Did you celebrate Thirdsday (Thursday 1/3)? Man, I nearly missed it, but thanks to my friend/muse/mentor Evelyn Lamb writing this excellent Scientific American blog essay, I learned that some geeky mathematicians planned to do the day up in style. Needless to say, I became one of those geeky mathematicians. Apparently, celebrating Thirdsday involves sharing things, so I made a loaf of bread, left 1/3 at home, and brought the rest to the office to share the people nearby. It also involves reciting as many digits of 1/3 as you can, in one breath. I made it to 73:
There won't be another 1/3 on a Thursday until the year 2030, so the next Thirdsday celebration is a heck of a long way off yet.
Other celebrations made the week one that was rich and full for the entire Miser Family. For example, on New Year's day my husband hosted a Book Nerd gathering, which was so danged much fun that by the end we declared this the First Annual. My favorite part was Sarah Grasshopper's homemade book earrings and matching book flower in her hair. I am jealous, in a good way! Mark your calendars for the next Book Nerds gathering, 4 p.m. January 1, 2020, followed by pork and sauerkraut, for a traditional New Year's good luck dinner, per local traditions.
Speaking of my husband, he didn't crash his bike this week -- but nonetheless this comic strip was, I think, written for him.
(I still remember him in 2007, lying on the stretcher in the emergency room with his neck broken in three places, plus a bunch of other broken bones, with a surgeon stitching his face back onto his skull, asking me to go buy him a new cell phone because he was worried it had gotten smashed when he crashed. Fortunately, the phone was undamaged. So that was a big relief for us all.)
N-son got to have a smashing pizza party with his former Squash team, spending celebratory time with them before he heads off to school next week.
And K-daughter send me a plethora of pictures, annotated:
Had a super fun week at work! Picture one: fooling around with co worker with (turned off) heat gun. We were making pieces for our machine that holds our gama alumina. Picture two: I'm soldering wires Picture three: the control panel I had to wire! Picture four: I made a nest!
And . . . that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our celebrations. May you and yours be similarly prosperous.
0.3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333,
in case you were wondering.There won't be another 1/3 on a Thursday until the year 2030, so the next Thirdsday celebration is a heck of a long way off yet.
Other celebrations made the week one that was rich and full for the entire Miser Family. For example, on New Year's day my husband hosted a Book Nerd gathering, which was so danged much fun that by the end we declared this the First Annual. My favorite part was Sarah Grasshopper's homemade book earrings and matching book flower in her hair. I am jealous, in a good way! Mark your calendars for the next Book Nerds gathering, 4 p.m. January 1, 2020, followed by pork and sauerkraut, for a traditional New Year's good luck dinner, per local traditions.
Speaking of my husband, he didn't crash his bike this week -- but nonetheless this comic strip was, I think, written for him.
(I still remember him in 2007, lying on the stretcher in the emergency room with his neck broken in three places, plus a bunch of other broken bones, with a surgeon stitching his face back onto his skull, asking me to go buy him a new cell phone because he was worried it had gotten smashed when he crashed. Fortunately, the phone was undamaged. So that was a big relief for us all.)
N-son got to have a smashing pizza party with his former Squash team, spending celebratory time with them before he heads off to school next week.
And K-daughter send me a plethora of pictures, annotated:
Had a super fun week at work! Picture one: fooling around with co worker with (turned off) heat gun. We were making pieces for our machine that holds our gama alumina. Picture two: I'm soldering wires Picture three: the control panel I had to wire! Picture four: I made a nest!
And . . . that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our celebrations. May you and yours be similarly prosperous.
Hurrah for Thirdsday! 73 digits is pretty impressive. I liked the mnemonic Matt Parker shared here for memorizing the digits of 1/3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NinrTW1Bx2Y EVE HAD HIT MAX, FOR THE SLY OLD MAN MAX HAD HID HER PET CAT, MOG, AND SHE WAS SAD BUT SHE DID NOT CRY.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I also liked the mnemonic, "bow wow wow wow wow . . . "
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