Birth of a morning
Finished my run, grabbed my Starbucks and sat outside the coffeehouse in slightly strong winds. And then watched the morning struggle to break thru the canopy of clouds till it was clear that a new day was upon us. Reminded me of an old poem (forgot the author’s name) that I had once read and copied down….
“So stop waiting until you finish school,
until you go back to school,
until you lose ten pounds,
until you gain ten pounds,
until you have kids,
until your kids leave the house,
until you start work,
until you retire,
until you get married,
until you get divorced,
until Friday night,
until Sunday morning,
until you get a new car or home,
until your car or home is paid off,
until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter,
until you are off welfare,
until the first or fifteenth,
until your song comes on,
until you’ve had a drink,
until you’ve sobered up,
until you die,
until you are born again
to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy…”
In vino veritas!
(In wine lies the truth)
(Also, why I have my two glasses of red wine everyday 🙂 )
Got to know this from an email from my friend Karthik Mani via Raj…
From Herodotus’ writings…
If an important decision is to be made, they [the Persians] discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day the master of the house where the discussion was held submits their decision for reconsideration when they are sober. If they still approve it, it is adopted; if not, it is abandoned. Conversely, any decision they make when they are sober, is reconsidered afterwards when they are drunk.
Interesting unintended consequences. And a puzzle.
Part of an email I got from my good old friend Jyotsna from Singapore:
“Btw your puzzle format on FB was an inspiration to the math teachers at the boy’s school. I had asked the teachers to look at posting puzzles in a forum so that kids can help out each other and gave your puzzles discussion as an example. It is the second week of this discussion on the school forum and the class kids seem to love it!! So you are pretty influential in far away Singapore! :-)”
What started as an exercise to get rid of boredom on a flight back from DC a few years back has certainly had some unintentional – but highly welcome 🙂 – consequences. Thank you Jyotsna!
This puts pressure on me to post the next puzzle. This one is dedicated to the kids in Singapore and elsewhere. And also adults.
(Again, do not post in Comment section; send me FB msg; I will respond)
A few days back, I was cleaning my pool and talking to my another good friend Kuntal over the phone. He had posed a question – “what is the last digit of 19^19 + 99^99”. Over the phone we discussed our answers – he had taken an elegant way to solve it – I had used a short cut.
So let’s try that:
1. What is the last digit of the sum of 19 to the power of 19 added to 99 to the power of 99. (19^19 + 99^99).
And an extension..
2. What is the last digit of
9^9 + 19^19 + 29^29 + 39^39 +……+ 99^99
3. If you have an younger kid – or you are stuck yourself – try with the following simpler version – and then the above two become easier. What is the last digit of 99^99?
Our problems have be”gun”
Hill runs
Donuts with dad!
Puzzle – populous cities
Today, my friend Gasan showed me this. I was totally stunned. The question is “What are the top cities by population in the world?”. Not the population of the metro area but just the city proper. (The metro area list is very different) . You have to do this without Googling. I will give you the city names. Can you rank them?
Try it and then check in Google. Or I will post the answers:
Beijing, Delhi, Guangzhou, Istanbul, Karachi, Moscow, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Tianjin (in China)
Note that the top 4 cities by metro area population – Tokyo, Seoul, Mexico City and New York City do not figure in the above list!!!
Go ahead. Ask me :-)
To myself and all my runner friends…
Here is a humorous take on us: http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304448204579186401818882202?mg=reno64-wsj
The text is here in case the link is not working:
November 12, 2013 6:35 PM
OK, You’re a Runner. Get Over It
Running a marathon is hard enough without also patting yourself on the back every step of the way.
By CHAD STAFKO
There is one kind of bumper sticker I see almost daily here in my small Midwestern town: a small oval printed with “26.2” or “13.1.” In case you’re lucky enough not to know what these numbers represent, let me explain: They indicate that the driver or someone in the car has run a marathon (26.2 miles) or a half-marathon (13.1 miles).
There is only one reason running aficionados display the stickers. They want the rest of us to know about their long-distance feats. So let me be the first to offer my hearty congratulations. I’d even offer to give them a pat on the back—once they’re done doing it themselves.
What’s with this infatuation with running and the near-mandatory ritual of preening about it?
Almost every day I see people running: in the city, through subdivisions or out on country roads. They’re everywhere and at all times, from dawn until dark, their reflective gear flickering along the road.
I thought I was imagining this spike in running’s popularity, but that’s not the case. According to the group Running USA, there were some 15.5 million people who finished running events in 2012, compared with approximately 13 million in 2010. These 15.5 million are hoofing it through marathons, half-marathons, 10Ks, 5Ks, fun runs, night runs, charity runs and what can only be labeled as insane ultramarathon runs of 50 miles or more.
When they’re not out there sweating through the miles, they can relax with a running magazine. There is Runners World, with its 660,000 subscribers, but also Running Times, Trail Runner, Runner’s Gazette and several others. Reading. About running.
Or these runners, when they’re not running, can go shopping—at a running store. There’s one such store less than 15 miles, or better said, just a bit over a half-marathon, from my house. It sells only running equipment and apparel. The store has been in business several years, so apparently it is making money.
This “equipment,” of course, is nothing but shoes and clothes. You can buy these same shoes at a sporting-goods store or online, probably for much less.
But the clothes—well, that’s a different story. Many of the shirts on the racks have running logos, motivational slogans and images of stick people running.
Like the 26.2 and 13.1 bumper stickers, this apparel serves a clear purpose: We can look at them and immediately know that the person wearing it is a runner—perhaps even an accomplished one.
I have several friends who are runners, or at least I did before writing this. Some have completed marathons in Nashville and Washington, D.C. One even ran the Boston Marathon.
A few days ago, one of these running friends said, after describing a recent run: “Why do I keep doing this?” I have no idea.
Why would someone want to get up at 5 a.m. and run 10 miles adorned with fluorescent tape to avoid being struck by someone who has the good sense to use a car for a 10-mile journey?
I have a theory. There is no more visible form of strenuous exercise than running. When runners are dashing down a street in the middle of town or through a subdivision, they know that every driver, every pedestrian, every leaf-raker and every person idly staring out a window can see them.
These days, people want more than ever to be seen. This is the age of taking a photo selfie and posting it on Facebook with the announcement that you’re bored—in the hope that someone will “like” that information. People want attention and crave appreciation. If you’re actually doing something like running—covering ground, staying healthy, almost even having fun—what better way to fulfill the look-at-me desire? The lone runner is a one-person parade. Yay.
OK, I know, this isn’t the case for all runners. Many of my friends who regularly run have done so for years, decades before there was a thing called social media to put humanity’s self-absorption in overdrive. These folks also tend to be infatuated with fitness anyway. If they’re not out on the streets showing the sedentary world how it’s done, they’re at the gym or in a spinning class.
But what about the others? You can spot them, wandering through the mall or killing time at Starbucks, proudly wearing their “[Fill in the blank] 5K Run” T-shirts. They’re getting what they want, without losing a drop of sweat.
I saw a great new bumper sticker the other day. It read 0.0. I’ll take one of those, please.
Mr. Stafko is a writer living in Freeburg, Ill