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Hear it once and you’ll never forget

Posted on February 22, 2023 by moc

Today is George Washington’s actual birthday, or as we call it in Virginia… George Washington’s actual birthday.

Ol’ George was born in 1732 (according to most accounts), which is a number steeped in numerical significance.

(Pause for effect.)

Stumped?

Put the number three in your calculator.

Now hit the square root button.

1.732(and a few more), no?

You will now remember two facts the rest of your life:

George Washington was born in 1732.

The square root of three is 1.732.

Two useless bits of trivia for the price of one.

Animals checking in on me

Posted on February 20, 2023 by moc

It’s been two weeks since I visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore, a delightful experience you can read about here.
Looking at zoo and aquarium animals through a 21st century lens, of course, one wonders about the fairness of such an arrangement. Animals kept in captivity? Who do we think we are, right?

I had a long chat with an Irukandi jellyfish that day and we exchanged information when I left. Two weeks had gone by and no contact, so I figured that even though he seemed friendly maybe he really was harboring some resentment.

Yesterday I got a text.
It read, “Hey sucker…have a good week at WORK?”

Point taken.

Today’s hot take

Posted on February 17, 2023 by moc

One shouldn’t look an upcoming three-day weekend in the mouth, but I do think President’s Day (also known by a few other names) is a silly holiday.

For a further explanation, tune in to today’s broadcast of Math and Musings.

Never mind the groundhog, this is the true start of spring

Posted on February 15, 2023 by moc

Three sweet words: pitchers and catchers.

If you play one of those positions, today’s reporting day for most MLB teams. To a season which can’t come soon enough.

Man that’s a tough three days between the Super Bowl and Spring Training.

There’s always a morning after

Posted on February 13, 2023 by moc

With little on the schedule other than watching movies and ballgames on TV I’ve just completed one of my more enjoyable weekends in recent memory.

But shoot now it’s over, and as these things go nighttime doesn’t seem nearly as fun the morning after.

Mark my words, one day the NFL will either add another game to the schedule or shift the whole business forward one week so the Super Bowl aligns with President’s Day weekend. I’d like to say it’s all about the kids, but who am I kidding? It’s for us.

President’s Day is a silly holiday (more on that later), but Super Bowl Monday sounds completely legitimate.

You heard it here first.

Super Bowl preview is Super Bowl review

Posted on February 10, 2023 by moc

There have been 56 Super Bowls played in NFL history. I’ve seen 33 of them, mostly in friends’ houses or on tiny kitchen TVs. (That would be tiny TVs. The kitchens have been big, as in restaurant kitchens.)

This one I’m watching at home, my new home with my wife and son. No doubt I’ll be regaling them with tales of Super Bowls past. Stories like these, heard on this week’s episode of Math and Musings.

Oh the tangled web we shave

Posted on February 8, 2023 by moc

The last few weeks I’ve been growing out my beard. No particular reason why, just something different.

Several years ago I’d stopped doing this because it was coming in the wrong color (“sparkly” was my son’s polite euphemism) but now I’ve embraced the grey.

Problem is I’m just not a beard guy, which brings me to my current problem.

Over the weekend I renewed my driver’s license and of course I was photographed–with the beard.

So now I kind of own in until 2027.

Whoops.

Well, by then my actual beard will be fully grey so it still won’t look like me.

Joke’s on them.

This is the modern aquarium

Posted on February 6, 2023 by moc

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Located in the heart of the Inner Harbor, it truly is one of the great marine and architectural wonders of the world.

They’ve got thousand-pound sharks who will swim right up to you, giant tortoises a century old. The peacock mantis shrimp? They’ve got several. Ditto the white-blotched river stingray and the hyacinth macaw.

You can touch a jellyfish if you’d like.

The cafeteria’s got some pretty delicious wares…

but ask for a straw and they look at you like a 20th-century cretin.

This doesn’t happen every day

Posted on February 3, 2023 by moc

Today’s date is February 2, 2023, or in numbers, 2/3/23.

I don’t have to explain how cool this is, but if you’d like an explanation of such, check out today’s episode of Math and Musings.

It’s always somebody’s birthday, right?

Posted on February 1, 2023 by moc

Seeing a Birthday Cake-flavored Kit Kat in a store is a little like seeing a unicorn in the wild. I know these things aren’t new, just rare, and when you see one you grab it.

It’s kind of fits the birthday cake creed, actually. Rule #1 with birthday cakes is: take a slice, find out whose birthday it is later.

Ernie Banks, Jackie Robinson, and Nolan Ryan, actually, from my quick search into yesterday’s birthday list.

Birthday Cake Kit Kats?

My local Walmart.

Great work, Kit Kats. Great work, Walmart.