BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!

Subject: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Mar 23 - 05:48 PM

Patrick Moore is 100 today. Friend of Brian May and the only man on earth to have met all three of Orville Wright, Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong. Without Sir Patrick firing my imagination, the little lad that was me would never have turned to science. I read his True Book of Earthquakes and Volcanoes when I was still well in single numbers, and I've been up every European volcano he covered (though not the ones in Iceland), all because of him. I've still got a copy!   His somewhat naive right-wing views, embracing misogyny, UKIP, love of Reagan and brexit, don't sit at all well, admittedly, but he was a colourful bugger who generally did little harm and a lot of good. Him and his monocle...

...And he loved cats. That'll do me!

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Mar 23 - 06:55 PM

...And he presented every episode of Sky At Night for 57 years, except for one when he was poisoned by a goose egg that had gone off :-). He was an irascible ould bugger, but I felt sorry for him on August 11 1999 when he camped out at Falmouth to see the total eclipse of the sun, presenting the event for the BBC, when the clouds came down to thwart him. At the other end of Cornwall that day, we'd hiked to the top of Sharp Tor on Bodmin Moor, where the totality was going to be about two minutes. Where we lived near Bude the eclipse was going to be 99%, so no corona or Bailey's beads, so we made the 45-minute journey to Sharp Tor. We were incredibly lucky in that the clouds parted just after 11, so we saw the whole thing in all its glory, and, because we were elevated, we saw the shadow rushing towards us and rushing away again just as quickly. I think we were probably the only people in Cornwall who saw it all!

His fiancée was killed in the war and he never married, regarding her as the one and only love of his life, living afterwards with his mum for decades. I suppose his world view might have expanded more in different circumstances. I'll forgive him. He did me no harm, and look at me now!

(He ducks...)

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: G-Force
Date: 05 Mar 23 - 09:16 AM

And he played the xylophone.

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Mar 23 - 09:54 AM

He once played a solo version of a Sex Pistols song on the xylophone, and accompanied Albert Einstein (violin) on the piano, in Saint-Saëns' The Swan!

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 05 Mar 23 - 07:49 PM

"Patrick Moore is 100 today."
If he hadn't died in 2012!

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Mar 23 - 08:15 PM

Nigel, stoppit!

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 06 Mar 23 - 05:54 AM

For "Patrick more is ...", read "Patrick more would have been..."

As one Mudcatter likes to put it, comment is free but facts are sacred.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 06 Mar 23 - 06:14 AM

Bloody autocorrect!

For "Patrick Moore is ...", read "Patrick Moore would have been..."

Don't you hate it when you try to correct a mistake and make an equally bad one yourself. That will teach not to miss out the preview step!

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Mar 23 - 06:41 AM

Gollygosh, the nits really are being picked here!

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 06 Mar 23 - 09:11 AM

Gollygosh, the nits really are being picked here!

No, errors are being corrected.

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 06 Mar 23 - 09:28 AM

The fact is, Steve, that I didn't know whether he was alive or dead. I took it, from your opening remark, that he was due for his telegram from the King (or whatever it is they send these days). It wasn't until my wife said that she thought he had been dead for a while that I checked and found that he had died aged 89.

If facts are sacred, then communication of those facts should be clear and unambiguous.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Mar 23 - 09:35 AM

(Note to self: smacky own botty...)

Subject: RE: BS: Kudos, Sir Patrick!!
From: Rain Dog
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 02:26 AM

On BBC Radio 4 Extra this evening at 20.00


Patrick Moore talks about his musical life with Richard Baker.

"Patrick is a well-known astronomer and long-term presenter of BBC TV’s ‘The Sky at Night’.

He's also a pianist, a virtuoso xylophonist and the composer of two operas, and once accompanied the violin-playing of Albert Einstein.

Patrick Moore died aged 89 in 2012.

Producer: Michael Emery

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1989."

This programme will be available shortly after broadcast.