Tidings So, What the Heck is Bayshore Presbyterian Church August 29, 2015 Fathers’ Day? On July 19, 1910, the governor of the Inside This Issue U.S. state of Washington proclaimed The Great Hoax of 1835 the nation’s first “Father’s Day.” The Great Moon Hoax 1 However, it was not until 1972, 58 2 Moon Hoax, cont. after President Woodrow Moon Hoax, cont. Wilson made Mother’s Day official, of 1835 3 that the day became a nationwide 3 Prayer List/Birthdays and Anniversaries holiday in the United States. There's a happening tonight, but not just any full 3 Peace and Global Witness moon. This "supermoon" is happening. 4 What are the Dog Days of Summer Mother’s Day: Inspiration for Father’s Day World Communion Sunday The “Mother’s Day” we celebrate today has its origins in the It's an event that happens a few times every and is a 4 Inside This Issue peace-and-reconciliation campaigns of the post-Civil War era. The Search for Lincoln’s Killer good chance for photographers to nab a picture of the 4 Just Another Day on the Bayshore 1 During the 1860s, at the urging of activist Ann Reeves Jarvis, moon when it appears at its biggest and brightest. The Volunteer List In Christian Sympathy one divided West Virginia town celebrated “Mother’s Work Days” 5 1 that brought together the mothers definition of a supermoon is when a full moon closely lines Lincoln’s Killer, cont. of Confederate and Union soldiers. up with its perigee, or its closest point to , in its In 1835, the moon was the focus of attention for quite a 2 orbit. The moon has a slightly eliptical orbit around Earth In 1870, the activist Julia Ward different reason. 180 years ago, the year of the “Great 3 Shoe Mission Howe issued a “Mother’s Day with one side of the orbit closer to Earth than the other. The Moon Hoax,” a New York newspaper convinced many Building and Grounds Update Proclamation” calling on a side closest to the Earth is called the perigee and the side of its readers that unicorns and winged bat-men had 3 “general congress of women” farthest from the Earth is known as the apogee. been found on the lunar surface. to “promote the alliance of the 3 Birthdays/Anniversaries different nationalities, the ami- 3 In Carnation cable settlement of international The New York Sun was a low-rent “penny paper” that questions, [and] the great and typically dealt in sensationalist fare about murders and 3 Rays Baseball neral interests of peace.” tenement fires, but beginning on August 25, 1835, it However, Mother’s Day did not become a commercial holiday briefly became the world’s premier scientific authority. 4 From the Pastor’s Desk until 1908, when–inspired by Jarvis’s daughter Anna, who The transformation began 4 Prayer List wanted to honor her own mother by making Mother’s Day a with the publication of “Great national holiday–the John Wanamaker department store in Astronomical Discoveries,” a 4 Just Another Day on the Bayshore Philadelphia sponsored a service dedicated to mothers in its six-part series that claimed to auditorium. Thanks in large part to this association with retailers, 5 Contact Information Form recount the earth-shattering who saw great potential for profit in the holiday, Mother’s Day 6 Volunteer List caught on right away. In 1909, 45 states observed the day, and findings astronomer Sir John in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson approved a resolution that Herschel had made while made the second Sunday in May a holiday in honor of “that observing the heavens in tender, gentle army, the mothers of America.” South Africa. According to

the Sun’s editors, the stories Origins of Father’s Day were culled from articles that

A supermoon can appear 14% larger and 30% brighter than had originally appeared in the The campaign to celebrate the nation’s fathers did not meet with a regular full moon. Supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science. They the same enthusiasm–perhaps because, as one florist explained, promised to describe “celestial discoveries of higher and “fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that mothers have.” more universal interest than any, in any science yet On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s As luck would have it, this will first event explicitly in honor of fathers, a Sunday sermon in be the first of 3 supermoons known to the human race.” memory of the 362 men who had died in the previous these during the next three .

December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in There will also be one on The first article introduced readers to Herschel, who was Monongah, but it was a one-time commemoration and not an September 28 and October 7. credited as having “solved or corrected nearly every annual holiday. leading problem of mathematical ” during a

Early Native American tribes recent expedition to the Cape of Good Hope. It also offered a lengthy, jargon-heavy account of his dubbed this next full moon as the "Sturgeon Moon" because apparently it was easier to catch huge sturgeon revolutionary new telescope, an instrument “of vast

