Intake and output

[jere7my]

(Must stop falling behind in posting.)

Hey, I did two things!

Thursday night I went to a lecture on dispelling myths in math, which I expected to be a sort of lighthearted tour through mathematical urban legends. Mathbusters, perhaps. As it turned out, the first two minutes of her talk covered racism, genocide, and the Holocaust (or H'Caust, as the NY Post called it recently), leaving me blinking. She did lighten up after a while, though it remained more political than I expected. I was pleased to discover I remembered enough college math to follow her proofs, though I sometimes disagreed with her social conclusions. The "urban legends" were of interest only to mathematicians—"Did this particular Scottish mathematician rely overmuch on infinite series expansions? No, you monkey!"—but I was sufficiently interested in math to be interested, if you get my meaning. And I remembered how much I enjoy the company of undergrad geeks; young classicists are fun, but nostalgia crashed over me while I sat behind a young Weird Al, watching him try to put the moves on his girlfriend and reading the bad marimba jokes on the back of his T-shirt. Of course, I felt old and awkward at the reception afterward, Kendra's tales of the weird guy who used to show up at Michigan classics lectures vivid in my mind, so I munched a couple of cookies and fled.

Friday I played for yet another contra, and this one was considerably tighter than the last. Elvie won the fellowship she'd been waiting on, so I suspect she was a bit more focused. We had a didgeridoo (which I apparently know how to spell) for a while, and a very nice hammered dulcimerist who chatted with me and laughed at my jokes. I got something akin to a solo during one dance, and received a few compliments afterward; people were spinning and rocking even when they were out at the top, which is always a good sign. Unfortunately, I'd gotten into a terrible, teary row with a good friend that afternoon, and while the music was blissfully distracting most of the time I sank into melancholy between sets. (We've made up, but the issues remain, and I'm still rather depressed about it all.) Still, there is nothing like playing music to make me feel more optimistic.

Comments

[jdh92.livejournal.com]

Do you remember who gave the talk? There are a few people I can think of who might have given something along those lines.

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

Do you remember who gave the talk?

No, but Google does. :) She was Judith Grabiner from Pitzer College.

[jdh92.livejournal.com]

Ok, that was one of the people I was thinking of as a possibility. One of the others was a former colleague of mine, but somehow I suspect you would have figured that out if the speaker had been someone from Bates.

[irilyth]

Huh, one or both of my parents probably knows Judy Grabiner; it's a vaguely familiar name anyway. Her kids were probably on soccer teams with me or my sister. Unless she is one of the kids, and happened to end up back in Claremont with her parents. :^)

[jdh92.livejournal.com]

Nope, definitely not one of the kids. I've encountered her son David in various contexts, both mathematical and baseball related. Strange guy but a very good writer.