Days of Dog Star
Gosh, thickest Summer. It’s nice right now: We’re swimming backstroke in a big pool of quiet. And music. The Chornobyl exclusion zone wildfires have died down and dacha life will be extended until at least October. The roads are slow with Land Rover sedans pulling caravans full of kids to and from summer camps. My Kyiv neighborhood is overrun now and again, this weekend by people wearing athleisure to avoid heat stroke.
Sweet chestnuts are ripening, because the sun is relentless. The dogs, they pant.
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
Basically what Eliot complains about at The Atlantic.
During this part of the summer, Sirius is the brightest star in the Canis Major (Large Dog) constellation. I had intended to write something about Wagner PMC, but was distracted by Eliot’s essay. The occasion of Days of Dog Star is more or less 20 days prior and 20 days after the star of Sirius rises and falls in conjunction with the sun. The history of ancient Egypt, the goddess Nut, is relevant, but I digress.
Dog Days in August 2014
Explaining why Ukraine was fighting Putin and Russia, not “pro-Moscow separatists,” “rebels” or “mercenaries” in Donbas. As was being widely reported, mistakenly. For posterity, on air launch photo-fact.
Dog Days in Kyiv, August 14 years ago
Dog Days in Kyiv, August 2014
Dog Days in Kyiv, November 2004. Entire summer and fall was one big Dog Day.
Dog Days in Kyiv, November 2004
Dog Days in Minsk, Belarus, July 1994
Dog Days in Mosow, October 1994
Dog Days in Berlin, August 1984
Dog Days at Millwood Swim Club, August 1974
Dog Days at Jones Beach, August 1974
Dog Days in Tarrytown, August 1964
Dog Days in 1954 will always be remembered for solar batteries and start of Alfredo Stroessner’s bloody rule in Paraguay.
Dog Days in 1944 were all about the war.
Dog Days in 1934 were all about physics.
Dog Days in 1924 were all about physics.
Dog Days in 1914 Austro-Hungarian Empire declares war on Russia.
Dog Days in 1904 were all about progress.
Dog Days in 1894 China goes to war with Japan.
Dog Days in 1884 heyday of statistical mechanics.
19th-century Dog Star days are less well documented.