#147 :: Sundial pendant

rx cheap ‘popup’,’width=500,height=500,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0′); return false”>Given out with tiny burgers and itty-bitty orders of fries to promote Disney’s box-office bomb, The Haunted Mansion, this faux-marble bust sings when you push its button: “Ghostly hosts come out to social-iiiiiiize.” His best features are actually his mutton chops, which are cast in a lustrous white resin that catches the light in a respectable facsimile of white marble.
viagra sale ‘popup’, click ‘width=500, nurse height=500,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0′); return false”>A hoop of pewter notched with the hours and days, a ring of brass with a little knob for spinning it, a lanyard and a pinhole. Line it up with the sun, spin the ring to indicate the month, and a pinprick of sunlight falls on the hour. I had only the vaguest understanding of this object’s function from my wife, who had forgotten its meaning since receiving it as a gift years ago. It is the “shepherd’s watch” or Aquitaine sundial, a replica of the clever device given by Eleanor of Aquitaine to King Henry II to help him remember the time of their appointed trysts. There’s a whole business built around this sort of trinket. It requires a particular sort of patience to put yourself in the mind of someone living in a time when this device would have been an invaluable aid to punctuality. The clock running the computer on which you are reading this is many thousands of times more accurate – and more complex. It brings to mind a quote, the author of whom I forget, something to the effect that “in the future, technology will be sufficiently advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic.” I see a glint of magic in this thing, with its corny “Carpe Diem” inscription, its low-tech urgency and infectious cleverness.

Comments

3 responses to “#147 :: Sundial pendant”

  1. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” — Arthur C. Clarke, “Technology and the Future”

  2. mack Avatar

    THAT’s the one. Thanks, Dan.

  3. linda Avatar
    linda

    In the last couple of weeks I purchased a sundial ring, and the “original Aquitaine”, and the “Celtic Aquitaine”. I live in Grand Jct., Co., so these wonderful dials will work a good portion of the time. I also collect “Hand of Fatima’s” and the amulets called “Raj Hero”.

    Beledi