The Marci Rating System

Mmm, Monday. And not just any Monday, but first-day-of-school Monday. I can hear the kids out at the bus stop. I’m glad I’m not at the bus stop. It’s easily the best thing that’s happened so far today.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

At one point in — middle school? I think middle school — there was a solar eclipse, which would have been much more exciting to me if it hadn’t happened while we were in home ec cooking food. (My favorite unit, which is hilarious in retrospect given how lazy an eater I am these days.)

This is what I remember our teachers saying: “DON’T LOOK AT THE ECLIPSE YOU’LL GO BLIND!!!!!!1111!!!”

Now, even as a middle schooler, this seemed suspect — you can look at the sun when it’s not eclipsing without going blind, right? But it’s not like I wanted to be that one kid who learned the hard way either.

But when I was driving home last night (driving home from work, definitely a random thoughts time of day) I thought, ‘Hold up — no way could that be true, or loads of old-timey people would have gone blind every time there was an eclipse!’

To the internet!

Which both agrees and disagrees. I liked the succinct answer from Mental Floss, which essentially says ‘no on blindness, yes on potential damage, probably shouldn’t lie to kids about this.’

But LiveScience goes into a bit more detail, and as it turns out, loads of people *did* experience some kind of eye damage every time there was an eclipse!

(Not blindness, though.)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

The first time I watched this movie I was still in high school, and watching it a second time now that I am officially past the ‘ten year reunion mark’ was pretty interesting. Still fun! I liked it (again)!

Some thoughts:

1. It was fun to lol at the technology. The phones! The computers! The printers! It was supposed to be set in 1996, and I kept thinking about all the *really* fun stuff that would be coming for them in the next few years.

2. Looking back, ten years out from high school doesn’t seem as long as it did when I was looking ahead. (Note: I did not attend my own 10 year reunion, though I do vaguely recall getting an email about it.)

3. GPB is strangely similar to “Must Love Dogs.” Just John Cusack’s influence?

4. Everything I know about high school reunions, I learned from this movie. Which is why, when I wrote about a high school reunion in The Dragon in the Room, it included name badges, insurance sales, and something completely unexpected showing up. Thanks, GPB!

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.