Mumbles

It's beginning to look a lot like spring! About time, however, because spring officially arrives Monday. The martins are already here, wild Easter lilies are blooming, and Judy said she saw a snake over the weekend. Not sure what that last one has to do with spring.

The first day of spring is about that equinox thing. On the spring equinox the sun rises exactly in the east travels through the sky for 12 hours and sets exactly in the west. On the equinox this is the motion of the sun through the sky for everyone on earth. Every place on earth experiences a 12 hours day twice a year on the spring and fall equinox. So they say!

I find the egg-balancing myth more interesting. A myth most often attributed to the Chinese, that you can stand a raw egg on end during the equinox. A few clicks on the Internet and you find out the myth apparently derives from the notion that, due to the sun's equidistant position between the poles of the earth on the first day of spring, special gravitational forces apply.

Hey, that's no myth. We proved it here in the office a few years ago when Katy Pando had us balancing eggs on end all over the place! And several of those eggs stood there on end until it would have been hazardous to crack them open for breakfast.

Don't believe me? Break out a dozen eggs and try it for yourself. And, let me know how many of you have eggs standing around on end next week.

Actually, they say you can balance an egg on end any day of the year - if you try hard enough! But, hurry. It's gonna be hard to balance those eggs on a lawnmower.

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If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a soldier.