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12.29.2006

Joke time

Each semester, I offer students a last chance for extra credit by writing their favorite joke or riddle on their crib sheet, with extra credit assigned based purely on how funny I think it is. This semester’s pickings were a little scarce, with most of these jokes being repeated at least once. In fact, the single joke I got the most often was

Q: Why is 6 afraid of 7?
A: Because 7 8 9.

which means I’m retiring this one from extra credit anymore. Fortunately, there were a few gems, and here they are without further ado.

Mathy contributions

Q: What’s this?

A: A cow pi.

Q: What did one angry function say to the other?
A: “You better shut up before I kick your ‘x‘!”

Q: How do you pick-up chicks in a Calculus I class?
A: “I wish I was your derivative, ‘cuz I wanna be tangent to your curves.”

Q: How do you pick-up chicks in a Calculus II class?
A:

Q: You are standing in the center of a square-shaped room whose walls are thirty feet long. In each corner stands a different person: Sanda Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and a smart blonde. At the same moment, they begin to walk towards you at 5 miles per hour. Who will reach you first?
A: None. None of these are real.

A mathematician came home at 3:00 AM after a night on the town. His wife angrily screams “You’re late! Yous said you’d be here by 11:45,” to which the mathematician replies, “No, I’m right on time: I said I’d be home at ‘a quarter of twelve.’”

Two hyperbolas were sitting on a plane. One hyperbola says to the other “I wish I could oscillate.” The other one replies, “Holy crap! A talking hyperbola!”

Other good ones

Q: How many ADD kids does it take to scre in a light bulb?
A: Let’s ride bikes!

Q: What do you call a deer with no eyes?
A: No-eye deer.

Q: What do you call a deer with no eyes or legs?
A: Still no-eye deer.

Q: What do you get when you mix and elephant with a rhinoceros?
A: Elephino.

Q: What do you say to a two-headed monster?
A: “Hello, hello!”

Ghandi’s diet wasn’t exactly the greatest. It head to both terrible breath and a weakened body. Moreover, since he wore nothing but sandals, his feet were very rough. So does this make Ghandi a super-caloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis?

A young mother gave birth to twin boys, but being poor she had to give them up for adoption. One boy went to a family in Egypt, where they named him Ahmul. The other boy went to a family in Spain, where they named him Juan. When Juan grew up, he decided to send a picture to his birth mother. When the picture arrived, the mother was at first ecstatic, but then suddenly started to cry. When her husband asked what was wrong, she said, “Oh, I wish a had a picture of our other son too!” The husband smiled and replied, “Honey, they’re twins. If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Ahmul.”

A blonde got a job working at a Tickle-Me Elmo factory. Her boss put her on the Quality Control line, thinking nobody could screw that job up. The next day, though, the boss cam in to find the blonde sewing to walnuts onto the crotch of each Elmo toy. Appalled, the boss cried, “What are you doing? All you had to do was give each doll two test tickles!”

A blonde and a brunette were walking in the park when the brunette made a terrible gasp and said “Oh no, a dead bird!” The blonde looks up to the sky and asks, “Where?”

A duck walks into a bar and asks the bartender “Got any grapes?” The bartender says “No” and the duck leaves. The next day the duck walks into the bar and asks the bartender “Got any grapes?” The bartender says “No, we don’t serve those here” and the duck leaves. The next day the duck again walks into the bar and asks the bartender “Got any grapes?” The bartender, irritated, says “No, we don’t serve those, and if you come in and ask again, I’m gonna staple that beak of yours to the floor!” and the duck leaves. The next day the duck walks into the bar and asks the bartender “Got any staples?” The bartender says “No.” The duck asks, “Got any grapes?”

Three guys walk into a bar. You figure the third one would’ve ducked.

A blind man walks into a bar… ouch. He gets up as says, “Well I didn’t see that coming!”

