Whimsy: February 2008 Archives

There's a total lunar eclipse over North America tonight. The moon enters the earth's shadow at 7:43 p.m. CST. Totality begins at 9:01 CST and ends at 9:52. The moon will be completely free of earth's shadow by 11:09 p.m. CST.

Tulsans seem set to miss the selenian show. As I type this, the sky is completely overcast.

(Via WynnBlog.)

UPDATE: Missed the whole thing. It stayed cloudy here. But I got to read this cool story about how Columbus used a predicted lunar eclipse to awe the natives and save himself and his crew. (Via Crunchy Con.)

The cast of Monty Python's Flying Circus came to America in April 1975 to promote their new movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Here they are, co-hosting on ABC's AM America, the predecessor to Good Morning America. Even if you don't care for Python, this is worth watching just to bask in the sheer seventies-ness of the set and the theme sequence -- strings, muted horns, and oboes over sunrise scenes from coast to coast. There are also a couple of news cut-ins with Peter Jennings, reporting the imminent fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Army.

Via Mark Evanier.