Thane Plambeck

Outside Callaway, Nebraska

Outside Callaway, Nebraska, originally uploaded by thane.

Palo Alto Little League coaches at tryouts, II

Palo Alto Little League coaches at tryouts, II, originally uploaded by thane.

Palo Alto Little League coaches at tryouts

Palo Alto Little League coaches at tryouts, originally uploaded by thane.

Sign(s) of the times

Sign of the times, originally uploaded by thane.

This sign describing the construction of a new psychiatric care facility at the Veteran's Hospital in Palo Alto caught my attention a few weeks ago, and I'd been meaning to take a photo of it as a symbol of the bleak outlook for PTSD in the coming years.

Then today, just as I finally stopped to take the photo, a rainbow suddenly appeared in the sky behind it.

As I got out of the car to take the photo, Cole said "Hey, that wasn't there a second ago!"

The World Theatre

Very cool project to refurbish & reopen the World Theatre in my hometown, Kearney, Nebraska

The World Theatre, 1965, with Gerbers next door; Kearney, Nebraska

The World Theatre, 1965, originally uploaded by The World Theatre.

In 1982, on a visit to my parents's house in Kearney Nebraska, I walked into Gerbers Books & Gifts (the store just to the left of the World Theatre in this photo) and to my utter amazement found a brand-new copy of a reasonably hard-core-looking math book, Gerard Lallement's "Semigroups and Combinatorial Applications," for sale in the tiny books section, right next to the Garfield calendars, scented candles, and gift wrapping paper.

I bought it despite its astronomical price ($42), and spent a couple of months (that summer) reading it (pretty closely), eventually using what I learned to fake my way both to a PhD in Computer Science, and to scare up the misere quotient theory over twenty years later.

XANH

THANE: What is this book? The drinks menu? We've chosen a restaurant whose name I can't pronounce.

GLORIA: Right.

THANE: Is the second letter an A, or a capital lambda?

GLORIA: An "A," I think.

THANE: Maybe it's pronounced "Thane."

GLORIA: Ugh, I was about to say that