A Different Kind of Geekery

Usually, I get my mathematical epiphanies in the shower. Today, though, it happened in the kitchen, as I was making a Gouda-and-ham sandwich.

The concept of Varignon duality, which I discovered in connection with "rho-negative" classes of evengons (polygons with an even number of sides) and which describes, for example, the relation between orthodiagonal and equidiagonal quadrilaterals, turns out to be, with a slight tweak, applicable to *all* classes of polygons with any number of sides, even or odd. (Well, almost. It doesn't apply usefully to some simple classes of evengons, such as trapezoids, but those are a small minority.)

This has Implications. Unfortunately, this is the last week of classes, so I can't give it much attention for another week or two (finals, and grading) - but I'll spend a good bit of Christmas break seeing where it leads.

(I still have to write Taxonomy II; this stuff will be in the revamped Taxonomy III.)

Blatancy

The new CIA Director, Gina Haspel, yesterday gave a closed-door briefing on the Khashoggi affair to (I think) the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They had previously been briefed by Secretary of State Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mattis, who downplayed the involvement of the Saudi crown prince in the murder. Haspel's testimony was, shall we say, rather different. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said that one would have to be "willfully blind" not to see the connection.

I'm rather more interested in what Graham said after that: "If they were in a Democratic administration, I'd be all over them for being in the pocket of Saudi Arabia."

Politicians are usually a *bit* more subtle in their preference for party loyalty over loyalty to the country.

Age

I am old enough to remember Candid Camera - the original, not the much later and weaker revival.

I am old enough to remember its theme song.

I am old enough to have been earwormed by its theme song *all bloody day*.

I'm going to bed.