From the Pantry: Eclipse: 90

Talking about where I have been, plus:

From the Pantry, originally episode 19, to honor the recent eclipse: In which Carla starts with Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's Game--Stephen King's planned In the Path of the Eclipse series—and explores folktales used to explain solar eclipses. It gets weird. 

Recommended and referenced reading:
Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King https://bookshop.org/a/6560/9781501143809
Gerald's Game by Stephen King  https://bookshop.org/a/6560/9781501144202
Scarecrow Gods by Weston Ochse  https://www.amazon.com/Scarecrow-Gods-Weston-Ochse/dp/1929653956/
Seal Team 666 by Weston Ochse hardcover at Bookshop:  https://bookshop.org/a/6560/9781250007353 /
ebook at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/SEAL-Team-666-Weston-Ochse-ebook/dp/B0085UCZLE/
Dante’s The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso—my recommended translation is by Robin Kirkpatrick, a leading expert on Dante. The meticulous notes are superb. This is the version translated by Kirkpatrick and illustrated by Eric Drooker: bookshop.org/a/6560/9780143107194 

Hozier, “Unreal Unearth”:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3gF9KIynrJaC80HbVayPMx https://music.apple.com/us/album/unreal-unearth/1687585357

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Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Hi, this is Carla, andwelcome back to there I be cupcakes.
I am finally back in the kitchenand I am finally finding some cupcakes slowly.
So what happened between oh whistle andI'll come to you for youle and
well may? My health and Ihate when it lays me flat like this.

(00:35):
I'll spare you the gory details,but basically, on top of everything
else, I have developed some sortof colitis and I have had to really
advocate for myself to get the typeof colitis diagnosed and properly treated, all
the way to demanding a new doctor. Meanwhile, I have lost about ninety

(01:00):
pounds or so, maybe more.I haven't checked. I'm chronically dehydrated.
I can't eat protein smoothies and foodsupplements like boost protein from my constant companions.
Luckily, the fooded version, whichwas one of the first symptoms,
has stopped. That was a realtrip when food advertisements were making me sick.

(01:29):
Yeah, fun at parties, wantto hang out. And I've learned
a lot through my peril about howankle loosing, spondylosis and Errol's downlos interact
with and exacerbate colitis and vice versa. Anklosing spondylosis short version is really I'm

(01:53):
not doing a justice, but it'sa really serious arthritis and then bone fusing.
It's serious end of it. Thathappens in my case with Eryl Sandlers
because there's well bone slippage. I'mreally trying to leave great details out,

(02:15):
but that's what it is. Youknow, things dislocate, think sub books,
they move and in places where theydon't or can't move back, they
stay slip and then it just getsworse from there. So I have it

(02:37):
in my neck and I have itin m my lower spine. Uh.
Whenever I talk about it, Ialways think of that scene in the movie
Parenthood see Martin movie where Tom Halseycomes in his character and he says,

(02:57):
Grandma, are you getting shorter?And she says so proudly, I'm shrinking
because I'm shrinking and you take outmy pants. It's wow. So anyway,
Plus, you know, fibermalgia hascome out to play hard when it's

(03:19):
usually in the background. It's justthis extra exacerbent rather than a major problem.
And I think I made up aword there. It's not the first
time. If you're new, Hi, welcome to my chaos. I'm see.
Don't let anyone tell you that fibrois an exclusionary diagnosis. Aka,

(03:40):
you hurt, but we don't knowwhy. Here's a muscle relax on an
antidepressant, now go home and hushuh. It is a real misfiring of
the brain's pain receptors, so thatmy brain tells my body that I feel
pain where there is no reason too. I am learning and exploring all the

(04:05):
different types of delightful fiber pain thisyear, against my will. Some sources
say there's eight. I've seen twelve. I don't know. It's just it's
a party in my body right now. Today I discovered a new one.

