A Math Fact You Probably Didn't Know

Those of you who live outside the world of mathematics probably didn't know that the highest number you can have is 24.  Courtesy of the Mr. Show, here is today's math lesson:

There will be a quiz on this next week.

Why I Don't Get My Flying Car

A number of you have discussed with me the fact that so many of us born in the fifties grew up assuming that we would have flying cars when we got old enough. Many of the science fiction stories we read in the fifties and sixties have come true: traveling in space (see previous post), moving holograms, robotic hummingbird spy.   It just seemed really obvious that a flying car would come along. It would save all the money on resurfacing the road, and no traffic jams because the cars could be stacked several layers deep. Well, today's strip from my favorite webcomic XKCD: A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math, and Language (3 of my favorite things) explains why we don't have them yet.

They must know my friend Mary. Angry Birds would be her downfall.

I would recommend XKCD wholeheartedly if you have not gotten into it yet.  Although some of the strips are R rated, they are always clever and thought-provoking.  It includes the following warning:

Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

They are clearly high level math/computer geeks with surprisingly good language skills.

Every so often they do a large comic that is brilliant: take a look at this online communities map.  I hope you enjoy it.  It's a good thing they don't make t-shirts in my size. My Amazon wishlist would be huge.

Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed!

 For a young man of 17, living in Ohio eight miles from where his (distant) cousin Neil Armstrong had been born, the summer of 1969 was an amazing time.  I was headed to college in Michigan in September, had a summer job working 11PM to 7AM making good money at the Goodyear factory (thanks, Dad), had a girl friend I married four years later (thanks, Ann), and got a chance to see the most incredible TV show ever on July 20th - the moon landing.   Because of my already geeky nature, the exploits of the NASA astronauts had been high on my list of happenings to follow.  

So I was parked in front of the TV today to watch the final mission of the space shuttle Discovery.  Discovery has made 38 trips into space, with its first trip coming in August of 1984. It has carried 246 crew members (including fellow Ohioan John Glenn at age 77), more than any other space vehicle.  John Glenn, if you remember, in 1962 became the first American to orbit the Earth. He responded to the question about how he felt as he waited on the launch pad in 1962 by saying, "I felt about as good as anybody would, sitting in a capsule on top of a rocket that were both built by the lowest bidder".  

Twice Discovery was the first shuttle into space after a tragedy: it followed both Challenger and Columbia flights into space. The buildup to the launch was exciting. There were issues that delayed the launch long enough that it was reported later that Discovery left with 2 seconds left in its launch window.

I think the general public is probably more interested in the next shuttle launch in April because the mission commander is Mark Kelly, the husband of Gabriel Giffords (the congresswoman shot in Arizona recently). But for the space geeks, watching the final flight of Discovery is very nostalgic. The video of the lift off is below if you didn't get a chance to see it.  Enjoy!

One More Time!

A reminder for entries to the TOP TEN MOVIE LIST on Marshmallow Fight blog. Take a look here (Marshmallow Fight) to see what it looks like. You can do quotes like Mike and I did, you can give a brief reason for your choice like Tammy did, or you can set it up any way you want.  Don't let all the Armstrong names so far bother you.  On our top 25 songs lists, you'll see lots of other names.  It is for family, friends, and accidental passersby (did I get the "s" in the right place?). If privacy is an issue, just list your first name - that will work fine. You can include the links to IMDB trailers or youtube videos if you want, but you don't need to. As my blog says - "I've got the time!"  I'll link them if you don't have time - having a video helps people remember the movie if it is somewhat obscure. Plus if you include a movie like Caddyshack, the video gives people a laugh during this dreary weather - we all need that. Send it to this e-mail address. It's probably easiest to attach it as a Word document so I can set it up. So, no excuses. I expect to see Dan, Brian, and Carey's lists, Bill's list, Scott and Lori's lists, and Megan's, Beth, and Bob's lists if Scott reminds them to look on the blog. Have fun with it, and don't stress over it.  Remember my motto about educational paperwork: a job done is a job done well! Thanks and I am really looking forward to seeing what your list looks like. 

Reminder - please include the date of release or an actor in the film, so I get the right one. Some movie titles are reused. 

