Adding an Extra Room for the Sky

It occurred to me tonight that I’m spending a lot of time immersed in the stuff of thrillers, and lately that’s tended to skew what I’ve posted here pretty severely toward the dire news. Today’s my birthday, and that’s as good a day as any to stop and remember that it’s really not all bad out there.

This story made me feel good, and I thought you might like it, too. Not that I can afford something like this, but when I was a child it was exactly how I imagined my grown-up den would be.

from Kate Murphy, for the New York Times

In the quaint seaside community of Gloucester, Mass., on Cape Ann, one gray clapboard house stands out from the rest. It has a big white dome rising from the top, with a sliding shutter that opens to the sky and a powerful telescope inside. “My wife got an ocean view and I got a view of the sky,” said Dr. Mario Motta, 55, a cardiologist and astronomy enthusiast, of the house they built three years ago.

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