Back to scones and tea.  Can't complain.  Although I miss my ancient gas stove.  The new one is too efficient.  I'm used to the high heat and pilot light of the old one.  The newfangled one uses electric pilots and has a fan going to keep it cool.  The scones come out ok, but seem drier than the ones I made in the old stove.

other intelligent life

Of course you mean Trump, right?

The regular news is way more terrifying than any horror I can think of.

I've started restricting the amount of time that I devote to reading the New York Times given how depressing it is.

My brother is a big fan of horror films.  Last time we watched a video of one together (it was the one with the hovering sphere that would appear with sharp blades protruding that would hurt people) I had the remote and would mute the shrieking violin music, thereby reducing the ability of the film to inflict anxiety.  He was annoyed.  There's a bizarre aspect to this genre that seems to have some kind of effect on the endocrine system, one that I find unhealthy and undesirable.  But, clearly, I'm not the intended audience.  It makes me wonder why it exists, and why so many people enjoy such films.  I find old campy ones really fun, like Vincent Price in House on Haunted Hill, and such Japanese treats as Attack of the Mushroom People, but I don't get the ones that are increasingly realistic and terrifying or gory.  Why bother?

1) Astronomer

2) It has an elliptical orbit around the sun, and having measured its course that orbit can be calculated with very precise accuracy; and in this case it is a big-ass ellipse that takes 80,000 years to do one lap. (80,000 years ago wasn't when it first appeared, that is the last time it appeared locally)

3) Collisions: to quote Douglas Adams: "Space is BIG. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space". The chances of two objects bumping in to each other really aren't that high, so any given comet can circulate for a very long time before it hits something.

4) No, I haven't seen it, neither will I look - all celestial objects are a marvel, I don't really consider any one to be more special than any others. Saves me having to run out and check whenever something new happens. I will, however, look up if something is on a collision course!

Cheers

I stopped watching horror movies decades ago. I'm too squeamish to even watch Criminal Minds.

The regular news is way more terrifying than any horror I can think of.