Wednesday, February 07, 2024

Day and Night on the Kenvil Cape

It was a rare interlude for the furley youth of Kenvil to be indoors, but there they were, enrapt with the teleprompter’s transmissions one late afternoon.
  A knock at the door set off their juvenile peevishness — ‘What is this interruption?’
  Father Nadoghy opened the door and welcomed in an elder gentleman, apparently a local acquaintance. The tall man was sporting a patterned neckerchief and navy beret, as well as a bright grin.
  “I’m gonna be on the teleprompter tonight!” he chirped.
  The old gent disclosed to Father Nadoghy details of some on-camera interview at Madeira Selváge regarding some picayune local issue. The irritated youth silently sulked at the obtrusion. The two fellows made small talk before the visitor left.
  Come evening, Father Nadoghy and the Kenvil gang were gathered around the teleprompter.
  “There he is!” someone pointed out. Indeed, the gentleman’s image flickered in the static of the monochrome screen. He was wearing the same getup as earlier, expounding into a mic with the Atlantic sun beaming down on his shoulders.
  But the inquisitive youth were confused.
  “It’s nighttime here and day there,” a youngster piped up. “The solar terminator must be here on the cape!”
  An understandable illusion in the young man’s eyes, similar to the day he watched the moon's “rotation” via Troxel-Scope — the moving lunar terminator was not a sign of rotation, but simply the heavenly body’s orbital motion passing through the Troxel-Scope’s field of vision at the time.
  But cut the kid some Slack for not completely grasping the idea of planetary physics. Or the concept of videotape playback.

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