Solstice

Marcus sends one from the annual Fremont Solstice parade yesterday, which he attends with his gal Lynn and a few good friends. Marcus reports that "the parade always opens with a rush of nude bikers in various stages of body paint. In past years, the City tried to stop the nudity, but the city police trying to chase down packs of brightly painted nudies using cycle patrols became extremely comical." Of course they also freak out at Stone Henge too - hippies not allowed to get near the rocks and in past this too has resulted in absurd stand-offs between the police and revellers. What harm, really? Here is what I add about the solstice, which I tried to explain to Eitan this morning on the school run: "A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun's apparent position in the sky to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme. The name is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination or the apparent movement of the Sun's path north or south comes to a stop before reversing direction." For the record, London is 51-degree latitude or on line with Adak, Alaska, which means dusk rests until 11PM and dawn from 3:30AM. Sonnet hates this but I usually manage to sleep through. Madeleine could care less - zzzz.