A Problem with a Post A few days ago, I published a short essay entitled Multiplicative Persistence. Now I want to tell the story behind the trouble I had trying to get the post, to well…post. It was an ordeal. As you might imagine, I go through lots of drafts when I write these things. […]
Multiplicative Persistence 277,777,788,888,899 is an unusual and special number. When it comes to Multiplicative Persistence, it is an unparalleled superstar. Check out the following table. Can you figure out what is going on? The digits of any given number are multiplied together to get a new number, and then those digits are multiplied together, and […]
The Feynman Point Richard Feynman was unusually intelligent. He earned a Nobel Prize in physics. He was one of those people who had a VIP pass to look at The Book virtually whenever he wanted. There are a bunch of biographies and autobiographies out there about him. It wouldn’t be a waste of time to […]
Give Me Some Space! It is very difficult for old people to change their ways. Buford Lister (personal communication) A few years ago, I got an email from a friend of mine. As I was reading it, I began to become irritated, then I became agitated, and then…well, I didn’t throw my computer monitor out […]
Breathe Deep This is a piece of Flash Fiction. The topic: A person goes to a doctor’s office, and a nurse gives him some free sample medicine. Archibald “Butane” Maclaine struggled to walk into the doctor’s office. He paused to grab the back of a chair, moved forward a couple steps, and then leaned against […]
Dog Man and Puppy Boy This is a piece of Flash Fiction. The topic: A person finds a die with a missing 6 alongside a quarter standing on end. Millionaire playboy Jedediah Magillicutty power-walked down the street, waving to his unsuspecting neighbors as he continued his daily morning constitutional. Unknown to all but a select […]
THE CLOSING This is a piece of Flash Fiction. The topic: A family moves into the neighborhood haunted house. And by signing this form, you acknowledge that you have been informed about any and all paranormal activity that has been witnessed at the property located at 124 Chestnut Street. Noah Kuhn turned and […]
D’oh! We, and our many supporters worldwide, have done our best but the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won! John Richards Did you hear the news? Something extraordinary happened a couple days ago. Much to my surprise, a punctuation mark made international news. No, it wasn’t the ampersand, or my personal favorite, […]
This is a piece of Flash Fiction. The topic: a second-person account of an individual who picks up an almost empty can of air freshener. Air Effects You are in your upstairs library, you appear to be reading Proust. Your thoughts, though, are not on the text. Let’s begin there. Things seem normal until […]
An Existential Threat Two things happened in the last couple of days that have required me to spend hours in front of my computer. First, Harvard Magazine sent me a digital copy of my monthly subscription. Second, Harvard played Yale in football on Saturday. Decades from now, people will be writing about that game, not […]