Pie

March 14th is known as Pi Day because the date 3/14 includes the first three digits of the constant represented by the Greek letter $π$ (pi):

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751…

For people who prefer food (and puns) to math, it’s also known as Pie Day, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately for those people, I’m gonna focus on the math first. (Sorry, guys: All things come to those who wait. You’ll get over it!)

In plain English, $π$ (pi) represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference (c) to its diameter. And since a circle’s diameter is twice the radius (r), the formula is:

c = 2 $π$ $r$

Simple, see?

For the area (a) inside a circle, it gets more complicated, but only by a little:

a = $π$ $r 2$

Which brings us to our first $π$ joke/pun, because in English, that’s pronounced “Pi – r – squared” … but of course, as everyone knows, “Pie(s) are round.”

Pi Pie — One of an infinite series of Pi Day images on the Internet.

********

Another thing noteworthy about March 14th – nothing to do with math – is that it’s the birthday for several great people. One is my mother-in-law (Happy Day, Dede!). Another 3/14 notable is Albert Einstein, born in 1879. I’ll let you figure out which of the two bakes better pies, and which has wilder hair.

Which brings us back to math. (Sorry, pie-lovers: Patience is a virtue!)

********

The really cool thing about Einstein’s work is that – just based on the math – he predicted a whole bunch of stuff that actually turned out to be true in real life. For instance, his hypothesis that light behaves simultaneously as both wave and particle was an important step in the development of quantum theory. And the photoelectric effect, a phenomenon in which certain solids emit electrically charged particles when struck by light, helped prove his point. It also earned him the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Even cooler was his prediction that light passing through the vacuum of space actually could be bent by gravity. History.com summarizes it this way:

According to Einstein, gravitation is not a force, as Newton had argued, but a curved field in the space-time continuum, created by the presence of mass. An object of very large gravitational mass, such as the sun, would therefore appear to warp space and time around it, which could be demonstrated by observing starlight as it skirted the sun on its way to earth. In 1919, astronomers studying a solar eclipse verified earlier predictions Einstein made in the general theory of relativity. As a result, he became an overnight celebrity. Later, other predictions of general relativity, such as the probable existence of black holes, were confirmed by scientists.

********

Just as the best pies are often the simplest – mine’s apple, what’s yours? – so too, the best scientific insights often can be expressed with utmost simplicity. Einstein said that matter and energy are actually just two forms of the same thing, related by the following elegant formula:

E = $m$ $c 2$

where “E” is energy, “m” is mass, and “c” is a constant representing the speed of light (approximately 186,000 miles per second) squared.

All this, and black holes too? How cool is THAT!

As for apple pie recipes, there are probably as many of those in the world as there are Pi-Day memes on the Internet. I leave it to you to bake one yourself.

Happy Pie Day, y’all!

March 14, 2019March 13, 2019

Gas Giant

I just like the title…

On This Day in History, 1781 – sorry folks, you have to click the link to find out.

That is all.

🙂

Gas Giant: Uranus — Can you guess which Gas Giant this is?

March 9, 2019September 16, 2019

Novel

On This Day in History, 1935, Thomas Wolfe published his second novel, “Of Time and the River.” His debut novel, “Look Homeward Angel,” had been published six years earlier. What traits do these two works have in common? Well, pardon me for saying it, but despite what some folks might say, neither one was very good. And I get to say that because… well, we’re family.

“WHAT’S THAT?” I hear you say. Yep, read on for the full story – you can get the History.com version here if you want – but believe me, the family stuff is much juicier.

First, there’s the family resemblance:

Wolfe was 6’5” and couldn’t sit comfortably at normal desks. He did most of his writing standing up, using the top of his refrigerator as a writing surface.

OK, I’m 6’4″. Check. My son is 6’7″. Double check. Next?

But wait! I hear you say. His name’s spelled different. What’s with the “e”?

Easy. Our common ancestors came from Germany. “Wolf” is the German spelling. The “e” makes the name look more “English.” It was added after Wolfe’s stone-cutter father (inspiration for the title of “Look Homeward Angel,” the “Angel” being one carved on a tombstone) changed it when he moved south to Asheville, NC. The idea was to make the name more highfalutin’. Thus the rough-hewn stone mason’s family would be more acceptable in polite society. Whether or not the ploy worked? Not sure.

OK, so where did Thomas Wolfe’s father live before North Carolina?

The Wolf family came to Pennsylvania from Germany in the early 1700’s. At that time, land west of the Susquehanna River where they settled was considered “Indian” country. So much so, that, when my Grandpa’s second cousin Edna Albert wrote a children’s book in 1930 called Little Pilgrim to Penn’s Woods (this was a German family’s immigrant tale based on stories she’d heard about growing up on the “frontier”) there were plenty of harrowing accounts of Redskins whooping it up outside the cabin door.

