Welcome to Wiser Now’s weekly email blast which reflects my eclectic interests and, I hope, yours. I have been waiting a long time to write about this week’s start to summer, long light, and Stonehenge replicas. The interactive replica at right is at a Taipei, Taiwan art museum, and called “Larval Stonehenge,” representing a young Stonehenge. Details are scarce, but it’s certainly cute.
I hope you find these offerings fun, and perhaps even useful, and welcome your feedback. (Kathy@WiserNow.com) And if you haven’t yet pressed the subscribe button so this newsletter doesn’t go to spam, please do so now.
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The Quirky Quote
Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~ Henry James
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The Quirky Facts
Yesterday was officially the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere, the solstice that marks the date of our longest daylight. Arguably the most famous place to celebrate the Summer Solstice is Stonehenge, on England’s Salisbury Plain. A henge is a massive circular ditch and bank, and the earliest stones placed there are believed to date back 5000 years. Archeological evidence suggests Stonehenge was a burial site, but its other possible purposes are still being debated. Whether planned or not (that’s part of the debate), “on the Summer Solstice, the sun rises behind the Heel Stone in the northeast part of the horizon and its first rays shine into the heart of Stonehenge.”
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But while England’s mysterious Stonehenge has long been the center of the most attention, there are dozens of others, both ancient and modern worth noting, and it is frankly the modern replicas that are most fun to highlight. Most of them, like those made from cars, trucks, refrigerators, and decorated portable toilets, make no pretense of mimicking the original with any accuracy, and no solstice figured into their construction. But a sunny disposition certainly did. Here are a few others I found interesting:
Bamboohenge: This was a temporary bamboo structure by artist Antoon Versteegde collectively built for an art festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands that served as a sort of community space where participants could get together to socialize, share ideas, and have fun.
Inflatable henge: Jeremy Deller unveiled his gargantuan bouncy castle surrounded by inflated “Stonehenge pillars” in 2012. It was an entertainment feature at both the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and London’s Olympic Games. After that, it toured around the UK, but I’m not clear whether it’s still accessible.
Foamhenge: This full-scale, realistic and quite accurate Stonehenge replica rests impressively on a hill in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Its creator, fiberglass artist Mark Cline, artificially aged 16-foot-tall blocks of Styrofoam “stone” through carving and creative painting, then anchored them in concrete. His specialty is fiberglass dinosaurs, but Foamhenge is not his only Stonehenge replica.
Phonehenge – This replica made from the iconic red British telephone booths is surprisingly located at Freestyle Music Park in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
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Those who aren’t into heavy-lifting, have made their replicas out of Legos® or food. The foods of choice readily found include blocks of frosted cake, candy corn, carrots, cheese, cheese puffs, French fries, sausage, and twinkies. |
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The Quirky Observations
People celebrate the Summer Solstice in a variety of ways. Consider the days-long Nome, Alaska Midnight Sun Festival which includes a parade, a 5K run, dancing, games, a softball tournament, a staged bank robbery, a polar bear swim in the Bering Sea, an equally cold raft race, and a blanket toss. While the festival uses an ordinary blanket to toss the giddy children, here’s something new I learned: The toss began as a “traditional Inupiaq event where adults stand in a circle holding the edges of a large walrus or seal skin hide and throw someone high into the air. Historically, this method was used so hunters could see far across the surface of the ocean to spot prey.” Learn more here.
Nome has 22 hours of daylight during the Summer Solstice and never really gets dark, but if you really want midnight sun, Longyearbyen, Norway, one of the northernmost cities in the world, is the place to be. There the sun rises on April 19th and doesn’t set fully again until August 23rd!
And if you want an interesting cultural event, head for Canada and the Ottawa Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival which focuses on Summer Solstice traditions from the First Nations people. The nearly week-long festival includes creative workshops, a marketplace, educational events, and a competitive powwow.
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You can also head further east and slightly further south to Austria’s Tyrol, where for hundreds of years, residents have created massive bonfires on top of the mountains, which they light as the sky gets dark on the Summer Solstice (and several other dates during the summer). The mystical beacons as far as the eye can see are awe-inspiring.
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The Featured Product
The 114 slides in Wiser Now’s newest slide show “Everything Long” offers 9 exercises that include trivia quizzes (quirky longest things, longest things in sports and nature), word games (long expressions, making long stories short, and more), reminiscence, and imaginative exercises related to how long things have affected your life. We cover everything from the longest movie kiss to the longest skipping stone and dozens of ideas in between. You and those you share it with are certain to be cheerfully engaged more than all day long. Check it our here.
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Please Spread the Word
WNW is an award-winning publication used by activity professionals, teachers, aging adults and their grandkids, and lots of people in between. Please share it, and if you represent an organization that would like a customized version or would consider becoming a sponsor, send me a note at Kathy@WiserNow.com.
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Directions for Sharing
Each week, the links to the current and seven previous Wiser Now Wednesdays are provided in the archive (“WN Wed Archive” on the far right of the menu bar). Click on the issue you want to share, and when it appears, at the top of the screen you will see “Share” with an f for Facebook and a bird for Twitter. Click on them to share to your contacts or just copy the URL at the top of your screen and send it to them in an email. Thank you!
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The Questions
Whether or not you celebrate the Summer Solstice as the longest 24 hours of daylight, light figures into our lives in many ways.
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Is there a part of day when the light is most appealing to you – dawn, twilight, sunset or somewhere in between? Describe its appeal for you.
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Sometimes it’s our daily rituals that brighten our lives. What is the highlight of each day for you?
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Multiple types of light are associated with visual pleasure: moonlight, starlight, candlelight, fire light (from a fireplace or campfire). What memories do those words conjure for you?
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People brighten us, too. Name at least three people who (now or in the past) light up your life and how they do (did) it.
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The Quiz - Word game: Lightly Expressed
English has a lot of idioms related to light. Can you fill in the blanks to these expressions?
- A heavy purse makes a light ____________.
- This expression means he fell asleep instantly. He was __________________.
- These two words fit in both blanks: We thought we were ____________ ___________ away from a solution, but one of our scientists was ____________ ___________ ahead of the others in his thinking and found a way.
- After the project was stalled for months, we were finally given the ___________ ______________ (2 words) to move forward.
- It’s been a lot of work, but I finally see a light at the _________________
- I’ve been lifting weights; now when I pick up my granddaughter, she feels _________________.
- Someone needs to light a _____________ under him to get him to work.
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Answers to the quiz
- heart
- out like a light
- light years
- green light
- end of the tunnel
- light as a feather
- fire
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My multiple goals are to amuse and inspire you, to share what I and people whom I admire are doing, to stimulate your curiosity and spur you to action. I hope you enjoyed this offering. You can access previous issues here. I welcome your feedback. (Kathy@WiserNow.com)
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