The Magical Cinema Of Georges Melies January 31, 2023
Posted by nrhatch in Art & Photography, Books & Movies, Magick & Mystery.comments closed
If you’ve seen the movie HUGO or read the book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, you already have a basic familiarity with the groundbreaking film maker Georges Melies and his magical realm of dreams on screens.
If not, have a quick look:
Before mega-blockbuster cinema and million-dollar special effects, there was Georges Melies, an illusionist turned filmmaker. When cinema was in its infancy, he pioneered a wide variety of film techniques. Showcase’s Alican Pamir takes you into the world of cinema’s first great fantasy filmmaker.
Aah . . . that’s magic!
Echoes In Rain November 11, 2022
Posted by nrhatch in Magick & Mystery, Music & Dance.comments closed
My current favorite song of ALL time . . . for now, anyway, is Echoes in Rain by Enya.
She sings lots of my favorite songs, but there is something so magically resonant about Echoes in Rain (with lyrics).
Want to hear it again?
Here’s a version of Echoes in Rain (with Enya singing in front of full orchestral accompaniment).
And now for a quick update on the AMES Competition:
Emily’s team won all 3 categories.
Best oralist, brief and overall team.
For a summary in Harvard Law Today: The Ames Game
Aah . . . that’s magic!
Stay Curious May 5, 2022
Posted by nrhatch in Humor, Magick & Mystery, Mindfulness, People.comments closed
I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.
— Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady of the United States
Like Pooh, I’m just curious . . . what do you think?
Would inventors, like Edison and Ford, have invented anything without curiosity?
Would explorers, like Columbus and Magellan, have explored without curiosity?
Would cooks, like Andrew Zimmern, experiment in the kitchen without curiosity?
Would anyone have eaten a lobster without curiosity?
Aah . . . stay curious!
What Day Is It? May 3, 2022
Posted by nrhatch in Humor, Magick & Mystery, Mindfulness.comments closed
The Great Courses lecture series is an extensive collection of home study courses in areas of Art, Science, Math, Philosophy, Brain Fitness, etc. Our local library offers a number of the Great Courses on DVD, often with an accompanying handbook.
One series that contains some FUN “party tricks” is The Secrets of Mental Math, presented by Professor Arthur T. Benjamin (an “engaging, entertaining, and insightful” lecturer).
From Professor Benjamin’s series of 12 lectures on Mental Math, I learned, inter alia, tips on Calendar Calculating.
What’s that, you ask?
Calendar Calculating allows you to determine the day of the week for a specific date without flipping through a calendar.
Note: Some of you will get a kick out of Calendar Calculating. Others will wish to stick with a paper calendar to check the day of the week for a given day.
To each his own.
The basic formula is: Month Code + Date + Year Code (minus multiples of 7) = Day of the Week.
(Month, Day of the Week, and Year Codes are discussed below.)
A quick example:
July 4, 2022 = 5 (month code) + 4 (date) + 6 (year code for 2022) = 15
From that sum, subtract “14” (to eliminate multiples of 7). The resulting sum of “1” means that July 4th this year will land on a Monday . . .
Go ahead. Check your calendar. We’ll wait.
Huzzah! A 3-day weekend for those of us in the USA celebrating our independence!
Here’s another example from this year:
October 31, 2022 = 6 (month code) + 31 (date) + 6 (year code) = 43 – 42 = 1 = Monday
Reminder: Some of you will get a kick out of Calendar Calculating. Others will wish to stick with a paper calendar to check the day of the week for a given day.
No judgment from me.
Days of the Week Codes (these are pretty obvious):
Monday = 1
Tuesday = 2
Wednesday = 3
Thursday = 4
Friday = 5
Saturday = 6
Sunday = 7 (or 0 because 7-7 = 0)
In order to perform the calculations quickly, you will need to memorize 12 Month Codes. It helps to have a quick pneumonic device for each month:
January = 6 (W-I-N-T-E-R has 6 letters) (January = 5 in a leap year)*
February = 2 (2nd month) (February = 1 in a leap year)*
March = 2 (March 2 the beat!)
April = 5 (A-P-R-I-L or F-O-O-L-S has 5 letters)
May = 0 (Hold the May-0)
June = 3 (June B-U-G)
July = 5 (F-I-V-E-R Works!)
