ONE SMALL STEP FOR BLOGS

This week marks the anniversary of the first moon landing (July 20, 1969), and since I've always been a science buff, this week's Tuesday Blog presents a number of odd facts about lunar exploration I never appreciated.

1. We've left behind 96 bags of human waste. 96! Neil Armstrong had it easy; I guess when the Artemis astronauts visit, they better watch where they step.

2. There's gold in them thar' moon rocks. Kind of. The bag containing Apollo 11's collection of rock samples sold at auction in 2017 for $1.8 million, once again proving that some people have too much money on their hands.

3. The American flag Neal and Buzz Aldrin planted was made by Sears, as its tagline says, "Where America Shops." Er, used to say. Who would have thought the flag would outlast Sears? Hey, thinking back to the preceding point, if NASA could retrieve the flag and auction it, they might raise enough to get Sears out of bankruptcy.

4. Because of how risky the flight was, the three Apollo astronauts could not get life insurance. Think about that the next time, Flo, the gecko and that jerk with the emu tell you how much they want to help you and your family.

5. When the astronauts returned, they had to fill in a customs declaration, because, well, with apologies to Einstein, the speed of light is not the universal constant. It's the bureaucracy.

6. I close with a quote from Mark Twain: "Everyone's a moon and has a dark side which (s)he never shows to anybody."