A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

And the winner is…

A brunette, a redhead, and a blonde walk into a bar. The bartender tells them about a magic mirror in the back room that, if you told it something true, would reward you with a sack of gold. However, her cautioned, if you told it something false, you would disappear forever. Intrigued, the girls went into the back room. The bruentte stood before the mirror and said, “I think… that I’m the prettiest girl here.” Poof! A sack of gold appeared. The redhead stood before the mirror and said, “I think… that I’m the smartest girl here.” Poof! A sack of gold appeared. The blonde stood before the mirror and said, “I think…” Poof! She disappeared.

Filed under: Math musings, Humor

12.26.2006

The reason for the season

Another Christmas has come and gone, but this year was the first time I’ve done the holiday with a baby.  Given that she’s only a nine-month-old kid from a predominantly Buddhist country, the Ladybug ain’t entirely clued into the whole Christmas concept, and the days before the big exhange-a-thon were no different than any other day to her: good for playing around and exploring the world around her:

Nevertheless, I felt compelled to try and explain the basic principles of the holiday.  I explained to her that Christmas was the day in which we, as Christians, celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ some two millenia ago in Bethlehem by wearing floppy red conical hats and opening brightly wrapped boxes of gifts delivered the night before by a happy fat man who pilots a supersonic flying sleigh filled with toys manufactured by elves who live in the freezing ice fields of the Arctic.  I think she took that explanation pretty well:

The Queen B, on the other hand, felt compelled to participate in that most sacred of Christmas traditions: bringing the Ladybug to see Santa Claus.  I myself do not understand the parental appeal of terrifying your children by plunking them in the lap of an obsese man reeking of eggnog and baby spit, but I nevertheless dressed her up in her finest Chinese gown and hauled the Queen B and her over to the Mall to meet the Fat Man himself.  For her part the Ladybug did a good job dealing with it for a full three minutes before the inevitable panic set in.  And we got some pictures for the Christmas letter. Hi! My kid is terrified of this guy!  Merry Christmas!

As for the big day itself, we bought remarkably little for the Ladybug.  This was partly due to the fact that her grandparents, aunts, and uncles FedExed her box after box of presents, so she wasn’t really at a loss for stuff, but mostly due to the fact that the Ladybug is more interested in tearing up kleenex and opening up boxes than with playing with any of her toys.  For my part, all I got her was a box of tissue paper wrapped in a box of tissue paper wrapped in a box of tissue paper and let her go at it.  It worked!

I jest.  The Ladybug made out pretty good, actually.  She got an edutainment center, a number of block books, a full wardrobe of clothes, and several of toy animals of both the stuffed mammalian and the plastic entomological species.  It was, however, a long process, since the Ladybug was always less interested in the toy she just unwrapped than either the box it came in or the paper it was wrapped in.  In fact, it was only by the incessant prompting of the Queen B (in the form of snatching up all the discarded wrapping paper and plunking another box in front of the kid) that we were able to get through it in the twenty-four hours allotted for the 25th, and by the end of it, the Ladybug was beat.

As for me and the B?  We did all right.  I got a super-skinny, super-high-tech DVD player to replace my ancient, stone-aged, outdated, one-year-old model, while she got a bitching nail gun and a Chinese iPod. 

Of course, the Queen B and I cheated this Christmas, since we already opened the best present ever had a full month early…

Sappy, yeah, but it’s Christmas.  Hope you had a good one too!

Filed under: Pictures, The Ladybug

12.25.2006

Merry Xmas!

Sorry, sorry, sorry that I haven’t updated the site since I left for China, but it’s been really busy ’round these parts, what with jet lag and final exams and Christmas shopping and… what was that other thing?  Oh that’s right… becoming a dad!  Yup, the Ladybug is home!  I plan on filling in the details of her story over the next few days, but in case you haven’t seen her yet, let me introduce the Ladybug as a dancing elf.

I’ve got oodles and oodles of pictures and anecdotes to share, and I promise to get crackin’ on that… well… next, but to hold you over just a tad bit longer, here are two holiday questions for you to ponder.

1. How does a mathematician wish you a merry Christmas?
[ Answer. ]

2. How does an engineer prepare for a merry Christmas?
[ Answer. ]

Happy holidays everyone.  See y’all soon.