fish this time of year. dimensions and an entirely new principle” that was said to have a magnifying power of 42,000 times. The following day’s entry revealed what happened when Sir John aimed his super-telescope at the moon. Upon bringing an image of the lunar surface into focus, he As the hysteria grew, Sun owner Benjamin Day and his fellow scientists saw elaborate basaltic rock started peddling a pamphlet version of the accounts formations and fields of blood-red poppy flowers—“the first along with a 25-cent lithograph that depicted the organic production of nature, in a foreign world, ever man-bats and other “Lunarian” species. Both revealed to the eyes of men.” became huge sellers. Further observations revealed green forests and shimmering The media circus would have been justified if not for blue seas, as well as brown a simple fact: the moon stories were a fraud. Sir quadrupeds that resembled John Herschel was a real astronomer, and he really small bison. The astronomers was observing the heavens in South Africa, but the were also stunned to find blue- accounts of his new telescope and the majestic tinted unicorns with goat creatures it had found were a piece of science beards and an orb-shaped fiction. Its author was Richard Adams Locke, the amphibian that “rolled with Sun’s British-born editor. A great velocity across the science enthusiast, Locke pebb ly beach.” had penned the stories as satire of the early 19th Day three treated readers to descriptions of even more lunar century astronomical curiosities including erupting volcanoes and cliffs of quartz community and its crystal. Miniature zebras wandered the green hillsides, and penchant for making half- the woods were filled with horned bears and roving herds of baked claims about alien reindeer and elk. Most wondrous of all was the so-called life. His chief target was “biped beaver,” a tailless, upright-walking creature that Thomas Dick, a Scottish carried its young in its arms like a person, used fire and lived reverend and bestselling in wooden dwellings. author who, among other bizarre theories, had once alleged that the solar system was home to exactly 21,894,974,404,480 inhabitants.

Locke later admitted that he’d hoped to lampoon Dick and his supporters by making equally absurd claims and passing them off as science, yet most readers failed to pick up on his satire. “The credulity was general,” newsman Asa Greene later

remembered. “All New York rang with the wonderful The last three entries dropped the real bombshell. While discoveries of Sir John Herschel…There were, scanning a grouping of ruby red hills, the scientists were indeed, a few skeptics; but to venture to express a said to have spied a species of winged humanoids that doubt of the genuineness of the great lunar soared through the lunar skies just as easily as they walked discoveries, was on two legs. The article claimed the creatures stood 4 feet considered almost tall, had orangutan-like as heinous a sin as features and “were covered, to question the truth except on the face, with of revelation.” One short and glossy copper- of the most prom- colored hair.” They appeared inent doubters was to live a life of leisure and the writer Edgar Allan were observed to engage in Poe. Only a few conversation—a sure sign of before the Sun’s moon sentience. “We scientifically stories made their denominated them a debut, he had written “Hans Vespertilio-homo, or man-bat,” Phaall, a Tale,” a would-be literary hoax that the story’s author wrote, “and claimed to recount a foreign news report about a they are doubtless innocent Dutchman traveling to the moon in a hot air balloon. and happy creatures.” Poe considered the Sun account a plagiarism of his story, but even he couldn’t help but marvel at the By the time Vespertilio-homo was revealed to the world on popular sensation it caused. He would later note August 28, the “Great Astronomical Discoveries” series was that, for a time, “not one person in ten discredited it.” a runaway success. Spellbound readers mobbed the Sun’s offices to buy the latest installments, and the paper’s circulation soared to over 19,000—more than any daily on the globe. Rival newspapers commented on the story relentlessly and began reprinting it themselves. The New York Transcript even published accounts from an exclusive correspondent who they claimed had also been present for the observations.

It wasn’t until the skeptics began digging a little deeper that cracks began to appear in the moon story. On August 31— the same day the Sun accounts wrapped up with a description of another species of Vespertilio-homo—the New York Herald published an article titled “The Astronomical Hoax Explained.” It pointed out many inconsistencies in the reports, including that the Edinburgh Journal of Science had been defunct for several years. Even more damning, the The lasting value in a gift of peace Herald singled out Richard Adams LockeDavid as the Herold tales’ true author. Other accusations soon followed courtesy of the During this Season of Peace, our thoughts turn to the Journal of Commerce, which claimed Locke had confessed meaning of peace and how, through Christ, we can to one of its reporters while drunk in a saloon. nurture it inside ourselves and out in the world. Yet, to understand the value of peace, we must also The Sun denied the charges and engaged in a public feud understand the cost of conflict, and the many forms it with the Herald, but when months passed with no official can take. confirmation of lunar beavers or man-bats, it became clear ● Conflict can be individual: 1 in 4 U.S. the stories had been a scam. Locke finally came clean five students reports being bullied at school. years later in a lengthy letter to the New World newspaper. ● Conflict can be collective: Up to 70% of While he said he regretted writing the articles, he blamed their response on Reverend Dick and other sensationalist women experience violence in their lifetimes. scientists whose wrongheaded theories had “prepared the ● Conflict can be domestic: 1 in 3 women public to swallow anything however absurd.” has been the victim of violence at the hands of an intimate partner. 1 in 4 children has been physically abused. ● Conflict can be international: Conflict

and political violence are on the rise in 48

countries. Unlike Locke, the Sun never confessed or issued a retraction ● Conflict can be historical: Structural for what became known as the “Great Moon Hoax,” but its racism creates long-term deficits of sales still continued to boom long after the stories had faded opportunity. from view. Rather than being scandalized, most people ● Conflict can be contemporary: Human simply regarded the series as a clever trick. Showman P.T. trafficking and forced labor affect 3 of every Barnum, who knew a thing or two about hoaxes, even called 1,000 people in the world today. it “the most stupendous scientific imposition upon the public that the generation with which we are numbered has known.” To help address these diverse challenges, the Peace & Global Witness Offering supports a range of ministries devoted to peacemaking and reconciliation. This includes bearing witness in communities of Prayer List conflict around the world, hosting education programs to raise awareness, driving local peacemaking efforts, Lonnie & Betty Lou Turner, Cynthia Ullen, Ben & offering catalyst support to our mission co-workers, Candy Venable, Margaret & Terry Zitek, Henk & and much more. Ans Alberts, Helen Allen, Rey & Josette Bulnes, Bob & Bobbi Chaffee, Ken Cooley & Allison Imagine what a gift it is to those who have been hurt, in Edwards & Sammy, Max and Margaret Dufeny both their spirit and their community, to find a lasting peace and resolve conflict in its many forms.

