The Package This is a piece of Flash Fiction. The topic: A person arrives home to find a package on their doorstep. Simeon Langdon felt an unnaturally cold chill as he unbuckled his radiation suit and removed his propulsion pack. Damn, the hairs on my arms are standing on end. Why are they doing that? […]
02.02.2020 The First Rule of Palindrome Club: Name no one, man. The Second Rule of Palindrome Club: See above. Anonymous (personal communication) Today is February 2, 2020. Any idea what makes this day so special? Well, I just watched The Australian Open men’s final. Novak Djokovic won…again. It is just a matter of time before […]
A Most Curious Text I have a bunch of relatives that live down South. Many of them live in M i crooked letter crooked letter i crooked letter crooked letter i humpback humpback i. At least that is how I was taught to spell Mississippi by my cousin Christy when she was around 5 years […]
Do Me a Solid…and Read my Post about a Platonic Solid. Something extraordinary happened a couple days ago. I woke up and went upstairs to my library, sat down and turned on my computer; after that, I got some lunch and then went to the gym. Nothing too exciting except for the fact that by […]
We’re Number…Huh? If I gave you five guesses, could you identify the most famous equation in mathematics? Perhaps this would be your first guess: I must admit that is not a bad choice. I think that one might be my personal favorite, but I do believe there is a general consensus about the most beautiful […]
0.20787… Check this out… That looks familiar, right? I think most of us have come across both of those definitions at some point. What you probably didn’t learn is this… Take a close look at that…and then look at this… Truly astonishing, an imaginary number raised to the power of an imaginary number gives us […]
How About a New Punctuation Mark? Do you have any idea what this is? How about a hint? Oh yeah, that is a really good idea Can I have another one, that last one was so helpful OK, you can have a couple more. You look great Where are you going, gravedigging […]
Inspired by a Yahoo: Inspiration is in Short Supply, we all need to take it Wherever and Whenever we can get it. I am bursting at the seams. Writing about Edwin Goodwin (the clown who “discovered” that π = 3.2) has elevated me; my ambitions now include worldwide fame. I want riches, texts from supermodels […]
Bill #246: Strange Doings in Indiana ‘we think it something on which the members of both houses can unite without distinction of party.’” James Garfield, commenting on his proof of The Pythagorean Theorem (as discussed in a previous essay). Does it strike you at all as strange that then-Congressman James Garfield would make such a […]
1,000,000 Digits Isn’t Nearly Enough: A Few Thoughts on π A few years ago, I sat down at my computer intending to write a short essay on one of my favorite subjects, π. I thought I would start by computing π to as many digits as possible. It was at that point that I realized […]