For any who think I am just commenting on current events...I researched this post back in October (when I realized that the moon was full around my son's Halloween Birthday) and wrote it back on December 2nd.
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See you all tonight, when the Moon goes Blue. :-)
It doesn't happen often, but tonight is the night it will. We had our first full moon back on December 2nd. This one will be the second one of the month and thus, it's a Blue Moon. Of course it won't be blue in color, but it will be unusual, none the less.
Next one will be in August of 2012. Mark your calendars.
Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThanks and the same to you. :-)
ReplyDeleteI read that blog entry you link to (by Frasier Crane, uh, I mean Fraser Cain). I already knew about the strict definition of the phrase, but didn't realize the moon actually can turn blue (ish?) under the right (though rare) conditions.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if there could be any relation between the phrases "once in a blue moon" and "out of the blue"...
It won't keep me awake at nights or anything like that, but I wonder.
Best wishes for 2010, Angel (et al)...
Hey, Dim Skip!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year back at you.
Two explanations for your Bolt out of the Blue question. I go with the first one, for the answers and the second one for interesting back story on when the phrase showed up in Literature.
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Meaning
A complete surprise, like a bolt of lightning from a blue sky.
Origin
It derives from an older phrase. "Dropping out of the clear blue sky" The meanings are similar.
Alternate answer:
Lightning, the voltage is so great off the top of a cumulonimbus cloud (thunder cloud) lightning can travel 20 plus miles and strike ahead of the storm while the sky is still clear and blue.
Thus, the saying "out of the clear blue" or "out of the blue"
Every now and then you hear of someone getting struck and killed by lightning with a clear blue sky.
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This has the feel of a Shakespearean or Biblical phrase, but it isn't as old as it sounds. There are several forms of it: 'out of the blue', 'a bolt out of the blue', etc. The earliest citation is Thomas Carlyle, in The French Revolution, 1837:
"Arrestment, sudden really as a bolt out of the Blue, has hit strange victims."
And here I was just idly thinking out loud as it were... [lol]
ReplyDeleteYou're a font of info! Thanks.
So I guess the two phrases are probably not connected in any way beyond the mere inclusion of the word "blue" and a sort of similar meaning of "rare." Although, I guess "out of the blue" slants more towards suddenly "shocking" or "surprising" rather than "rare."