If you don't enter a list, I'm going to put your name on a list with movies like these, so let's get going.

God's flashlight

The following video is one of the funniest comedy bits I have ever seen.  It is probably twenty-five or more years old.  Most of you may know Larry Miller from playing the storekeeper in Pretty Woman, the dean in The Nutty Professor, the doorman in Seinfeld, and being in both Princess Diaries, but he made his start in standup, where his Larry Miller Drinking Club has as its motto ”Nominum Quid Geminus?” which is Latin for, “You call that a double?”

In the movies, he generally is a character actor, which he defined as "anybody in the movie who's not kissing Renee Zellweger." Hope you enjoy it

Happy Sticky Bun Day! (and a small rant)

Monday, February 21st was National Sticky Bun Day.

In honor of that sacred day, I have included a recipe for very simple caramel rolls.

24 Rhodes Frozen Rolls

½ cup chopped pecans

1 package buttersotch pudding, (cook and serve, not instant, if possible)

1 stick butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Rhodes dinner rolls may be a midwestern only product.  If so, this is the kind of thing you are looking for.  I'm sure your area has something similar if Rhodes is not available.  My suggestion would be to buy the 72 count bag and make them 3 weekends in a row.

Put nuts in bottom of greased 9 X 13 pan. Put frozen rolls in pan in two layers, 12 in bottom layer and 12 in top layer. Sprinkle cinnamon and pudding over the top of the rolls. Melt butter, add brown sugar, then pour over the top of the rolls. Cover the pan with saran wrap, then let rise overnight (or all day) on counter. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Flip over the pan onto a serving platter or onto parchment paper on the counter (when you are done the nuts should be on the top).

These are very easy to prepare and can be done in 10 minutes in the evening and then popped into the oven first thing in the morning.

Some history, if you don't mind.

Back in the 90's the school district I worked for was still interested in training teachers to be good teachers.  As part of that idea, there was a course offered in the district on Cognitive Coaching.  The point of the course was to train teachers to assist other teachers in improving their teaching skills.  As a cognitive coach your job was to ask questions that were intended to elicit insights on the part of the person you were coaching. Developed in part by Art Costa, who was a big name at ASCD in the 80's and 90's, it had as a major stated goal to "facilitate thinking through questioning and developing greater precision in language."  It piggy-backed on what our district evaluation process was all about for tenured teachers: reflection.  Newer teachers were shown how to reflect on their lessons, their teaching style, and their successes and failures in this class.  I was fortunate to be asked to teach this class when the teacher I took it from retired. We met on Saturdays all day and after school. It was a big commitment, but worth the time.  As part of the class, early on each person was asked to teach for 3 minutes something (non school-related) to the class, then meet with their partner and practice the cognitive coaching skills. Later in the class we did full blown teaching lessons. Besides learning a lot about teaching, I learned a lot of interesting skills in the first teaching segment. I learned how to fold napkins into shapes for a dinner party, I learned how to sew on a button, and, most importantly, I learned how to make caramel rolls (from Maggie in the English Department).  At the end of the 90's our school district had started making a huge switch on staff development from being a good teacher to being a good technologist.  In a large part this was due to the loss of our good friend and former math colleague, Jenny, in the staff development office.  Where in 1995 you were encouraged strongly to take Cognitive Coaching or Reading Across the Curriculum, by 2008, you were encouraged strongly to take a class on interactive white boards or how to use the online grading system.  And our evaluation system now is all about changing student behavior, not teacher behavior. The principal questions are about what the student will do and how will you measure the growth in the students.  I remember being in the district in the 80's and having marvelous discussions with colleagues about the science of teaching versus the art of teaching. We argued Bruner, Ausubel's advance organizers, and Piaget's cognitive stages of development.  Now the discussions center around common assessments and RTI.

Maybe the pendulum will swing back in time for the younger teachers out there to experience a district committed to developing great teachers.  For their sake, I hope so. Thanks for listening.

Rattlers!

Well, the Cinematic Titanic experience was everything I hoped it would be.  The Pabst Theater in downtown Milwaukee was a very nice old-time theater, we got there early enough to get good seats, and the movie they picked to riff on was incredibly bad. 

