You're a bloody puppet! You're a wee little puppet man!

Spike ,'Smile Time'


Natter 40: The Nice One  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


msbelle - Nov 29, 2005 10:03:50 am PST #7752 of 10006
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb

Trains make me sleepy. There is a serious risk of me falling asleep at my desk in the next few minutes. Serious.


bon bon - Nov 29, 2005 10:04:19 am PST #7753 of 10006
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.

That shotgun site is awesome. I'm sending it to my dad.


tommyrot - Nov 29, 2005 10:09:08 am PST #7754 of 10006
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

More math stuff:

Math, he said, is "the only subject in the curriculum where adults are proud to say they were lousy. From childhood on, kids have heard it from their parents."

[link]


§ ita § - Nov 29, 2005 10:31:37 am PST #7755 of 10006
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

"the only subject in the curriculum where adults are proud to say they were lousy. From childhood on, kids have heard it from their parents."

Was there a study? I can't read the rest of the article, because it's TimesSelect, but what's so special about math that's not special about chemistry or French?


msbelle - Nov 29, 2005 10:34:09 am PST #7756 of 10006
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb

my boss refused to give me the afternoon off for tired. I am going to take a stab at this "work" stuff. YAWN!


tommyrot - Nov 29, 2005 10:35:20 am PST #7757 of 10006
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Here's more context (if folks want I'll post the whole thing):

It is no secret that our collective knowledge of math is a woeful mess. Any number of studies lament this country's mathematical duh-ness. In the late 1980's, John Allen Paulos, a mathematician at Temple University, wrote the best-selling book "Innumeracy," which examined mathematical illiteracy and found it to be rampant.

Have we since improved? Not significantly, Professor Paulos says. "Fewer Americans are going into math," he said the other day. "A disproportionate number of math professors in this country are foreign-born."

Similar concerns are expressed by Alfred S. Posamentier, a mathematician who is dean of the School of Education at City College of New York. Math, he said, is "the only subject in the curriculum where adults are proud to say they were lousy. From childhood on, kids have heard it from their parents."

So, I think it's just a math guy's perception.


§ ita § - Nov 29, 2005 10:40:13 am PST #7758 of 10006
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

My mother did often say her math was lousy. Her arithmetic, on the other hand, was freaky good. And, really, in day to day life plus her job requirements, she was well set. It's mostly arithmetic.


bon bon - Nov 29, 2005 10:49:37 am PST #7759 of 10006
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.

I'm pretty proud to say I'm lousy at math. Maybe it pales in comparison to other high school subjects because I can't buy a $5 machine that reads French for me.


§ ita § - Nov 29, 2005 10:51:08 am PST #7760 of 10006
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Barriers to a subway to the beach in LA may be coming down.

I'm not proud to say I'm bad at anything. It's just a thing. Not pride-making.


Calli - Nov 29, 2005 10:52:38 am PST #7761 of 10006
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs

I'm kind of sad that my mathiness petered out after freshman calculus. It's sort of like there was a line in my head that read, "This is the sum total of math this person can handle." I re-took calc. just to see if I could move past it--no go, C's both times. Disappointing.