(04:25):
My brain is telling my upper backthat it's severely sunburned, maddening, especially
since when was the last time Icould have possibly gotten the sunburn. So
it's a wild combo of everything makingeverything else worse. Thanks Coaleidis. Most

(04:46):
days my hands hurt too much totype. That level of pain and the
emotions that go along with it,not just the normal ones, but the
fact that my brain thinks that I'mallowing myself to be tortured, and why
won't I get up and fight andmove and so therefore I must be dying.

(05:11):
So there's involuntary emotions too. Itmakes it too hard to even think,
so hence the brain fog, andit makes it too hard to even
read. And I want you toimagine that I am struggling to concentrate on
my favorite thing in the world.I am like fifteen books behind my goal

(05:36):
for the year. As I toldmy psychiatrist, I am having such days
in which all I can do,if my hands allow, is try to
find the end of pen interest.Hint, it doesn't exist. And that's
if I'm able to hold my lightweight. I've had many without my risks telling

(06:00):
me they're broke. Hint, they'renot. I say all of this not
to complain, but to be astransparent as I always have been, because
there's no shame in chronic illness anddisability, and to apologize. I'm still

(06:23):
here. And I have been tormentingmyself while trying to rest tormenting myself about
the podcast and my writing and whatI should be doing. And the shame
spiral is the worst part, myshame spiral about my life. It's much
worse than the pain or the thingsI can't do anymore. I left work

(06:46):
in twenty fourteen, so that's tenyears. And I started having symptoms three
or four years before that and tuckedit out. So I've had fourteen years
to deal with the pain and theother symptoms and you know, not walking

(07:06):
you know so good, and notbeing able to pick up the bag so
well, and all that stuff,everything, people staring at me, everything.
I can cut out a ten outof ten pain, give me a
dark room and some headphones and anaudio book and leave me alone. And

(07:30):
I'm a champ. But it's thatchamspirer what I should be doing? Oh,
I mean so talking about this.Arlow just jumped up and comforted me.
You are not a professionally trained therapydog. You are not a professionally
trained support dog. That was awesome, Okay, what a good dog.

(07:58):
In the midst of all this wasable to finally secure my power wheelchair room
room. So that's been extremely helpful. Noe more strenuous. Propelling myself with
my arms and shoulders really becoming difficult. It was almost undoable, especially with
all the new health problems and complicationsby the time it finally arrived. I'll

(08:18):
tell its origin story in another episodebecause this happenstance was quite marvelous, and
so I had help through the arduousMedicare approval process, which is no joke.
But for now this intro is allI have in me. I'm so
sorry and so conflicted about apologizing Iam disabled. After all, I'm doing

(08:43):
a fault on my own. Oneof the new fund developments is I can
no longer walk a straight line,come so far from ballet class being the
first one on point. Luckily,the bathroom is feet away from my bedroom.
In my little office. When I'mfeeling stubborn, I pinball off the
walls to and from bing bong.Now, yes, I need to stop

(09:09):
doing that with these day developments andthe fact that the colid is testing doesn't
start until the beginning of July.But when you get the head of gastrosurgery
as your doctor, which is who'sfabulous by the way, you have to
wait because she's really busy as thehead of surgery. So there's the trade

(09:33):
off. I might have set amonthly schedule for myself for the podcast instead
of this free floating whenever I can. I hope it's a lot plan.
That's not a plan. My bodyjust can't do that anymore. Apparently it's
something that we can all count on, and I don't need to publish right

(09:54):
on a certain date. If Iwake up that morning near the top of
the pain scale or the brain fogis that it's worse. So it's a
win win for everybody. We canall assume it will come out within forty
eight hours and I won't be beatingmyself up. It's good and if I

(10:18):
get out an extra episode that month, I can feel good about myself instead
of only two. The self talkis real, man, I need to
work on it. So one othergood thing happened. It was good,
but sad. I was able tomuster up all of my remaining strength and

(10:43):
pain medication that's crucial, and travelacross Virginia to attend a friend's funeral at
Arlington National Cemetery. For my internationallisteners, I love you. This is
a cemetery in our nation's capital thatis maintained by the militi. Several presidents
are buried there. There's also acommemorative grave of the Unknown Soldier, and

