[Kzyxtalk] From the Poet's Corner: Strange Things Will Happen During the Total Eclipse

[Marco McClean]

Also rivers may run backward, or red with menstrual fluid, or to the 
tune of /Heartbreaker/ by the Rolling Stones, or all three; why not? 
Just don't look at the sun. You can ruin your eyes. Look anywhere else.

Woody Allen had a story about a doctor telling a boy that if he didn't 
stop masturbating he would go blind, and the boy said, "Can I just do it 
until I need glasses?" Neither glasses nor medicine nor positive 
self-affirmation nor anything will correct solar retinopathy. It is dead 
spots actually burned into your world that for the rest of your life you 
will be compulsively trying to look around and past by turning the very 
eyes the spots are burned in. Wherever you look, the problem moves 
there. So you wince and give up, and then you forget and it happens 
again. And again. I've read that it's very frustrating. And the ruined 
place is almost always right in the center of your visual field, for 
obvious reasons, and thats the only place where even perfect eyes see 
clearly. Shut one eye and put a hand out to block your vision of this 
text; then without moving your eye or your hand notice how out of focus 
and unsatisfactory everything is. And then, ahem, don't look at the sun 
if you can help it, ever.

A few nights ago Late Night Liz sent me the image of a poster that says 
in white block letters on red: "DEAR GOD, IF YOU WANT US TO IMPEACH 
TRUMP, GIVE US A SIGN. LIKE, BLOT OUT THE SUN. ANY TIME IN THE NEXT 
WEEK. THAT WOULD BE GREAT. THANKS."

In non-ecliptical news: Everything went swell for my KNYO and KMEC radio 
show Friday night. You might remember there was a problem the week 
before with the technology, but that was all solved. That recording and 
plenty of related material is available at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

To be sure that it /would/ work properly, Thursday night while I was 
prepping for the show I arranged with Jerry and Bob to run a test of 
playing a short remote half-hour set of just music on KNYO from my music 
library. If you'd like to hear the recording of that, here it is, ready 
to get:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/6pq98xl48ld2k0e/aircheck_KNYO_2017-08-17.mp3


-- 
Marco McClean
memo at mcn.org