Yes, just as in the poster, there was a bathtub scene where the rattlesnake pushed out the gasket and slithered out into the tub.

From the Internet Movie Database (IMDB):

(1976) A herpetologist investigating a series of fatal rattlesnake attacks discovers that the creatures have been infected by a mysterious nerve gas disposed of in the desert by the military. Rated 4.4 stars out of 10. (I would guess the director voted more than once, because no one else would give it more than 3 stars.)

As we looked around the audience prior to the show (which was sold out - including second and third balcony seats), one interesting thing was the older demographic. Nate mentioned there were not many twenty-somethings and almost no kids in the audience. Many 40 and 50 year olds in the crowd.  I'd say the crowd covered the spectrum from somewhat geeky to really geeky, including the guy carrying the replica Tom Servo robot that everyone wanted a picture of. 

One of the best parts was singing the opening song from MST3K with Joel Hodgson.    I think I got all the "La, La, La" s in the right spots. 

The most common dialogue had to do with how bad the movie was.  As the general is burning some papers in a fire, Joel said, "Thank me, I'm burning the last twenty pages of the script."

There were three or four references during the movie by the riffers to the current difficulties in Wisconsin in the state legislature. Lots of cheers for those. 

Unfortunately I don't remember much of the inserted dialogue anymore, but we were all laughing and applauding  all evening.  A great time was had by all.

Next geek outing - Jonathan Coulton at Park West in April.

Oh, Yeah, they also had Jujy Fruits at the concession stand.  Wooooooo! How can you not love something that is both naturally and artificially flavored?

A Blast From the Past

Slate has an article here entitled "How the Cave of Time Taught Us to Love Interactive Entertainment" about Choose Your Own Adventure books in the late seventies and into the eighties.  They were big when my kids were just starting to read and I know they had a few that they enjoyed. 

From the article:

From the start, the books were full of innovative page hacks. Readers would be trapped in the occasional time loop, forced to flip back and forth between two pages. Most memorable was Inside UFO 54-40, a book in which the most desired outcome, discovering the Planet Ultima, could only be achieved by readers who cheated and flipped through the book until they reached the page on their own. At that point, the book congratulated the reader for breaking the rules. 

Many Choose Your Own Adventure fans at the time noted how fixated the books were on death. "One of the running jokes," says Christian Swinehart, a graphic designer who has spent a lot of time studying the structure of the series, "is that every choice leads to death, more or less."  Packard and Montgomery were determined to make the books feel "real." Whereas most children's literature comes out of an educational tradition, which requires "good" choices to result in victory and "bad" choices to result in death, they wanted to keep the reader guessing. "My intent was to try to make it like life as much as possible," Packard says. "I didn't want it to be a random lottery but I didn't want it to be didactic so that if you always did the smart thing you always succeeded. I tried to balance it."

You can also find some examples from the internet of CYOA books that didn't quite make it into production:

                                                                                  

In Memoriam

Some sad news to pass along:  One of my favorite fantasy writers, British author Brian Jacques (b.June 15, 1939), died on February 5, 2011 following emergency surgery for an aortic aneurysm. His young adult novels were a source of enjoyment to our whole family. The 22nd book in his Redwall series comes out in May and will probably join the 15 or so of his titles we have kept on the bookshelves downstairs.  If you have children and they have not read the series, I would recommend it wholeheartedly.  They make great read-aloud books, too.


 From his obituary in The Los Angeles Times:

As a milk deliveryman in his 40s in Liverpool, England, he was invited in for tea at one of his stops, the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind, and soon volunteered to read stories to the children there. 

He found the plots "dreadful," preoccupied with the "here and now" of teen angst and divorce. "I thought, 'What's wrong with a little magic in their lives?'" he told the New York Times in 2001.

It took Jacques — pronounced "Jakes" — seven months to hand-write an 800-page manuscript. He stuffed the pages into a grocery bag and handed them to his former English teacher, who shopped the novel around without Jacques' knowledge.

In 1986, a British publisher bought "Redwall" for a little more than $4,000 and gave him a contract for four more books. One of the most popular contemporary fantasy series had been born.

