While the legendary Hubble Space Telescope is receiving its final tune-up today, the European Space Agency (ESA) also launched the Hershel and Plank space observatories just a few hours ago from French Guiana in South America. The space shuttle crew is installing a new camera abroad Hubble to allow it to see further into space and will presumably to bring more of the spectacular photos that the telescope has become world renown for. It wasn’t an easy job for the astronauts either, and when they finally got the old camera loosened, they remarked “Woo-Hoo”
Hershel and Plank, similarly named for two great European scientists as Hubble is for a great American one, will also be capable of examining in greater detail the vastness of space. They are billed by the ESA as “two of the most sophisticated astronomical spacecraft ever built”, and indeed Hershel carries onboard the largest mirror ever launched into space. The satellites have now begun a two month journey which will place them in a Lissajous orbit around the L2 Lagrangian point 1.5 million km “behind” earth from where they will carry out their missions.
To remain as always completely topical, I thought I’d talk about the One Book, One Philadelphia program now that I’ve totally missed it again this year. The idea is that everyone in the city reads and discusses this one book throughout the winter.
For 2009, the book is The Soloist by Steve Lopez, which is also the basis of a soon-to-be-released motion picture that is Jamie Foxx’s bid to win another Oscar in the handi-capable musician portrayal category. I was kind of wondering if the Free Library had taken some money from the filmmakers in order to promote the movie to the city, but the fact that the book is by former Inquirer columnist and local favorite Lopez probably explains why it was chosen.
Anyhow, once again I have not read the One Book book, which is seeming a little perverse of me. I didn’t even read last year’s selection, What is the What by Dave Eggers, and I subscribe to his tasteful and hipstery McSweeney’s quarterly. I just can’t be told to do anything, I guess. Except that we were discussing this the other night, and no one has read the One Book or ever witnessed any One Book discussions occurring city-wide. 
One of the categories of writing that I cherish both as a reader and an eater is restaurant reviews. Reviews come in two temperatures: glowing and scathing, and I lean towards liking the latter the best. So I was more than pleased to read Inquirer food critic Craig LaBan’s most recent 
To roll belatedly with the theme of library confession, I recently ordered a selection of books that I wanted desperately but was too ashamed to openly buy in a store. One was about sex, one was by Douglas Adams, and one was Bridget Jones’s Diary, the book that infamously started the whole chick lit thing, which makes it shameful by association. Also I got the version with Renee Zellweger on the cover; I may have to white her out. 
Henrietta Drinker
imogene tilden
philomenacurie
Barnabus Mesmerize
Odegard Plywell
