{"id":652,"date":"2010-06-21T12:13:54","date_gmt":"2010-06-21T12:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2010\/06\/the-longest-day-summer-begins.html"},"modified":"2010-06-21T12:13:54","modified_gmt":"2010-06-21T12:13:54","slug":"the-longest-day-summer-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/06\/the-longest-day-summer-begins.html","title":{"rendered":"the longest day: summer begins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/\">Astronomy Picture of the Day<\/a> commemorates the beginning of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year &#8211; with a photo of <a href=\"http:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/ap100621.html\">the sun rising over Stonehenge<\/a>. I am sure that Stonehenge will be a popular destination tonight (UPDATE: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/06\/21\/AR2010062100638.html\">20,000 people<\/a> witnessed the sunrise).<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that the days start to get shorter from here on out &#8211; which is good news, since Ramadan begins in less than two months. Of course, in a few years Ramadan will be right atop the solstice, a fact that only the muslims in Australia have any reason to cheer.<\/p>\n<p>Also, the covergence this year of Father&#8217;s Day with the summer solstice is fitting somehow. Before the long days of summer begin, we needed a boost of encouragement! My todo list for this summer is already longer than I care to admit&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s Astronomy Picture of the Day commemorates the beginning of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year &#8211; with a photo of the sun rising over Stonehenge. I am sure that Stonehenge will be a popular destination tonight (UPDATE: 20,000 people witnessed the sunrise). It&#8217;s worth noting that the days start to get&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[376,25,26,46],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islamerica","tag-fathers-day","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-ramadan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>the longest day: summer begins - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"the longest day: summer begins - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today&#8217;s Astronomy Picture of the Day commemorates the beginning of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year &#8211; with a photo of the sun rising over Stonehenge. I am sure that Stonehenge will be a popular destination tonight (UPDATE: 20,000 people witnessed the sunrise). It&#8217;s worth noting that the days start to get&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/06\/the-longest-day-summer-begins.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-21T12:13:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"the longest day: summer begins - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"the longest day: summer begins - City of Brass","og_description":"Today&#8217;s Astronomy Picture of the Day commemorates the beginning of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year &#8211; with a photo of the sun rising over Stonehenge. I am sure that Stonehenge will be a popular destination tonight (UPDATE: 20,000 people witnessed the sunrise). It&#8217;s worth noting that the days start to get&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/06\/the-longest-day-summer-begins.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2010-06-21T12:13:54+00:00","author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/06\/the-longest-day-summer-begins.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/06\/the-longest-day-summer-begins.html","name":"the longest day: summer begins - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-06-21T12:13:54+00:00","dateModified":"2010-06-21T12:13:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/06\/the-longest-day-summer-begins.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/06\/the-longest-day-summer-begins.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/06\/the-longest-day-summer-begins.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"the longest day: summer begins"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}