Say what you like about Pythagoras of Samos, and you mostly can because nearly all his leading followers have gone and died from embarrassment over being asked to explain what precisely the thing with the beans is about, but here's a bit of legend that really caught me. It's from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, which I never heard of either: ``Pythagoras is said to have had a golden thigh, which he showed to Abaris, the Hyperborean priest, and exhibited in the Olympic games.''
And the remainder is again over on my humor blog. Other items from the past week are:
- Our Rabbit Explains, and he has a clear point of view about the nature of truth and knowledge and baby carrots;
- From The Local News: Pole Barn Controversy Resolved! which is just a bit of good local news;
- To Buccaneer These Alumnae, which came to me through the spam filter;
- Again, Science Makes It Harder, following up a bit on the question of what the universe has been up to all this time;
- Franklin P Adams: To a Thesaurus, another bit of comic verse that I didn't write; and
- Numbers the August 2013 Way, just a bit of statistics-keeping.
Trivia: The first direct telegraphic message from London to Paris was sent in 1852. Source: The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage.
Currently Reading: Naming Infinity: A True Story Of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity, Loren Graham, Jean-Michel Kantor.