(11:07):
any person who has served in themilitary and now their family members as well,
can request burial there. Weston Oakswas not only an award winning horror
author, but after his long servicein the army as an intelligence officer,
he worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency, an entity I didn't know it existed

(11:28):
until west died. His work therewill be classified for the next fifty years.
He won so many military writing awardsthat I won't list them here.
I'll just mention his very prestigious BrownStoker Award for first novel for Scarecrow Gods.
I linked it in the beginning ofhis Seal Team sixty sixty six series

(11:52):
Horror based upon his military experience inthe show notes if you would like,
if you're a fan, I'd liketo respectfully visit Weston. He is buried
to the left of the McClellan gate. I also have to tell you how
very kind Wes was. He andhis wife, horror author Yvonne Navarro rescued

(12:13):
great Danes. And when I sayrescue great danes, they drove across many
states to rescue disabled great danes onshort notice. So it was nothing for
me to log in the morning andsee what my friends were doing and discovered
that they were leaving to cross sixstates to adopt a dog born without eyes

(12:33):
or who it lost its hearing.Now right now, it canceled their plans.
They were packing car snacks. Let'sgo at one time they had four
of these wonderful beasts happily and scon'sdin their cozy home and stealing the entire
couch. Yvonne told a funny storyabout Wes forgetting who he was talking to

(12:56):
and frustrating himself while fussing at thedeath and signing at the blind one,
and not understanding while why neither usuallyobedient dog was listening to him. Wes
was buried in Arlington on the dayof the eclipse. He and Yvonne had
made plans to travel to see it, so it was oddly poetic and deeply

(13:16):
sad at the same time. Irode the train up through Virginia, and
I can tell you that Amtrak isextremely disability friendly. I purchased a wheelchair
ticket in business class and told themupon purchasing through the app, that I
needed assistance to getting on and offthe train. I got my own hydraulic
ramp, y'all. The only blipwas the ride to Washington, DC.

(13:41):
When I arrived at my seat areaready to park, I discovered that a
couple had used my seat area tostore their luggage under on and beside three
different bright red and bright yellow signstelling him not to. They moved some

(14:05):
of their backs for me. Iwish I were kidding uh, and the
poorer moved the rest when you skinmy ticket. On both trips, however,
a fellow writer made up for thatby offering to get me something from
the cafe car so I could safelysafe put and returning with not only a
ginger ale but a tray so Icould safely hold it, and a cup

(14:28):
of ice and a napkin on mylap. People really can't be so wonderful.
I don't know why I was sonervous about entering a military base I
used to live in. Norfilk wasthe largest international naval base in the United
States. But I had all theseplans in my head. Contingencies, worries

(14:52):
I have to leave my backpack atthe hotel because if I show up toting
it in the back of my powerchair, I'll look like a human bomb,
et cetera, et cetera. Worryworry. I was also worried about
how I get to from the visitorscenter to the graveside service. Thank you
Wes for being just around the corner. I just turned up my throttle and

(15:15):
enjoyed the beautiful day. Then thehonor guard lifted me over the curb.
I felt like Cinderella. Maybe thatwas inappropriate, but I think west would
have dug it. The reason isthat they were all ready to pick up
my heavy chair with me in ituntil I offered to stand in This white

(15:35):
glove with full swish and flourish appearedin my vision awaiting my hand. It
was definitely a surreal moment. Iwas nobody. I was just there for
a funeral, and they treated melike they'd been waiting all day for me,
and I worried. They even waitedafterwards to help me off the curb

(15:58):
as well, which was so kindof them and not at all their job.
The most beautiful part of the servicefor me was before the folding and
the presenting of the flag to giveon the chaplain enumerated all of Weston's writing
and military accomplishments, then turned tohis casket and said to him, you
did so much to honor the flag. Now this flag will honor you.

(16:22):
That's when I started crying. Afterwards, I had enough time to check out
and do something before my train,but not a lot of time, hence
more worrying and overplanning. I wasstill feeling solemn, so I chose something
appropriate and it turned out to beperfect. I took a wheelchair cab to

(16:42):
my hotel to grab my back andcheck out. And here I have to
give a shout out to Yellicab.Lyft didn't have wheelchair vehicles available in our
nation's capital yet, and Uber saidthey did but couldn't ever find me a
driver. Yellice was always able tofind me a courteous and safe driver.

