The man in the moon

Wikipedia has the audacity to tell us what the man in the moon looks like (at the time of writing, at least). In truth, of course, the man in the moon has many interpretations, none of which can really be called official. It is reinvented over and over again. Various sweeping claims in the Wikipedia article ought to be prefixed with “One popular interpretation is …“.

A quick Google lead me to a blog post where someone’s illustrated the man in the moon as it is seen from here in Australia. I agree, broadly, with this interpretation (that is, it approximately conforms to the man in the moon as I have seen it since I was five years old). “Broadly”, however, is all very well but I wish to be pedantic about the details.

For example, that’s not the whole nose but merely the bridge between the nostrils, and the Man in the Moon most assuredly has a moustache. The idea of giving him eyebrows is new to me. My own interpretation appears below, using an animated image. As you can see, the forehead, nose and moustache are light areas, while the eyes and nostrils are dark areas. The eyes are not well-defined. Whether or not there is a beard is a matter of interpretation.

My mother, when she was young, was taught to see the king “in his counting-house, counting out his money“. I don’t know whether or not this interpretation of the moon’s features is original to our family. My mother was also taught that the tooth fairy makes pianos using, shall we say, ivory substitute, so you never know with our family.

As a child, I pointed out to Mum that actually it looks like a snail. She was instantly converted, and royalty was replaced with a gastropod. The king’s crown corresponds with the snail’s stalks, and the big pile of cash corresponds approximately with its shell.