I hate the LTE where the letter writer has completely missed the point of the article, or, like JZ said, must not have read it. These people just seem to have a knee-jerk reaction to the subject matter, without bothering to consider what the author of the article had to say.

So this post is kinda' redundant, except to add my "argh!" to the topic.

It's funny, JZ. I used to be a bit like some of those letter-writers(not as racist...mos def) but I used to think if "they" tried harder...then I read "The Corner" and then I got it. Bang. That schools, hell, families, don't exist on some planet independent of their neighborhoods, and that's why Simon's my fake husband. Because he saved me from being a Tipper Gore Dem for the rest of my life. Books *can* change lives. I hope both Joe and "Devon" will be okay and they got Camille's cancer too.

I think I know what he means: that attitude that's like 'Eh, foreign films..." Or "Poetry...who can follow all that symbolism stuff?" Not that the same people are all always saying all these things, but those are things I've heard people be sort of "proud-ignorant" about.

But that's not what he means, since he says people are only proud-ignorant about math.

I am like Plei and not like JZ, at least in this regard. I adore conceptual math, and things like e^(pi i) = -1 made me incredibly happy. But if I actually have to make numbers into other numbers, I'm lose my place very easily -- especially when multiplication is involved, I easily get off by factors of ten, and cheerfully forget we're not starting counting from zero. My mother, on the other hand, calculates tax in her head. Especially impressive when it we're in Quebec and the rate is 1.1556. She never rounds.

I adore conceptual math, and things like e^(pi i) = -1 made me incredibly happy.

See, this? Absolutely no idea what this is.

Of course, that's also partly because math made me so unhappy, I stopped at Algebra II. In college I got away with one "math for non-math people" course, in which we read Flatlands and the Annotated Alice in Wonderland, so I've never even been exposed to most of the higher conceptual math.

e^(pi i) = -1 makes me happy because it seems so completely... nonintuitive and unlikely, I guess.

Let's see if I can get that equation pretty in one shot:

e^πi=-1

I have a good relationship with math.

Yay Gov. Warner. [link] Signed, Hates Death Penalty

Oh ita, good luck on your MRI tomorrow. Try to keep your head still, is about the only advice I can think of. Or maybe, close your eyes if you're at all claustrophobic.

I am proud of the fact that I not only rocked geometry in tenth grade, I actually enjoyed it.

Anything higher than algebra just ... it's like another language to me. I tend to be a visual learner, so maybe it's the fact that I can't picture what X is supposed to stand for or whatever.

sits next to AmyLiz, borrows her calculator.

good luck on your MRI tomorrow.

Thanks!

Try to keep your head still, is about the only advice I can think of. Or maybe, close your eyes if you're at all claustrophobic.

I'm planning on falling asleep. It's NINETY MINUTES. I've never had a head MRI that went more than 20 or so. And I thought the awake/asleep EEG was going to be the annoying test.