Wordplay

Last night I went to a free screening of Wordplay, a movie about crossword puzzles. It's a fun movie, showing both the competitive side (following top-ranked competitors in last year's crossword puzzle championship) and the more casual (showing famous people's crossword addictions), as well as how one cruciverbalist works (I was surprised he worked by hand; the one I work with makes his on his computer). It's fun and geeky (of course), though I did wonder at one point, as the gold-standard-ness of the NY Times puzzle was being sung yet again, what Brits or other cryptic crossword addicts would say about that. And I kept waiting, as Shortz' career was being discussed, for there to be a mention of Games, which is where I first saw his name, but there was none. I'd never seen his face before, either, and though I couldn't tell you what I thought he looked like, it wasn't as he is.

There were a couple of annoyances. One was that the sound was up loud enough that I had my fingers in my ears the whole time (obviously, a theater problem, not the movie). The other was that it seemed like there was a lot of footage that was far from crisp. I can understand that with the historic footage (1978 was the first puzzle championship), but the modern stuff felt a little blurry too much of the time.

It made me want to get some crosswords and start solving; it's been too long since I last worked a crossword. Not that I'll ever get that fast (if only because I suck so much at certain kinds of trivia), and not online (I need paper and pen(cil)).

Math families

Some days, the brain is in a strange place...

I read about parent functions (y = x is the parent function for linear functions, y = x² is the parent function for quadratic functions, etc), and start thinking about mixed function marriages. If thought of as compositions of functions, the marriage of linear functions always gives linear children, while a linear-quadratic cross always gives quadratics, being more dominant. Linearity is definitely a recessive trait, though there are sometimes throwbacks when the right exponential and radical functions get together... (And of course, the radical functions tend to have long hair and wear T-shirts with slogans.)

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WFNX in Boston is having 40 days without commercials. It seemed funny to see this information on an ad in the T.

Yesteray was a first for me, a wholly walking commute. I feel accomplished.

Farm share, week 3

• a head of lettuce (I chose red leaf; there was also green leaf and romaine.)
  
• a head of cabbage (the odd kind that's small and in the shape of an ear of corn [eta It might be Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage. /edit])
  
• a bunch of red scallions (ie red-onion scallions; I've never seen these before)
  
• three summer squashes (mix and match yellow ones and zukes; I'm not sure why I chose 2 yellow and one green)
  
• a cucumber
  
• three garlic scapes
  
• a bunch of baby beets with greens
  
• a bunch of red radishes/ a bunch of Hakurei turnips with greens/ broccoli (I took the latter, because there was a purple broccoli)
  
• a third of a pound of spinach
  
• twelve stalks of herbs (basil, dill, oregano, cilantro, or parsley; except that by the time I got there the basil was gone, so I got half dill, half oregano)
  
  
• fruit share: a pint of strawberries
  
• a small box of sugar snap peas

This wasn't the first week one option had run out early; I told the woman running the distribution that last year the guy had kept stuff back, bringing it out gradually, so it wasn't so skewed in favor of those who could get there early.

I also got a ( Boston Organics delivery. )

Current thoughts include summer squash with onions, scallions, garlic, and dill; fruit salad; green salad; and roasted beets. I'm not sure what I want to do with the cooking greens just yet, but they may end up with the yams, some spicy sauce, and perhaps some sausage.