Personal Blogs

Q. What’s the difference between an introvert and an extrovert mathematician?

A. When conversing, the introvert mathematician looks at their own shoes. The extrovert look at yours.

* Not mine, it’s old, but contains an element of truth.

I sent you a joke 

But I guess you didn’t get it

Laughter all.

Home Planet's message

Is all good in your locality?

I was

Too ashamed

To

Reply

I came across a song, Vergiss Mein Nicht, performed by the tenor Fritz Wunderlich, famous for Mozartian roles according to Wikipedia, but this is more in the tradition of singers such as Richard Tauber. I sent a link to a friend who is very into operetta style songs - it is a shared interest! - but he wanted to know what the lyrics would be in English. He couldn't find an English version and neither could I, so I had a go with the aid of Google Translate and some tidying up. I think the original and the translation stand quite well on their own as poems, which is often true of this song genre, but not of all song lyrics of course.

I took a certain liberty in line 3, because red is not mentioned in the original, but I think it works and it helps with the rhythm of the verse.

I turned up at some pottery classes

And found them all reciting vases.

A slip of the ears

It appears.

I found these English words by computer search using a small program I wrote. What is unusual about them?

Abroad

Breach

Please

Spending

Stable

Stone

Strain

Here’s a little puzzle, that no-one can find out,

Whether every little swing has a little roundabout.

I've been sheltering for 12 weeks, because I am quite vulnerable.

Today I went out, at last. Infection in my locaility is down to the level just before the lockdown. So I decided that, given the good weather, it would be safe to emerge blinking into the sunlight. It could be "Now or never", with "Now" being the better option.

Here is a record of the exploration* I made on my mobility scooter.

*  "X" marks a spot where a car pulled up on the other side of the road and the driver wound down the window and said "Dr Walker, I presume."  Well not exactly that, it was someone I knew, who said "How are you?" but roughly similar.

Brexit. Was it just a Brussels rout?

I asked my plumber for a quotation.

Guess what I got back. "To be or not to be".