CLOSE UP Video Interviews

Your correspondent participates in a Scrabble group which used to meet at some place where we could eat, drink, talk and, yeah, play some scrabble. We've made the switch to online Scrabble and although there are digital options for multiplayer scrabble games such as through POGO,  we have been sticking to the tactile experience and playing via Zoom. There has been some contention about the play of certain words such as "jew" as a verb, especially since the "j" is worth 8 points! In the 2020 version, "jew" is gone as is "wop" and "wog" from the handy 3-letter word list.

Download Improved 2020 Scrabble Cheat Sheet.pdf (219.4K)

In 2013, Kim Hyunh got so tired of hearing about fantasy football from the guy she was then dating that she joined his league. He was the league commissioner and she went from on to beat him - and perhaps, not coincidentally, break up with him. Now she's a league commissioner herself. Her teammates,all guys, liked her idea of having a rubber ducky race to determine draft order and of having a weekly challenge. And how could they veto the "Kim"missioner? She wishes more girls would play. Watch video here. And in  this video she explains how fantasy football works and her current role as commissioner of her own fantasy league, the "Ducking Awesome League."

At the Mount Airy Village Fair, Urban Athlete trainers challenged passersby to try to shake two heavy ropes in undulating rhythms and sustain it for a minute. Not easy! Watch video here.

Every Friday night and Sunday afternoon Bingo happens at the Sallmen’s Social Center and Bingo Hall in New Castle, Pa. All proceeds go toward organizations like the American cancer society or an individual or family in need says Marylou Diaz who operates the hall. On a recent night players were after a $450 jackpot and many were playing multiple cards to increase their chances of winning. Watch video here.

Janet Maines has been playing Bingo ever since her grandmother introduced her to the game when she was only 5 and now she travels all around to play.  “In 1998, in Clarksburg, West Virginia, I won $20,000.” At the Sallmen’s, Maines exhibited a talent for carrying on a conversation while playing nine Bingo boards at a time. When a number is called her eyes scan in a zigzag pattern through the boards as her hand is poised, dauber ready, to stamp every appearance of the called number. Watch video here.

We arrived at the Museum of Math one hour before closing on a Saturday in late summer and zipped through it. The exhibits deserved more than the limited time we gave them and these videos, summarized below, will help us understand what we experienced with the intriguing interactive demonstrations. GO MO MATH!

SHAPES OF CONSTANT WIDTH You sit on a boat-shaped platform above a field of irregularly shaped objects and yet glide rather smoothly over them because these objects, such as the Meissner tetrahedron, all have the same constant diameter whichever way they roll.

SQUARE WHEELS, CATENARY CURVES You ride a tricycle with square wheels without any problem. This is because the surface you are riding on is catenary curved (hyperbolic cosine). And, for any shaped wheel, there is a corresponding road that will facilitate locomotion.

A SPECIAL SQUARE When you and others step upon this large lit-from-below square, the square divides into as many differently colored geometric areas as there are people and each point within any one’s area is closer to that person than to any one else.

THE HUMAN FRACTAL TREE On a projection screen, a copy of your body is copied where your arms are and on those projections, your body is again copied where your arms are and so on, forming a fractal pattern of you as a tree.

SOLIDS OF REVOLUTION SLICED TWISTED, REATTACHED AND ROLLED Solids of revolution are cut along the axis of symmetry and then twisted and reattached to form an asymmetric object which then describes a distinct path when it rolls and it’s your job to match up each object with the trail it makes.

The "Toydozer" was invented by a Wyndmoor, Pa mom who modeled it after a shoebox she was using to scoop up her six-year old's Legos. It  looks like a large, plastic dustpan and comes with a scoopy thing that looks like the curved blade of a bulldozer. The idea is if it's a toy, moms will get relief because kids will use it clean up their toys themselves. In this video, Molly Ellis, co-owner of Threadwell, an embroidery shop in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, which retails the 'dozer for $18.99 in a choice of bright colors, demonstrates how it works.