August 23, 2014

  • The Wisdom of Carl Sagan

    The Wisdom of Carl Sagan

    http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan

    I seem to have lost the ability to create hyperlinks.  Is it because I haven't paid Xanga any money since June 2013?  Oh, well.

    Here's what's been happening lately.  Life, as usual, has been busy and fun.  Spare time has always been a problem, but now it's a bigger problem because circumstances have forced me to move from a 4-day workweek to 5, but I refuse to stop being interested in attending concerts and lectures and watching golf tournaments and football games on TV and paying attention to Barbara, my five dogs, and a billion other things.

    Including:  following the news.

    And doing crossword puzzles.  Like, for example, today's amazing New York Times puzzle that first made me want to say:  why should I spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out the gimmick when all I need to do is go to the Times crossword blog for the hint that I need?  Which is what I did.

    And speaking of word games, there's a new Scrabble dictionary out, and it's a very long-term project assimilating the new words onto my word list.

    Anyway.  Back to the Tmes puzzle.  The one entry that puzzled me the most was the answer SETI to the clue, "Program that asks 'Are we  aloe?,' for short."  Obviously, there needs to be an n in the word "aloe" for the clue to make any sense, and that was the gimmick.  The answers to 17A, 32A, 46A, and 62A were, respectively:  "EACH CLUE IN," "THE PUZZLE," "IS MISSING," and "THELETTERN."

    And now it turns out that instead of being an impossible puzzle to solve, it's actually fairly easy.  Some of the clues/answers are still very tricky, but find what word in the definition is missing one or more n's, and go from there.

    And now back to the wisdom of Carl Sagan.  I looked up SETI and found out it stands for "Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence," listened to a charming interview of SETI founder Jill Tarter, an astronomer/cosmologist whom I fell in love with after listening to her for 30 seconds, then drifted over to the Wikipedia entry for Carl Sagan, and found a page of Sagan quotes that I'd love to share with my Xanga readers, so just go to http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan and enjoy!

Comments (3)

  • I gave my son a t-shirt that was a SETI shirt. He loves it and has worn it to tatters! Carl Sagan quotes are fabulous - speaks to my inner geek!

  • Hi Bob, I am so sorry I couldn't call you from Orlando. I had copied your phone numbers in my little 'black book', and left it behind on my desk.
    Next time I come there, I shall make it a point to call you and Barbara. Love and hugs to both of you.

  • I have adored Carl Sagan since the first Cosmos and discovering his fiction made me very happy. I miss him greatly.

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