Memorial for an art critic who reportedly
died on November 12, 2021 —
* See a poem quoted here on November 12.
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
The Big X*
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Diagonals for St. Andrew
From St. Stephen's Day 2016 —
The apparent symbols for "times" and "plus"
in the above screenshot are, of course, icons for
browser functions. Readers who prefer the
fanciful may regard them instead as symbols for
"a gateway to another realm," that of number theory.
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Monday, November 29, 2021
Abstraction and Structure
For the mathematical properties of the vertical and horizontal
white grid lines above, see the Cullinane theorem.
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Apophenia for Woit
Peter Woit is quoted in the previous post as saying that
"Deluding oneself by seeing deep connections
in unrelated events is a common human problem."
Namely . . .
The term occurred in a recent miniseries, "The Queen's Gambit,"
in dialogue by screenwriter Scott Frank. "Apophenia" is not in the
book of the same title, by the much better writer Walter Tevis.
The original version of the fictional LIFE Magazine interview —
The version by Scott Frank —
As for the phrase "an entire world of just 64 squares," also not in the book,
some mathematicians may recall the definition of impolite numbers .
The reader may supply his or her own impolite commentary.
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November 29 …
… is the birth date of storytellers C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L'Engle.
Another perspective on this date —
In the context of mathematics, I prefer to think of it as Brosterman Day.
See, from last year on this date, Osterman Meets Brosterman . . .
and, more generally, Brosterman.
But seriously . . . LAST THOUGHTS ON DEVIL'S NIGHT :
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Sunday, November 28, 2021
The Omega Gate
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The Night Clerk’s Motto
From "Ready Player Meets the Night Clerk,"
a montage of 12 Aug. 2020 —
"Our credit manager is Helen Hunt. If you want credit…"
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The Fermi Question
A fictional version of Turning Nine —
A bewildering phrase —"That famous lunch."
What famous lunch? This is the book's first
mention of Fermi.
Google solves the mystery —
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Saturday, November 27, 2021
The Bito Obit
The New York Times reports a Nov. 14 death:
"He backed young musicians, especially those of
the Roma, a traditionally itinerant people . . . ."
This journal on Nov. 14 —
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Tag Shopping on Black Friday
Marcela Nowak today —
See as well Polite Number.
Scholium:
"She was a very nice, polite little kid. God, I love it
when a kid’s nice and polite when you tighten their skate
for them or something. Most kids are. They really are.
I asked her if she’d care to have a hot chocolate or something
with me, but she said no, thank you. She said she had to meet
her friend. Kids always have to meet their friend. That kills me."
— Jerome Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
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“Where you going? / Barcelona.” — Sondheim, “Company”*
* In honor of Sondheim, recent posts are now
tagged with a phrase from a different show —
Send in the Clowns.
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The Old Cookie-Jar Trick (Zulu Version)
The Z (for Zulu time) in the previous post suggests a review:
Note that the cookies of the previous post were not in a jar.
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Datetime
datetime="2021-11-26T08:52:38.000Z" title="Nov 26, 2021"
is from . . .
The Cookie Clock , by Marcela Nowak
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Cable
"SS refers to SuperSpeed,
a new transfer rate…"
And then there is USB,
the Universal Serial Bus . . .
From a post of 11/11, 2003.
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Friday, November 26, 2021
“A Problem, a Difficulty, a Contradiction”
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DOM
The title can mean the protagonist of the classic film "Inception"
or Document Object Model or Dirty Old Man. Related material:
Click the above image for related material.
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Facets for Snorri
(Who is Snorri? See The Reykjavik Grapevine , Oct. 3, 2018.)
"Faced with a larger surface than he had ever provided with facets,
in his desperation he had divided the diamond with imaginary lines,
treating each section as if it were a single small stone and arranging
the clusters of facets so they would interact with one another, as if they
were single facets in a smaller stone. What if the final result lacked fire?"
— A novel* by Noah Gordon, who reportedly died on Monday, Nov. 22.
Related material from Log24 on Feb. 17, 2017 —
Also on Feb. 17, 2017 —
* The Jerusalem Diamond , Random House, April 1, 1979,
republished later in German as Der Diamant des Salomon .
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Thursday, November 25, 2021
Saying Grace
Personally, I prefer To Catch a Thief —
“Breast or Thigh”?
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Fire
"Faced with a larger surface than he had ever provided with facets,
in his desperation he had divided the diamond with imaginary lines,
treating each section as if it were a single small stone and arranging
the clusters of facets so they would interact with one another, as if they
were single facets in a smaller stone. What if the final result lacked fire?"
— Novel* by Noah Gordon, who reportedly died on Monday, Nov. 22.
*
German translation of an April 1, 1979, novel.
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Wednesday, November 24, 2021
Turning Nine Continues*
From Log24 on Epiphany 2012 —
A version of the Zemeckis Cube —
* See Turning Nine (Log24, Nov. 8, 2021).
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“Ihn zu lieben war rot” — Taylor Swift
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Tuesday, November 23, 2021
Monday, November 22, 2021
American Heritage: The Allowance
Reading The Human Stain —
But wait, there's more!
The book , unlike the movie, doesn't have …
See Peplowski and The Human Stain in a post of Sept. 15, 2007.
Related material: "In the desert, you can remember your name" and …
Click image to enlarge.
Addendum of 10:30 PM ET November 22 —
The caption was inadvertently omitted from the above Black Rock City image.
It was as follows:
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Ities* Icons
Details from yesterday's "Ities" image —
Some less abstract imagery —
* For James Joyce fans, a phrase suggested by the "ities" of the title —
Itty Bitty Titty Ditty.
Google reveals that this phrase was used as a poem title on
September 3, 2011 . . .
Some may enjoy seeking the significance of the poem's date .
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