I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E

Society Newsby James Edgar, Regina Centre (jamesedgar@sasktel.net)We have new signage at National Office, as shown in thispicture. Three other signs are in place at outside doorsand interior hallways.In the last issue of the Journal, our exceedingly zealous Archivist,Randall Rosenfeld, and I wrote a feature article about variouswriters mistakenly knighting “Sir” Edmund Halley. In response, weimmediately received a letter from Mary Lou Whitehorne (1st Vice-President) saying that the real Knight, Sir Edmund Hillary soundedso close that the mistake just “come[s] very easily to the tongue,”as it were. Another writer, Michael Attas (Associate Editor of thisJournal ), penned this response:What a delightful article in the latest JRASC! The “florid”style (in Jay’s words) does not succeed in concealing a mass ofresearch and scholarship. Well done, both of you.One possible explanation that you didn’t mention for the errorwas the existence of another Knight, Sir Edmund Hillary.Their names are so similar that the “Sir” part might crediblyroll off the tongue for Halley as well, as if by accident. But thatdoesn’t make sense as a source for the older occurrences. So, thistheory might explain persistence, but not origin.Thanks for the fun.MikeMichael AttasA Sock Editor, JRASCApril / avril 2010Promoting Astronomy In CanadaJRASC83