Thane Plambeck

What is BASS TRUCK REACTIVE?

From the FAQ of a mysterious organization called Bass Truck Reactive:
* * *
Q: Where did the name Bass Truck Reactive come from?

A: It's an anagram of Starbucks Creative. Or a palindrome. We forget which. Not really, we just like saying the word "palindrome." It sounds like a delicious pastry, like a "ladyfinger" or "creme-filled bismarck."
* * *
And Jim forwards this communication from Steph:

Check out this fine t-shirt designed by me and my artistic son. He did the skeleton, I did the words. It says "Qui vit bien ne regrette rien."
* * *
I have it on reliable authority that this shadowy organization bears full responsibility for every "Black Apron", "Venti" and "Grande Macchiato" blurb that a person ever reads inside a Starbucks coffee shop.

Yet when I tried to pierce the creative veil of this organization with my own highly-imaginative proposed coffee label, I was turned away.

But I'm not bitter. No.

That's the way the cookie crumbles

heaney cartoon

Name of that Tom Waits song at the end of "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"

God's Away on Business.

movie / tom waits song [i'm feeling lucky, as usual]

Two hundred fifty G-A-R-D-N-E-R boards

Denying this project the opportunity to expand to fill the time available to complete it, I just finished off the last of 250 misere G-A-R-D-N-E-R boards for distribution at the Gathering for Gardner 7.

[ read about G4G6 ]

I also finished some math paper refereeing today.

But what to do about another request to review math papers? I think I should make it more clear that I'm not qualified to this kind of work...

Now I can go on to two other papers I need to write.

Classmate of the week

Overheard at Peet's coffee

COFFEE SLACKER GIRL: You're off work when?

COFFEE CUSTOMER GUY: Not until seven.

CSG: So, I can come by to pick up some of the stuff, what do you call it, Wasabi, then, at six?

CCG: I get off at seven. Not wasabi, I think you want the albacore. That's what you had last time.

CSG: Whatever. What I had last time.

CCG: OK see you then.

CSG: I won't be able to get there until 6:30.

CCG: I get off at seven.

CSG: Right, the albacore. With that sauce, just yummy!

CCG: Yes, I know how to prepare it.

Some notes on the Suzuki Gavotte from Mignon

I wish I'd had thought to Google Suzuki violin piece names before. This page has useful notes on the piece that Cole is playing in a upcoming recital, and sets out all the trouble spots.

THANE: [Pointing to music] See—here's a G. Your intonation is fine on it. Then, one measure later, another G—indeed, precisely the same note as before—but this one is an important G. But when you play it, it sounds like a goose is dying! "BWAAAACK".

COLE: Ha, OK. You mean this? [ Plays dying goose G ]

THANE: Yes, exactly! So? Why not play the same G, the same as before?

COLE: OK [ Does it quite a bit better ]

THANE: Yes! Another teaching moment. But with vibrato, please!

Misere G-A-R-D-N-E-R, revisited

With some help from Dan Hoey, I've put up an improved version of the g4g7 heptagon game analysis.

Some winds

The etesian

The harmattan

The khamsin

The mistral

The pampero

The simoom

Carl Sagan flickr slideshow tribute

Apparently this is not tongue-in-cheek, but I challenge you to watch it without smiling.

[ take the challenge ]

Mathematicians at an MAA book sale

Hewlett Teaching Center, Stanford Univ

Trophy atrophy

The White Lightning^* season is over, but I'm left with an extra trophy. All the kids showed up for the last game—there's no one to give it to.

It's been getting knocked around in the trunk of the car. I noticed its head was slightly askew, and brought it inside.

I can't bring myself to throw it away.

(*) The NJB team of 1st and 2nd graders I coached.

Vocabulary I learned while reading chick lit

shiba inu

dashiki

Cantor Art Museum

Such a serious facade—all for the dunce cap, within?

In the car

COLE: Dadda, change the station. That station [Sirius Satellite Blues] is horrible.

THANE: What are you talking about, this is Albert King!

COLE: I'll tell you how to make a blues song. Take a common problem, say dust in the basement. Then say you are trying to clean it up. Then you pick something in the basement, say a dusty sofa. So that's your song, "Dusty Sofa" (loudly singing in a bad voice) 'DUSTY SOFA, TELL YOU ABOUT DUSTY SOFA....'

THANE: Yes, OK, I agree, but still it's good. This is Albert King!

COLE: "DUSTY SOFA, TALKIN' ABOUT DUSTY SOFA"

THANE: Quiet! This is Albert King!

Cantor Art Museum

Newspaper boy

Now I know the source of all those questions:

"When does the Palo Alto Weekly come?"

"Have you ever been in the newspaper?"

[ What are you doing for Ski Week? ]

Plays on Combinatorial Game Theory

Elwyn Berlekamp, Aaron Siegel, and David Eisenbud have told me about next month's Playground event [ read their mission statement ], which is going to be on combinatorial game theory (CGT).

On March 7 we're meeting with playwrights (it sounds like it's over twenty of them (!) ) to talk about CGT, and then they'll have 4 days to write 10-minute plays that somehow relate to it. The Playground judges then select their six favorites and they'll be performed on March 20 at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, at 8pm.

The Playground people do this once a month, but only once a year is it a mathematics theme that is chosen. And this year, it's a math theme I happen to be working on now. So it should be interesting.

Last night I went to this month's Playground plays, which were inspired by a current SF MOMA exhibition on the 1906 earthquake (the 100 year anniversary is looming). I was very impressed by the plays and the performances—they were just great!

110 West O Street, Lincoln, NE

I bought the winning Powerball lottery ticket at a U-Save Market in Lincoln, Nebraska. Here's a Google map.

[And no—I didn't really win the lottery, I'm just creating this blog entry to see how many web hits I can rack up. Research reveals that this U-Save is on the "wrong side of the tracks" relative to the University of Nebraska. But it's not far from the restaurant (called Grandmother's) that was owned by Governor Bob Kerrey, if memory serves. ]

[ whoops, Mick M points out I misspelled Kerrey. fixed it. ]

Powerball winning ticket sold in Lincoln, NE

Lottery officials verified Sunday that a Powerball ticket sold in Lincoln [Nebraska] has the winning numbers for a $365 million prize, the largest lottery jackpot in the nation's history.

Only one winning ticket was sold for Saturday's jackpot, according to the Powerball Web site. No one had come forward to claim the jackpot early Sunday, Nebraska Lottery spokesman Brian Rockey said.

"We don't know if the winner knows yet," he said.

A U-Stop convenience store in Lincoln sold the winning ticket, Rockey said.

[ cnn story ]

[ I wonder if it is the U-Stop not far from this house on C street that I lived in in 1983. ]