Comments (0) Our cat is a curious little man.
Perhaps if you like the sound of running water you’ll enjoy this.
My apologies to the earth for the wasted water – VAL was the photographer, not me.
Sometimes I just don’t know what to say.
One thing I miss is browsing in my local bookstore, where I picked up this gem from 2016. I had read two books by Dava Sobel previously: A More Perfect Heaven, a play about Copernicus and his astronomical discoveries, and my all-time favourite book, Galileo’s Daughter. Students who’ve taken my grade 12 history class know how much I love Galileo – a colourful figure if ever there were one.
Continuing the sky-gazing theme, here Sobel tells the story of the women who worked at the Harvard Observatory from the mid-1800s up to the 1950s. At a time when few women could find professional places in the world of science, hundreds of women worked at Harvard cataloguing the stars via photometry – glass plate photos of the stars. And they didn’t all work in obscurity; many of them were highly notable at the time. No, they were not equals. They did not earn the same as their male peers, nor did they have as many opportunities. Yet, surprisingly, the environment for these women was relatively tolerant for the time. It was not a place of conflict or pettiness, at least according to Sobel’s telling.
That’s something, even for our own times. And thus I found the book equally calming and engaging at the same time. Sobel doesn’t make loud arguments. She paints a steady and intriguing picture through the details of the women’s lives. And astronomical observation is a very detailed field! though I read Scientific American, I admit to often skipping the articles on black holes and the like. We also subscribe to Sky News, the Canadian periodical. Usually I don’t spend much time on it. Now I feel more equipped to understand it a bit better. Hat’s off to Sobel for making the science of stellar observations seem so interesting and understandable.
Whenever I finish a book that I really enjoy, I check the author’s webpage to see if they have a “contact” section. Often I get no response. Not so with Dava Sobel. She replied to me very quickly:
Dear Risa,
Thanks so much for your thoughtful note and kindest comments about my work.
The Glass Universe was published right after the 2016 presidential election. A cousin close to me in age and temperament said the book gave her a calm place to escape to, so your remark really resonates. The people in that chapter of science history were genuinely respectful of one another. It was a pleasure to be with them over the years of research.
I so appreciate your affection for Galileo’s Daughter, which may be my favorite of the stories I’ve told. Certainly it stretched me in several directions. And I agree something of the convent spirit hovered about the observatory. Now I’m discovering it again in the Curie lab.
I’m happy for your students, as I can imagine the example you set for them..
Warm and grateful regards,
d.
Such a treat.
Reading brings such unexpected pleasures. I so look forward to Dava Sobel’s next book.
Photograph them!
It’s amazing how refreshing it was to smell a bouquet of flowers!
This is a beautiful, mostly uplifting book that offers a different perspective than what we’re used to seeing – bad news about Aboriginal peoples of Canada. That’s not to stay that reality isn’t full of positive stories; it’s just that the media hones in on the negative.
Published in 2019, about four years after the author had started posting archival photos of Aboriginal Canadians on his social media, the book goes far beyond photography. It’s part anthropology (probably what drew me to it), in that it offers little snippets of Aboriginal lives from eight parts of Canada (and the northwest US – borders were irrelevant up to a certain point in our joint colonial histories). It’s part history, such as the section on the James Bay Hydro Project that initially left the Cree population out of all decision-making.
The nicest part of this book is the glimpse it offers into people’s everyday lives. Kids playing, artists sketching, writers writing, mothers carrying babies… we can all use a reminder of our shared humanity.
Knopf Canada, 2019.
Strange and beautiful
Are the stars tonight
That dance around your head
In your eyes I see that perfect world
I hope that doesn’t sound too weird
And I want all the world to know
That your love’s all I need
All that I need
And if we’re lost
Then we are lost together
Yeah if we’re lost
We are lost together
I stand before this faceless crowd
And I wonder why I bother
So much controlled by so few
Stumbling from one disaster to another
I’ve heard it all so many times before
It’s all a dream to me now
A dream to me now
And if we’re lost
Then we are lost together
Yeah if we’re lost
We are lost together
In the silence of this whispered night
I listen only to your breath
And that second of a shooting star
Somehow it all makes sense
And I want all the world to know
That your love’s all I need
All that I need
And if we’re lost
Then we are lost together
Yea if we’re lost
Then we are lost together
Source: Musixmatch
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Just sharing some of my best animal buddies.
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It may not make everything better, but it will be eminently better than hate, division and stupidity.
My American friends and relatives are experiencing palpable relief. I cannot even imagine.
Congratulations!
Engage!
“No being is so important that he can usurp the rights of another.”
– Jean Luc Picard (my captain)
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I’m very thankful for my wonderful family and friends, my cats and horse friends, my hard-working students, my brilliant colleagues, and most of all…Val.
Thanksgiving makes me think of mushrooms. I hope you had a lovely long weekend and got out in nature a bit.
Ms. G
When times are a bit rough, it’s always nice to have cuddly (sort of) and cute cats around. Today Shadow gave me the stink eye but she was purring at the same time. Now that’s talent.
She is camera shy, usually.
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