Making more points
Unless I write something new and provocative enough to generate fresh traffic, most visits to this blog come from searches on topics for which Google believes something I've written is relevant. Such is the case with a 2015 post called What are the balls on Prague’s spires called? I have a better answer now than my readers and I did then, and in the years since, mostly from Towers with Golden Orbs. Motif of CupolaedSpires with Spherical Supports, by Zygmunt Łuniewicz, of the Faculty of Architecture at Wrocław University of Science and Technology in Poland. I have not yet found evidence that any of the balls in question contain mercury, but I have found plenty of mercury glass finials (which contain no mercury) that resemble those on the spires of Baroque buildings in central and northern Europe. So I suspect that this may be where the claim that the architectural balls contain mercury may have originated. But I'm open to whatever.
Worth early rising
This Washington Post story lays out exactly why, in summertime, and year-round in tropical settings, it is best to fly in the morning. The simple reason is that thunderstorms are the enemy of commercial travel, and they typically build up during the day. By late afternoon and evening, flying becomes bumpy, delayed, and otherwise difficult. I call early morning flights "clear-eye," because that's when skies are clearest.
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