When you give to the Peace & Global Witness Offering your true gift is the peace of Christ, for all of God’s children. With each gift, we can begin to create a world August Birthdays/Anniversaries of peace—together.

Birthdays Anniversaries Please give generously: Bayshore Presbyterian will receive a special offering on World Communion Sunday, October 4. 4 Rey Bulnes 5 Harry & Ginny Ellis 10 Charlie Allen Learn more about issues of conflict: 11 Debi Pridgen Bullying: www.stopbullying.gov Lonnie Turner Violence against women: www.endviolence.un.org Aiden Smitson World conflict: www.visionofhumanity.org 26 Don Smith Structural racism: www.boysandmenofcolor.org Human trafficking: www.unodc.org

What Are the “Dog Days of Summer”?

The sultry “dog days” of summer might spark visions of listless canines baking in the oppressive heat, but the moniker has nothing to do with panting pooches. Instead, it’s a throwback to the time when ancient civilizations tracked the seasons by looking to the sky. The ancient Greeks noticed that summer’s most

intense heat occurred during the approximate 40-day period in the early summer when Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, rose and set with the sun. To them it was simple math. The daytime addition of On Sunday, October 4, Bayshore the warmth of Sirius—ancient Greek for “glowing” or “scorcher” —to the blaze of the sun equaled extreme heat. Presbyterian will join with Christians around the world to celebrate World According to Greek mythology, Sirius was the dog of the hunter Orion, and the ancient Romans placed the star in Communion Sunday, using liturgy and the constellation Canis Major (Latin for “Greater Dog”). music from other cultures and nations The Romans thus referred to the sweltering period when the rising of the sun and Sirius converged as the “dies across the globe. Established in 1936, when caniculares” or “days of the dog star.” By the 1500s, the the world was deeply fragmented by the English world began to call the same summertime point on the astronomical calendar as the “dog days.” conflict that would be later known as World War II, World Communion Sunday Due to a wobble in the Earth’s rotation that shifts the position of the stars in the night sky, the dates of the “dog (originally called World Wide days” now fall several weeks later on the calendar than Communion Sunday) has been an they did thousands of years of ago. The ancient Egyptians 5,000 years ago noticed Sirius’s heliacal rising, observance to help Christians all over the when it was visible just before sunrise, just prior to the world affirm their unity in Jesus Christ as annual flooding of the Nile River and the summer solstice. it is expressed so beautifully at the Lord’s Today, the precise dates vary by latitude, but the Old Table. Farmer’s Almanac reports the traditional timing of the “dog days” in the United States is between July 3 and August 11. In approximately 10,000 years, the date of the Just Another Day on (or near) heliacal rising of Sirius will fall back so late on the calendar that future civilizations in the northern the Bayshore hemisphere will experience the “dog days” of winter.

Volunteer List

DATE LITURGIST USHERS GREETERS COMMUNION SERVERS

Aug. H. Ellis H. Allen M. Zitek M. Dufeny 16 Aug. J. Bulnes K & S Cooley G. Huff 23 Aug. M. Zitek R & J Bulnes M. Hausman 30 Sept 6 D Guenther M. Dufeny G. Huff M. Zitek K. Morris

Sept M. Dufeny G & C Knapp NEED HELP 13 Sept K. Cooley H. Ellis B. Smith Ann H. 20 Sept M. Dufeny R & J Bulnes Ann H. 27 Oct 4 C. Venable K & S Cooley R. Muder H. Allen, L. Elly Need 2 helpers Oct 11 K. Morris D & D Guenther G. & C. Knapp Oct 18 H. Ellis M. Zitek Need 1 B. Smith

Oct 25 J Bulnes G. Huff B. Smith K. Cooley Nov 1 M. Zitek M. Dufeny R. Muder G. Huff K. Cooley Nov 8 G. Knapp R & J Bulnes M. Hausman

Nov 15 K. Cooley M. Hausman H. M. Zitek Allen Nov 22 C. Venable D & D Guenther NEED HELP

Nov. Deb R & J Bulnes D. Guenther 29 Pridgen Dec 6 K. Morris H. Allen Need 1 M. Dufeny C. Venable, D. Pridgen Need helper 2 helpers Dec 13 M. Dufeny K & S Cooley R. Muder Dec 20 D. C & G Knapp M. Hausman Guenther Dec 27 C. Venable G. Huff M. J. Bulnes Hausman Chrristmas Eve: Candy, Debi