Author Archives: errhode

Aug3

Winnie Cooper

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Danica McKeller, who is the only person to have been in both of my two all time favorite TV shows*, has just written a book about math aimed at pre-teen girls. It’s disguised to look like a magazine, complete with quizzes like “Do you hide your smarts (especially around boys)?” Honestly, I doubt I would have picked it up as a 12 year old… I was beyond pre-algebra at that point and I wasn’t really into the teen magazines anyway, but I’m glad it exists. I’ve already e-mailed my uncle and suggested that he look into it for his middle school aged daughter.
For those more mathematically advanced, here’s her paper on “Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller models on Z².” If you ever doubted that Winnie Cooper was out of Kevin Arnold’s league, this pretty much seals the deal. Also, according to her website, she’s done The Vagina Monologues, which just makes her that much more awesome.

* Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years and Elsie Snuffin on The West Wing… I half expect someone to correct me on the “only” caveat and tell me that Bradley Whitford once had a guest spot on The Wonder Years as one of Karen’s boyfriends or something.

Aug1

Bridge Collapses

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For those who haven’t heard, the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi river collapsed this afternoon. For those who have heard, my immediately family is thankfully all accounted for. (And thanks to those who have inquired.) The pictures are terrifying, especially given that my sister used to live only a few blocks from where the collapse happened and I myself have crossed that bridge many a time.
The crash happened right in the middle of rush hour, during bumper to bumper traffic. I don’t think they know how long it will be before they pull all the cars out of the river and find out just how many people were involved.

Jul26

Minnesota Joe

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I have a minor bone to pick with Joe Mauer. He’s featured in a Sportscenter commercial these days, in which the following dialogue is exchanged between him and Scott Van Pelt:

SVP: So, you’re originally from Minnesota, right?
JM: Yep, born and raised.
…
SVP: That Fargo was a crazy movie, wasn’t it?
JM: Uh, that was North Dakota.

Uh, no, Joe. While yes, the city of Fargo is in North Dakota, the bulk of the movie Fargo takes place in Minnesota. Furthermore, it was made by the Coen brothers from St. Louis Park, a high school you probably creamed in football back in the day, probably while the movie was making headlines all across the state. So while Van Pelt’s later comment about Yoopers deserved your correction, give the guy some credit for opening with what is easily the most famous Minnesota pop culture reference since Kirby Puckett.
This and your inability to hit in the clutch is the reason we are no longer getting married (but tell Justin Morneau to call me).

Jul21

Harry Potter Madness

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Don’t worry — this post contains no spoilers.
Last night, my friend Cailin and I found a way to successfully enjoy the fun of being with the crazy Harry Potter fans at Borders and still get copies of the book by 12:15 AM. First, we headed over to the flagship Borders a few blocks from my house to observe the madness which included a “Great Snape Debate” (will he be good or evil?) and a costume contest, which really should have been won by the so-realistic-he’s-actually-frightening Voldemort. While he was willing to pose for pictures with anyone and everyone, ask him a simple question and he stayed remarkably in character, yelling and shouting and even causing a little kid to burst into tears. However, I think because the crowd so “hated” him, someone else wound up winning the contest.
But I don’t actually know that for sure… Cailin and I left at about 11:30, just before they crowned the winner. Because you see, we were heading across town to another location that was selling the book at midnight, but not advertising it — Kroger’s grocery store. Upon arrival at Border’s at 9:30, we were informed that all of their copies were pre-sold and there would be no more for “late” comers. (Three hours early is late?!?!) At Kroger’s, where we arrived at almost exactly midnight, there was only a short line of people, all waiting to buy the same book. Unlike Jeff’s experience, no one flipped through to the end to announce spoilers as there was barely enough time before you got to the self check-out.
And so, with the madness still going on on State Street, I was home by 12:30, safely in bed reading all about how Voldemort wins and everybody else dies. I mean, uh… nevermind. I promised no spoilers.