(17:03):
Like that room room. I driveup into the trunk area, we lock
me in offay out. The cabwaited for me and then took me to
the National Cathedral. I was justin time to take a take communion.
It was feast day, so itwas a feast day, so we were
able to celebrate communion in the specialchapel used by the President and other dignitaries.

(17:27):
I'll post photos on the website andyes, it's retrofitted with a wheelchair
lift off to the side, madea wood to blend in and it's so
cool. Little hydraulic me and thenmarveled at the artwork and high tailed it
to the crypt. I was alonethe entire time. All the other tourists

(17:49):
rained upstairs, so, being theweirdo you know, I put Hosier's Unreal
Earth, his album inspired by Dante'sThe Divine Comedy, in my ears and
I was transported to another world.I'll do an episode about the cathedral,
It's history and my time there.It deserves it. For example, did

(18:11):
you know that both Helen Keller andMatthew Shepherd are interred in the crypt and
unrelated but so fascinating. I tooka paranormal photographed in the crypt, which
I'll talk about. I'll share itlater, but for now I must bring
this to a close. You canhear my voice rasping, and not only
are my hens and wrist burning beforemy eyes. Yes, collidess affects your

(18:36):
eyes as well, as says enclosingspondelusis Let the circle be unbroken, y'all,
the vicious circle which brings us backto the clips. I spent the
beginning of it on the front lineof the cathedral, enjoying the weird mood
of the gathering crowd and the changedfeeling that it come over me from the
sacrament and the exploration again people beinglovely. The couple offered me their extra

(19:00):
pair of eclipse glasses, so Iwas able to watch it for a while
before my cap had to take meto Union Station. I arrived the station
just as the sun came back out. It wasn't a full eclipse in Washington,
DC, and everyone outside the stationapplauded the sun as it was,
as if it were an old friend. I found out what happens when the

(19:22):
train schedule gets behind and there's ruralspaces on its route. They make up
for that time open throttle, baby. I didn't realize how much I was
shaking right a line and rolling untilI had to get out of the chair
and into the car. Though muchpain, but worth it. I had

(19:42):
needed to do this and needed togo out into the world, and now
I know how easy it is toAmtrak can't hold me back. I'm knocking
on wood furiously, mostly so mybody can't hear me say that and respond
with hold my gatorade, bitch.So how bad is this right now?

(20:03):
I meant to publish this during mytrip on time for the eclipse, which
was almost a month ago. ThenI thought, I'll just write up the
intro and publish it when I gethome tomorrow. No big deal, huh.
I slept the whole day the nextday, I mean that literally,

(20:29):
and writing this, I'm getting readyto sleep between preparing the script and then
recording and publishing. But I'm notgiving up. You can forget that.
I will figure this all out,and I will quit beating myself up,
and I will rig up so manyaccommodations that if I have to podcast hanging
from the ceiling mission impossible style,then that's what's up. Whatever accommodates my
fatigue and pain and other symptoms soI can write and tell you stories because

(20:55):
that means a world to me.Hence the beating myself up shame cycle.
But no more of that. Sowelcome to the last eclipse from my first
year of podcasting eight years ago.Yes I missed my eighth anniversary as well.
Have a cupcake or your treated choice. Am I a dubious honor,

(21:17):
Love you, and welcome to theKing's Eclipse. Constant reader, Sometimes being

(22:00):
a bitch is all a woman that'sgot to hold on to, because sometimes
the world makes you be a bitchwhen it's all doom and dark outside and
only you inside to first make alight and then tend it. You have
to be a bitch, Dolores Claiborne. No matter where you live, you

(24:00):
could not escape the news of therecent total solar eclipse the pastor of the
United States on August twenty first,twenty seventeen, because the Internet, the
news services, and your great atMay all went eclipse crazy. While everyone
else was planning watch parties and huntingdown safety glasses, I was thinking about

(24:21):
horror novels because, of course,Stephen King's novels Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's Game
are connected by the actual total solareclips over Maine on July twentieth, nineteen
sixty three. These two novels wereoriginally intended to be one large opus,
much like King's major work, TheStand called In the Path of the Eclipse.

