Thank you, Jane Green! It arrived today. I twirled in the towel and smiled at the book cover graphic. The shoulder bag contained your new book. Look there - it’s signed! And a glossy bookmark. The bag also held sunscreen and bronzer, flashy and fun in wild orange boxes. Gotta go. Got Friday plans - I’m reading The Beach House on imaginary sand. Thank you!!

…and git my Kodak. Ther’s gonna be some bloodshed.” Excellent, Suzanne. FunNY!

Mr. Hitchens’ ears must be burning. You’ve provided everyone at wOw with such an honest, intelligent appraisal of the man. It is you, EKA, who brought life to his name for me. Several titles jousted to be first chosen. And in the reading I am hooked, partaking in what you, others revere. My regret is having done without but I’ll not linger here. Pleasure stretches to the morrow knowing there be countless hours reading there. C.H. has joined ever expanding coterie rich of authors I hold dear. And Ms. Sayers, share more your world do! Count many intent on pausing to lend an ear.

Have really enjoyed your posts here, EKA. Thank you! Please share more about music sometime —and other topics dear to you. That’s what’s great about wOwwing - learning new things, stretching the mind, questioning beliefs — while having fun :-)

Tell me about this Christopher Hitchens, EKA.

K honeychild, Did you like the movie “Contacts”?

But don’t ‘call’ me on my French!

Bon mot ;-)

She’ll be glad to know that. How are you, Kate? Hope your new browser working any better. The county agency I work for has really put together some new public health programs. If you feel like having a look, the website is www.co.carver.mn.us The Home page has a Health menu tab. I don’t live in this county, but it is mostly white, few minorities, several ethnic groups, and great differences between the east- and western-side demographics. Some areas of affluence. Also rather high rates of risky behaviors. When I started my job out there, traveling west on winding roads along the Minnesota River from the Twin Cities, it was mostly rolling farmland with ponds and lakes dotting the landscape. Now - much more development on the east side. Well, that’s just my The programs are focusing on disease prevention/obesity and encouraging healthy lifestyles. The Family Health area has been focusing on maternal/child health topics like promoting breastfeeding and early identification of toddlers with health conditions. I’ll be at our public immunization clinic Monday afternoon. Well, i went on quite a bit there. Please tell me about yourself okay? Hines

Did someone mention an old brain, Rocky Raccoon?

Always learn so much listening to wOw-ers’ threads. Looks like the four of us (EKA, James, Frank, Hines) have planted our flag here at The Tube as big fans of great minds including Dr. Burchat. I was thinking of the ‘72 Jastrow book this afternoon so pulled it off the bookcase. It has lots of antiqued newspaper clippings inside the back cover as well as a Moon Watching guide from the Province of British Columbia, a (postal) stamp cachet commemorating interplanetary missions, a National Geographic article on the optical 200” Hale reflector and a brochure from the National Solar Observatory-Sacramento Peak. THEN I found the Nov 1997 article by K.C. Cole of the LA Times called “Deep matter shows up in galaxy’s gamma glow”. Astronomer David Dixon of U of C Riverside announced a breakthrough using gamma ray telescopes. Many skeptics at that time. Did any of you enjoy the “Contacts” movie (Sagan) with “Ellie” at the Very Large Array in NM? I liked the book, but the movie which focused on one wormhole traveller’s experiences captured my imagination. The skeptics irked the #$@& out of me.

Bookmarked it this afternoon so i CANNOT lose track of this source of info and entertainment. thanks frank :)

Sobering. Thank you for pulling this together for readers, Elizabeth. For sharing your view. How close to home this is for you. Your voice needs to be heard!

There’s a new article about the Steins asteroid which has a diamond shape and myriad scallops from impact event. My current favortite asteroid is Phobos with crater Stickney. You’ve probably seen images of it. Stickney looks like a giant ice cream scoop took out a sixth of the mass. Stickney was named for a wife. I think is was to be the ultimate compliment, but when I first saw the startling photo it seemed the odd tribute. However I later learned she was very supportive of his work. So there you have it.

This has been such fun. There’s room for everybody to talk about Space! Outer or inner, for that matter. Then enfolding other sciences into the mix and we can all be lost in thought and contemplation for hours. Thanks Frank, James and EKA —