Checking out the neighbor

I went to the MoS Mars extravaganza last night. Unfortunately, I timed it poorly, so when I arrived a little after 7, they were giving out tickets to an 11 pm planetarium show. The rooftop party hadn't started yet, so I walked home, got something to drink, and had some roasted veggies (three trays of roasted veggies, and I still have onions and tomatoes left!).

I went back for the rooftop party, which was more like a queue-ing fest: all I could see when I got up to the roof were lines of people snaking every which way. No way I was going to stand around for ages, so I checked out the view from each side. It was interesting to see things from a completely different angle, not to mention realizing there's a path under a bridge; I'll have to walk that sometime. By the fourth side, I found a very short line for one of the many telescopes astronomy geeks had set up on the roof. Mars was definitely visible without it, but looking through the telescope gave a bit more perspective, a largeish beigeish place. I don't know why it didn't seem red, but it didn't.

I ran into a couple of people from my friends list (*wave*), none of them the ones I thought I might see. If I'd managed to get together with a group, I think I might've been more willing to face the huge line to look at Mars from the observatory. Ah, well. There's always tonight at Harvard, even if our neighbor is a bit farther away, a bit more than the 26? 36? million miles it was at its closest.

The planetarium shows were running late, a bit more than half an hour late. Since the show itself was 20 minutes, I haven't yet figured out how they managed to do that (though one of the people working there mentioned that they'd expected a couple hundred people, not the mobs they got). Anyway. I made it to the last show, quite possibly the latest show they've had in there, and there were plenty of seats. I was able to sit back, put my feet up, and enjoy the glories that a pan galactic acorn launcher can make. There were interesting details about Mars' notable features, and a photo taken just that morning by the Hubble telescope. Very cool. Still, having the full night sky, without pollution, dazzled me most. It reminded me of all the stars I could see from the Cape (though Mars wasn't nearly so visible as it was in this night's sky). Just beautiful. Wish I didn't have to go inside to find the outside...

I'm melting...

It occurred to me this afternoon that 'melting pot' is a pretty strange sort of phrase. If it parallels things like 'pizza pan', it's a pot for melting things in. I guess I don't melt stuff very much, since this doesn't seem very useful to me. If I start thinking about how it's used to mean society blending into a whole, I can easily hare off into horrid thoughts of nazism... but I'm not going there. I'm not, I tell you. No baldness at all.

I checked dictionary.com; a melting pot is indeed a utensil for melting, aka a crucible. Hmmm... I wonder how far this analogy for a blended society would have come had the wordmeister involved used the word 'crucible'? Not very far, I'd bet, especially after Arthur Miller's play. Though perhaps he'd not have called it that had the word been in use that way.

I know that Canada uses a completely different idea for its kind of blending society. And, yes, dictionary.com includes a quote about it. Score! I'd thought it was a mosaic (the one they cite), but part of me wondered whether salad might not have been used. Both show the idea of the distinct parts making up a whole while keeping their individual characteristics, which is a much more appealing paradigm, really. I look at Canada, and see a place where there's huge numbers of immigrants, but there are not the same issues that there are here. It's not perfect; there's all sorts of questions of language with the Quebecois, for instance. And yet, we ostensibly tout our mantra of individuality, yet really the way to get along is to become like everyone else. Why else the English-only referenda, or the proliferation of skinheads and other separatists (over whatever issue), not to mention a judge not understanding how his statue might violate the divide between church and state. By gum, the 10 commandments are just right, no matter what your religion! Who could argue with them? And so on.

I think it wouldn't bother me so much if America didn't seem to keep on playing the role of a country that's got it together. And it doesn't, on so many fronts. It's a far better country than many (most?), despite the current politics I hate, but there's so much that should be fixed at home before we try to fix the rest of the world into our own image (which scares me for lots of other reasons as well. How arrogant can we be?).


Today an NPR reporter mentioned a 'gas-powered turban'. I don't doubt that 'gas-powered turbine' was meant, but, oh, the visions of Ali Baba flying under his own turban power...