9

Needless to say, the Nostrumite is in a state of permanent depression over his new roommate, if the Nostrumette can be referred to as such. "I don't know where babies come from," he says--and I'm not going to be the one to explain it to him--"but wherever it is, it's really far away, so they arrive completely jet-lagged. I don't know what time zone she's from, but it isn't Cambridge. She sleeps for an hour, eats for a minute, screams for an hour, poops for a minute, then goes back to sleep again for another hour. And you want me to believe she isn't from really really far away?" Sounds like an LDer to me, but I'll let him draw his own conclusions. In any case, everyone is home and doing fine and, I guess, adjusting to EST.

So some yabbo in the UK reads this blog? That really demonstrates an excess of time on the proverbial hands. Anyhow, the answer is simple enough. Doing the arithmetic always results in a number divisible by 9. Which is, to some extent, a most magic number. With any number divisible by 9, as you know, adding the digits of the number = a number divisible by 9, and vice versa. So, if I just rattle off 1443627111114, knowing that these digits add up to a number divisible by 9 make it a given that the number itself is divisible by 9. Try it. It always works. Lovely. Only Alex explained it correctly (offline), although he writes in Vout, or L33T, or whatever. Since I only speak English, and that only on occasion, our communications are doomed to conclude with me urging him to invest in a spell-checker.

O'C can't judge Districts. He claims he has conflicts, but I claim he's working on a program for HBO Institute called "Sucky Sophs" which is intended for prospective sophomores who go 0-5 at every novice tournament, and who want to learn how to pick up the bye in the random rounds so that they won't look so pitiful on the second day of the tournament. I could be wrong about this, though.

If you're wondering, my DVD recorder is working wonderfully. I've been collecting classic films from TCM. I've done this in the past. I've collected classic films on a Betamax, and on a VCR. I've bought classic films on DVD. Usually the same films. I never watch them, I just collect them. Some day, when I retire, I will catch up on the complete Mickey & Judy. And the Duke. And the brothers Marx. Some day, when I'm awfully low...