Rite of Spring

Well, it seems to be that time of year. The weather's been intermittently stormy, but we've had highs in the high 50s/low 60s F for a week or so. My pear trees are in exuberant bloom - even the one that was damaged so in December's ice storm - and this morning the mockingbirds were out. So, I decided that today would be Shearing Day.

The ritual begins over the bathroom sink, as I haggle away with scissors at about four inches of beard. It's not the easiest of tasks; working on the right side of my neck is especially awkward. After about twenty minutes, I reach the point of diminishing returns with the scissors. I have about a quarter-inch of scruff left. I no longer resemble Karl Marx; I actually fancy a vague resemblance to the actor Jason Carter - not the charmingly raffish Marcus of Babylon 5, but the nasty-looking Demon of Hatred he portrayed on one episode of Charmed. (For aficionados, it's the episode that ends with Cole turning on his masters and massacring the Triad.) Now the razor comes out. Slowly the skin emerges from its winter hibernation, fresh and pink (and in one or two places bloody...). When I finish, Murphy comes in, tail wagging, to lick my new-shaven face. Canine custom satisfied, I take a shower.

Next comes the walk over to Custom Cuts. (They're not the cheapest, but they're not expensive and they have the sterling advantage of being close by.) I feel the faint March breeze strongly on my chin and neck... At the stylist, I have to explain that no, indeed, I don't want to have a couple of inches taken off; I want a couple of inches left. She is amused. (From her demeanor during the haircut, either she's easily amused or it's a professional act. I incline toward the latter hypothesis.)

It is done. Spring is officially here.

Ramble, Part 18: Polymath

Blaise Pascal deserves a fuller treatment than I'm going to give him. He wrote on philosophy (Penséés and Lettres écrites à un provincial) and on physics (Concerning the Vacuum, On the Weight of the Mass of the Air, and others) as well as mathematics. He was also credited with inventing the one-wheel barrow, so much more maneuverable than its two-wheeled predecessor, and it was apparently he who came up with the idea of the omnibus as a form of cheap public transportation. (The first omnibus line began soon after in Paris, at a cost of five sous a ride.)

Even within mathematics, his contributions were varied. I previously mentioned his discoveries in projective geometry. Working together with Pierre Fermat, he laid the foundations for probability theory, resolving the "problem of the points". (Briefly: if two gamblers are playing a game on, say, a best-of-nine basis, but must break off when the score is 3-2, how should the pot be divided? Earlier discussions had failed to notice significant questions of probability, but Pascal and Fermat resolved those issues and each came up with a procedure for fair division.) But, of course, he is most famous in connection with "Pascal's Triangle", which I will discuss further under the cut.

( On the Arithmetic Triangle )

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