In North America, today is eclipse day. School days are cancelled or shortened, everyone’s scrambling to buy glasses, and we’re all giddy about the rarity that we are privileged to experience.
Not to burst any bubbles, but total solar eclipses aren’t actually all that rare. There have already been 14 of them this century, with another 54 to come before the century is out. The only rarity is that this one passes over several major population centres, and will be visible (at least partially) from everywhere in the continental US.
But if you’re not in the geographic position to see 2024’s most highly-touted shadow go by, here are some other things about 2024 that make our current year stand out:
- It’s an Olympic year
- It’s a leap year
- It’s a leap year that starts on a Monday (which only happens once every 28 years)
- 2024 is an election year for eight of the world’s ten most populous countries; about half the world’s population will have an election this year
- The digits in 2024 add up to 8, an auspicious and lucky number in many cultures, and something that won’t happen again until 2033
- Parts of the US are about to experience the simultaneous appearance of something like a TRILLION cicadas in a rare double brood that won’t happen again until 2037
- On August 19, there will be a full “blue” moon, which happens so rarely that its occurrence is shorthand for something that happens rarely
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. It’s a rarity in the context of the album it inhabits; the only instrumental on the 10-track LP.
2. The guitar is the star of the song’s first minute, while the strings take over in the second minute.
3. It has the smooth entrance and exit of an eclipse; fading in from silence and fading out into the record’s second song.
Recommended listening activity:
Using those special wine glasses you never use.