Posts by Alex Miller

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Jupiter/Uranus Conjunction Fallout: The American College Protests

As many of you know, I don’t much bother with the planetary patterns of the day.  I mean, I know they’re up there, I just find planetary astrology so frickin’ boring.  Like always getting the fried chicken on a buffet that includes so much more.   And there are plenty of other astrologers covering that base, no need for me to weigh in.

So when protests against the Israeli conduct in their war on Hamas began to erupt on college and university campuses across the US in mid-April, I cast a jaundiced eye skyward to see what was up.  Inescapable was the conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus on April 20th, and my atrophied planetary keyword brain mused, ‘Jupiter = higher education, Uranus = protest.’   I halfheartedly looked for asteroids that would match the nascent story, but found little, so I yawned, rolled over, and went back to celestial slumber.

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Asteroid Sleuth: The Case of the Gruesome Governor

South Dakota Governor and 2024 Republican Vice-Presidential nominee hopeful Kristi Noem was splashed across the news in late April, when an advance copy of her new book, “No Going Back” was obtained by The Guardian.  In it, Noem recounts the story of how she executed her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer puppy Cricket, after she had proved herself to be irrepressibly joyful and an inadequate hunting dog.  Two being better than one, Noem went on to slay a family goat that was smelly and had been annoying her and her children with head butts.

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A Pecker in the Hand Is Worth Two in the Box

The witness box, that is.  And the pecker in question is David Pecker, National Enquirer publisher, long-time Trump friend and political ally, and currently exhibit A in the Manhattan DA’s criminal case against the former US president.  Everybody knew that Pecker, once he’d gone soft on Trump, was gonna spew, but nobody knew how hard he could make it for The Donald.  (And that’s the last of the cheap double entendres you’ll get from me in this article.  Maybe.)

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Man Self-Immolates Outside Trump Trial

On Friday, 21 April 2024, just across the street from the Manhattan courtroom where jury selection in Donald Trump’s hush money trial had recently concluded, a man set himself alight, first dousing himself with a liquid accelerant.  Police responded immediately, being onsite for courthouse protection, but were unable to stop the flames for several minutes; the man was later pronounced dead at a local burn center. 

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Asteroid Sleuth: The Case of the Pompeii Paintings

On April 11, 2024 the BBC was treated to an exclusive look at a recent discovery in the ancient city of Pompeii, buried in volcanic ash by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, and spectacularly preserved.  Stunning frescoes had been revealed on the walls and entranceway to a banquet hall known as the Black Room, painted that color to disguise the effects of soot from smoking lamps and candles.

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Garden Glimpses: Daffodil Daze

It’s been an odd spring (what else is new?), with temps ping-ponging up and down through March and April.  But strangely, the weirdness seems to have worked well for my daffodils, with early, middle and late season varieties blooming more or less together.  I don’t know when I’ve seen such diversity on display all at once, and it’s made for a lovely panoply of color and form across the garden.

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