Knowing eclipse history can save your life: Who knew?

In the novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, the hero Hank Morgan plays a 19^th century Connecticut man transported in time back to King Arthur's court, where, dressed in his modern-day clothes and affectations of speech, (I think he was an immigrant) he is distrusted and sentenced to be burned at the stake by one Merlin the Magician, who is King Arthur's chief sorcerer.

However, knowing his solar eclipse history and that an eclipse of the sun is due at 12:03 p.m. on June 21, 528 AD, Hank threatens the king's court that he will turn the day to night, their crops will wither and they will all soon starve to death.

Merlin, the king and the court scoff at these "delusions" and sentence him to die immediately for his brazenness.

Hank actually mistakenly miscalculated the date and thinks it is on June 20 when he makes his threatened prediction thus giving them a day to ponder freeing him, but it actually is already June 21.

So when they say he will die immediately he thinks his goose, is well, cooked, so to speak.

But our hero is saved when lo and behold just as they're about to put the fire to him, the eclipse begins. Hank takes full advantage, saying he was going to wait till the next day, but since they pushed up the time of his execution he went ahead and made it happen a day earlier.

The king and court release Hank from his kindling pile, fall on their knees and praise him as a powerful sorcerer and magician.

Meanwhile, Merlin goes, "Drats, foiled again."

Thus begins Mark Twain's wonderful tale of a man from the present going back in time and with the technology of today making folks thinks he's the smartest man in the world.

Just for giggles, I suggest you try to fool someone today. Tell them a little before 1:30 this afternoon that you've discovered a way to blot out the sun on a clear day.

Then sit back and watch as they shrink in horror when the day turns to night (well, at least partially) and they quake in fear at your power and make you their god.

Of course to make this work, they must have lived under a rock, in a cave or been hiking on the Appalachian Trail for the past month. Well, good luck with that.

And if you've never read Mark Twain's masterpiece, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, you definitely should.