At about 11:04 pm yesterday eastern daylight saving time1, the Earth reached the extreme of its latitudinal periodic oscillation2, representing the very middle of geographic summer in the southern hemisphere; the point at which the sun (sol) comes to an apparent stop (stitium). This naturally means it’s time to spend money for the sake of the retail sector, and ingest unhealthy amounts of food and liquor.

In a little over a week from now, absolutely nothing astrologically or meteorologically notable will happen. We will nonetheless celebrate this fact by collectively ooing and ahhing at expensive aerial incendiary devices.

Joyeux Solstice3!

  1. 12:04 pm UTC ↩
  2. Nevermind that it’s a mere illusion produced by the conjunction of the Earth’s tilt and its rotation around the sun. ↩
  3. I don’t mean to sound so cynical, but sometimes the folly of it all gets to me. ↩