August = 1 (“A” is the 1st letter of the alphabet)
September = 4 (F-A-L-L has 4 letters)
October = 6 (T-R-I-C-K-S or T-R-E-A-T-S has 6 letters)
November = 2 (in the US, Thanksgiving = 2-rkey day)
December = 4 (X-M-A-S or L-A-S-T has 4 letters)
*In a leap year, January has a code of 6 – 1 = 5 (because no leap has occurred yet) and February has a code of 2 – 1 = 1 (for the same reason).
Example: January 1st, 2000 (a leap year) = 5 + 1 + 0 = 6 ~> Saturday!
The “why” behind these code numbers is due to the length of each month. Since 28 days is a multiple of 7, February and March start on the same day of the week (EXCEPT in a leap year) because February has 28 days (EXCEPT in a leap year).
The rationale for the other months is similar:
March has 31 days which is 3 days longer than 28 so we add 3 to the code for March (2) to calculate that April’s code = 5.
April has 30 days which is 2 days longer than 28 so we add 2 to its code of 5 to get “7” for May. After subtracting out 7 (to reduce by multiples of 7), May’s code is “0.”
As I noted above: Some of you will get a kick out of Calendar Calculating. Others will wish to stick with a paper calendar to check the day of the week for a given day. I hear ya.
So does Goofy!
Year Codes
To calculate the Year Code for a specific year, the formula is Year (just the last 2 digits) + Leap Years (divide the year’s last 2 digits by 4 and ignore the remainder) + Year Code for the Century. The resulting sums are reduced by multiples of 7. Why? That’s just the way it is.
Here are the Century Codes:
1600 = 0
1700 = 5
1800 = 3
1900 = 1
2000 = 0
Example: The year code for 2022 = 22 + 5 (22/4 = 5 leaps)+ 0 (century code) = 27 – 21 (to reduce by multiples of 7) = 6
Just for fun, calculate today’s date to see if it conforms:
May 3, 2022 = 0 (Month Code) + 3 (date) + 6 (year code) = 9 – 7 = 2 and 2 = Tuesday
GO YOU! You are catching on QUICK!
Note: Some of you will get a kick out of Calendar Calculating. Others will wish to stick with a paper calendar to check the day of the week for a given day.
For those of you who want to dive in . . ..
Here are the year codes for the first 32 years this century:
2001 (1) 2002 (2) 2003 (3) 2004 (5) 2005 (6) 2006 (0) 2007 (1) 2008 (3)
2009 (4) 2010 (5) 2011 (6) 2012 (1) 2013 (2) 2014 (3) 2015 (4) 2016 (6)
2017 (0) 2018 (1) 2019 (2) 2020 (4) 2021 (5) 2022 (6) 2023 (0) 2024 (2)
2025 (3) 2026 (4) 2027 (5) 2028 (0) 2029 (1) 2030 (2) 2031 (3) 2032 (5)
Since year codes repeat every 28 years (from 1901 through 2099), for years like 2030, you can delete multiples of 28 to make mental calculations easier:
October 31, 2030 = 6 + 31 + 2 (year code)= 39 – 35 = 4 = Thursday
The same is true for the last century ~ reduce the year (1998) by multiples of 28:
1998 – 28 = 1970 – 28 = 1942 – 28 = 1914
Due to the repeating nature of year codes, July 4, 1998 fell on the same day of the week as July 4, 1970, July 4, 1942, and July 4, 1914.
As a result, it’s easiest to reduce to 1914 first and then calculate the year code:
14 (year) + 3 (14 / 4 = 3 leaps) + 1 (century code for 1900) = 18 – 14 = 4 is the year code for 1914 . . . as well as for 1942 & 1970 & 1998.
And that makes sense:
If the year code for 1998 = 4 . . . then the code for 1999 = 5 . . . and the code for 2000 (a leap year) = 5 + 2 = 7 – 7 (to reduce by multiples of 7) = 0 and we know that’s correct since we know that the year code for 2000 is 0.
Returning to our Calendar Calculation, you’ll be happy to know that July 4, 1998 fell on a Saturday:
5 (Month Code) + 4 (Date) + 4 (Year Code) = 13 – 7 = 6 = Saturday!
You are getting the hang of this! Take a bow!
The year codes repeat every 28 years (from 1901 through 2099) because the calendar shifts 28 times for the years PLUS 7 times for the leap years: 28 + 7 = 35. Since 35 is a multiple of 7, the days of the week stay the same.
1900 and 2100 are NOT leap years.
Quick Tip: To perform Calendar Calculations as a party trick using Mental Math, start by calculating the Year Code before asking for the Month and date.
