At our office we smoked the glass from some clip photo frames with
a candle we found in the cleaner's cupboard, and all stood out on the
balcony.  In Essex UK, where I am, we had about 98% of an eclipse which
was pretty good (although my father currently in Austria said he saw
the whole thing properly!).

We have recently observed how full moon periods seem to bring in the
crankiest of clients (I work in a legal office).  So, we reckoned that
the only people to phone us around the eclipse time would be the real
cranks.  Sure enough, two minutes before the maximum the phone went
with the most idiotic enquiry.  Then it all went quiet, and the phone
too, for several minutes whilst all were out watching the eclipse.
And then ... the phone started again.

The first caller?  A raving mad time-waster!  My point was proven.
I mean, if the first thing that you do after seeing an eclipse is
call a lawyer, you've got to be nuts, for sure!  And the rest of the day
we seemed inundated solidly with people wanting to make their Wills.
In fact we did as many Wills in a day as we often do in a whole
quarter.  I suppose the eclipse must make people think about life,
the universe and everything.

As for the good old fashioned smoked glass, none of us have gone blind,
which is more than I can say for some who bought cheap plastic viewers.
We only smashed one glass while smoking it, so at least I've got four
of the five pictures back on my wall anyhow.

Best regards

Adam Ramet
agr@lineone.net