The house where I was born was one such cabin, originally built of logs in the 1860’s. The family farm where I grew up was founded on 160 acres in Latimore Township, PA. And that area is where, records show, Thomas Wolfe’s father lived – along with much of the rest of the extended clan – before he headed south: First to Baltimore, then to Asheville. That’s where his youngest son Thomas was born in 1900 – two years after the birth of my Grandpa Wolf, a farmer with no earthly use for an extra vowel on the end of his last name.

And we know all this HOW?

Glad you asked. Somebody did a genealogy search in the wake of Wolfe’s literary fame and traced our family’s roots all the way back to the Black Forest in the 1600’s. Lo and behold, there’s my grandfather Howard (b. 1898) and my father Harold (b. 1921) – both of them distant cousins several times removed from the great author himself. Turns out, I was born the same year (1958) that the stage adaptation of “Look Homeward Angel” won the Pulitzer Prize. Thomas Wolfe had been buried 20 years by then. He died of tuberculosis in 1938.

OK, so what’s the story with all the negative reviews then?

Have you ever actually tried to read any of this stuff? I mean, c’mon man! REALLY? Pulitzer or no Pulitzer… plowing through it is like trying to wade through a vast vat of cold molasses. It’s like pulling teeth – A WHOLE LOTTA TEETH – with a rusty old pair of pliers and no anesthetic. The literary consensus in a nutshell? Too wordy. Overwrought. Don’t believe me? Well, then believe his contemporaries Hemingway and Faulkner, both of them with axes to grind, but still…

Despite early admiration of Wolfe’s work, Faulkner later decided that Wolfe’s novels were “like an elephant trying to do the hoochie-coochie.” Hemingway’s verdict was that Wolfe was “the over-bloated Li’l Abner of literature.”

Comments about Wolfe are sprinkled throughout Hemingway’s letters and most of them are snide, snarky, and insulting. In a 1951 letter (to publisher Charles Scribner III): “Tom Wolfe was a one-book boy and a glandular giant with the brains and the guts of three mice.”

Or, as Malcolm Cowley of The New Republic said so pithily about “Of Time and the River”:

“It would be twice as good if half as long.”

OUCH!

Guess I better wrap this up then. Two out of three mice surveyed say they are growing restless… And the third? His poor little brain has fallen asleep. <No word on his guts.> Blood may run thicker than water, but – to quote perhaps Wolfe’s most famous line – “You can’t go home again.” I guess when it comes to literary pretensions I’ll stick with Papa Hemingway. No “e” needed at the end of the last name. At least not for THIS blue collar workingman’s offspring.

March 7, 2019March 6, 2019

Aspirin

On This Day in History, 1899, Bayer patents aspirin. Click the link to read the full story – or, read on if you dare.

********

According to ads, aspirin is “The Wonder Drug That Works Wonders.” That’s mostly due to its pain relieving and fever reducing properties which have made it the most common drug in medicine cabinets world wide today. Not even mentioned in the link to History.com is aspirin’s wide-spread use, in low-dose form, for heart patients. In addition to its many other side-effects – which include an unpleasant after-taste and damage to the lining of the stomach – aspirin also acts as an anti-coagulant. That’s because it inhibits platelet formation. This can be useful for those with atherosclerotic heart disease. “Thinner” blood is less likely to result in coronary artery occlusion and thrombosis which is a common cause of heart attacks.

But back to the marketing campaign…

Aspirin has a long tortuous history. Originally discovered in antiquity in willow bark, it was mentioned by Hippocrates in ancient Greek texts. Over the centuries it has enjoyed enduring popularity in folk medicine. But the story also includes a bit of a 20th century detour between the two World Wars.

Bayer was a German company. After Germany lost WW1, the Allies auctioned off the U.S. and Canadian rights to aspirin for $5.3 million. Meanwhile, back in Germany, Bayer became part of IG Farben, a conglomerate which lay at the financial heart of the Nazi war machine. After Germany’s WW2 loss, the Allies again intervened, slitting up IG Farben, thus making Bayer an independent company once again.

During the merger mania of the 1980’s and 1990’s, Bayer bought out companies such as Miles Laboratories and Sterling-Winthrop which controlled U.S. rights to market aspirin. In so doing, the famous brand became re-united with its most enduring product.

The predecessor of today’s Bayer Cross, linked to the German company’s history.

March 4, 2019March 4, 2019

Luggage

Did you ever wonder what happens when an airline loses your luggage? Well, wonder no more.

