"In Romania, on moonlit nights, the peasant women used to look down into a well until they saw the reflection of the moon."

"Then they let down a pail, slowly drew up water with the moon in it and, with a spoon, drank its reflection. Looking down into the well at that moment, they could see the face of their future bridegroom."

(A quote at the end of an essay by Saul Steinberg, found in a fruitless search for a drawing I remember or misremember with "we" and "they" —or is it "Who are they?" — drawn to signify the emotion contained in those words — a search undertaken after writing "So we they are not chomping cheeseburgers simply for sensual pleasure....")

Supermooon.

Tonight.

At the White Dome Night Club...

... you can talk all night.

New Rasmussen poll has Romney at 44%, Gingrich 28% in Florida.

Announced this morning:

These figures reflect a significant turnaround over the past week. Last Sunday, just after his big win in the South Carolina Primary, Gingrich led Romney by nine.  By the middle of this past week,  Romney was back in control with an eight-point advantage. Despite all the ups and downs, the results today are very similar to polling results found in Florida three weeks ago, coming off Romney’s decisive victory in the New Hampshire Primary.

What happened? Was it Romney getting tougher in the last debate? Romney's ability to advertise pervasively in the big state? All the conservative big shots who ganged up on Gingrich? That crazy moon-shot business?

The moon base is to conservatives what high-speed rail is to liberals.

It's an extremely expensive project that springs out of a man's boyhood passions. You're begging for a toy, and I'm one of the smart, grounded mommies who know how to say no.

"Could the United States establish a moon colony and develop a new propulsion system for going to Mars?"

"All within eight years of a Newt Gingrich presidency, as Mr. Gingrich promised this week? The answers seem to be technologically yes, economically iffy and politically very difficult."

Newt's idea for a lunar colony is...
	... lunacy.
	... intriguing but misguided.
	... exactly the kind of thing we need.
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Full moon at 7 a.m.

This morning. Madison, Wisconsin. 25°.

"'[C]ertificate of live birth,' the cat-nippy phrase that gets the birthers howling at the moon...."

Oh? Do cats howl? I howl at the computer screen when I see mixed metaphors.

Speaking of howling, did you hear what they're doing to the wolves?

Supermoon.

The biggest full moon in 18 years. Tomorrow night.

Is it possible to ski after class, when class ends at 4:50 and it's January?

Yes, with some help from the moon.

Moonrise on the prairie.

(Enlarge.)

At the Moonrise Café...

(Enlarge.)

... you can talk all night.

"They say that all good things must end someday. Autumn leaves must fall."

Equinoxiously yours,

Chad and Jeremy

P.S. It's the Super Harvest Moon tonight.

Sunset, moonrise.

Tonight, on Lake Wingra.

I blame Bush.

The moon is shrinking.

Clearly anthropogenic.

Obama cancelled the new moon mission partly "to make sure that we’ve canceled everything George Bush wanted to do, whether it’s the right thing to do or not."

Says Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon in 1972. But the main thing is "the Obama administration, including the president, is made up of people who do not really like what America has been. And our prowess in space is part of what America has been. And I think they would just as soon see us take a second- or third-rate status in that."

Strong words. Schmitt will be speaking here in Madison tomorrow night (Monday, April 19th) at 6:45 p.m. in room 1610 of Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive.

I have to admit I'm not a big supporter of space travel. Maybe I'll give Schmitt a chance to convince me otherwise.

***

Old song lyric that played in my head as I wrote this:

Well, I don’t know, but I’ve been told
The streets in heaven are lined with gold
I ask you how things could get much worse
If the Russians happen to get up there first
Wowee! pretty scary!

Sorry. I've never seen what it was all for.

At the Prospect Hotel...

... you can shoot the moon.

Apparently, I stand alone among conservative bloggers...

... appreciating the conservatism of Obama's decision to decline to stamp new human bootprints into the face of the moon.

This is what I was trying to photograph at midnight, in the moonlight.

I put a coat over my nightgown and boots on my bare feet and ventured out into the night only to discover my battery was dead. It's not quite so pretty in the sunlight, but I wanted to show you anyway. You'll have to imagine the moonlight. Imagine the Moonlight. That's an aphorism for you. Take it to heart.

In the sunlight, this, unseen at night, became visible:



Hydrangea. Not the way you usually picture it, is it? Closer to some unappetizing pasta than what you have in your head to be summoned up by the word "hydrangea." Or have I replaced that image now. I would love to do that.

The Snow-on-Redbuds-in-Moonlight Inn.

You'll just have to imagine the picture. I was snuggled up in bed talking on the telephone for so very long, and then I went downstairs for some chocolate and, looking out the window, noticed that beautiful thin layer of snow on the redbuds, perfectly lit with moonlight and porchlight, so I got the camera, stepped into my boots and put on my long coat and crouched carefully into position by the stoop only to find that the battery was dead. I went back inside for another camera and that battery was dead too. But believe me, the night is beautiful here. I wanted to tell you that, and you can tell me anything you want.