原创 Have you heard of the Ancient Order of Froth Blowers?

A few days ago, I received a photo of the Transit of Venus from "Down Under" (Australia). The interesting thing is that in this image (see below) the dark spot that is Venus appears toward the bottom of the Sun (the way you typically seem to see it in photographs), whereas when I saw it with my own eye it appeared toward the top of the Sun (see my blog).

Of course I'm in the Northern Hemisphere while they are in the Southern Hemisphere, but I'm not really sure why this would affect the way we see things like the Transit of Venus ... maybe someone can explain it to me (using simple words so that I can understand).

Anyway, the photograph below was accompanied by the following cheery message:

G'day to the famous Max. I thought I'd send you a photo of the event taken at about 10:30 in "The Land Downuder", in particular Brisbane. I didn't have all the correct gear but managed to catch this anyway. Brief technical info, Nikon D700, 70-200mm f2.8 VR, exposed and developed Fuji graphics film (we use it for our PCB manufacturing) was used as a neutral density filter – unfortunately not a good as proper photographic filters but did the trick well enough, ISO 200, 1/200th second, f8. The other spots on the sun are sunspot activity. Hope you enjoy it and keep up the excellent writings!

Well, this message certainly captures all of the really important information I like to see (thing like "Famous Max" and "Excellent Writings" :-)

So thanks to Steve Barrett from Down Under – I really, REALLY want to visit Australia one day and blow the froth off a few cold ones (Crocodile Dundee certainly had the right attitude).

GOOD GRIEF!!! I've just discovered that there really once was an Ancient Order of Froth Blowers. This was a charitable organization whose mission (in addition to raising charitable contributions) was "To meet regularly in pubs or clubs to enjoy 'beer, beef, and baccy'" (where "pubs" means public houses or bars, and "baccy" means tobacco).

Sadly this organization folded in 1931. This makes me sad. Now, this may be a tad presumptuous of me, but I feel that we should keep the name and spirit (pun intended) of this organization alive, and as far as I can see no one else has "stepped up to the bar" as it were (sorry, I can't help myself).

Obviously I would feel a little silly leading an organization with a membership of one (also I'm already the head of several such organizations) ... so would anyone else be interested in joining me on this enterprise? The duties aren't onerous – all you have to do is quaff a few beers whenever you get the chance (quaffing is like regular drinking except you tend to spill more down your chest) and donate something to charity when the opportunity arises and you have some disposable cash to hand.

Maybe this will take off and become a worldwide organization (stranger things have happened), in which case we will, at some stage, need a committee in charge of perfecting a secret handshake, another in charge of designing the official T-Shirt, and yet another tasked with creating our official club song (things like tattoos and official undergarments can wait until our membership passes some predefined number ... say three people).

We also need official titles. Since this is my idea, I call dibs on Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Froth Blowers Worldwide. And since all of this was (unbeknownst to him) sparked by Steve Barrett, I think it only "fair do's" to offer him the title of Commander, Antipodean Froth Blowing Legions.

What say you? Are you with me?