Easter Memories 2022

 

 

 

My memories of Easter become more poignant the more family members I lose.  My mother made it special; she made Easter baskets, yes at my request, when I was in my 30s and in grad school.  Mom and Dad used to drive down to Carbondale, and we would eat at the Holiday Inn Easter buffet.  One year, we found an estate sale being held in their meeting room.  We also found a flea market open, with a hardcover Mills & Boon (Harlequin) novel I could use in my thesis.

 

Mom and I made cookies together, and we had turkey or duck, occasionally pheasant, if we ate at home.  We usually hit the road; Decatur one year we visited my great grandmother Clara (Aglaia’s) grave.  Mom fell on the uneven round; it was getting cloudy, and it was spooky.  All we heard was her voice, “Honey!” and Dad had a brief moment where he though YiaYia was calling for him.  We would also go to St. Louis, great times at Union Station and the Italian restaurant we loved on Lindbergh drive.  My parents met through people they both knew in St. Louis, or as my YiaYia called it, Sandy Luli, and we would often explore there, or St. Charles.  Another year we went to Hannibal, to Mark Twain’s home.

 

Once, we turned and went home; we got as far as the old Skewer Inn outside Peoria, and had to get home because the temperature dropped drastically and snow was on the way.  Our little scotty/poodle mix puppy, Killer, was in the car.  We rushed out to him bearing peaces of shish kebob, still warm.  He was shivering, scared.  We wrapped him in his red check flannel Blankie, and he sat in my lap and had his snack while we drove the hour and one half home.

 

One monumental year, I flew to Edmonton, riding the plane with the Edmonton Oilers.  We went to The Mall of the Americas, ate terrific food, saw snow, first time in over a year for me.  Shopped, checked out museums, art galleries and antique stores.  I didn’t want to go back to California, but back I went.

 

In San Jose, Jim, Connie, and I, sometimes had visits from my cousins Steve and Katie. We ate out, but ate better at home.  We had turkey there, too, and Jim, who was a great baker, made Greek cookies, baklava, Connie did butter cookies, I chipped in with my recipes from home.

 

My Easter baskets were legendary; Connie could take a ready made basket and add wonderful things, wrapping it all in cellophane and ribbons.  Mom looked for sugared diorama eggs, or I painted eggs, getting ideas from Tasha Tudor’s books on holidays.  We also collected Pysanky eggs, marble eggs, egg dioramas, Victorian glass eggs, chenille bunnies and chicks, all kinds of things.  In kindergarten, Mrs. Moser had us make an Easter tree.  We spray painted a branch white, and fixed it into a vintage flower pot.  We hung all sorts of ornaments that we made from egg shells and bits of cotton.  I have a whole collection of these now, many added by my friend Bev C. in San Jose, who created a magnificent Easter Tree in her office.  We all worked with law firms in The Pruneyard in those days.

 

My favorite Easter book was Miss Flora McFlimsey’s Easter Bonnet by Marianna.  Beautiful illustrations about the little doll who didn’t have an Easter Bonnet, but through the help of friends, got a fantastic chapeau with which to win her contest.

 

We took trips to New Salem, to see the Lincoln sites, we cooked, dyed a million eggs.  Uncle Tom would come to us when we lived in Peoria, and we often took trips to Chicago to shop and eat at Andy’s Steak House or Henrique’s in Oak Brook.  It didn’t matter what we did, just that we were together.

 

For Greek Easter, we went to church all week, and I sang in the choir.  Jim took me in hand when he visited in the early 70s, and we went all over revisiting his friends.  We went to visit the other relatives near Champaign, and one year, sadly went to visit the graves of aunt Leo and Cousin Clara Mae, killed in a car collision.  Also visited their family.

 

My husband went with me to the church Services and sang along Good Friday.  We went to the Anastasi, held at Midnight Easter Saturday. We had snacks and drank chamgapne later, and brought home flowers. 

 

Now, Easter is just really my husband and me, and another trip to the cemetery.  We still love our Easter décor, and I made a tree with bunnies and eggs this year.  I skipped the Eier or Egg market his year; too tired nad too much to do.  But, I’ll have an Easter egg give away this Saturday at the museum.

 

I have so many wonderful memories thanks to my family, and sometimes, I can still taste the jelly beans, encased in plastic eggs Aunt Connie would decorate with Liquid paper.  

 

Blessed Easter and Passover to everyone, and Blessed Greek Easter April 24^th.  It will be Easter in Ukraine April 24^th, and I hope everyone there has peace as well.

 

I send you all a chocolate rabbit and some Peeps good wishes.

Skyward: Omicron!!

 From our guest blogger, Dr. David Levy

 Skyward

 

April 2022

 

Tim Hunter took this beautifully focused picture showing Omicron (2)
Eridani.  The primary star, named Keid, is the bright one;  just to
the left is the secondary, a white dwarf; the tertiary, a red dwarf,
is fainter still.   Used with permission and thanks.

Omicron!

 

         Over the last few months you must have read dozens of articles, online or in print, about the Omicron variant of COVID-19.  Fortunately, this is not one of them.   This article is about  Omicron² Eridani.  It is a faint star in the constellation of Eridanus, the River.

        Actually, there are two Omicron stars in that constellation.  The first is brighter, and is a variable star.  The second one is one of the closest stars to the Sun. Omicron², also known as 40 Eridani, happens to be not a disease but one of the most interesting star systems in the entire sky.

       Omicron² is a triple star system that is only about 16 light years away.  Its brightest component is a Sun-like star faintly visible to the unaided eye on a good night.It[DS1]  lies in northern Eridanus, the River, just a few degrees west of Rigel at the foot of Orion.  The secondary is a white dwarf star.  Unlike the companion of Sirius,  this star is 9^th magnitude and not near the brighter star so it is easy to see in a small telescope.   The third star is not far from the secondary, but at 11^th magnitude it is also not difficult to spot.  This third star is a red dwarf.

       Although red dwarf stars are the most plentiful, by far, in our region of the Milky Way galaxy, they are almost impossible to see because they are so small.  The closest one to us is Proxima Centauri, or Alpha Centauri C, which at 4.24 light years is the closest star to the Sun.    Also because they are so small and intrinsically faint, only a few of them are easy to find.  40 Eridani C is one of the easiest to find.

       This interesting star has something else going for it.  In 2018 astronomers discovered a planet orbiting the primary star.  With a rapid orbit around Omicron², such a planet would receive much more radiation from the primary star than Earth gets from the Sun.  But in 2021 new observations cast doubt on whether this planet exists at all.

        Whether Omicron² Eridani really hosts a planet is subject to debate.  But in the universe of Star Trek, it surely does.  It is the home of Vulcan, Mr. Spock’s home world. In the episode “Operation Annihilate”, which appears near the end of the first season, Spock is blinded by the intense light used to immobilize the invading parasites on the planet Deneva.  However his blindness is temporary because of the existence of an inner eyelid.    Vulcan is said to orbit Omicron² Eridani’s primary star, and since it is so much  brighter than our Sun,  even though Vulcan is at the same distance that Earth is from our Sun, they need the inner eyelid to protect their eyes.

       I rather enjoy the idea that the fictitious Vulcan happens to orbit one of my favorite real stars.  And unlike the Omicron variant, which one hopes will be eradicated soon, we admire Omicron² Eridani, the real star, and wish it to ”Live long and prosper.”

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 [DS1]