The good guys — including mice, badgers and squirrels — always vanquish such villains as ferrets, snakes and weasels. The books brim with riddles, battles and descriptions of lavish feasts, a fascination that Jacques linked to the food rationing he endured as a child during World War II.

"Today we take a 350-page fantasy as sort of the norm; but when 'Redwall' came out, conventional wisdom was that children would not read a book over 200 pages," said Anita Silvey, a children's literary scholar who included the series in her 2004 compendium "100 Best Books for Children."

"There is no one even remotely like him. There is a lot of dialect in those books, and his voice is authentic," Silvey said. "His books are filled with cliffhangers and action and great battle scenes, all of those things that keep a young person turning the pages."

In his honor, one more cry of "Eulalia", the battle cry of the badgers and hares. He will be missed.

Top Ten Movies

OK, it is your turn.  My list is up and running here.   I am ready to be vilified for my bad choices, but it will soon be your turn.  Make a list of your top ten movies and send them to me here.  You can structure them any way you want.  You don't have to have quotes like I did. You can list reasons for choosing each movie or what scenes you liked; you can use any criteria for how you pick your movies. My choices were primarily what I would liken to comfort food.  "Field of Dreams" makes me feel the same way macaroni and cheese does.  You may be more filmically (nice word, huh?) literate than I am and have a much more profound rationale than I did.  Bite me.  That's fine. The key is getting a list together and sending it along.  Everybody who reads this blog (and many who have higher tastes in their reading) is invited to join in.  I would especially like to hear from my former colleagues at BHS (some of those people in the Army shirts in the picture on the right).  By the end of March, we would like to have 25 lists or so up.  So get on it.

It's Only Money

                It is time for the annual Moustache - a thon at 826 CHI.

For those of you not familiar with 826, it is an afterschool writing center for Chicago public school students.  The original 826 was started in San Francisco by one of my favorite authors, Dave Eggers.  A chapter opened in Chicago in 2005 at 1331 N Milwaukee. For two years, while my son Nathan was un- or under-employed, he volunteered at 826 and helped students with their homework and writing projects.  Every year, some of the volunteers volunteer for the mustache contest as a way to raise money for the center.  Nathan, who is not nearly as gifted at growing facial hair as I am, has been involved for the last few years.  This is your chance to donate on his behalf to a very worthy cause.  Go here to donate, scroll down to Nathan's picture, enter a dollar amount (let's not donate less than a dollar, OK?), and click donate.  Thank you for helping - the contest ends in about a week.  If you would like more information on 826CHI, click here to see their mission and programs. I thank you for helping Nate out and hope the warm weather has raised your spirits. 

Where There is Life, There Is Hope

Today, February 15, is  International Grover Appreciation Day.

Please join with me as we celebrate the inclusion of NUMERO DOS into the set of favorite phrases of all time.

 Restaurant Customer: Oh, I don't believe this. Look here, I'm very hungry. Do you think there is any chance you could bring me a Numero Dos without dropping it on the floor?

Grover Monster: Where there is life, there is hope. 

Restaurant Customer: Just bring me a Numero Dos.

Grover: Remember this, kids, it is very important. Even if your mommy makes you a super hero costume, do not attempt to do any of these things, especially flying. Because you cannot do it. You do not have super powers. Because there is only one Super Grover. And that is me.

Narrator: He zooms through the sky smarter than a speeding bullet, furrier than a powerful locomotive, able to leap tall sandwiches in a single bound.

Kid: Look, up in the sky. It's an egg plant!

Kid #2: It's a meatball!

Grover: It is I! Super Grover! 

How did we get here?

