One of these days, I’m going to head up to Maine and do this tour of the Solar System. I was talking to Dr. Fiancée, and she is onboard, as she is with any travel proposal. The real question is now will we do it, but when we will do it. That remains to be seen. At this point, it’s as amorphous as an intergalactic gas cloud.
With that, here is 13 June 2024’s “TBT^2: Touring the Solar System in Rural Maine“:
Back in 2019 I learned about The Maine Solar System Model, a model of the Solar System stretched along Highway 1 in Maine. The planets are spaced proportionally as they are in the Solar System, with the Sun being part of an entire building. It’s a really cool concept, and it’s something I hope to see someday.
This model Solar System reminds me of what John Derbyshire calls the “old, weird America.” The United States is a vast country, with huge regional differences, even within States. Just look at barbecue, for example: there is no uniform way to prepare it in the South. By “barbecue,” I specifically mean pulled pork barbecue, and being from western South Carolina, we like a mustard-based sauce for ours. In North Carolina, its vinegar-based. Other States use—horrors!—ketchup-based sauces.
The point is not to get you hungry—although my mouth is watering—but to give one example of how even in the tiniest details, we Americans are an incredibly varied bunch. One major source of the American Civil War that is often overlooked is the sheer differences between Northerners and Southerners in their respective outlooks about the world itself, much less all the political and economic disagreements.
The Maine Solar System Model is a great example of that kind of weird, localized boosterism. It also harkens back to a time before everything was built to look like a Brutalist J.C. Penney’s.
With that, here is 8 June 2023’s “TBT: Touring the Solar System in Rural Maine“:
I’ve been on an outer space kick lately, especially with all my posts about Saturn. As such, it seemed like an excellent opportunity to look back at this little post from 2019—one of my favorites!
Surprisingly, I’d never bothered to reblog this one in the nearly four years since it was first published. It’s about a model Solar System in the State of Maine, The Maine Solar System Model (the website for which has gotten a facelift since 2019). It’s been on my traveling “to do list” ever since I learned about it on Quora.
With that, here is 24 September 2019’s “Touring the Solar System in Rural Maine“:
Saturn is my favorite planet (after Earth, of course). Who can resist those beautiful rings, and the clear demarcation of the Cassini Division? There’s also something otherworldly and mysterious about it. Just listen to the opening bars of “Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age” from Gustav Holst’s The Planets:
Years ago I wrote a song, “The Rings of Saturn,” which has never enjoyed a formal recording. That’s a shame, because it is one of my better songs (I write with all humility). It will have to grace an edition of Open Mic Adventures soon. The header image for my Bandcamp page is the a picture of the planet.
Needless to say, I like Saturn a lot. I sometimes image what it would be like living on one of its moons, or if we’ll someday have mining colonies on the larger bits of icy space-stuff in its rings.
Well, it seems those beautiful rings are disappearing. Fortunately, as with all things astronomical, none of us will be around to see them disappear entirely.
Today is the 99th edition of Lazy Sunday; it is also my birthday. I’m getting to that age where my birthday is still enjoyable, but also serves as a reminder that I’m on the wrong side of my thirties, slipping towards forty ever-faster.
It’s also that point in my life that I’m becoming more aware of my own mortality. Youthfulness compensated for poor dietary choices and succulent overeating in fifteen years ago; now, I’m feeling more and more the ravages of delicious indiscretions. I also find I don’t sleep as well (usually) as I once did, and I will ache in places that never bothered me before.
That said, I’m still fairly spry, and while my on-stage antics might not be nearly as acrobatic as they were in my twenties, I still manage to huff and puff my way around a stage—and onto coffee tables, if need be. Anything to entertain the crowd.
With that, I thought I’d celebrate Lazy Sunday and my birthday with some of my personal favorite posts:
That’s it for this birthday Sunday. If you’d like to celebrate with me, considering giving yourself the gift of subscribing to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.
Regardless, Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
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Regular readers know that I love localism, and communities coming together to solve problems—or even just to throw fun festivals. I also enjoy learning about space and our Solar System.
So I was thrilled to read an interesting Quora answer to a question about the scale of the Solar System that combined easily digestible math with a statewide Solar System project. The question, paraphrased, is thus: if Earth were the size of a golf ball, how big would the Solar System, etc., be?
The answer, from contributor Jennifer George, a self-described “Bibliomaniac” and “Information Omnivore,” also paraphrased, is simple: travel up Highway 1 in the State of Maine.
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