Airports are noted for having whimsical sculptures like the one above in Sacramento. Also, there’s the giant rabbit, below, which I’ve never been able to figure out. Sacramento is known as “The River City” and also “The City of Trees.” But, A GIANT GEODESIC RED RABBIT? Really?

Red Rabbit at SMF. — Inside the main terminal at SMF.

If anybody knows the backstory, please tell me. This is the sort of thing that keeps me awake at night, not knowing.

********

On a slightly less frivolous note, it seems the folks at History.com are on an plane crash kick these days. You can read the two most recent installments here, and here. In the first instance (1974), it was a faulty latch mechanism on a rear hatch entry door that led to disaster. In the second (1962), it was a jammed elevator spring tab, part of the system controlling an airplane’s lift and altitude, that was the culprit. Proving yet again that it’s often the little things that sneak up and bite you.

********

Of course, that was all a long time ago. Those kind of catastrophes no longer occur. Right? Uh, yeah, right. At least since April 17, 2018….

Woman partially sucked out aircraft window. — Southwest Flight 1380.

Which is why, given a choice, I sit on the aisle, not the window. Just sayin’.

My guess is that, whatever the backstory on the whimsical red rabbit at SMF, airlines would much rather you NOT be thinking “aisle versus window” every time you board an airplane.

Bottom line: Lost luggage? It is literally the least of your worries.

March 3, 2019March 2, 2019

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday today to Theodor Geisel who was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904. Theodor Geisel? I hear you ask… who’s that?

Better known to the world as “Dr. Seuss” (his middle name, and also his mother’s maiden name), Geisel was the author and illustrator of such beloved children’s books as “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham.” Not to mention “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish,” “The Lorax,” and “Horton Hears a Who!” Complete list is on Wikipedia – you can view it here. Yep, 48+ books… 200+ million copies: That’s a whole lotta “Hop on Pop.”

Which one is your favorite?

I’ll only tell you mine if you tell me yours. Hey, my website, my rules. Capische?

And now you know the answer to the trivia question, “What was Theodor Giesel’s first publication?” It’s NOT (as most people think) 1937’s “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” Instead, it’s 1931’s “Pocket Book of Boners.” Whodathunkit, eh?

March 1, 2019August 25, 2019

Getty

February 28th has such an embarrassment of riches when it comes to This Day in History, it’s hard to pick just one: Watson & Crick Discover Chemical Structure of DNA (1953)? Thelonius Monk Makes The Cover of Time Magazine (1964)? Pope Benedict Resigns (2013)? Congress Creates Colorado Territory (1861)? ATF Raids Branch Davidian Compound (1993)? Getty Museum Endowed (1982)? Final Episode of M.A.S.H. Airs (1983)?

I was sorely tempted by that last one. In honor of this week’s Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi – and also because I have an Airbnb guest visiting from Seoul right now – I recently watched the 1970 Robert Altman movie version of M.A.S.H. That’s the one starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould as Hawkeye and Trapper John, not the ’72-’83 TV version with Alan Alda. Although best remembered in the context of the Vietnam War, M.A.S.H. was based on the 1968 Richard Hooker novel about the Korean conflict.

********

In the end, though, I settled on the Getty. Back when we lived in LA and before we had kids, we’d go up there to Malibu and stroll through the Getty’s Greek and Roman antiquities all the time – because we were young and poor, and because it was spectacular and free.

Peristyle Garden of the Getty Villa in Malibu, inspired by the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum which was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.

********

And now it becomes clearer why it was free. I guess I kind of knew it at the time: Getty was an oil tycoon, after all. But the details of his bequest, and the museum’s endowment, really are mind-boggling, even by robber baron standards.

The American oil billionaire died in 1976. But legal wrangling over his fortune by his children and ex-wives kept his will in probate until 1982. During those six years, what was a originally a $700 million bequest to the museum nearly doubled. By 2000, the endowment was worth $5 billion – even after the trust spent nearly $1 billion in the 1990s on the construction of a massive museum and arts education complex in Los Angeles.

Furthermore:

In leaving a third of his fortune to the J. Paul Getty Museum, his only stipulation was that the fortune be used “for the diffusion of artistic and general knowledge.” This gave the museum extraordinary freedom – an unusual legacy from a man who in his life had sought absolute control over his affairs. The laws governing trusts, however, indicate that the museum must spend 4.25 percent of its endowment three out of every four years in order to retain its tax-exempt status. In the first year after its endowment, that figure equaled $54 million. Today the amount the museum must spend three out of four years is more than $200 million. The J. Paul Getty Museum’s greatest challenge, therefore, is finding enough art and culture to buy – but not too much that other museums accuse the Getty of hoarding the world’s masterpieces.

