It was the Fall semester of 1965, and I was sitting in Dr. Farmer’s Integral Calculus class. Farmer was a young fellow who was probably a math post-doc earning a meager living as a TA. He was an excellent teacher, I thought, and he integrated integral calculus and geometry in a way that was both intuitive and natural. I thrived in his class.
Towards the end of the semester, Dr. Farmer introduced us to infinite series – Taylor and Maclaurin series. I thought these ideas were magical – providing ways of calculating transcendental numbers to whatever precision one desired. I haven’t thought of infinite series in several decades. Alas.
These past few weeks, Susan and I have been watching video series. First, we watched the Tremors movies – a SciFi series from the days we were young docs. Then we watched the Starship Trooper series from when we were young parents. Right now, we are working our way through the James Bond series beginning with the Pierce Brosnan episodes and tonight moving into the Daniel Craig stories. They have all been satisfying.
Among my friends, I count a few who are sports fans. Although I am not one, I respect their interests in these adversarial matches – Baseball in particular though not exclusively.
I don’t know what series we shall indulge next, but I hope that it will bring back good memories if not big smiles.