What the heck is the Tao Te Ching anyway ? A Google search will undoubtedly reveal something to this extent (cobbled together by Campbell): The Tao Te Ching is an ancient (4th or 5th century BCE) text which translates very roughly as “the way of integrity”. Authorship is usually attributed to Lao Tzu, though whether […]
Category: Explanations
If P then Q: The Conditional Statement and Its Variations
A CONDITIONAL statement is one of the form P –> Q. (P implies Q; if P, then Q; etc.) EXAMPLE: If you have 4 quarters, then you have change for a dollar. The CONVERSE of a conditional statement is Q –> P. (It’s where the phrase ‘and conversely’ comes from in daily English usage.) EXAMPLE: If you have […]
AME Preview for 2021
Here is an early PREVIEW of AME ‘happenings’ in 2021 First Wednesday Report, Bi-Weekly Mailings As you know, December 14 is/was the last Bi-Weekly Photo Sharing for 2021. The regular mailings will pick up again in January, likely January 11. Our new feature the First Wednesday Report, will arrive on Jan 6. (It will have more […]
MORE Spitballs from the Back Row – Availability Updates
Here are the (ongoing) updates about the release of MORE Spitballs from the Back Row: E-Book (Kindle) * The Kindle Version of the book was released on Wednesday, Nov 18. It may be ordered NOW by using this Amazon link. The price is $3.14. (Cool price, eh?) Paperback The paperback was released and is now available on Amazon […]
Drawing Logistics (Holiday-to-Holiday Book Drawing)
For this Drawing, I decided to do an old-fashioned (?) physical drawing, rather than using a random number generator. Using my Drawing spreadsheet, I printed out a list of the names associated with each of the eleven (11) entries. Then I cut each name out separately, folded them twice and put them into a small […]
All Numbers Are Interesting – Proof
Claim: All Numbers are Interesting Proof: We prove this by contradiction: Suppose there were numbers that weren’t interesting. Collect them all up, so that now you have the set of all numbers that aren’t interesting. Now look at the smallest number in this set*. What you have is the smallest number that is not interesting. Now that’s interesting! Whoops – we just […]
10-15-25!! Christmas Simplicity – Updated!
Discounts (on signed books) are available NOW, and will continue through the end of December 2021. ALL of these prices (including shipping) represent a discount of up to 40% Spitballs From the Back Row Total Price: $10 (Paperback) or $15 (Hard Cover) MORE Spitballs From the Back Row Total Price: $10 (Paperback) [only] […]
Lexophile, the Word
“Lexophile” describes one who has a love for words and wordplay, such as “you can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish”, or “To write with a broken pencil is pointless.” An annual competition is held by the New York Times to see who can create the best original lexophile. The paragraph similar to […]
The MEDIAN. What does it MEAN?
The median in a set of values is a useful measure of ‘typical-ness’, and is often seen in news stories involving comparisons of numbers and data But it is not the same as its cousin the mean, which is what we typically mean (no pun intended) when we say ‘average’ (in a usually- relatively-minor misnomer.) The median is a […]
So THAT’S Why! :-)
Some explanations for various phrases and traditions: WHY? Why do men’s clothes have buttons on the right while women’s clothes have buttons on the left? BECAUSE When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through […]
