Encountered by accident a few days ago, this 2010 book of mathematical entertainments for a general readership:
Yet another occurrence of what I’ve dubbed the Euclid pun, a major groaner that turns on “Here’s looking at you, kid”, a toast attributed to Humphrey Bogart’s Rick to Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa in the movie Casablanca.
Some history on this blog:
on 11/6/13, “Today’s pun”, with a “Here’s looking at Euclid” t-shirt and a reference to Rick’s toast
on 12/4/13, “Euclid again”, with a more complex version of the Euclid pun
on 5/29/16, “Memorial pun”, with a Dan Thompson cartoon incorporating a figure of Euclid
On Bellos, from Wikipedia:
Alexander Bellos (born 1969) is a British writer and broadcaster. He is the author of books about Brazil and mathematics [and football / soccer], as well as having a column in The Guardian newspaper.
The man is also addicted to puns. Among his other pop mathematics books:
Alex’s Adventures in Numberland (Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
Alex Through the Looking-Glass (Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking-Glass)
The Grapes of Math (John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath)
[Correction 3/9/18: See astraya’s comment below. The “Alex” books are just alternative titles for the others.]
March 7, 2018 at 5:21 pm |
When my classmates and I were introduced to one or another of Euler’s theorems and I first heard his name pronounced, I made a note on the divider in my notebook: “Houston Eulers”. Now that that NFL franchise name is retired (the team moved to Tennessee and was replaced by the Texans), we have to go to Edmonton and the NHL for the same bad pun.
March 8, 2018 at 8:28 pm |
There are only two books here, not four. Euclid (US) = Numberland (elsewhere) and Grapes = Looking-glass.
I bought the two (under the Carrollian titles) in Australia last year. I had been reading for some time before I noticed the spellings maths and colour.
The grapes of math doesn’t work for me, because I say/write ‘maths’ and pronounce wrath to rhyme with cloth (with /ɔ/).