If someone born on December 25, 1960 wants you to calculate the day of the week they were born, ask for the Year first:
Year code = 1960 – 28 – 28 = 1904 = 4 + 1 (leap) + 1 (century code) = 6
December 25, 1960 = 4 + 25 + 6 = 35 – 35 = 0 = Sunday
And, if they’re wondering, being born on a Sunday is good news (at least for those of certain religious persuasions):
Monday’s child is fair of face
Tuesday’s child is full of grace
Wednesday’s child is full of woe
Thursday’s child has far to go
Friday’s child is loving and giving
Saturday’s child has to work for a living
And the child who is born on the Sabbath Day, is bonny, blithe, good and gay.
OK, that’s it.
Go forth and calculate!
Foot Note: Some of you will get a kick out of Calendar Calculating. Others will wish to stick with a paper calendar to check the day of the week for a given day.
Mickey is OK with that. So am I!
Aah . . . Math is FUN-da-mental!
A WORDLE In ONE! March 6, 2022
Posted by nrhatch in Magick & Mystery, Mindfulness, Word Play.comments closed
Since I started playing WORDLE two months ago, I’ve chosen a different starting word every morning with good results.
But yesterday’s starting word was one for the record books!
While still in bed and half asleep, the word BRINE drifted into my semi-consciousness . . .
Before drifting through the briny deep on my way back to sleep, I thought, OK, I’ll start WORDLE today with the word BRINE.
An hour later when I got up, I fished around for a moment until the word returned ~ BRINE.
OK. Sure. Why not?
But once fully conscious, I considered switching to another word since “B” is not as likely a consonant candidate as “T” or “S.”
Hmm. Oh, give it a go.
I typed BRINE and pressed “enter,” hoping to see at least few green letters.
Better than that, I saw:
Green . . . Green . . . Green . . . Green . . . Green!
I grinned from ear to ear as BRINE appeared dressed first to last in GREEN:
Woo Hoo!
A WORDLE in ONE!
Intuition . . . sometimes you just KNOW.
Accept that as the gift that it is.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Do you WORDLE? Do you start with the same word each morning or let your intuition guide you in the right direction? Any weirdly wonderful WORDLE tales to share?
How To Get To Carnegie Hall February 27, 2022
Posted by nrhatch in Joke, Magick & Mystery, Music & Dance.comments closed
There’s an old vaudeville joke you may have heard:
“How do I get to Carnegie Hall?”
“Practice – Practice – Practice”
So true!
Of course, being a child prodigy who loves music helps . . .
“Music brings me happiness and I want to bring the audience happiness.”
Aah . . . that’s amazing!
The Language Of The Stones September 16, 2021
Posted by nrhatch in Home & Garden, Magick & Mystery, Nature, People.comments closed
I stumbled across America’s Stonehenge while reviewing MONEY’s 2021 list of the 50 best places to live in the US.
Located in Salem NH (about 33 miles from Boston MA), America’s Stonehenge is more than 4000 years old. Like England’s Stonehenge, the stones have a language of their own:
Built by a Native American Culture or a migrant European population? No one knows for sure. A maze of man-made chambers, walls and ceremonial meeting places, at over 4,000 years old America’s Stonehenge is most likely the oldest man-made construction in the United States.
Like Stonehenge in England, America’s Stonehenge was built by ancient people well versed in astronomy and stone construction. It has been determined that the site is an accurate astronomical calendar. It was, and still can be, used to determine specific solar and lunar events of the year.
This video is an interesting introduction to the prehistoric stone foundations on the site:
To learn more: America’s Stonehenge.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Create A Little Magic April 23, 2021
Posted by nrhatch in Happiness, Humor, Life Balance, Magick & Mystery.comments closed
Dream.
Believe
Do.
Repeat.
Create a little magic every day.
Yes, It Is Possible February 17, 2021
Posted by nrhatch in Happiness, Life Balance, Magick & Mystery, Mindfulness.comments closed
Yes, it is possible.
Take epic chances.
One day or Day One ~> You decide.
Scared? Do it anyway.
Never forget how wildly capable you are.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Follow Your YES January 31, 2021
Posted by nrhatch in Happiness, Life Balance, Magick & Mystery, Mindfulness.comments closed
Intuition is the GPS of the Soul.
Follow your YES.
Love your decisions.
Trust the next chapter . . . because YOU are the author.
You got this!
Aah . . . that’s better!
Spirit Lights The Way 