Past and Present

    Illustration: European Space Agency

FAREWELL, SPACE TRAVELER: For years now, we've been following the European Space Agency's Rosetta Mission. The remarkable program sent a spacecraft on a 10-year journey to a comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. And Rosetta had a probe on it, Philae, which successfully landed on the comet back on Nov. 12, 2014.

It's an impressive mission - landing on a moving target 4 billion miles from home! - and so that got our attention. But to be honest, what really sucked us in was the ESA's charming videos about Rosetta and Philae. Here is part of their story.
https://youtu.be/f02jrPW2WBU


There's a video about the first year of the comet rendezvous.
https://youtu.be/szyq33W-GvI


And here is the continuing story of Rosetta's second year near the comet. 
https://youtu.be/lxdDx8frN_Y


Overnight, the Rosetta mission came to an end, as the spacecraft made a planned plummeted to the comet's surface. 

Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera captured this image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at 10:14 GMT from an altitude of about 1.2 km during the spacecraft’s final descent on 30 September.

  Photo: European Space Agency

Before impact, Rosetta sent back one final photo, taken about 20 meters above the comet's surface. 

  Photo: European Space Agency

Shortly after, the ESA confirmed LOS (loss of signal).

  Photo: European Space Agency

Now, Rosetta has joined Philae on the comet's surface. https://youtu.be/vcYo-qQ5HbA

Rest well, Rosetta.

Illustration: European Space Agency

And it turns out one of our favorite rock star astrophysicists was watching Rosetta, as well. Here's Dr. Brian May bidding the space probe adieu.

https://youtu.be/sbt-QMeyfjc

JULIA AND ME: This evening, we headed up to Mukilteo for a special birthday dinner. Rather than going out, I pitched making a special dinner at my mom's place. She loves the movie "Julie & Julia," and that reminded me of an ancient memory of the first dinner I can recall ever cooking.

Back in the day we didn't have many channels, and I spent a fair amount of time watching the Public Broadcasting Service. Julia Child's "French Chef" show was a fixture, and for whatever reason, one day in 1971, I watched an episode (specifically, season 9, episode 15) where she cooked Sole Bonne Femme (sole with mushrooms) from start to finish. I was determined to replicate it and asked my parents to get me the necessary ingredients, which I'd scrawled . 

My 6-year-old-chef year-old version included canned mushrooms (ew...), and likely some Martini & Rossi, since it was the Seventies and ever home bar had that in stock then. I doubt I used sole, and I'm sure I didn't make a roux and the fish stock sauce. But remember thinking it was pretty OK back then, and I didn't even like fish. 

Fast forward 45 years, and I was in my mom's kitchen again, making sole bonne femme. This go was a lot more sophisticated. Suffice it to say, if you follow Julia Child's recipe to a T, it is actually quite delicious. 

https://youtu.be/TYSbS7XEwzE

Generating Buzz

BUSY BEES:  Monday we had a special event - the kick off event for a spelling bee training club. The two hour get together included a screening of the (very enjoyable) "Akeelah and the Bee" movie.

And if you are having a movie matinee, you need snacks. There was popcorn, of course, but we thought we'd make some bee-themed goodies.

First up were some Honeycomb cereal snacks. They were similar to Rice Krispies treats snacks - cereal squares held together with melted marshmallow glue. We added some fresh honey to the mix, of course. Those went quickly!

We also made some cookies and decorated them with homemade fondant and bee colors and motifs. 

I didn't want to only bring platters of sugar, so I thought it would be fun if we took some healthier snacks. Enter the swarm of hard boiled bees.

The movie was sweet. And predictable. But really enjoyable. If you haven't seen it yet, it's worth a look.
https://youtu.be/8Sf4Lwxg6lQ

The movie got a number of kids fired up to participate in a spelling bee themselves. We came home with a list of 40-plus spelling words from the movie, as well as a list of National Spelling Bee Winning Words from 1925-2016.

In reviewing the list, it was the 1990s when the words started getting a little crazy. I wonder if that had to do with the advent of the Internet, and new and better ways to prep for the bee.