(24:44):
I will link to NASA data onthis eclipse and the website entry for
this episode. I have to thankBEB Vincent for his help with the intertwined
King bits this episode. I'm luckyenough to be friends with the go to
Stephen King. Fax Guy Yev isthe author of the Road to the Dark
Tower, the Bromstoker Award nominated Companionto Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and

(25:07):
of the Stephen King Illustrated Companion.He's also been a contributing editor of Seminary
Dance Magazine since two thousand and one. He rates each issue's news from the
Dead Zone column. I will linkto all of his books and to Cemetery
Dance Magazine in this episode's website entry. Thank you so much, bef BEV
cleared up my false King eclipse memories. I was Eclipse in everything, Tommy

(25:32):
Knocker's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, in short stories such as Missus Jones
Shortcut and the rain went rolling downthe window panes, and the shadows wiggled
and squiggled on her cheek and foreheadlike black veins Delores Claiborne. Other famous
authors have used eclipses as major plotdevices in their works literature. William Shakespeare

(25:56):
used an eclipse is a bad omenin both King Lear and Anthony and Cleopatra.
John Milton in his epic poem ParadiseLost, using eclipse as a metaphor
for the fall of Satan. OriginallyLucifer the light Bringer and a Connecticut Yankee
and King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain. The main character saves himself from execution

(26:17):
by using the oncoming eclipse to hisadvantage, convincing the court he could darken
the sun forever. As I mentioned, I was wrong about the main eclipse
occurring in any other of Stephen King'sworks. However, Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's
Game are related to two other technicallythree novels and one short story. Bear

(26:37):
with me as I geek out alittle warning. Of course here there be
very very minor sportlers. Skip aheadmaybe fifteen seconds starting now. Jesse in
Gerald's Game thinks that she sees Pennywise. That's it. She actually saw Raymond
Jolbert, which connects both novels toSheriff Norris Ridgwick, who's one of the

(27:03):
sheriffs of Castle Rock. He appearsas a character in both the Dark Half
in Needful Things and the novella SunDog, which is collected in Four Past Midnight,
and I will of course link toall of these in the website entry
for this episode. Now, beforewe move on to Clip's folklore mythology,
quick summaries of both novels For thoseof you who have no idea of which

(27:26):
I speak nor spoilers here, I'msimply sharing information from the hardcover flap from
each novel, thanks to Stephen Kingdot com and my own lovely library.
Delores Claiborne first edition release date nineteenninety three from the flap. By her

(27:47):
own account, She's an old Yankeebitch, Delores Claiborne. Foul temper,
foul mouth, foul life. Folkson Little Tall Island have been winning thirty
years to find out just what happenedon the eerie dark day. Her husband,
Joe, died the day of thetotal eclipse. The police want to
know what happened yesterday when rich bereadenbedridden. Vera Donovan, the island's grand

(28:10):
Dame so Mercy and Dolores's long timeemployer, died suddenly in her care.
With no choice but to talk,Dolores Clayborne talks up a storm. Everything
I did, I did for love, she says, and the spell binding
novel is at once her confession andher defense, given a voice as compelling
as any in contemporary fiction. Herstory centers on a disintegrating marriage as molten

(28:33):
core, where the mind's on blinkingeye becomes huge with hate, and a
woman's heart turns murderous. It unfoldsthe strange intimacy between Dolores and Vera and
the link that binds them. Itshows finally how fierce love can be,
and how dreadful its consequences, andhow the soul harrowed by the hardest life
can achiose achieve a kind of grace. But that is for readers to judge.