I had an interesting conversation with my oldest as we drove through Chicago Friday night.  It had to do with the choices we make and how accidental it seems that we are where we are today.  I grew up in Ohio and went to college in Michigan, but ended up in Illinois all my adult life.  We had no permanent family here (my sister and her husband were living in Evanston while he was going to seminary, but we weren't sure where they would end up) and no ties to the region.  We moved here because of an off-hand comment someone made to us that there were teaching jobs to be had in the Chicago suburbs.  So we applied to several places, set up some interviews, moved in with my sister (belated thanks, Mary Lou) for a few days, and went looking for jobs.  Ann had an interview at Lake Forest for a special ed job in the elementary district.  Two minutes into the interview it ended rather abruptly when she was informed that to teach special ed in that district she would need a master's degree and that her best bet would be to check out SEDOL (the Special Ed District of Lake County) to get started in the area.  However, as part of the small talk, she mentioned that I was waiting in the car out in the parking lot and that I was looking for a math teaching job. They invited me into the building, interviewed me for a job opening that had just been posted that day, and I ended up teaching 7th grade math in Lake Forest for two years as my first job.  I'm sure I would have ended up somewhere (there were a lot of teaching jobs in the Chicago area that summer), but that experience and the people I met there were very important in guiding me as a 21-year old teacher fresh out of college.  There was a small group of teachers who got together on Friday nights to hang out, going to Scornavacco's in Highland Park, then over to John Wheeler's house in Lake Bluff to listen to him play the full sized harpsichord that he had built from a kit over the past two years.  We went with Dick Howell, the assistant principal, to yell Opa! at the Parthenon restaurant, had swedish pancakes at Judy's house, and went to see Grease at the Schubert. It was an introduction to Chicago that meant all the difference for two rural small town Ohio kids.  I think our current life would be a lot different (not necessarily better or worse) if I had ended up somewhere else.

I love the new Dr. Who TV show.  Sunday night I watched a show in which Donna turns right in her car instead of left and changes the future of the earth.  She never meets the Doctor, the Doctor ends up dying because Donna is not there to talk him down, and there is no one to save the Earth from some invasion.  Well written and great entertainment if you like the science fiction stuff.

What is spooky about this is that there have been so many instances in the past year or so of two or three events happening within 48 hours of each other that have the same theme.  It makes sense for that to happen the other way, where a story or movie will start us talking about a similar situation in our life.  But lately, our discussion of the concept happens first, then is reiterated within a couple of days by something from the outside world.  Maybe it happens all the time to everybody and I am just noticing it now.  But to me it seems weird. 

Cartoon Theme Song Lyrics

So, when you have time on your hands and you've finished your Valentine's Day shopping, you can always fill the day with making up a quiz on cartoon theme song lyrics from the 80's and 90's.  Enjoy trying these if you are in your mid to late twenties or have children who are that age (I'm sure you watched these also).  Record (or check if you are not first to guess) your answers in the comments section.  The dashes are for lyrics that would give the show title away immediately.  A bonus point for each one if you can sing the entire theme song from memory (which I am afraid to say I think I might be able to do for #3)


1.  Something evil's watching over you
     Comin' from the sky above
     there's nothing you can do.

2.  Sometimes some crimes
    Go slipping through the cracks
    But these two
    Gumshoes
    Are picking up the slack
    There's no case too big
     No case too small
    When you need help just call

3.  Dashing and daring
    Courageous and caring
    Faithful and friendly
    With stories to share
   All through the forest
   They sing out in chorus
   Marching along
   As their song fills the air

4.  Life is like a hurricane
     Here in -----------
     Race cars, lasers, aeroplanes
     It's a ------blur
     Might solve a mystery
     Or rewrite history

5.  ------------- 
     Are on the move
    ------------ are loose
    Feel the magic 
    Hear the roar
    ------------ are loose

6.       4...3...2...1... !
    Every birthday, my mom and dad would say
    You're another year older, another year wiser
    But I still go to school to get an education
    I treat each and every day like a mini vacation !
    All Grown Up !
    I really wanna shout it out !
    All Grown Up !

7.    Dance your cares away, 

Worry's for another day. 

Let the music play, 

Down at ---------  ------. 

8.     Come join the Warner brothers
      And the Warner sister, Dot
      Just for fun we run around the Warner movie lot
     They lock us in the tower
     Whenever we get caught
     But we break loose and then vamoose
     and now you know the plot.

 And unfortunately one of our favorite cartoons had no words 

other than the title in the theme song, so here it is as a bonus play.