Jul9

Tigers 6, Red Sox 5

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Yesterday I attended my first ever social event with the MIT Club of Southeastern Michigan at Comerica Park to see the Tigers take on the Red Sox. For the second time this season, I saw a great Red Sox game… with a less than desirable outcome. And this with four of the five Tiger All Stars starting on the bench — although Pudge Rodriguez came in to pinch hit in the eighth.
By the end of the fourth, the Tigers were up 6-2 mostly on a disastrous 4 run inning for Daisuke Matsuzaka where he gave up four hits, two of them homers. I really was hoping to see a more dominant pitching performance from him, but with only four strikeouts and six earned runs given up, that wasn’t the case at all. Instead, the dominant pitcher of the day was Nate Robertson of the Tigers.
With only two unearned runs in the third, the Sox couldn’t seem to muster any offense early on. Wily Mo Pena’s shot to deep center in the fourth seemed to be the start of something… but in an amazing display of athleticism, Curtis Granderson leaped over the wall to rob him of a homerun. The bottom of the Sox line-up tried to make up for the rest of them in the later innings with back-to-back homeruns in the 7th (one of which was the first major league hit for Jeff Bailey) and an RBI double in the 8th to bring the Sox within one. (Manny was brought in to pinch hit for Bailey in the 8th, but Manny-just-being-Manny struck out looking. Seriously — when are people going to figure out that he’s not good in the clutch?)
In the top of the 9th, with a runner on base, I thought we might get to see some Big Papi magic save the Red Sox yet again. But alas… there was no joy in the MIT alumni section: the Mighty Papi had struck out.

Jul7

Congrats to the newlyweds!

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My brief synopsis of Martine and Dave’s wedding, in which I had the pleasure of being maid of honor, annotated with pictures taken by Quinn. For those who were not at the wedding, yet were around during EC Rush 2001 (which isn’t actually that many people), it turns out that EC wine is totally drinkable if it is run through a coffee filter first. (Thanks to Josh for that.) Also, iPhones are fun, and balloons are loud. Finally, there’s nothing better than getting together with a bunch of old friends, especially if it’s to celebrate two of your best friends finally tying the knot.
And then there’s me in my natural habitat.

Jul7

Twin Killing

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I actually found myself driving through Chicago today, as I returned from a 4th of July camping trip in Wisconsin with Amrys, Jeff, and a friend of Amrys’s from Madison. Jeff and I toyed with the idea of going to the first of the day-night double header between the Twins and the White Sox in Chicago, but decided that it might be too complicated to get him to O’Hare on time for his 6 pm international flight… which turned out to be completely true as the Twins and Bad Sox had an offensive showdown that lasted nearly four hours. I blame Jeff for making me miss this one. I give you the box score… and yes, that is a baseball score, not football:

Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 4 1 1 6 2 0 4 2 0 20 21 1
Chicago 0 3 1 0 3 1 2 1 3 14 18 5

To add insult to injury, I had also toyed with the idea of sticking around in Chicago and catching the evening game on my own. But that would have involved getting a hold of the one person I know in Chicago (who may or may not even be around, given the holiday weekend) and spending the night. Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to get back to Ann Arbor tonight and didn’t bother. When I finished listening to the first game, I figured that the teams would be tired and that it was probably for the best anyway.
Turns out, only the White Sox were tired as the Twins massacred them 12-0, including three homeruns and six RBI from my future husband, Justin Morneau. A slight scare when Mike Redmond took a Jim Thome bat to the head, but kudos to the Chicago play-by-play guys for actually informing us of what was going on on the field and not cutting away to commercial. And on the double bonus side, the Chicago radio station actually carries right up to Ann Arbor, so I managed to listen to the first 6 innings of the game on the road.
Next time, however, I am not going to be foolish and pass up an opportunity to see a game when I happen to be driving by it anyway. No one to blame but myself for missing the second one.

Jun13

Tigers 4, Brewers 0

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So, Justin Verlander pitches a no-hitter last night and I didn’t watch it because my housemate is not a baseball fan. The conversation went something like this as we flipped through channels.

Me: Baseball?
Him: Eh…
Me: It’s Tigers-Brewers. I guess I don’t care that much.

If only I had known! We wound up watching South Park episodes from onDemand instead, including the one in which the boys try in vain to throw every game in the playoffs so that they don’t have to play boring baseball anymore, but can’t manage to lose. How ironic.
On the plus side, Verlander is on my fantasy team.

Jun7

Song of the Bells

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There is a carillon tower a few blocks from my window that usually chimes on the hour and plays music at random other times. During the school year, it’s pretty standard stuff — mostly bell-ringing etudes that I don’t recognize. But just now, I heard the strains of “Stairway to Heaven” coming out of the bells. It took me a minute to figure out that that’s what it was, because I’ve never heard a carillon version of the song before, but it was definitely Zeppelin. They played the whole song too, from the slower first section right through the faster second section.
I know there’s a one credit course to learn how to play the carillon… maybe I should take it, now that I know that I can potentially play rock anthems over the campus.

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