IN REMEMBRANCE: Tuesday night, shortly before midnight our time, we heard breaking news that world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking had died at his home in Cambridge, England.
Hawking wound up dying on Pi Day (3.14) and Einstein's birthday. Seems fitting, somehow.
I feel so, *so* fortunate that we were able to share the same space with Hawking on a special evening back in 2012, as part of the (now-defunct) Seattle Science Festival. The photo below is terrible of the kids, but it was a terrific night!
Diagnosed with ALS when he was just 19, it's amazing that Hawking lived as long as he did. (To think that as a young man, he was counseled not to waste money on college, since he'd be dying soon!)
If you haven't seen it yet, we recommend "The Theory of Everything." It was a compelling biopic about a brilliant man.
REJECTING THE SILENCE: Wednesday morning, there was a nationwide school walkout for 17 minutes at 10 a.m. across every time zone to protest lawmakers' inaction to do more than tweet "thoughts and prayers" in response to the gun violence plaguing U.S. schools. The walkouts were primarily student-led.
We didn't have a school to walk out of Wednesday morning, but wanted to mark the occasion in some way. Silence didn't seem like a good way to honor the victims, as there has been too much silence about school shootings. Instead, we chose to read aloud an article from CNN about the victims of the latest mass school shooting, in Florida. Among the 17 dead were kids as young as 14, and adults who died trying to protect children.
The article is overwhelming, of course. Vibrant lives senselessly snuffed out in moments by a disturbed young male who had obvious warning signs, which people around him had reported. And yet, 17 are dead, anyway. How often has this scenario been repeated? How many more times will it be carried out? Why are mass school shootings so common in America?
Obviously, there are more questions than answers, and the answers are complicated, which is part of why people continue to send #ThoughtsandPrayers and then just move along.
PI PARTY: On Wednesday, we helped organize a Pi Party. It wound up being big fun, with 80 plus attendees, I'd guess.
The star of the show was a pi(e) potluck. There were probably 20-plus pies contributed, as well as several pizza pies.
We also shared some Pi Day videos with the group, including an entertaining BrainPOP video (https://www.brainpop.com/math/geometryandmeasurement/pi/) and one from PBS Kids.
We had a recite pi contest, seeing how many digits students could manage to memorize. A friend of the kids' recited pi to the 118th digit, making him the grand champion. The runner up made it to 108, also mighty impressive. (CJ and Annabelle just listened, rather than participating.)
We had cute prizes on hand for the pi reciting people. Right after Valentine's Day, the kids and I were in Wal-Mart and checked out their post-holiday clearance. We spotted these adorable pie slices and I thought, "Bingo! Perfect Pi Day prizes!"
Deeply discounted, they were 74 cents apiece. Score!
We brought pizza to the party, but didn't bake any pies. Instead, we chose to make cookies that look like pie slices. They were fun, and it was pretty easy to pump out a few dozen of them!
The miniature non-pie pies were a hit. I'd definitely make them again.
