Posts Tagged ‘Dr. Seuss’
Knowing the Distance: More Fun With Numbers…
The Fibonacci sequence describes the golden ratio (or golden spiral), an ideal form found in the more beautiful corners of nature, and much beloved by designers everywhere.
The Fibonacci numbers are the sum of the previous two numbers in the sequence, starting with 0 and 1: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144…
A Fibonacci spiral created by drawing circular arcs connecting the opposite corners of squares in a Fibonacci tiling; this one uses squares of sizes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and 34. (source)
It turns out that the Fibonacci sequence also neatly matches the relationship between kilometers and miles. Three miles is five kilometers, five miles is eight kilometers, eight miles is 13 kilometers. It’s not perfect: eight miles is actually 12.875 kilometers– but it’s close enough in a pinch.
If one needs to convert a number that’s not in the Fibonacci sequence, one can simply break out the Fibonacci numbers, convert, and add the answers. For instance, 100 can be broken down into 89 + 8 + 3, all Fibonacci numbers. The next numbers are 144, 13, and 5, which add up to 162. 100 miles is actually equal to 160.934 kilometers. But again, close enough.
[TotH to MNN]
Special bonus arithmetic amusement: the quadratic equation, explained (as though) by Dr. Seuss.
As we marvel at math, we might wish a Happy Birthday to a master of “numbers” of a different sort; author and prankster Ken Kesey was born on this date in 1935. While at Stanford in 1959 (studying writing with Wallace Stegner), Kesey was a paid volunteer in CIA-funded LSD trials (Project MKULTRA), an experience that informed his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and that inspired him to form the “Merry Pranksters” and embark on the cross-country school bus trip memorialized in Tom Wolfe’s “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”
“Leave no turn unstoned.”
The internship of Dr. Seuss…
Readers will know that Theodor Seuss Geisel, AKA “Dr. Seuss,” worked in other forms than the books for which he was most famous– readers will remember his (in both senses of the word) fabulous The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, and pre-blog readers will recall his work as an editorial cartoonist during World War II.
But readers may be surprised, as your correspondent was, to learn that, two years before he published his first book, And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street!, Dr. Seuss authored a comic strip:
Hejji, which ran for under a year in 1935, told the story of a traveler who found himself in the strange land of Baako, a mountaintop country that’s equal parts Tibet, the Middle East, and Whoville… Heijji’s adventures prefigure several of the good Dr.’s classics-to-come– and delight in their own right. Explore them further in Chris Sim’s lovely tribute at ComicsAlliance.
As we rethink our position on green eggs and ham, we might recall that it was on this date in 1978 that California voters approved Proposition 13, rolling back property taxes to 1975 levels and capping increases to a 2% inflation factor. Since then California public schools, which had been ranked among the nation’s best, have declined to 48th (in surveys of student achievement).
Get a Life (“Oh! The Places You Will Go”)…
Via Buzzfeed, a peek at how Dr. Seuss’ covers would have appeared if they’d been… well, candid… e.g.,
More at “What Dr. Seuss Books Were Really About.”
As we struggle to hear a Who, we might recall that it was on this date in 1965 (at the time that they had their first big hit with “Satisfaction”) that three members of the Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Bill Wyman) were fined five pounds each for urinating on the wall of a London gas station. They had asked to use the restroom but it was out of order.
The Stones in 1965 (source)
Oh the places they’ll go, the clothing they’ll remove!…
The always-engaging Gothamist explains:
…Storybook Burlesque, the same troupe that brought you burlesque renditions of the Bible, promised: “From a sexy Sam I Am through a lascivious Lorax, no story or character will be quite the same.”
New York “personality” Schaffer the Darklord hosted the show in rhyme as Dr. Seuss himself, and burlesque “superstar” Nasty Canasta (Facebook) jiggled her green eggs and ham, in the company of a different kind of Cat in a Hat, and a Horndog Hearing a Hoo-hah, and…
Is that a Wocket in Your Pocket or are you just happy to see half-naked people turn beloved children’s books into the stuff of psycho-sexual nightmares?
(Son of) Sam I am…
As we rethink our bedtime reading, we might recall that it was on this date in 1989 that the Boston Red Sox signed pitcher Roger Clemens to a 3-year $7.5 million contract. Later that same day, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed pitcher Orel Hershiser (who did not take steroids) to a 3-year $7.9 million contract.
Kids, don’t do drugs.
Hershiser (top right) and Clemens (bottom right), with Nolan Ryan and Dwight Gooden (source)
