Last night, we saw the first episode in the new Cosmos series. It’s going to go for thirteen weeks total, just like the original, which came out in 1980. I remember the original series oh, so well!! As I may have mentioned before, my Person Jennifer was not only a really smart girl on her own, but she got her smarts from her parents, who were both professors, and her father was some kind of science professor, though I was never exactly sure what he did. But he loved science, and his enthusiasm for it spilled over to Jennifer, which in turn spilled over to me, since I was always with her in those days.
Jennifer’s dad was so excited about the original Cosmos series, so each week that it was on, we all sat down on the couch in the living room and watched it. Those were good times! Good times full of so much wonderment and learning. And that original show was so gorgeous, and the music so haunting beautiful, that I’ve never forgotten it. These are some of my favorite memories.
And then this weekend, in preparation for the new series, they were showing the entire old series on television again! And Miss Chrissy taped it! So now we have all of the old Cosmos episodes in our personal library, and soon we will also have all of the new shows as well!
What a treat for a geek like me! I think while Trixie is reading her comic books, and Tessie is listening to her Placebo music, I’ll be watching these shows, over and over again.
I think it’s because I love these shows so much that I consider all of these scientists my favorite boyfriends. We mentioned a little while ago how smart Mr. Sherlock Holmes is, and how much we all love that about him. Well, I love a smart guy, that’s for sure! And these scientists are just about the smartest guys around!
But there’s something else about them that’s so appealing. It’s not just that they’re smart, they’re also so incredibly enthusiastic. They love what they’re doing, and they love learning new things and sharing them.
Take a look at the video here, which shows bits and pieces of the original Cosmos series, and lots and lots of stuff by some of my favorite scientists—Carl Sagan, from the original Cosmos, who made science cool for the ordinary person; Neil deGrasse Tyson, who has taken up the torch in the new series; Richard Feynman, with that winning smile; and Bill Nye, “The Science Guy.” Notice how excited they get about science, how much they love the miracle of it all.
“That makes me want to grab people in the street and say, ‘Have you heard this?’”
I’m nowhere near as smart as any of these brilliant men. But that doesn’t bother me. I’m always glad to learn what little I can, and become a smarter and better Whimsie in the process.
It’s great to be able to sit down again and refresh myself with all this science. It was great to have Jennifer and her dad to watch this with me, and now it’s great to have Miss Chrissy and The Man to share it with.
Trixie and Tessie are also coming along for the ride. Before this is all over, I think I might make science geeks out of them as well!
