Oh. They have clotted cream with Drambuie. [link]

Emily. Star Market had it? Are there still Star Markets?

Er... well, it's Shaw's now. I don't know if it still has it, though. I know Cardullo's in Harvard Square does.

Hil, here's what I'm thinking. What if A is R, B is Z, and sigma is... oh. See, I'm still having some trouble with permutations versus functions. But it doesn't say A or B have to be finite -- does permutation have to be on a finite set?

I really understand things much better in lectures. Just out of the book, I'm hopeless.

ETA: Just reread the first paragraph of the chapter, where it says, "In this section, we construct some finite groups whose elements, called permutations, act on finite sets."

Duhhhhh.

Oh. They have clotted cream with Drambuie.

Wibble

Larry's always has clotted cream. That won't help you non-Seattleites, tho.

Okay, so Hil, you're saying that sigma[B] has to be B itself, not a proper subset of B? Cause, how else could it be a permutation? (Part of my problem here is that the chapter doesn't seem to have a formal definition of permutation anywhere.*) If that's so, then it's gotta be closed under inversion (er, do we say "closed under inversion"? Isn't inversion an old term for homosexuality? Not that that has anything to do with anything, I'm just grasping at any tangent which will keep me from having to address the other two problems which might as well be written in a foreign language waaaaah!) and the set of such sigmas is a subgroup of SsubA.

Note: * except for "8.3 Definition: A permutation of a set A is a function phi from A to A that is both one to one and onto." See the problem I have with reading?

Wait. I'm confused. They give Drambuie to cows in Devon?

Oh, dear, now I'll have to buy some. (checks budget) Do you take Paypal?

On thinking of it further, I think Alumni of works better, since all the words are small words. "Miskatonic" balances "Association" better.

Don't worry, both are being done. Payment is handled thru Cafe Press and they take credit cards et al.

Oh, Pete, my 12-year-old just brought home his first deck of Magic cards. I blame you.

I didn't do it. I've been by my computer at all times.

Thanks for the note, VW.

Oh. They have clotted cream with Drambuie.

I actually don't recommend this. Tried it once and the Drambuie overwhelmed the cream's flavor and, if memory serves, didn't do much for the texture either.

Anytime, Perkins.