Moonificent

For the Western Hemisphere it was the longest eclipse of the moon since 1736, certainly since human beings visited the moon a while ago. Did that visit lend a fillip to the earthly celebrations of the event?

Maybe Boston would have put on a concert of the Moonlight Sonata anyway, timing it for the eclipse. But would there have been that ovation from the crowd outside the observatory in Pasadena? The director said, ''It was like a crowd at a baseball game, cheering on the moon, like it was on their side.''

Whether the moon is on the side of us human beings or we are on the side of the moon does not make much difference. We are in this together, the earth's clouds of volcanic dust making the eclipse darker, the light of the silv'ry moon making spirits brighter, the sun always there whether we see its rays or not.

Yeah, team!