M&D spoiler, p. 19: Mathematical joke

[Dan Schmidt]

Penny Padgett <padgett at telestream.com> writes:

| Among the benefits of being married to an engineer:  he can parse
| mathematical jokes.  I showed my husband the question that someone 
| lobs at the Learned English Dog on p. 19:
| 
|   What is the Integral of One over (Book) d (Book)?
| 
| The answer, says he, is log (Book).  Mildly funny for a novel about
| astronomers, and a worthy companion to the GR joke about log Cabin/
| C = Houseboat.

That's log cabin + C, natch.

I actually thought it was kind of cheesy for him to basically reuse a
GR joke, especially considering that the houseboat version is much
better, the '+ C' having no use in the logbook variant.  First thing I
thought was, has he forgotten he's already used this joke?

Am otherwise enjoying M&D greatly, though.  The framing device seems a
little forced; perhaps it will be integrated (ha ha) more later on.  A
few laughs out loud already, notably Dixon's take on backbone.

And lrgh at webtv.net (Linda Highland) writes:

| I just picked up That Book at 10:30 AM at the Harvard Bookstore
| .....second to last copy left!  Although I guess they put them out
| yesterday...the woman who sold it to me (no klueless klerk, she!) said
| that they'd been "melting away" since they put them out......

Oh yeah, I was one of those responsible for their stock diminishing on
the 29th.  Good thing I took listers' advice and tried some independent
bookstores early.  My clerk as well gave me a knowing look.

| The People's Republic of Cambridge is a realistic indicator for the rest
| of America, right?

Urrhm.  What's scary is that I forget that it's not.

Are there other Cantabrigians (or those from nearby areas) about?  The
Boston area seeems underrepresented on the list, or maybe people just
don't normally disclose their whereabouts.

Trying mightily not to fall into 18th-century speak,
Dan

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