I've often watched the Scripps spelling bee on ESPN. I'll never forget 1997's contest, when a homeschooled girl from New York won by spelling euonym.

Triple Play Saturday

FISH FEST:  This weekend was busy, Busy, BUSY! Saturday alone we had three events to attend. First up was the Fishermen's Fall Festival. It's at the working boat marina at the north end of our hill. 

We've gone every year for the 10 years we've lived here. The biggest attraction is always the temporary pool/pond, where the kids love catching a live trout.

We made our way toward the trout pond, passing a couple dozen fishing industry related stands.

This unfortunate sign was one of the first things we spied.

Of course, maybe there is a SNIGNAL flag. I don't pretend to know all about maritime flags, that's for sure. 

There are also arts and crafts booths. The kids were each pleased with the balloon art they received. 

And they always enjoy painting a flying disk in the spin art booth.

We finally made our way to where the trout pond was ... er ... or wasn't. NO trout this year. (Insert sad saxophone music here.)

And so, the kids had to settle for catching laminated fish with a stick, some string and a magnet. Not exactly as thrilling.

TOY TIME: Our second stop was the Museum of History, Advertising and Industry, or MOHAI, as it's more commonly known. 

We always enjoy browsing their permanent exhibits about the history of business and industry in and around Seattle, but a main draw for this particular visit was to check out their special presentation, "Toys of the '50s, '60s and '70s." Developed by the Minnesota History Center, the exhibit chronicles the rich contemporary cultural history of toys post World War II to the groovy, pop art times of the Seventies. MOHAI is the only place on the West Coast for the exhibit to be seen.

I would have loved to have this ballistic missile!

Or any space-related toys. I remember my friend Mark having this GI Joe.

And I definitely remember playing with something similar to these disc-shooting phasers back in he day. 

Of course, Colorforms had to be represented in the collection. Low tech indeed, but boy we had hours of fun with these. 

 Frankly, I thought Evel Knievel was even cooler than Batman.

Check out this cool chemistry lab, with glass blowing, crime detection and chromatography components!

 And I remember these things. We didn't own one, but I remember being around one - and the (noxious) smell!

Robots have been inspiring imaginations for decades now. 

 Especially ones that beat other robots up. ;)

It's hard to get any more classic than the Slinky!

 And laugh all you want, but I loved my Pet Rock. I remember the day I got it, at JC Penney.

Long before GameBoy or other fancy portable gaming systems, these handheld games were what we had to play when it came to video games. Just little moving dashes (in one color) on a tiny screen, I spent HOURS and HOURS on this football game and loved it. 

The exhibit even had a section on dangerous toys. Naturally, Yard Jarts were front and center. Fortunately, they never came close to injuring me or any of my friends. Frankly, I thought they were plenty safe, as long as you paying attention to where and when and how you were using them. 

And ah, the Clackers. So. Much. Fun. And Pain. They made this cool, obnoxious knocking sound when you got them flinging back and forth just right. But when you missed - OUCH! Poor knuckles. Or maybe your face, ha ha!

We also had fun leaving MOHAI. With a heads up from Kennedy, we learned about a (Pokemon GO) Dragonite in the area, and we captured it - as well as a Slowbro! - on the way back to our car.

WOW, INDEED: Our third stop for the day was EMP Museum. We've been there many times before, but the main attraction on Saturday was the World of WearableArt™ (WOW) special exhibit.

We learned that WOW is New Zealand’s largest arts show. The annual event creates a new theatrical world in which incredible garments are constructed. Over 50,000 show-goers attend annually from around the world.

The exhibit at EMP is WOW's North American premiere. It features 32 award-winning garments showcasing the best of the the show's permanent collection.

This Gothic structure dress was a show stopper.

 This dress had a pumkinesque quality to it. Strikes me there'd be no sitting down in this dress.

 My horrible photo doesn't do this costume justice. The details were amazing. 

 There were even a couple of outfits made from wood products. 

 This black and white oufit was dramatic.

Hat tip to the Smithsonian for allowing tens of thousands of people to visit museums all across the country for free on Saturday as part of their annual Museum Day Live program.