(28:59):
They will come away with different verdictsfor Dolores, perhaps, but once
taken inside the dark room of herlife, lit by the brilliant intensity of
Stephen King's storytelling, they will neverforget her. Gerald's Game first edition release
date nineteen ninety two. From theFlat. On a warm weekday in October,

(29:21):
Jesse and Gerald Burling Game are alonein the bedroom of their main summer
house, playing a game that isn'tlisted in OILS. But suddenly, as
Jesse hears the click of the secondhandcuff locking her to the bedpost and sees
her husband looming over her, anerve snap of recognition tells her that this
time Gerald is playing for keeps.Her next move is furious, violent,

(29:44):
and she is shocked to discover deadly. Giving up control is scary enough,
it is terrifying when there is noone left to give it to, except
that Jesse is not alone. Overthe next twenty eight hours, trapped in
a lakeside house that has become aprison, Jesse will come face to face
with all the things she has everfeared, and the unlatched back door,
banging fretfully in the breeze, isan open invitation to horror. She is

(30:07):
never imagined. Inside the darkening bedroom, shadows gather in mute menace, while
inside Jesse's head a taunting chorus ofvoices, whispers, and shrieks. Women
alone in the dark are like opendoors, And if they cry out for
help, who knows what dread thingsmay answer. Stephen King knows nothing he

(30:30):
has written before will prepare readers forthe challenges of Gerald's game. It's a
fiendishly imagined version of No Exit.It's a nerve wracking excavation of the deepest
layers of a woman's fear and courage. It's our foremost literary terrorist, exploring
what happens when the ordinary routine ofone woman's life is suddenly eclipsed by the
irrational Jesse Burlingame's nerves are about tobe strenuously tested, so reader are yours.

(30:56):
When all the normal patterns and routinesof a person his life fell apart,
and with such shocking suddenness, youhad to find something you could hold
on to, something that was bothsane and predictable. Gerald's Game Worldwide.
I found that the themes of mythand folklore are concerning eclipses to fall loosely

(31:17):
under two themes, consumption and contamination. Both consumption and contamination fall under the
literary subgenre. Returning to fiction fora moment of body horror. Body horror
deals with body integrity, body autonomy, body structure itself. To quote Bill
Gibson, it pop matters, it'sbiology unbound. Both Delors Claiborne and Gerald's

(31:41):
Game fall under the subgenre. Gerald'sgame much more so Dorius Claiborne fitzmore subtlee
under the themes of motherhood and sexualautonomy and feminist body horror if you will,
but that's not a discussion for today. It seems that total solar eclipses
through time and culture have inspired thesevisceral fears, this body horror, bringing

(32:04):
rise to worldwide myths of eclipse isconsumption or contamination. As consumer of the
sun, the creature is a dragon, and Chinese, Indian, Armenian,
Tibetan, and Persian myth. Afrog or toad in Vietnamese, giant serpents
according to the Mayans, fire dogsin the separated cultures of Bolivian Korea,

(32:27):
a vampire according to the Tartars ofSiberia, and a wolf according to Norse
legend. Elsewhere in the world,a demon, a jaguar, or even
a were wolf. The most prevalentmyth, though, is of a ravenous,
bodiless head that eats the sun butthen quickly passes it, having no
body to adjust it. You seethe inherent body horror. The sun is

(32:52):
consumed, but ejected out of thedecapitated neck of a creature to shine once
again. This version is told inIndia, China, Mongolia, and Siberia.
If anyone ever asks you what panicis now, you can tell them
an emotional blank spot that leaves youfeeling as if you'd been sucking on a

(33:12):
mouthful pennies Gerald's game. The mostelaborate version of the bodyless devouring head to
come down to us is Indian inthe Sanskrit poem Mahabrahahada, and I apologized
for our pronunciation. A demon namedRahu tried to steal the nectar of a
mortality from the gods, but theSun and the Moon recognized him for the

(33:35):
demon he was. Rahu had starteddrinking the nectar when the god Vishnu hurled
a discus weapon at him, whichsliced his neck. Upon this apparent decapitation,
Rahu's body disappeared. His head,however, had already consumed the nectar
of immortality, and so in revengefor his new immortal but damaged state,

