Two gauras, two different takes

 

On March 6th along Mopac I made a vertical portrait of Oenothera suffrutescens, known as scarlet gaura or scarlet beeblossom. Near the pond on Kulmbacher Dr. on March 30th I made a horizontal portrait of velvet gaura, Oenothera curtiflora.

 

 

 

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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) stunned attendees at a high school solar eclipse event Monday by claiming the rock-solid moon is a “planet” that is “made up mostly of gases” — before adding she still wants to be “first in line” to learn how to live there.

The former top Democrat on the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee [italics mine] badly botched elementary lunar facts while speaking during the gathering at Booker T. Washington High School in Houston.

“You’ve heard the word ‘full moon.’ Sometimes you need to take the opportunity just to come out and see a full moon is that complete rounded circle, which is made up mostly of gases,” Jackson Lee, 74, told teenage pupils who gathered on a sports field ahead of the rare celestial event.

 

So began an April 9th New York Post story by Steven Nelson. A later part of the story documents more false statements:

Jackson Lee made a series of other questionable statements, including saying the moon, which reflects the sun’s light, gives off “unique light and energy” and misstating the scientific reason for the eclipse.

“You have the energy of the moon at night,” she told the kids.

The solar eclipse was happening because the Earth was unusually close to the moon, she said — though, in fact, the eclipse was the result of the alignment of the sun and moon.

“I don’t think we’ve been on the moon the last 50 years. So we will be landing on the moon. What you’ll see today will be the closest distance that the moon has ever been in the last 20 years. Which means that’s why they will shut the light down because they will be close to the Earth,” she said of the eclipse alignment.

 

And a linguistically inclined math teacher will point out that “rounded circle” is redundant because all circles are round.

While members of Congress aren’t generally known for their knowledge or wisdom, this latest proof of that sad reality is egregious (meaning literally ‘outside the flock,’ i.e. outside the norm’.

 

© 2024 Steven Schwartzman