This newsletter presents a small collection of geographic, historical, archaeological, cultural and/or artistic articles that have caught my attention. I am fascinated by aspects of our world that are unfamiliar and surprising, and I constantly find inspiration for my own world building and storytelling in the nooks and crannies of the real world. It’s my hope that these newsletters are an inspirational resource for other writers, too, or for anyone who wants to learn more about our world.
How far into the future can you predict if your language doesn’t even have a word for tomorrow? Learning how different cultures grapple with time is always fascinating, particularly when combined with the seemingly universal need to know what the future might bring. That’s the theme of this issue’s mini-collection—I predict that you will leave me a comment telling me which was your favorite.
Speaking of predictions, I did not predict for the summer slump that hit me hard in early June. Part of it was post-Commencement burnout (I work for a university) and part of it was just heat-induced languor. I think I’m back now…we’ll see how it goes!
There’s A Word for Tomorrow
What Can You Learn From an Onion?
On a cold New Year’s Eve in 1967 in Ashley, North Dakota, newlyweds Donna and Delbert Eszlinger sliced excitedly into a large, round yellow onion. First, they split it lengthwise down the middle. Then, carefully, the couple peeled back the onion’s layers, laying 12 fresh, eye-watering sections side-by-side, and topping each with a teaspoon of salt.
The onion wasn’t the makings of a celebratory dish for the new year, but a window into the future. While the ground outside was still frozen, the couple looked to the onion layers to predict the coming year’s weather for their farm.
Each one of the pieces is fixed but their dimensions are sometimes staggering when you consider their age. The largest is 27 meters in height and is called the Samrat Yantra. It is a giant clock, its shadow used to tell what time of day. You can see a cupola at its top (known as a chhatri). There the astronomers would announce various astronomical events—and would even forecast the weather from there too.
… [T]he giant sundial can tell the accuracy of the time to within a second. In the eighteenth century this was, to say the very least, something of an achievement. Little wonder, then, that the sundial is known as the Samrat Yantra—which translates as The Supreme Instrument. It remains the largest sundial in the world to this day.
