Solstice

by Donald A.G. Burling It was the Babylonians, we are told, who first divided the circle into 360 degrees, approximating to the number of days in a solar year. The word approximating illustrates the fact that hardly anything in our world works out exactly right. Our modern sextants, chronometers and other measuring devices help us […]

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April Fool

by Donald A.G. Burling Could there be any connection between our April Fool tradition and the festival we call Easter? The idea seems at first thought almost blasphemous. Yet I remember reading somewhere that on April 1st junior clergy used to indulge in foolery that parodied divine service. The name of Easter is supposed to […]

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Mishaps

by Donald A.G. Burling My family has suffered a couple of mishaps recently. My daughter Ruth inadvertently stepped off a kerb, fell and broke a bone in her right shoulder. Then my daughter-in-law Lucy, doing nothing more dangerous than getting up from a sofa, managed to twist her ankle and suffered severe bruising and tissue […]

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