Category: Questions for the Keeper
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Tide talk
Inspired by his visit to the lighthouse, Astronomer Bob Berman published an article about the Hudson River tides in the local Almanac: Moon River.
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Questions for the Keeper: tides
While I mixed up the pancake batter this morning, a house guests seated at the kitchen table peppered me with questions about the tides. In answer to one of his questions and to illustrate the difficulties of predicting tides, I started to tell the story from awhile back when the local astronomy newspaper column mistakenly…
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What's with all the bass boats?
This morning at breakfast, my guests wondered why so many bass boats were zooming around on the river. The boats were out in force this morning, speeding en masse down the river with a few peeling off from the pack to fish the waters of the Esopus Creek near the lighthouse. I wondered the same…
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Question for the Keeper
What are those fish that are jumping and why do they jump? Sitting outside on a summer evening, the nearly full moon clearly reflected in becalmed waters. A stillness prevailed, punctuated by the occasional SPLASH of large fish jumping, like an exclamation point to the end of the day! The fish jumping raised a pair…
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Question for the keeper: the light at night
Does the light in the tower bother you at night? If I suffer sleep-deprivation and insomnia, it’s not because of the flashing beacon in the lighthouse tower. I barely notice that it’s on. To be sure, the light is bright and visible for at least four nautical miles. However, it is difficult to see for…
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Question for the keeper: smells
This question comes from a fiction-writer in Chicago: what does the lighthouse smell like? Let me begin by saying that I’m relieved that she didn’t ask what the lighthouse KEEPER smells like. Not nearly so pleasant a subject matter. I think a poet once said that to venture out on a day in March is…