- Listen to Pavement’s second-ever show, at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, 1990. Did you know their debut was in New Brunswick? New Brunswick is great. I didn’t get around to blogging about their Milwaukee show last month. It was ace.
- I took CJ to his first Badger game this weekend. He has admirable football sophistication; it’s not the QB or the running back he likes best, but defensive end J.J. Watt. Kid likes tackles. And you know what? J.J. Watt has a twitter feed! It is charming! Liked: “Finally found a lecture hall on campus with seats that are BMF (Big Man Friendly). Thank you Education Building.”
- At the top of my “dinner needs to be ready 15 minutes after I walk in the door” hitlist lately is this great walnut arugula lemon pesto.
- I have two children. One is a boy born on a Tuesday. What is the probability I have two boys?
- Tom Scocca socks it to millennials who think the dumped blue-square Gap logo is the original Gap logo. There’s only one original Gap logo and here it is:
Speaking of music and football, I saw Joan Baez at the UW Union Theatre on Friday night where she played to a packed auditorium. At age 69 she still has a wonderful voice and plays the guitar extremely well. This was a sweet experience for me because I had never seen her in concert before, despite positive memories of one of her LPs (Joan Baez 5) that I listened to as a kid many years ago. She began as a folkie around Harvard Square in the early 60s, and it’s amazing that she’s still going strong. Anyway, pre-game homecoming festivities were also happening out on the terrace, including very loud fireworks, delaying the start of the concert about 40 minutes. When she finally came out on stage she remarked that she had had trouble focusing her thoughts back stage because of all the noise. In the middle of the concert more loud noise came from out on the terrace that seemed to throw her off. The loud and obnoxious and often drunken noise associated with football culture has always been a big turnoff for me.
I was just told by someone that when he was considering taking a position here in the mathematics department in 1962, he was taken to a Joan Baez concert while visiting here. Joan mentioned that concert on Friday, and she said that the price of general admission was $2.00!
Another fun problem in a similar style to the one above:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem
I can’t resist adding that the Sleeping Beauty problem was made famous by philosopher Adam Elga, a speaker in our Math And… seminar!