Eleven till noon. You spent part of the morning reading online material after the Tampa Tribune. In the morning NYTimes science section the theme was puzzles, I would like you to put an example in here.
Okay, I found the information online. There are several articles, I don’t have much of an idea what you exactly want.
“Math Puzzles’ Oldest Ancestors Took Form on Egyptian Papyrus”
By PAM BELLUCK
Published: December 6, 2010 [NYTimes]
“As I was going to St. Ives
I met a man with seven wives. ...”
You may know this singsong quiz, But what you might not know is this: That it began with ancient Egypt’s Early math-filled manuscripts.
It’s true. That very British-sounding St. Ives conundrum (the one where the seven wives each have seven sacks containing seven cats who each have seven kits, and you have to figure out how many are going to St. Ives) has a decidedly archaic antecedent.
An Egyptian document more than 3,600 years old, the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, contains a puzzle of sevens that bears an uncanny likeness to the St. Ives riddle. It has mice and barley, not wives and sacks, but the gist is similar. Seven houses have seven cats that each eat seven mice that each eat seven grains of barley. Each barley grain would have produced seven hekat of grain. (A hekat was a unit of volume, roughly 1.3 gallons.)
The goal: to determine how many things are described. The answer: 19,607.”
***
I thought this was interesting mainly because it is a St. Ives antecedent, hmm, precedent. I thought other articles also interesting, why did you choose this one?
Because the article’s focus is on older puzzles.
What use is it here?
What use are you here?
I am asking the question.
Why?
I don’t get the article’s purpose in this blog.
You did not ask the question for that reason. You asked because you were angry that I did not choose the article about creativity. What do you say to that, boy? – Amorella.
I am not going to deny it. But that isn’t the only reason.
This is what I’m talking about when I say I read your heartansoulanmind, orndorff.
Well, as long as this keeps me honest in these writings, then it appears to be a good thing to me. It helps keep me level even within myself.
Which is it? Do I keep you honest or help keep you honest in context?
I’d like to think that I can keep myself honest, thank you very much.
You are arrogant and prideful.
It would be discouraging to think I can’t keep myself honest.
Can you?
I don’t know. I am naturally inclined to fiction.
Dusk, and you are up from a nap.
I have been thinking, Amorella, about why it is that as honest and as truthful as I want to be, I am still open to self-deception. I know this and have mentioned it before, mostly in reference to Jean Paul Sartre. Why is it in the species best interest to deceive themselves? To deceive others for survival’s or even comfort’s sake is understandable while not exactly fully moral if one is any kind of law abiding citizen of the world. And, while I’m on it, I wonder about the basic civil laws among the Greek Dead.
That’s the puzzle isn’t it? One older than Egyptian math problems. Where would hope be without self-deception?
Such dark and enlightening humor. Wonderful.
That was a serious response, orndorff.
I realize that. Hope is a two-way street just like peace and war. A useful tool for survival skills.
You never know what is useful until it shows itself or it is discovered.
Hope must have just shown up otherwise the Greeks wouldn’t have invented a myth to surround it.
It fits the solar motif, old man. Very basic story-telling.
Then why is there no sun in Elysium?
Daylight is enough to discourage shadows. Elysium is a place to clarify one’s meaning in being, in human existence.
Sophia and Salamon are doing a lot of clarifying.
Do you think of these characters playing the Dead as citizens of Elysium?
No. I think of them as imaginary creatures in an uncompleted novel.
I provide the social rules in these novels, completed or not. – Amorella.
So, I am to figure out the social rules on my own?
The books are not complete, orndorff. When you complete them you can reread them for clarification.
Too much work. I doubt I will reread any of it. I am too old. I’ll be lucky if I live long enough to complete them.
What are you taking notes for?
On the off chance I decide I want to look something up. Better to be safe, besides, how can I create a study without notes? This is the way I do things. Something might come from them.
See, there’s your misbegotten hope. Post, and relax with the national news in a moment or two. – Amorella.
After the twentieth hour and you have finished the next conversational draft.
Strange how it just begins. A couple starts and stops along the way like I am consciously receiving the dialogue in short waves. The last line seems appropriate and romantic on Sophia’s part but I would have expected it more from Salamon. Here it is:
Scene 13, conversation 4; draft 1
What are we doing here, thought Sophia. I have too much to do, too many people to consider. Too much Mother, too much me. She glanced to the right, down at the deeply sleeping stone crusted Salamon. She wondered, what is this all about, Salamon? How long is this relationship going to last?
Such a question. Sophia looked up into the dark sky and grumbled, “Forever in darkness.” Quickly popping into mind, ‘When will we see the light?’ followed, rushing by, ‘Mother knows things,’ as she lowered her head.
She probed with her index finger. Salamon’s cold left arm. ‘Marble. I make cryptal love with marble.’
Transformation with a fingertip’s touch. “You’re awake?”
Sophia grinned, “And, now you are too.”
“I should be tired.”
“You were. Stone cold.”
He quickly reflected, “Every new day is a resurrection.”
“It is not yet morning.”
“Another go?” slipped out.
You are kidding, she thought. What would be the purpose? Where is the meaning when matters are overdone?
Smiling, he reached up and gently pulled her down. “We can cuddle.”
Humored, she coyly teased, “You need to get warm.” And, on their sides, rotisserie-like, the two easily lay arm in arm and feet contentedly caressing. Sophia suddenly realized, We two warm the heavens.
***
I assume I need one more conversation.
You do, but then there is one more part to the scene.
I sort of remember; I’ll have to check my notes.
All for tonight, orndorff. – Amorella.
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