Getting Mooned

Today is the New Moon, which should actually be called the “No Moon,” because it’s the day when we can’t see it at all. On this day, it lies between the earth and the sun; the sun sees the bright side and we see the dark side. As it slowly becomes visible, we begin seeing the thinnest sliver of a crescent moon.

If they asked me, which nobody did, I’d say that the New Moon would be the first thin crescent that is visible after what is called the Dark Moon. Something you can’t see isn’t new; the first thing you can see is new. That’s what I say.

Sigmund Romberg wrote a very popular operetta in 1928, called “The New Moon.” The billboard for it showed a fetching young thing sitting on a dock in a very abbreviated pirate (piratesse?) outfit looking out to sea where there is a galleon with a near-new moon behind it. “The New Moon,” unfortunately, is not about a bright thing in the sky; it’s the name of a seagoing vessel on which the hero is to be deported to France.

The real New Moon is the start of the month in the Islamic, Jewish and Wiccan religions, as well in China and Iran.

Nobody has this story.
The obituary reads: “Lewis Jones died Wednesday as the result of injuries sustained at a home on East North Street.” Correct as written, but there are a few other facts. He, and another convicted murderer, were fighting over a bottle of whiskey when he was beaten to death.