Winter Solstice

Light a candle
Sing a song
Say that the shadows
Shall not cross
Make an oblation
Out of all you've lost
In the longest night
Gather friends
Cast your hopes
Into the fire
As it snows
Stare at God
Through the dark windows
Of the longest night
Of the year
A night that seems like a lifetime
If you're waiting for the sun
So why not sing to the night time
And the burning stars up above?
Come with drums
Bells and horns
Come in silence
Come forlorn
Come like miner
To the door
Of the longest night
Deep in the stillness
Deep in the cold
Deep in the darkness
A miner knows
That there is a diamond
In the soul
Of the longest night
Of the year
A night that seems like a lifetime
If you're waiting for the sun
So why not sing to the night time
And the burning stars up above?
Maybe peace hides in a storm
Maybe winter's heart is warm
Maybe Light itself is born
In the longest night
In the longest night

-- Peter Mayer, Midwinter

A blessed and bright Solstice to you all.

(Tentative?) Seventh book title has been announced

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Salute to Carl Sagan

Interesting essay here commemorating the 10th anniversary of Carl Sagan's death, and all he had to teach us.

Ten years ago today, I was muddling through this new thing called online news at MSNBC - while just a few miles away, at a Seattle cancer center, one of science's most eloquent spokesmen was dying. At the time, astronomer Carl Sagan's death was another blip on the news screen. But since then, his influence has, if anything, grown for me and for others - as evidenced by the outpouring of reminiscences on this 10th anniversary.

Many commentators have touched upon Sagan's legacy for scientific skeptics - for example, the idea that in this "demon-haunted world," extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, whether those claims relate to the existence of extraterrestrials or the existence of God. Not so many have addressed his legacy for believers. And that's what I'd like to touch on here. Read more.

My Noble Title

Gacked from coffeeem. And of course, I used my real legal name, Margaret, because that just goes so much better with noble titles than Peg does:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Most Noble and Honourable Margaret the Subservient of Much Leering Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

The etiquette of cut tags

msavi pointed out that of the ten people on her friends list who posted about the title of book 7, eight used cut tags out of sensitivity for spoilers.

I am unreasonably amused by this. It didn't even occur to me to put the title behind a cut-tag. I hate spoilers, of course (see the icon), but seriously, what's up with that? A book's title? I mean . . . are people thinking that they can somehow hide from knowing what this book is going to be called before it's released? When this book is going to be going through the marketing blitz of the century? Seriously?

Er, sorry if I spoiled it for you.