Watch for falling rocks, St. Lawrence.

A reminder to one and all that the Perseid meteor shower will take place on Sunday night, going into the wee hours of Monday morning. Perseus appears in the NE section of the sky, so that’s where you should be looking for the meteors. The moon won’t be a big factor, so if the skies are clear in your area, head outside around 9PM EST and have a look – it’s supposed to be quite good this year.

Of course, if one of them lands in your backyard, you should avoid it all costs. All the plants in your area will grow into freak shapes, and then die. Those who persist in the region will become one of the walking dead. Nothing good will come of it.

In any case, if you avoid the eldritch (!) horrors of the meteorite, you can muse slightly on this: today is feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr. The Perseids (according to Wikipedia) were once known as the tears of St. Lawrence.

Lawrence was martyred in Rome around the middle of the third century. He had been asked by an official to gather the treasures of the Church for seizure. Instead, he spent the three days giving as much of it as possible to the poor. When the three days were up, he presented the poor, lame and widowed to the official, declaring that “here was the treasure of the church.”

His method of death was thus: being clamped into a gridiron, he was roasted over an open fire. After one side was thoroughly cooked, he asked his tormentors to turn him over – he was done on that side.

Among others, he is the patron of librarians.