Nice work if you can get it

When I went to the grocery store the other day (without children) I finally had time to check out all the frozen non-dairy desserts. In the past, the soy ice cream said things like, "May contain almonds and peanuts." This time, it said, "Strict quality control measure in an effort to prevent contamination by undeclared food allergens." They actually test to try to make sure there is no contamination. I know some parents would not be satisfied by that, but it's more than good enough for me.

So what ice cream do you start a 3 year old on who has never had ice cream before? Chocolate decadence? strawberry? I finally settled on vanilla and some ice cream bars. Yesterday I finally gave her one of the ice cream bars---Neapolitan. She only liked the strawberry, and she was distressed that the cookie part kept coming off on her fingers. Afterwards she said, "Eating that ice cream sure was hard work!"

One more story: lately, she's been waking up in the middle of the night, and we go in to snuggle with her as she goes back to sleep. I was snuggling with her last night and she seemed to be asleep, so I whispered "are you asleep?" (If you try to leave while she's partly awake, sometimes she gets upset and wakes herself all up again, so you have to start over.) She nodded, and whispered, "Yes. Yes I am asleep."

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Why you should study the history of math

Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Cardan

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Southern Butter Mints part 1

Some friends of ours have a granddaughter getting married (and she's a friend of ours as well) and so I agreed to help out with the shower. Apparently this is to be a "southern" shower, full of tradition and elegance, but not too far over the top. Among things that are needed for a shower are punch with great grandma's punch bowl, sandwiches with cream cheese and green pepper jelly, and southern pulled butter mints. "Ah, nobody can make those anymore. We used to know someone, but the tradition needs to be passed down." Like a fool, I said that I'd be happy to give it a try. I suffer greatly from "I got a PhD in math, how hard could X be?" where X is something like gardening, or quilting, or cleaning, etc. It's always harder than I think it will be. "We'll call Mrs. X who makes these, maybe she'll pass down the method. I hope you don't hate me!" I was actually planning on doing research online, watching a fe

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