• Blog
  • Terrible Tom Hanks

    I have more to say about Tom Hanks, beyond his resemblance to my husband. Hanks is prolific and has a broad range. I admire those qualities, aspire to them. “Broad range” feels natural for me, but abundant production does not. I collect ideas and quotes that inspire me to work on my research and writing […]

  • Blog
  • Salad Days

    The Wall Street Journal ran a story about college friends who have stayed in touch since graduating in 1956. The article made me think about, and feel grateful for, the enduring friendships of my college-girl posse, including the scarecrow, the carrot, and the blueberry from this Halloween post. One of the posse recently used the […]

  • Blog
  • The Crank Index

    Son #1 sent me an article about cranks, people who hold strong, contrarian positions. The focus of the article was mathematical cranks, those who insist that they have solutions to mathematical problems known to have no solution. I especially enjoyed The Crank Index in the article, attributed to mathematician Chris Caldwell. Caldwell studies prime numbers, […]

  • Blog
  • Arrivederci Professor Forni

    There was an obituary in The Wall Street Journal for one Professor Pier Massimo Forni, “a poet and scholar of Italian literature.” I found this guy to be an interesting choice for coverage in a newspaper focused on business. Usually the obituaries in the WSJ are about people who influenced the economy. So how did […]

  • Blog
  • Sunny Side of the Street

    The other day it occurred to me that I live on the sunny side of the street. But only literally. Our house faces south. In the suburban wilds of California where I grew up, we had no need for the compass. Here in Colorado, I can north-south-east-west with the best of them (or at least […]