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Miss Adventure

Rhiannon Gammill was not born behind the wheel of a jet black coupe DeVille and has regretted it ever since. Like the b-movies that inspire it, Rhiannon's life is filmed in glorious black and blue. She has broken heels, smashed kneecaps and blackened eyes in clubs all along Red River; thankfully no one else was hurt. Rhiannon has been attacked by emus in Oklahoma and fended off a ravenous camel in Johnson City. She lives in Austin with a big dog and an even bigger library. Johnny Cash's autobiography is, of course, filed under "Religion."

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The entry titled "'Hello Ms. Major, or can I call you Ursula?'."

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Austin360 blogs > Miss Adventure > Archives > 2007 > January > 22 > Entry

‘Hello Ms. Major, or can I call you Ursula?’

By Rhiannon Gammill | Monday, January 22, 2007, 09:40 AM

Saturday, my pal Torvald — a no-foolin’ astrophysicist who can only be described as burly — and I hightailed it up to Arlington for a day of fun and adventure. It’s always strange going on a long car trip with someone for the first time. It’s like a first date, except more nervewracking. See, there will always be plenty of fish in the sea but only a select few of those fish have the magical combination of gullibility and a really big truck. These fish are incredibly important because, if fed and watered properly, they will move your couch for free while you drink something with an umbrella in it. By this definition, Torvald is a very important fish.

We went to see the UT Arlington Planetarium because Torvald is on the board of directors for Friends of the Austin Planetarium and is into such things. I am into such things as well. I grew up attending Repressed Oaks School for WASPs, and we had a planetarium in our elementary school. I won’t write about how pathetic it is that my elementary school had a planetarium yet The Greatest City in The Greatest State in The Greatest Country in The World doesn’t, but trust me. It is.

The planetarium was ‘eh’, We caught the 1:00 p.m. showing of “Honey I Shrank the Solar System” — not great but not so completely awful as to merit much discussion other than the well-intentioned but completely ineffectual planetarium guide who kept calling all the planets “she’s” (Mars, the last time I checked ye olde book o’ mythology, was a dude.) and called the big and little dippers Ursula Major and Minor, respectively. Of course it should be Ursa. Ursa is a bear, Ursula is a Bond girl in a white bikini. Wrong kind of heavenly body, y’all.

Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: By Rhiannon Gammill

Comments

By Susan

January 31, 2007 07:05 PM | Link to this

Let's please consider that UT Austin does have the McDonald Observatory before we write them off as not being a science school for lack of a planetarium.

By Tycho

January 22, 2007 05:10 PM | Link to this

I would not so much say "wrong" as "different"
The cosmos is so wondrously varied, ya know?

By Chad

January 22, 2007 12:33 PM | Link to this

Austin doesn't have a planetarium because UT is not a science school. UT is a BUSINESS school that supports such sciences as can become profitable and therefore provide rich alumni.

Let the flame war begin.

**Miss Adventure responds**

I'm inclined to agree with you.