Dramatis persona*

helenhead Helen Chick

I've always wanted a bumper sticker that said "I'm a female, LDS/Mormon, Scout leading, geocaching, piano-playing, bicycling, mathematics educator with a PhD in maths ... and I VOTE"!

I think this makes me a minority group of cardinality 1!

* Since there's only one of me and "personae" is plural (I think), I've gone with dramatis persona.
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Pooh sticks

Jane and I had lunch together with our friend Betty and a friend of Betty’s yesterday (Jane is my friend, mentor and colleague with whom I came to work in Hobart on sabbatical, and Betty used to be the secretary in the Maths Department when I worked there). There’s a lovely little park and walking track on the banks of the Hobart Rivulet, and we found ourselves a nice picnic table in the sun by the creek. After we’d eaten our lunch, Betty, Jane and I went for a walk and came to a bridge. Betty suggested this would be a good place for Pooh sticks, a game she has introduced to her grandchildren (and I’ve played Pooh sticks many times during and since childhood … and read the original story almost as often). Despite the fact that Pooh sticks is/are just as important a piece of cultural/literary knowledge as is 42, Jane had never played.

Thus it was that I conducted a hasty search for some sticks (which were surprisingly difficult to find) and we selected our sticks of choice and stood atop the bridge. In unison we tossed them into the creek below, crossed to the other side of the bridge … and totally failed to see any of them come out the other side. It didn’t help that the bridge was rather narrow (crossing to its other side really only involved turning around and leaning over the other railing!), the creek was a long way below, and the water was flowing rather rapidly. We tested the principle again, this time with a piece of bark, and proved that, in theory, the game would work. Theory is often accepted as proof, so I think Jane was okay with this and now understands the game in principle .

Our game of Pooh sticks was not entirely true to the original, however: no one took Eeyore’s part! This is probably just as well.

2 comments to Pooh sticks

  • We play Pooh Sticks often. (Or Pooh Cones, depending on what’s handy!) I’m glad no one took Eeyore’s part.

  • Linda F

    Pooh sticks has been an essential part of Alison’s education – along with When we were very young and Now we are six. The King wanting ‘a little bit of butter for his bread’ is her personal favourite, closely followed by the raindrops racing down the window. Some things are too important not to pass on to the next generation.

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