If the moon seems bigger and brighter on Monday, it won’t be your imagination. Our nearest celestial neighbor will be making its closest pass to Earth since January 1948.
What a difference 68 years makes. Hillary Clinton was a mere infant, Donald Trump had not quite entered his terrible twos, and the “Dewey Defeats Truman’’ election was little more than nine months away.
The pollsters got it wrong then, too.
Quinn Sykes, manager of Boston University’s Judson B. Coit Observatory, says that Monday’s “supermoon’’ will appear about 14 percent larger than a normal full moon. And it will seem biggest when it’s on the horizon — right after sunset at about 4:30 p.m.
So, what was in the news the last time the moon loomed so large? “Zero Cold Hits N.E.’’ blared the The Boston Daily Globe on Jan. 26, 1948. “Stassen Bucks Taft in Ohio.’’ And here’s an odd headline: “CBS Head Predicts Pocket Radio Sets Powered by the Sun.’’ Oh sure, and someday we’ll be reading news on telephones.
The next time the moon is this close to Earth will be November 2034. But don’t worry. There are only midterm elections that year.
Could the prize for the state’s priciest school go to Waltham? City officials are proposing to renovate or replace Waltham High School at a cost of at least $283 million — surpassing the nearly $200 million Newton North High School, which opened in 2010, and possibly the $257 million new high school planned in Somerville.
A Waltham committee is expected to vote Monday on where to locate the new school. One option is the former Fernald Developmental Center property off Trapelo Road.
Speaking of history, you’ll learn a lot of it Saturday at the Plymouth Thanksgiving Parade. Billed as “America’s only historically accurate chronological parade,’’ the event depicts every century from the 17th through the 21st. One group plans to march dressed as early 20th-century suffragists to commemorate the upcoming 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. The parade steps off at Benny’s Plaza, 179 Court St., at 11 a.m.
Leslie Anderson can be reached at leslie-.anderson@globe.com.
