Posts by Alex Miller

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Asteroid Sleuth: The Case of the Flipped Flag

On 16 May 2024, the New York Times broke a story concerning US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the gist of which gives another black eye to the fantasy that the SCOTUS, currently embattled by a string of ethics violations revelations, is actually a fair and impartial, nonpartisan body.  Apparently, during the interim between the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection and Joe Biden’s January 20th inauguration, Justice Alito flew the American flag at his home in Alexandria, Virginia, upside down. 

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As the Worm Turns: RFK Jr’s Doomed Presidential Bid

The New York Times broke a story on May 8, 2024 that might just explain the antics of presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr, currently polling as much as 15-20% in some key battleground states.  While Kennedy is unlikely to reach his goal of the Oval Office sans major party affiliation, such numbers, should they materialize at the polls in November, could decisively swing the 2024 election one way or another.  The Times story revealed a statement made by Kennedy in 2012, where he alleged that the “brain fog” and memory loss he had experienced two years prior had been “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”  Well, that explains a lot!

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Garden Glimpses: Ephemeral Spring

True, Spring can seem fleeting.  But chronicling that phenomenon is not the intent here.  Rather, the title refers to a class of plants known as “Spring ephemerals,” meaning that, like Spring itself, they are here and gone.  Ephemerals tend to emerge early, bloom quickly, and die back well before Summer’s heat holds sway.  They are of the moment, and sometimes, if you blink, you miss them entirely.

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Mystik Dan Wins Kentucky Derby

The 150th Run for the Roses occurred Saturday, May 4, 2024, at the Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, as the Kentucky Derby reached a milestone anniversary.  Despite competing with five higher-ranked horses in a field of twenty, Mystik Dan came across the finish line barely a flared nostril ahead, in the first photo-finish at the Derby since 1996.  The three-year old colt, ridden by jockey Brian Hernandez, paid off at 18-1, and I am heartily wishing I’d had the foresight to investigate this race before its running, and placed my bet!

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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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