I am.
Here's to the Zombie Apocalypse!
Petrea, it's pretty hard for physicists to judge just how long it'll be before the Sun gets squeaky on helium, but one thing's for sure: if the campest man ever to have his finger on the nuclear button thinks that two times four-and-a-half makes seven, then this planet is in for an interesting time in the immediate future.
Your cookeryfest sounds yummy, though definitely on the American side of sweetness. The cranberry salad sounds delicious.
Merry Christmas to you and J and the king of canines, Boz the Magnificent.
Speedway, you shouldn't have told me the Ayres' display is animated. Now you're going to have to go back there and post a movie of the pole-dancing schoolgirl just to make my Christmas a little more creepy.
And yes, Norwich is a truly lovely place to live, especially as it's surrounded by beautiful countryside, lakes and a long, sandy seashore, and is an easy train ride from London and Paris. I kinda like it here.
Thank you, Ms M, for the soundtrack to my morning. I've already cakewalked to the organic farm cooperative and am about to enjoy a late breakfast in the festive city, singing along to Taj.
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