Thoughts and Interesting Stories---Jeff Clark

The first (partial) week of classes concludes today. This term I am teaching three classes with a small total number of students (a blessing for grading) but a lot of contact hours; two of the sections are Multivariable Calculus which has so much coherent content that it meets four times a week.  My first grading will begin on Tuesday of next week and my first couple of weeks of lesson plans are already mapped out and yet I haven't had much disposable time this week. Students keep talking to me. This feels weird and not just because of the summer months when it was quiet in my office building. In the Spring I was not successful in encouraging students to come by for assistance; attendance was also poor. The idea of physically being somewhere for academic reasons has become more difficult for the COVID generation, one of the ways the stress of the pandemic played out. (I have not done a research study but this seems to be the consensus of the faculty I have talked to, so I am willin...

Jack Smith's indictments of Trump have focused on Trump alone, mostly. Fanni Willis's indictment included dozens of Trump toadies, including my namesake who was willing to help overturn the election if he would be made Attorney General. My name has been in the news off and on of a while now since the attempted insurrection but now I get to see it daily.  I've had namesakes my entire life and so I don't feel particular ownership of my name. I have a colleague at work sharing my name and emails; the vast majority seem to be wanted by bill collectors, just judging from my experience. I don't think of my children as perpetuating a heritage tied to my family name. They will establish their own heritage and in rearing them I helped in the beginning but that's not really determinate.  If I had to change my name (Witness Protection Program, whatever) I would not stop being me and would not miss it much.

For the longest time I've articulated one phobia that I've had (claustrophobia) although I have other stressors on that spectrum. I avoid window seats on planes because the aisle is the most comfortable location for me for just that reason. I am able to spend almost all of my life without it being triggered (I am not an astronaut, etc.). This past summer I went back to my current yoga instructor and took private lessons to help me to assimilate my knee replacement and how it has affected my strength and flexibility. (I did this once before, right after my knee surgery.) Many of the postures were part of an arc of aging and putting weight on; I am starting from a pretty good place in my twenties and still profit from that investment of time. Unfortunately some of the balance postures triggered something akin to a panic attack:  heart pounding uncontrollably, sweat dripping off my face, etc.  I am contemplative by nature and self-absorbed to the nth degree, so during the closing...

MathFest is an annual mathematics conference, usually held in the first (partial) week of August by the Mathematical Association of America. I just returned from this year's MathFest in Tampa.  For about a decade I attended both it and the Joint Mathematics Meetings in January (which I had begun attending once I was a full-time faculty member) until the MAA pulled out of the JMM over budgeting disputes which were legitimate but too thorny to go into here. Having had the overlap I do have a sense of the difference between the two events, although MathFest has explicitly taken on some of the programming for the MAA (such as award ceremonies) from the JMM.  MathFest always seemed a bit more informal. During the overlap it seemed to always be held in smaller cities than the JMM (such has Madison, WI, Hartford, CT, and Portland, OR) but since the split we have been going to more major cities. Much of the joy for me and from others I have talked with about MathFest is the networking...