The Sadness Of ITLAP

I have come to love September. All of those silly little ceremonies I have, the rituals I throw.

Eris Day. Breakaway Day.

The anarchy that is International Talk Like A Pirate Day, me hearties.

But then, once ITLAP is done, comes a pause. A moment of silence and great sadness.

Today and tomorrow are Mabon.

From Wednesday on days give way to nights, and Winter 2010 shall begin her stealthy approach.

So I never thought of ITLAP as a threshold before. One last gasp of a dying summer, before finally putting away your toys in the chest and picking up your school books or getting back on the road as the daily commute resumes.

"The Black Cloud"

Currently reading Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud, about ... well ... a black cloud.

Origin: unknown.

Composition: unknown.

Destination: Sol.

Size: Remember Star Trek: TMP, when it turned out that Vejur was "My God ... over 82 AUs in diameter!" Even 1 or 2 AUs is spectacularly big, because 1 AU is the radius of the Earth's orbital path from the Sun. 1AU is how far we are from Sol. The Cloud seems to be on that scale.

Just got as far as Chapter Eight. So far, Hoyle's novel has been spot on, both in terms of the scale of the cosmic disaster, and also in terms of how he gets the behaviour of the politicians dead on.

Reminds me of Quatermass a bit, actually. I can well imagine Nigel Kneale having written this, if Hoyle hadn't beaten him to it.