For an art museum, that’s a nice problem to have.

********

February 27, 2019February 26, 2019

Bawdy

A century ago – and then a decade later – On This Day In History, two different presidents established two different National Parks: The Grand Canyon (by Woodrow Wilson in 1919), and one with a bawdy nickname (by Calvin Coolidge in 1929). What are the odds of these two alliterative presidents (WW & CC) establishing two of the “Grand-est” spots in all of North America as National Parks on exactly the same day, ten years apart, eh?

You can read all about it here. In so doing, you’ll find out the bawdy nickname.

Here’s a hint: It’s French.

Here’s another hint:

Bawdy nickname: Grand Tetons — Remind you of anything?

And no, the correct answer is not “Sawtooths.”

Nice try though.

February 25, 2019February 25, 2019

Loquacious

Today’s Word of the Day is “loquacious.”

loquacious

adjective

lo·qua·cious | \ lō-ˈkwā-shəs

Definition of loquacious

1 : full of excessive talk : wordy

2 : given to fluent or excessive speech : garrulous

********

Today’s loquacious star is boxing legend Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. – AKA “The Louisville Lip,” AKA “The Greatest,” AKA Muhammad Ali.

The loquacious Cassisus Clay, AKA Muhamad Ali — “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee…”

On This Day in History in 1964, twenty-two year old Cassius Clay shocked the odds-makers by dethroning defending heavyweight champ Sonny Liston in a 7th-round TKO in Miami. The new champ met with Malcolm X and converted to Islam a short time later, becoming better known as Muhammad Ali. The new name of course rhymed better with “bee” than “Clay” ever did – just sayin’.

********

After he beat Liston, Ali reclaimed the title 2 more times – in 1974 against George Foreman and again in 1978 against Leon Spinks. That makes him the only 3-time heavyweight champ in history. His brutal 15-round decision against long-time nemesis Joe Frazier in 1979 (the so-called “Thriller in Manila”) was arguably one of the most memorable fights of all time.

********

Having been an Olympic gold medalist at light-heavyweight in 1960, Ali lit the torch at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. For his philanthropic work he won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. He died in 2016 at age 74, after a long, slow, painful-to-watch decline from the effects of pugilistic Parkinson’s Syndrome.

********

“It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”

“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”

—Muhammad Ali

February 19, 2019September 16, 2019

Tawdry

After yesterday’s indie bookstore post, today you get… a book review! And not just any book, mind you, but a classic. It’s from one of my favorite satirists of all time, Mark Twain. On This Day In History, 1885, Twain published a sequel to his smash 1876 hit, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. His new book?

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

At the book’s heart is the journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on a raft. Jim runs away because he is about to be sold and separated from his wife and children. Huck goes with him to help him get to Ohio and freedom.

Huck narrates the story in his distinctive voice, offering colorful descriptions of the people and places they encounter along the way. The most striking part of the book is its satirical look at racism, religion and other social attitudes of the time. While Jim is strong, brave, generous and wise, many of the white characters are portrayed as violent, stupid or simply selfish. The naive Huck ends up questioning the hypocritical, unjust nature of society in general.

Even two decades after the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn landed with a splash. A month after its publication, a Concord, Massachusetts, library banned the book. They called its subject matter “tawdry” and its narrative voice “coarse” and “ignorant.” Other libraries followed suit. Thus began a controversy that continued long after Twain’s death in 1910.

In the 1950s, the book came under fire from African-American groups. They said it was racist in its portrayal of black characters – despite the fact that it was seen by many as a strong criticism of racism and slavery. As recently as 1998, an Arizona parent sued her school district over Huck Finn. She claimed that making Twain’s novel required reading made already existing racial tensions even worse.

********

You just gotta love it when the critics call your work “tawdry.” That’s almost as high praise as “coarse” and “ignorant.” And so, with the publication of Huck Finn, Twain scores the ironic literary trifecta. Or, as no less a judge than Ernest Hemingway famously declared:

“There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

Ummmm – OK then. Whether you love or hate Twain, that may be overstating things a bit? But, Ernie always did tend toward purple prose…. Which brings us to today’s Word of the Day – and no, it’s not “tawdry.” (For that one, go here and skip to the end.) Rather it’s this:

purple prose

A generally pejorative term for writing or speech characterized by ornate, flowery, or hyperbolic language. The double meaning of the term “purple” is useful: It is both imperial and regal – demanding attention – as well as overly ornate, ostentatious, and sometimes even profane.

Sorry, Papa. Like Twain, I was only being ironic. Just please don’t call me “tawdry,” OK?