Greats of Math

You may wish to visit Wollman Rink in Prospect Park this weekend as it is the last weekend of the season to ice skate there. The other nicer Wollman Rink in Center Park is open for a couple more weeks. This guy Wollman must have been awesome at ice skating.

After reading East of Eden a few weeks ago, my first foray into fiction-reading in years (fiction? It’s like they just make it all up!) I am now reading The Grapes of Wrath, considering writing a collection of biographies called The Greats of Math, and thinking about American mythology around going west and manifest destiny. Also planning a trip to the American west. Thoughts?

Madness: A little history: Carly’s Corner began when March Madness ended last year, because it is crippling insecurity couched in egomania and also because I received such flattering feedback on my weekly March Madness updates, which were fun to write and to read. As the Madness gave way to the Corner last year I was going through difficult times myself (and March Madness helped), but I didn’t imagine the everyday happenings of adulthood would get as difficult as they have been in recent weeks. I guess that’s one of those grim tricks of adulthood. In any case, it might seem fluffy to promote participation in a college basketball tournament, but I guess the thing is that life never stops surprising you with terrible surprises, and once this fact is absorbed, having fun with people you like actually registers as more important than it might initially. And I like you guys. And the NCAA Tournament is truly surprisingly fun: without caring about basketball or college, it is still fun to make picks, to monitor your points, to read my smack-talking commentary. NCAA games can be streamed LIVE! For free! At your desk during the work day! Or better yet, viewed at a local watering hole, with friends. And I’ve been waiting a whole year, but this is something I both saved and continue to be proud of, though it was short lived. Won’t you register and make your picks at the links I sent out earlier this week? I can help! Laughter of a sad person, tears of a clown.

Winter Songs: It’s still winter today, at least, though with the daylight of spring. Twin pleadings: Spare me a little, a Christine McVie song, Save Me a Place, nice one from Lindsey Buckingham.