Thoughts and Interesting Stories---Jeff Clark

I have been tied to the academic calendar most of my life. When breaks arrive I need them after sprinting to get through the end of a term, but during breaks I have a great mismatch between my expectations of self and what I accomplish. I'm much better in sync during scheduled time, i.e., semesters. So I'm ready to start anew.

I am older and am used to elected leaders that respected fundamental freedoms among all citizens and had serious goals beyond their own enrichment. I will not settle for less.

I like doing crossword puzzles. It's a skill that improves with practice, and I've been doing them for decades. The one thing that really stands out is that the first time I look at a puzzle I often have no clue how to proceed. A bit later in the day I start seeing the answers to some parts, and later more. Eventually the puzzle is done. I've learned that despair when no answer is in sight is often a liar. I've tried not to believe such lies because it was easier to give up and easy things are usually worthless. And so we've hard times ahead with Trump and his minions moving in. I would be more joyful if it didn't have to be. But despair is a lie that is too easy to give in to. My heroes were always in it for the long haul, not because they saw the path but because of their faith in it.

Let us be plainspoken: anyone publicly advocating that emergency aid should be conditioned on obedience to one party is evil. They could well spend their lives atoning for that cruelty but only by relinquishing their grip on power. Otherwise they are monsters, pure and simple.

This makes sense to me. https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/shadow-cabinet?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web  

I haven't had much professional travel since August. It is tiring, more so with each passing year, but still quite an enjoyable change in my routine. I often have more travel in the Spring and a regular August conference.  This coming Spring term (starting in February) I have three trips planned.  The first one is for my regional association, the Southeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America. I've been a member for 37 years and led it for a couple of years, so this is a meeting with lots of friends and acquaintances. This time the meeting is less than an hour from work and I expect that we will also have a number of departmental faculty and students; this is not always true when we meet in other states in the five-state association (AL-GA-NC-SC-TN). I will give a talk and may attend the Executive Committee meeting depending on a couple of things. The second one (giving a talk at the International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics) is to San D...