Thursday 17 January 2019

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

There are reports of a visible fireball being seen from the Cape yesterday.

Unlike the one I saw from Sandton in July last year, this one was sighted after 8pm - that's well after sunset - and was seen (and heard, apparently) by multiple witnesses.

I seem to have been the only person in Johannesburg to both see the mid-morning meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere on 12th July and report it to the Shallow Sky Survey although there were 2 more reports from outside Johannesburg of the object. That's enough for Tim Cooper to have triangulated a probable path for the incoming piece of space rock though:



So this morning I was wondering why the folks in the Cape are apparently more observant of their surroundings - including the sky - than the denizens of Sandton.

Yes, the Cape sighting was after sunset, and thus more noticeable. There was also some associated sound with that fireball which I didn't pick up on in the Sandton sighting. Although, you know, I'm getting along in age and my hearing is certainly not up to snuff.

But then I remembered this song from my youth:





Note that this is a song that I grew up liking and which has stayed in my mind for over 40 years.
That's the way I get most of my earworms - songs I know, some of which are on my portable way-back machine of a music playlist on my phone.

Yet on Sunday I woke up with the strangest earworm.

The song was Thoroughly Modern Millie.

I had no idea how that one had gotten stuck in my brain. But I let it go on for a while, play itself out and depart, as all earworms are destined to do.

However, I admit to being fairly surprised to learn on Tuesday that Carol Channing had just died.

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