My math publication

My only mathematics "publication"

In 1984, The Mathematical Intelligencer magazine asked for pithy definitions of applied and pure mathematicians. A definition just came to me, I got an honorable mention for it, and it was printed in the magazine, as you can see in the lower right above:

   An applied mathematician loves the theorem.
   A pure mathematician loves the proof.

I still like this a lot.

Autographs ― Walter Mosley

I have not yet read any of Mosley's books. I decided to attend his talk at this past weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I knew they would have his newest book for sale, but I wanted to start with one of his earliest, so I bought this one the night before at Vroman's.

(Index of autographs)

Autographs ― Lawrence Wright

I have always enjoyed Wright's work in The New Yorker, and our book group discussed The Looming Tower back in 2006.

Until I read about this new book, I didn't know he lived in Austin. I went to hear him at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this past weekend, and I bought this book. When I was getting his autograph, I told him I had been born and raised in San Antonio, went to Rice, then came to USC for grad school.

(Index of autographs)

An apparently religious boy

Chip Levine Memorial Award (CLMA) 

Rodney Hoffman

for Devotion to Jewish Studies, 1964

To all appearances, I was quite a religious boy. I'll say why, and then talk about what happened.

We didn't go to services every week, but we did go on major holidays and some other occasions. 

I started kindergarten at the synagogue, learning to read before I entered first grade. 

I went to Sunday School through confirmation at age 16. I won the Jewish Community Center's Bible Bowl (named and modeled after TV's College Bowl). 

I went to Hebrew School twice a week. Almost everyone stopped going to Hebrew School after Bar Mitzvah, but because my Bar Mitzvah was in October, and I had already begun the new academic year, I finished out that year, almost a full extra year of Hebrew School. Because of that, in May, I won the gold watch pictured above. 

I was in SAFTY, the San Antonio chapter of the the North American Federation of Temple Youth, and went to SAFTY and TOFTY (Texas) events. I won one of the Temple's four camperships to NFTY's Hagigah, a two-week arts camp in Warwick, NY. 

In college, I went to quite a few Hillel events. In grad school, I still went to a few.

But starting years earlier, I found the number of religions, each claiming The Revealed Truth, baffling and impossible and the very idea of God dubious. Conflicts between religion and science, historical and current, pushed me away from religion. Coming to terms with being gay was the final breaking point.

I have now been an atheist for decades. My hatred of religion has only grown over the years. I think raising children to be religious is child abuse. (See all my blog posts tagged 'religion.')

I reluctantly attend religious weddings and funerals, but otherwise I don't even step into churches, temples, or cathedrals. I respond negatively to anyone pushing their religion in my face, including fish on cars and crosses on homes, saying, if only silently, "Keep it to yourself!"