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Spent the afternoon with my niece
Winter Rose is staying at my parents for the week. She and her brother have been getting weeks at "Grandparent Camp" and "Auntie Leila and Uncle Bear Camp" this summer -- going to Wayland to stay with my folks, and going to Florida to stay with my sister and her fiance. Just one kid at a time -- they don't have to share the experiences with their sibling -- doing stuff with your sibling is good, too, but getting your grandparents and aunts and uncles to your self is better.
So Winter is in town this week, and I went over this afternoon to see her. She's a wonderful person. One of the first things about her is that she's really well-behaved. And, y'know, there are some kids for whom being well-behaved comes at least SOMEWHAT naturally. Not Winter and Drew -- they, by temperament, are little devils, but their parents have actually instilled manners and behavior into them. That's why it's worth mentioning -- this is something that is an effort for her, that she nonetheless manages. I'm always impressed by that whenever I see her -- and the same is true for her little brother.
Another thing about her is that she is really talented at math. And by "math", I do not mean "arithmetic" -- she's good at arithmetic only because she actually UNDERSTANDS how it works. She was having fun being annoying at me with the "Why?" game, and we'd managed to get to "because you're nine" "why?" "Because last year you were eight" "why?" "because eight is one less than nine, and if you add one to it, you get nine" "why?" "because if you define the set of non-negative integers as set S, and define 'zero' as the cardinality of the empty set, and we define 'addition' as. . . " "SIMPLIFY YOUR ANSWER!"
I would have, too, if I actually understood what I was saying, instead of trying to spew a half-remembered lecture that a friend gave me a while back. But note: Winter's genuine reaction to that is that, if I did even a halfway competent job of EXPLAINING what I was talking about, she would have understood it. And she's right. She would have. She has an excellent logical mind and can grasp mathematical relationships very well.
So I taught her one of the card tricks I know that is based on noting positional differences of cards, which she understood immediately.
We also went out for Chinese food, and the people at the next table complimented her on how gorgeous her hair is. And the same thing happened at Ben and Jerry's where we went for free cone day. She gets so annoyed at that, but does her best to accept the compliments gracefully. Yes, she does have piles of red ringlets on top of her head, and, yes, it IS adorable, but she gets so tired of hearing it all the time.
So Winter is in town this week, and I went over this afternoon to see her. She's a wonderful person. One of the first things about her is that she's really well-behaved. And, y'know, there are some kids for whom being well-behaved comes at least SOMEWHAT naturally. Not Winter and Drew -- they, by temperament, are little devils, but their parents have actually instilled manners and behavior into them. That's why it's worth mentioning -- this is something that is an effort for her, that she nonetheless manages. I'm always impressed by that whenever I see her -- and the same is true for her little brother.
Another thing about her is that she is really talented at math. And by "math", I do not mean "arithmetic" -- she's good at arithmetic only because she actually UNDERSTANDS how it works. She was having fun being annoying at me with the "Why?" game, and we'd managed to get to "because you're nine" "why?" "Because last year you were eight" "why?" "because eight is one less than nine, and if you add one to it, you get nine" "why?" "because if you define the set of non-negative integers as set S, and define 'zero' as the cardinality of the empty set, and we define 'addition' as. . . " "SIMPLIFY YOUR ANSWER!"
I would have, too, if I actually understood what I was saying, instead of trying to spew a half-remembered lecture that a friend gave me a while back. But note: Winter's genuine reaction to that is that, if I did even a halfway competent job of EXPLAINING what I was talking about, she would have understood it. And she's right. She would have. She has an excellent logical mind and can grasp mathematical relationships very well.
So I taught her one of the card tricks I know that is based on noting positional differences of cards, which she understood immediately.
We also went out for Chinese food, and the people at the next table complimented her on how gorgeous her hair is. And the same thing happened at Ben and Jerry's where we went for free cone day. She gets so annoyed at that, but does her best to accept the compliments gracefully. Yes, she does have piles of red ringlets on top of her head, and, yes, it IS adorable, but she gets so tired of hearing it all the time.
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She just doesn't like that that's the ONLY thing that strangers comment on.
But she was much more pleased when I pointed out that, because it's the only thing strangers notice, she could rob a bank, and then just put on a hat, and nobody could identify her.
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It's readable, though not exactly a page turner, and Conway's approach is both A) the one you seem to remember, and B) specifically designed to not need any particular background.
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