There is, in your past, a road that hugs the sea: a transcontinental highway that you can pick up or leave at any time, made not of on-ramps and off-ramps but of uncontrolled crossings and stoplights you are free to turn at, drive through, or ignore entirely.
NOIR Lab
NSF’s NOIRLab (formally named the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory) is the US national center for ground-based, nighttime optical astronomy. Through its five programs — Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), the International Gemini Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) and Vera C. Rubin Observatory once operational — NOIRLab serves as a focal point for community development of innovative scientific programs, the exchange of ideas, and creative development. The lab’s infrastructure enables the astronomy community to advance humanity’s understanding of the Universe by exploring significant areas of astrophysics, including dark energy and dark matter, galaxies and quasars, the Milky Way, exoplanets, and small bodies in our own Solar System. Images found at https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/csdc/
The Last Picture Show
When the opportunity presented itself, I didn’t hesitate to take Winnie to see “Belfast.” I’d already seen it once, and I knew she would love it.
Santa & Jimmy
I was six when I recognized my dad’s handwriting on a note that lay waiting for me and my brother Christmas morning. The note thanked us for the milk and cookies and was unmistakably signed: Santa Claus.