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Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Solar eclipse in Georgia

posted by Ben in at 10:43 AM NYC Time

My friend John "Pachydon" Mackedon snapped this picture of today's solar eclipse in Georgia:It was only a partial eclipse in Tbilisi--but it was total in western Georgia, and supposedly perfect in separatist Abkhazia, Georgia's westernmost province.

It was a cloudy day, just hazy enough so that during the eclipse you could stare directly at the sun without discomfort. I had a meeting moved into a hallway in the state chancellery so I could watch from the window.

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Blogger Alice on Thu Mar 30, 02:51:00 PM:
Does anyone remember a PBS film from the mid '80s (or maybe earlier) about a group of children who live in a basement because they're allergic to the sun, and they get really excited when there's a full solar eclipse because they can finally go outside, but then one of the bullies traps the most enthusiastic girl in the basement during the eclipse so she doesn't get to see the outside world? I saw this movie when I was five or six and was inconsolable: I fervently believed I had committed a transgression that somehow equaled this one, and I needed to atone for it big-time. I can't remember what the transgression was--or if there even was one--but I've felt uneasy about solar eclipses since then. Ross keeps telling me the film is based on a Ray Bradbury story, but I can't figure out which one it is. I've Googled all sorts of word combinations but it's not working. Help! Or don't--I had nightmares about the movie last night, and reading the story may exacerbate the problem.

Lunar eclipses, on the other hand, are AWESOME. I watched one from the sidewalks of the Upper West Side a few years ago. Everyone was stopped to point at the sky. Employees streamed out of stores to watch. It was really cool.
 
Blogger Ben on Fri Mar 31, 01:02:00 AM:
Sounds like TV movie All Summer in a Day. From an Imdb.com user review:

"It's about a group of kids who live on Venus where it rains all the time. The sun comes out only once for an hour every seven years. I won't say any more about what happens, but if you've seen it, you know how it ends. When the end credits started rolling, everyone in the classroom started laughing. I wondered why until I looked over and saw one girl crying. I then laughed too. It was hilarious. The entire class was laughing at her. The girl responded by giving everyone the finger."

Could Alice have been that very girl?
 
Anonymous Anonymous on Wed Apr 05, 03:02:00 PM:
More to the point of eclipses, don't forget "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov.