swords into teddy bears
Resolute readers,
I bring you some popular mathematics, a reminder about Wednesday's NYC reading, and some recently admired art.
Math first! I wrote the April AMS Feature Column about one of the most adorably named theorems I know, which I've translated as "The Teddy-Lambkin Theorem". I realized I didn't have time to learn 3D modeling, so I made illustrations the old-fashioned way, with polymer clay. Here are my semialgebraic bear and sheep after I'd just pulled them out of the oven:
I used Warhammer model paint to color the white clay, which means this gentle brown is Bloodreaver Flesh color--proof, perhaps, that one can always turn a sword into a teddy bear.
The KGB reading in Manhattan is coming up fast! If you will be in New York City on Wednesday the 9th, please join us:
Fantastic Fiction also has a podcast; if you can't make it, there will be a chance to listen later.
I spent Saturday at a protest that began on the steps of the Detroit Institute of Arts and stretched along Woodward Avenue. I saw some tremendous signs, including painted portraits of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Frida Kahlo, a hostile cardboard cybertruck in bas-relief, a bold declaration that "The revolution will not be televised," and a hopeful Elmo. Before the protest started, I visited some less ephemeral art. Tiff Massey's sculpture installation made me think about the commonalities between my childhood in 1980s Baltimore and her childhood in 1980s Detroit. A different special exhibit featured nineteenth-century embroideries with faces in watercolor and leaves and dresses in feathered silk. Here I am admiring the world.
Meanwhile Kosmas and Gennoveus have been practicing tessellations:
I hope your coziness supports your adventures (and vice versa).
Yours very truly,
Ursula.