Archive for August 10, 2018
There Are 2 Things that Happened Yesterday…
Yesterday was a banner day.
Last night, I was finally able to carve out some time to binge-watch Season 2 of Trial & Error, and I was rewarded with a classic math joke in Episode 1. When lead investigator Dwayne Reed arrives at the house of accused murderer Lavinia Peck-Foster, he says:
There are two things that Reeds don’t trust: doctors, Pecks, and math.
I love it!
Upon realizing that I might be able to get my sitcom-writing career off the ground by reformulating stale math jokes, I promptly submitted my resume to NBC.
But, wait… there’s more!
Earlier in the day, I received NCTM‘s email newsletter Summing Up, which contained an unexpected surprise. In the section titled “NCTM Store,” there was a blurb about my most recent book, More Jokes 4 Mathy Folks, under the headline Just Published!
I had no idea that NCTM decided to sell my book, let alone that they were going to publicize it. My ignorance not withstanding, I couldn’t be more delighted!
If you’re looking for some great, light summer reading — something that can be enjoyed poolside while sipping a mojito — then pick up a copy of More Jokes 4 Mathy Folks from NCTM today! Not only will your purchase support a great organization (and my sons’ college fund), you’ll also receive a 20% discount for being an NCTM member.
Following the lead of Dwayne Reed, here are jokes that begin, “There are n kinds…,” all of which appear in More Jokes 4 Mathy Folks:
- There are only 2 kinds of math books: those you cannot read beyond the first sentence, and those you cannot read beyond the first page. (C. N. Yang, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1957)
- There are 2 kinds of people in the world: those who don’t do math, and those who take care of them.
- There are 3 kinds of people in the world: positive, negative, and relative.
- There are 2 kinds of people in the world: those who are wise, and those who are otherwise.
- There are 2 kinds of statistics: the kind you look up, and the kind you make up.
- There are 2 kinds of experienced actuaries: those who say they have made significant forecasting errors, and liars.
- There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.
- There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and 9 others.
- There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand ternary; those who don’t understand ternary; and, those who mistake it for binary.
- There are 11 kinds of people: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.
- There are 8 – 3 × 2 kinds of people in the world: those who correctly apply the order of operations, and those who don’t think that 6 ÷ 2 × (1 + 2) = 9.
- There are 2 kinds of people in the world: logicians and ~logicians.
- There are 2 kinds of people in the world: those who can extrapolate from incomplete data…