Angry Beavers theme

Some pictures you might enjoy

We all know everything looks better if it is made out of legos. This site has all the Academy Award movies with Lego posters:

I think that for those of us who are science fiction readers, we are realizing that the concept of time travel is now with us.  I used to read stories where the protagonist was transported 3 hours into the future.  That's me! I sit down to check my e-mail at the computer and the next thing I know, it is 3 hours later.   Seems like time travel to me. And, as a bonus,  somehow I have found a website that thinks the oscar nominee posters should be redrawn as Legos. I guess if I think of it as time travel, I don't get as depressed about the time lapse.

Hangin' with the Boys!

As part of my retirement list (when I've finished my Sporcle duties), I have been going through old e-mails, seeing what could be deleted.  I came across this picture last week and couldn't put it in the blog until today, because I couldn't stop laughing.  For those of you who know me, but not my family, you should know that my wife and I have no relatives who live in the Chicagoland area - no cousins or uncles - so unlike many large extended families, we don't have a steady stream of nephews or nieces to practice baby skills on.  It's possible that Nate (my oldest) was the first baby I ever held intentionally. This picture of my two sons (Mike is on the left) on baby duty two years ago with their friend Karen and Tucker's newborn gives an idea of how much practice we need.

I remember spending most of Nate's baby year looking just the way Nate does in this picture. 

Hey MST3K Fans!

The live tour of the old Mystery Science Theater 3000 show is coming to Pabst Theater in Milwaukee on Saturday, February 19.  It is general admission seating (no reserved seats - like going to the movies) and last I checked tickets were still available.  You can buy them here.  For those who never got into Mystery Science Theater, the premise is to play really bad cheesy movies with the audience - one guy plus 2 robots he constructed while lost in space - contributing new dialogue.  There is a brief example here.  There are two groups doing spinoffs of the old show.  Cinematic Titanic (who will be in Milwaukee) has Joel Hodgson, who created the original show, and the people who did Crow, Tom Servo, Frank, and Dr. Forrester.  The other group is Rifftrax, which includes the new group that took over later: Mike Nelson, new Tom, new Crowe. They are less into touring and more into studio work.  If you are interested, please order tickets, let us know you will be there and we can meet up at the show.  Looks to be a fun time.  See you there.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

For those of our friends out of the area, we have so far survived the blizzard of 2011.  School was canceled for Ann, Nate's work was canceled, and everybody is going through the hard work of digging out. 

Ann and I shoveled the 12 foot area nearest the garage (45 minutes to do 12 feet of a 60 foot driveway), then decided that we needed a break.  Luckily our neighborhood entrepreneur Alonzo is out making money snow-blowing driveways and we are more than happy to pay him to finish up.  He has been at it for an hour and a half so far and is almost finished. 

The neighbor across the street is having a friend with a Bobcat do his driveway.  The big problem is where to put the snow.  The area between my driveway and my neighbor's driveway has enough snow that I can't see my neighbor's house anymore. 

Ann is nervous about all the snow on the roof, but after a few attempts at knocking it down, we have pretty much given up.  When my snow thrower comes back next week from the repair shop, I'll try to clear off the deck.  Then we can reach the roof.

The driveway this morning had about 18 inches of snow in general with some areas up to 3 feet from the drifting.  Considering I shoveled the driveway three times yesterday, about 2 inches each time, we probably got about 22 inches of snow.  On the news, they are saying officially this has become the 3rd worst snowstorm since they started keeping statistics in the late 1800's. 

For those of you in the path of the storm, leave a comment below to let me know how things are around your place.  I think we are almost to the place where we can start to enjoy the snow.

Blizzard Timing

What makes the blizzard of 2011 especially interesting is that it occurs 3 days after I took my snow thrower in for service. It's not a big deal - a flat tire that won't hold air makes it pull badly to the right.  I've spent three winters cleaning up 3 and 4 inch snow falls.  Finally we get the big one and I'm not prepared.  Looks like Alonzo down the street is going to make a lot of money this week with his snow blower. I'm calling a snow day all week this week: sleeping in, going out to lunch at Frank's Karmic Cafe, and watching Netflix movies (I've got Eerie, Indiana coming) on the couch.  Hot chocolate anyone? And shoveling every three hours if Alonzo doesn't show up.  Hurray, Winter! You all be safe out there.  If you need help, just holler.  Me and my 4-wheel drive truck with a tow strap will be there to pull you out.  And then we'll call someone else to come pull me out.