Gas Lighting

Gas lighting was nominated as word of the year yesterday by Mirrium-Webster.

When I look it up, the source of the term is nominated as a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton and then popularised in subsequent movies.

BUT...

Coincidently I read The Amorous Dentist by Robert Travers ( ISBN 0 207 13523 1 ) yesterday. On pages 44 and 45, the author reports that Henry  Louis Bertrand used the word gaslight written on a scrap of pasteboard to frighten his wife out of her wits during a self styled seance. Bertrand was a notorious murderer covicted in Sydney in 1866. His infamy persisted into the 20th Century. 

Could the Bertrand case be the ultimate inspiration for the term gas lighting.

Pluto

Pluto never was much of of a planet being smaller than many moons but Merriwa is devoted to it.

The idea of Siding Spring to Merriwa representing the Solar System at scale does not make sense without some small spheres to represent planets and minor bodies.

Nearly home

The parrot thinks Salisbury St is the way home.

Rain Rain Rain

In the last 53 days I drove from Brisbane across the Nullarbor to Busselton and back to reach Cobar.

All along the way there has been rain, including a hail storm and several thunderstorms. Tonight it is thunderstorms again. 

The rivers, creeks, flood plains and drains have been full of water. And the country is so very green.

The miners

Across the street from Pro Hart's gallery is Pro Hart's Sculpture Park -

It never closes.

Pro Hart depicted miners in paintings and sculptures as having masked faces.

Pro ants

Pro Hart included ants in his art.

This Rolls Royce at the Pro Hart gallery has ants circling on the hub caps.

The movie in the gallery said that they represented the miners toiling collectively underground. 

Nothomyrmecia macropes

Poochera SA is almost a ghost town but it has an open air museum with a public toilet.

The museum has a display of rusted farm machinery and an ant.

The actual ants are nocturnal and solitary out side of their nests so are very hard to find. It is thought that this behaviour is similar to the first ants. There is a large model and some photographs on site at the museum.