June 27, 2005
Eugene Strens collection
While in Calgary, I briefly visited the Eugene Strens Collection of materials on recreational mathematics. Richard Guy directed Martin Demaine and me to the twelfth floor of the main library on the University of Calgary campus—"We'll tell them a Guy sent us," said Martin. From the web page of the collection:
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History
The collection was established in 1983. It was acquired from the family of the late Eugene Strens. Eugene Strens was an engineer, amateur mathematician, and a friend of the mathematical artist Maurits Escher. Strens lived in Breda (Netherlands) and collected over two thousand items mostly books but also newspaper clippings, periodical issues, and manuscripts. The collection is being developed by donations from authors and other collectors, and by purchase.
Description
The aim of the collection is to be as comprehensive as possible in the areas of intuitive and recreational mathematics. All periods and all geographic areas are included although the emphasis of the material is on the Western world. Journals are included and there are clippings of columns from early journals. Rare books and manuscripts are present. The collection can be used by non-specialists but is primarily aimed at specialists.
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To look at stuff from the collection, you have to look up accession numbers from a database (which you can access online at that link, above) and then give the numbers to the curator, who brings out the goodies. I find this an unsatisfying way to browse, but Martin, Steve Norman and I were also permitted a brief look into the collection itself, which occupies a big portion of library stacks behind the main room. It's full of rare manuscripts and books on recreational mathematics. I could have easily spent days prowling around in there. Martin Demaine said that Don Knuth had spent ten days there.
Work vs Jobs
From Jeffrey Steingarten's review of Tom Hodgkinson's book How to be Idle, in the Sunday NYT:
The chief problem with modern life is not work in itself. It is jobs. In 1993 Hodgkinson founded the British magazine The Idler, on whose Web site he succinctly sums up the horrors of having a job: "With very few exceptions the world of jobs is characterized by stifling boredom, grinding tedium, poverty, petty jealousies, sexual harassment, loneliness, deranged co-workers, bullying bosses, seething resentment, illness, exploitation, stress, helplessness, hellish commutes, humiliation, depression, appalling eithics, physical fatigue and mental exhaustion." Yes, that pretty much sums it up. On this we can all agree.
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