I have been enjoying these posts very much, because I have been kept in my house by bitter cold, and you all have been my entertainment. I just want to point out that, even though the sun is shining today, it is so cold that the local FFA canceled its ski trip. A bunch of farm kids thought it was too cold to go outside??? That's cold.
Stephen, I am quite impressed by your multi-talented wife. She is quite the renaissance person. And I am lousy at smacking the penguin, but possibly because I haven't been using a mouse (that's my excuse). Carol ---- Original message ---- >Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:46:59 -0500 >From: sbl...@ubishops.ca >Subject: Re: [tips] Happy Winter Solstice! >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@acsun.frostburg.edu> > >I resisted my own contribution to this thread but can hold off no longer. >Some observations on the winter solstice: > >1) As an inhabitant of the frozen Land Where the Nights are Long, I also >harbour a profound reverence for the point at which the sun begins to >return to our cold, cold land. In celebration, I have my hair cut on the >solstice (by my wife, taking time off from translating letters on TIPS). >In general, I have my haircut each time and only when the sun crosses a >solstice or equinox, thus demonstrating that my hair growth is >synchronized with the rhythm of the cosmos. It also demonstrates that >this is too long a period to go between haircuts. And it may be that it >is my haircuts which cause the sun to return. > >2) I think the main reason for appreciation of the solstice is that >people take it as indicating the point at which the day begins to last >just a little bit longer than the day before. But in fact, this point is >reached about a week before the solstice. At the latitude where I live, >between December 4 and December 15th of this year the sun set at 4:11 >p.m. But on December 16, it set at 4:12 p.m. By the solstice yesterday, >around here we already had gained a full three minutes of daylight at the >end of the day. And I enjoyed every minute of it. > >3) I have to register my protest against the designation of December 21 >as "the first official day of winter", as we are repetitively told by the >media. That may be true when defined in astronomical terms, but in normal >and historical usage, "winter" refers to the three coldest months of the >year which, in the Northern hemisphere, are December, January, and >February. In fact, December 22 (sometimes December 25) has historically >been called "midwinter's day" (and June 21 (or 24) is "midsummer's day"). >How can winter have just begun if it's already midwinter? > >Stephen > >------------------------------------------------------------ ----- >Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. >Professor of Psychology, Emeritus >Bishop's University e-mail: sbl...@ubishops.ca >2600 College St. >Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 >Canada > >Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of >psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ >------------------------------------------------------------ ----------- > >--- >To make changes to your subscription contact: > >Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
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