Blue Moon,
You saw me standing alone,
Without a dream in my heart,
Without a love of my own…
It’s a blue, blue world
Without you…
Well, I never felt more like singin’ the blues…
She wore blue velvet…
Night and you, and blue Hawaii…
So I’ll probably be disappointed.
Is that the end of the article? Wow, what horrid writing.
Blue writing. Watch the moon instead, and remember…we once walked on it.
Who writes these things, anyway?
Almost EVERYONE here at SDMB writes better consistently and without an editor.
<tears hair in disgust>
Here’s a much better article, by Neil Degrasse Tyson:
Actually, Tyson bypassed the more interesting question about where the phrase comes from. Here’s the definitive article, from Sky and Telescope:
Not as definitive as Cecil. And Cecil’s column is dated 1977, prior to the earliest example the S&T author could find.
It’s an anniversary of sorts for **Rhiannon8404 **and I…our first date happened under a Blue Moon, December 31, 1990.
Happy Anniversary girl!
Who doth with the what sometimes pancakes?
Not true, I’m afraid. Cecil doesn’t make the same observation about the use of “blue moon” that the S&T article does. Go re-read it.
As used by the Farmer’s Almanac, “blue moon” occurred when you had four full moons in a three-month season. The person who thought that “a blue moon” came when there were two full moons in a single month was mistaken about the significance and mean, which even the S&T article doesn’t make fully clear.
The Farmer’s almanac gave each month a particular name. This may look like some ancient practice, but it isn’t, really. the month names the Farmer’s Almanac gives mostly first appeared in their pages (they didn’t invent “Harvest Moon”, and siome of the others). What happens is that occasionally an extra full mon will creep into a three-month season. If you gave it the same name it normally has, then your months will creep through the year, just as they do with the islamic lunar calendar (which is why amadan is sometimes in the summer, sometimes in the winter). If you don’t want this to happen, you introduce an extra month, as in the Jewish solar-lunar calendar. The give the extra month the same name as the preceeding month. The Farmer’s Almanac didn’t do this – they called the extra month Blue Moon, instead. Note that – it’s not A blue moon, it’s THE Blue Moon, just as you have Harvest Moon and Hunter’s Moon and all the others.
There’s got to be some date-fuzzing there, becausethis passage:
would indicate a much more recent writing.
Bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuueueueueuuuu
Oh so lonesome for you.
Why can’t you be blueeeeeee over meeeeee…
Shouldn’t you be out celebrating?
-D/a
All these years and I never knew a blue moon was anything but an expression. Or a bluegrass song, Blue Moon of Kentucky.
Tropical Storm Issac kept me from seeing it last night. Raining pretty hard.
I want to see one now that I know it’s real.
When is the next one coming? I know the article says once every 2 1/2 years. So, maybe early 2015?
You might want to see this thread, only a day past its prime.
Other than the actual blue moon occurrences, “blue moon” makes me think of Billie Holiday
Next blue moon is 2015, assuming you use the currently popular definition.
Already incorporated. A link within a link within a thread within a link.
Well, shit. If I had any dignity I would… I dunno. Be embarassed or something.