Because I woke up too early this morning, I’m writing this blog post in the dark. I’m in the dark about why I wake up so often in the dark.
Also, I’m thinking about how many people are going to be in the dark this afternoon during the solar eclipse.
In case you’re in the dark about the meaning of the idiom “in the dark,” here’s what I find on the non-dark web (I’m in the dark about where and what the dark web is):
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Here are more things I’m in the dark about:
- How and why so many people support Donald Trump,
- Why people are so scared of those who seem different from them.
- Why wonderful people have such low self esteem.
- How people can be in denial about climate change and other crucial realities,
- Why more people don’t appreciate the genius of Stephen Sondheim.
- Why people don’t take better care of themselves.
- Why my jaw keeps clicking even though I’m following the advice of several medical experts.
- Why some questions I ask on Twitter get hundreds of responses more than others.
- Why the New Yorker stopped offering its weekly cryptic crossword.
- Why it bothers me so much when people don’t get back to me.
- How to play the drums.
- Why people are so afraid of the dark.
I hope I’m not in the dark about how to safely observe the solar eclipse today. I am bringing these glasses into work:
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Is anybody in the dark about my other photos for today?
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I’m in the dark about several of those April 8 observances.
Here’s what I find when I search YouTube for “in the dark.”
I also looked for “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” by Robert Cray:
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Thanks to all who help me see the light when I’m in the dark, including YOU!
I have a few favorite puzzles that involve words, numbers, and/or logic. Currently on top of the list is one called Mixed Doubles in Games magazine. I also enjoy acrostics (fill in definitions and then transfer the solution letters to a grid by matching numbered squares, to reveal a quotation whose author and title are spelled out in the first letters of the definition answers), and the type of picture logic where numbers appear in front of rows and columns indicating how many squares to fill (I’ve seen various names on paper and online such as Pic-cross). And I start every day with Wordle.
I used to love those Paint by Numbers puzzles in Games Magazine and I’m in the dark about why I stopped subscribing to that magazine — maybe I needed more time to work on my own creations?
Waking up in the dark always reminds me of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem “I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day”. Some people describe sonnets as puzzles—just plug one-hundred and forty syllables of iambic pentameter into a box—but good sonnets are so much more than that.
I was also not in the dark today even during the eclipse. The sun was 95% covered where we were but that 5% was so bright it never seemed like anything more than twilight.
We had 97% in Boston, Chris, and we were never in the dark.
I am on a bus in Seattle heading home and your photos are not loading for me. That is okay! I will see them later.
I took a photo of the Seattle sky at the height of the eclipse and it looked like a typical spring day: cloudy. Ditto in Vancouver, according to photos my kids shared.
Thanks for shedding light here, Maureen.
nyt weekend crosswords, connections, sudoku
I’m in the dark about why I’ve never gotten into sudoku.
I have a bevy of word puzzles that I do everyday, including KeyWord. Wordle, Lordle, Squardle, the Jumble, etc,. I also do a little geography thing called Worldle. I am entirely in the dark as to why my mail program quit sometime on Saturday (but the online Webmails has it all, so here I am again.) The darkness at noon (or, more precisely, 2ish, yesterday was marvelous. The eclipse at totality, when you can take the glasses off (or you won’t see anything) was, thanks to what I heard were solar flares around the edges, a piece of performance art in the sky. And to spend it in the company of many beloveds at my sister-in-law’s Pond Hill Farm, with dozens of her friends and neighbors camping out and dotting the hillside, was best of all.
I’m no longer in the dark about your activities, Barbara!