Math-poetry connects with Carol Burnett

     When I began teaching mathematics my students compared me -- to my delight -- with Carol Burnett.  Recent thoughts of this amazing comedian have led me to Kevin Spacey's poem, "Carol" that he composed and read (imitating poet and actor Jimmy Stewart) to honor Burnett.  I share with Jimmy Stewart the hometown of Indiana, PA and I reconnected with memories of Carol Burnett this past weekend via NPR's "Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me."   Here is the text of Spacey's 14-line poem:

     Carol Burnett is a wonderful gal
     She always makes me laugh somehow
     All she has to do is put on that silly grin
     And I get this funny feeling all over my chin  

Things to Count On

Tomorrow is my mother's birthday.  Born in 1912, she has been gone for several years now -- and tomorrow my sons and I will travel to Indiana, Pennsylvania to visit her grave and the farmhouse where I grew up.  In honor of my mother, I post this poem (also posted on October 1, 2010) that enumerates ways that numbers were vital in my early life.

Things to Count On            by JoAnne Growney  

Tomorrow is (or is not) Groundhog Day

     Last year my February 1 post anticipated Groundhog Day with a poem that mentioned the crop damage that groundhogs do by tunneling under a field and nibbling the roots of crops.  Today's post was provoked by an "Urban Jungle" item concerning groundhogs in Tuesday's Washington Post. 
     When I was growing up (on a farm near Indiana, Pennsylvania) Punxutawney Phil was merely a local celebrity.  But the TODAY show and Bill Murray's 1993 film (showing at AFI in Silver Spring tomorrow evening) changed all that.  Here, in syllable-square stanzas -- based on the legend and recent climate change developments -- are several groundhog-day comments:

       Today's myth
       passes, the
       world moves on.

Girls and Mathematics

In Indiana, Pennsylvania, my senior high school advanced math teacher was Laura Church--a Barnard College graduate and a flamboyant silver-haired woman who never let any of us suppose that girls could not do mathematics. In college my science scholarship kept me from fleeing mathematics to study literature when I was the only girl in my classes.