It was another week of recuperation on the mathematics blog, but there's always something going there. To wit:
- Reading the Comics, October 4, 2017: Time-Honored Traditions Edition
- Reading the Comics, October 7, 2017: Rerun Comics Edition
- The Summer 2017 Mathematics A To Z: What I Learned
- Reading the Comics, October 12, 2017: Busy Saturday Soon Edition
And, do you know What's Going On In Alley Oop? Here's your July through October update. Meanwhile, last year at Cedar Point:

Me being arty: the ghost of the Mean Streak sign, as seen through the window of the Cedar Point and Lake Erie railroad station's window.

Well hi! One of the skeletal horses --- with a skeleton rider --- set up in the Frontier Town/Old West-themed area of the park for Halloweekends.

A furry! Or at least someone who got into the park wearing a cat costume. Cedar Point ordinarily doesn't allow costumes because, you know, you don't want that whole Scurry Brothers squirrel situation. But, you know, Halloween and some of those things are warm and I wonder if I could get away with my red panda kigurumi this year.

View from inside the Midway Market buffet, showing some of the many banners they have draped from the ceiling for some reason. I mean, the place is better for having them; I just don't know why they do. As this was the last day of the season, they had alllllll the desserts out on the buffet table barely visible behind the guy in the dark red shirt. I might be there, eating, still.

Gift-shop merchandise window that still lists Mean Streak on the backdrop. Included because I was keyed up to looking for remaining evidence of the Mean Streak. All the merchandise for the roller coaster was gone by this point.

Baby dinosaur made of pumpkins and kissing the Blue Fairy.
Trivia: In 18th century England coffee had a reputation as an antierotic drink, something that could dampen sexual energies to the point of impotence. A 1764 broadside was titled The Women's Petition against Cofee, Representing to Publick Consideration the Grand Inconveniences accruing to their SEX from the Excessive Use of that Drying, Enfeebling LIQUOR. Presented to the Right Honourable the Keepers of the Liberty of VENUS. Source: Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants, Wolfgang Schivelbusch. (Schivelbusch's text says 17th century but that doesn't make sense in context.)
Currently Reading: The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution, Alex Storozynski.