If you read this evening's S&T news bulletin, you may have followed the
link to the story about the Christmas morning occultation of Spica by
the Moon http://tinyurl.com/77lpy. The story was well written by one
Alan M. MacRobert.

At the end of the story Mr. MacRobert's biographical sketch says "Alan
MacRobert independently disproved the existence of Santa Claus around
age 7, by dividing the number of houses in North America by the number
of minutes in the night before Christmas. He found the process
liberating rather than disappointing."

Liberated from the magic of childhood at only age 7? I can't help but
imagine what might have happened if Mr. MacRobert had been a budding
biologist at age 7: "Alan MacRobert received a puppy for Christmas
around age 7, and he dissected it..."

Davoud

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