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Friday, September 21, 2007

Alternative Algebra

As a surprise for Andrew's birthday, Karen brought him a little memento from their trip to Italy: some toilet paper. True to the cheap chintzy toilet paper they have over there, this toilet paper was 1-ply and the pattern was only printed on one side making one side bumpy (like sandpaper almost) and the other side smooth.

"One-sided toilet paper!" Andrew exclaimed.

We all looked at him.

"Right," teased Reid, "Make sure to pick the paper up from this side because there is no other side."

One-sided toilet paper...that's new. We added it to our toilet paper collection. I'm not sure that we have a toilet paper collection on purpose, but we kind of have one.

L to R: Jordanian, American, Russian, and Italian
You never know when you might need foreign toilet paper. Russian toilet paper can double as streamers (it comes in green and pink, too!). I'm sure there's something useful about the other kinds of toilet paper, besides their intended purpose.

In addition to learning that a 3-dimensional object can be one-sided, I've learned some other interesting things about math these past few weeks.

1) 10 - 2 = 9 --come on, Josie, you could use your fingers for that one.

2) 8 * 0 = 16...or 15 --now she's guessing.

3) Celsius is colder than Fahrenheit --didn't you know? Josie was figuring out a math problem (which she got right, by the way) and the answer was -56 degrees Fahrenheit (44-100 degrees). "Wow," she said, "Wouldn't that feel colder in Celsius?"

And one last fopah, regarding Winnie the Pooh.

My friend Kim and I exchanged clothes for a little bit. I don't have many 0-3 month onesies and Kelli just gave me a whole bunch of 12 month clothes. Kim's girls just turned one and Rachel finally outgrew the "just born" onesies, so we swapped clothes. I found a Winnie the Pooh onesie in the clothes Kim gave me and put it on Rachel.

It fit. That's the first time she's worn a onesie that fit in about 2 weeks.

Josie saw it and asked, "Is Winnie the Pooh a boy or a girl?"

I wasn't sure, but I thought Winnie was a boy. Winnie is kind of a silly name for a boy though, so I looked it up. As it turns out, Winnie used to be called Edward Bear.

"So it's a girl, then?" asked Josie.

No, no, Edward is a boy.

5 comments:

  1. winnie the pooh, was named after Winnipeg... where the author is from

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  2. True enough, but in the book Winnie's name was Edward and then changed to be Winnie later on. Thus, we get the gender of the bear--the toy bear.

    See here

    Milne is from Hampstead, London, by the way, not Winnepeg :) But the original Winnie was named after Winnipeg by the soldier who bought her and donated her to the zoo.

    Do you remember those commercials used to promote nationalism in Canada? There was one about Winnie the Pooh. I was just thinking about that :)

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  3. Oh Josie your antics bring a smile to my face although in the pit of my stomach there is a bit of dread for when my kids are in junior high :)

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  4. wow, Josie actually questioned whether WInnie the Pooh was male or female? How can there be any mistake with the voice and stuff (at least according to Disney)...now, Christopher Robin....you can question there ;)

    Also, other uses for toilet paper: Here in Korea most everyone has a roll of toilet paper on their kitchen table. They use it as a napkin. I have yet to see real "napkins" (whatever that means) in the stores.

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  5. That is great. Winnie the pooh... always assumed it was a boy but I love that you guys got to the bottom of this.... Nancy I just love you how write!

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