30 January
2022
29 January
2022
Writing first letter from our new house to be
All the stationery and library set up has been moved to the new house together with all the pens and ink pots and writing pads.
This is the first letter from the new house (we have not moved in yet). This letter is headed Madhuri’s way to Singapore!
Of course letter writing is not just about fountain pens and personalized pads… it has include the whole wax seals to go with it!
28 January
2022
From the bartender’s corner – Tuxedo
This drink’s name has a fascinating root. Back in the 1880s, a private members-only club called Tuxedo Club started in the planned community of Tuxedo Park in Orange County, NY. This is the same club that gave us the menswear called “tuxedo”. Around the same time, a new cocktail was served at the bar in the club. As you must have guessed, it was called Tuxedo. This is a nearly 140 year old drink.
Vodka, Dry Vermouth, Maraschino Liqueur and Orange Bitters. (There is a variation that uses absinthe too)
27 January
2022
Here is another problem to be solved
Now that we have solved the temperature problem in Chicago, here is another one from San Francisco.
[Errata: Looks like I have completely forgotten my physics – Sound is longitudinal and light is transversal – it is about which way the wave is moving and the particles in the wave are moving.
However, my original question remains – although I cannot remember the terms now – a ray of light goes straight but sound disperses in all directions – like the pool analogy. So, how does this work?]
Last week, I was in San Francisco and as his is wont, Matt Moore invited me to go for a walk with him by the waterfront and discuss business issues. While walking around Pier 15 enjoying some nice coffee, he showed me something. It is basically a set of two parabolic metals facing each other about 50 yards away. Each has a small stool to sit on. Matt asked me to go sit on one and he sat on another. As you can see in the picture.
Some of you might have guessed this, I could distinctly and loudly hear what he was saying. It felt like he was just six inches behind my head and he was talking to me from there with a slightly louder than usual voice of his.
For the next few minutes, I showed off my Physics to Matt by eloquently explaining how we were sitting in the focal points of the parabolas and how his voice was hitting his parabola, going then in a straight line to my parabola (geometric property of parabola if you remember) and then my parabola was putting all that on to its focal point which is where I was sitting. You would have seen the same in microwave towers, large telescopes etc. I do not know what Matt thought but I thought I did a good job.
Two days later, I realized what an idiot I was. I was telling Sharmila about it and then half way thru, I stopped cold. I realized that everything I said to Matt was correct but only for longitudinal waves – you know like microwaves, light etc. But sound is a transversal wave. It spreads out in concentric circles (like if you throw a stone in still pool). Those sound waves from Matt would have emanated as concentric circles and then after some of them hit the metal parabola, they would start out as more concentric circles from the point of incidence (where it hit the metal). Then where is the question of focus and all that in an ellipse?
But I experienced it myself.
How do you explain that?
26 January
2022
How do you explain this?
It is bone chilling -8F (-22C) right now here in Itasca. But it will slowly warm up as the sun comes up. That part I get. But look what happens after the sun sets. The temperatures keep rising thru the night. Of course, there is no sun around. Lake Michigan water cannot be that warm – after the last few cold days – to explain that.
How do you explain that?
23 January
2022
Football score puzzle
In American football, any drive can end with the following points – 0 (ball turned over), 2 (safety), 3 (field goal), 6 (touchdown with failed point after or failed two pointer), 7 (touchdown and successful point after) or 8 (touchdown and successful 2 point conversion).
Assuming no team scores more than 50 points in a playoff match (there has to be a winner), what are the different legitimate combinations of scores that a match can possibly end with? (e.g. a game can end 14-2 but can never have a 27-1 score).
23 January
2022
From the bartender’s corner – Mulberry Gin
23 January
2022
Morning cold run!
16 January
2022
From the bartender’s corner – Savoy Corpse Reviver
16 January
2022
Longstanding project completed
Original plan was to use the downtime during year end to get all the handwritten letters that I still have neatly organized by person and in chronological fashion. Of course, Covid took my year end away. However, with the long weekend here, I finally got it done.
Some of the letters are from 1984! The “inland letters” of India are ready to just crumble up. Had to use a lot of caution to restore them. You can see some of the olden days “postcards” too.
The earliest letter is from my dad in 1984 followed by my best friend Avijit Bose’s. The latest one is from Madhuri Agrawal from Singapore from a few weeks back.
Some of the letters from my parents were too difficult for me to hold my tears back.
I told Sharmila about my project.
“I have organized the letters that I still have and some of the ones that I wrote”
“How do you have letters that you wrote?”
“Well, for international letters, I take a photocopy. Just in case they get lost, I email the photocopy to the recipient later.”
“How come you do not write any letters to me anymore?” was her next question.
“What?”
“You used to write to me before marriage. How come you write to others still but not to me?”
“Why would I write to you? We live under the same roof. Moreover, we are on talking terms.”
Apparently, that did not convince her.
Maybe that Covid-time realization on silence might be not too futile after all.
I can foresee a day when she would ask me “How was dinner?”
Vowed to silence, I would furtively pen a letter and mail it. (BTW, our new house is bang opposite the post office.)
She can open up the wax sealed envelope a few days later and read out loudly “Needed a little more salt!” Or something like that!!!