(33:57):
Rahu's head would chase the Sun inthe Moon around the sky. Whenever he
caught them, he would take viciousbites, but because he had no body,
no stomach, no digestive system,they would soon reappear in their rightful
place. As far as contamination,Native Alaskans believed that eclipses were an outward

(34:19):
sign of the Sun becoming ill,and they would turn over all pots and
cooking utensils during to avoid contamination fromthe Sun's sickness. This theme was repeated
in several cultures throughout the world,with special strictures for pregnant women to avoid
food and water consumption or outside exposureduring the eclipse for fear that the Sun's
illness would be transmitted to the unborn. Both themes of consumption and contamination entwined

(34:44):
their way in the darkness back toa primeval human emotion, which plays a
role in both Lauris Claiborne and Gerald'sgame. Shame, a Transylvania folktale,
states an eclipse means that the Sunis turned away in horror from hum he
kind shameful behavior. The Aztecs believethis as well, and would try to

(35:05):
right the wrongs and earn the Sun'sforgiveness through human sacrifice. Colombian cultures would
shout promises to the darkened Sun thatthey would be better people in the future,
and they would try to prove themselvesduring the time of the eclipse by
working more diligently in their gardens andat their personal projects to prove themselves to
the Sun so that their shame wouldbe forgiven and the Sun would shine again.

(35:29):
The hair on the back of yournecks up, You've got goose bumps.
It's just absolutely beautiful and at thesame time just a little terrifying.
Because there's nothing you can do aboutthis. There's no power on Earth that
can stop this. Former NASA aerophysicistFred Espinak an authority on calculating the path
of eclipses. I hope you've enjoyedthis week short episode. I apologize for

(35:54):
it being short, and I apologizefor the lateness. Chronic illness waits for
no man, but I'm doing myvery best to find it and find my
cupcakes. Please support me in mycontinued efforts by clicking through the Amazon when
you make any purchase from the website, there might be cupcakes dot com,
by becoming a patron of the showat Patreon that's PA t R e o

(36:19):
N dot com slash Carla Haunted Allone word, or by checking out my
lovely sponsor, the best audio bookstoreever, Audible. My sponsor link is
Audible Trial one word dot com slashmight be Cupcakes. And for supporting my
show, there you can get afree thirty d trial membership from Audible and

(36:39):
a free audiobook to keep no matterwhat. Of course, this week's suggestions
for that free book are Dolores Claiborneand Gerald's Game. Both are narrated by
Francis Sternhagen, who's a wonderful characteractor and has been two King characters.
King characters in film, the Sheriff'swife Virginia McCain and an Irene w Reppler

(37:01):
in the movie version of The Mist. Again, thank you to BEV Vincent
for correcting me when I tried toclips a great portion of King's work.
I will link to Bev's books onthe website. Please check them out.
Also, I want to give ashout out to a relatively new podcast done
by two friends of mine, TimScott and Chuck hawk waters Alters, dead

(37:22):
Ball. It's a baseball history podcast. This is appropriate because, like Stephen
King, I too am a RedSox fan and this playoff season. So
although neither Jesse nor Dolores could givea fig having beggar frish fry during the
eclipse, please do listen to deadBall and then rejoin me next week for
another episode of There Might Be Cupcakes, because telling you stories makes me happy,

(37:45):
and that's my cupcakes right now.How does the light return to the
world after the eclipse of the sunmiraculously frailly and thin stripes. It hangs
like a glass cage. It isa hoop to be fractured by a tiny
jar. There's a spark there.Next moment a flush of dun, then

(38:10):
a vapor, as if Earth werebreathing in and out once twice for the
first time. Then under the dullness, someone walks with a green light.
Then off twists a white wraith.The woods throw up blue and green,

(38:30):
and gradually the fields drink in red, golden brown. Suddenly a river snatches
a blue light. The earth absorbscolor like a sponge, slowly drinking water.
It puts on weight, rounds itselfand hangs pendent sails and swings beneath

(38:52):
our feet. Virginia Wolf the wavesa m m m m m m yeah yeah h