Recreational Mathematics

[00:00] First thing we got for you this week, Coalson, you got a boomerang for us?
[00:04] I do. It's a holiday season and I was thinking about this, wondered if you guys could help me out.
[00:13] The names of Santa's reindeer. I'm gonna start with Harper. Donner. Donner is one.
[00:22] Joey. Let's go with Brudolph. That is correct.
[00:32] Blitzen. Blitzen is one, yes. That's a stupid name.
[00:44] Boy, the list is running. I really should have learned that song when I was a kid.
[00:50] There's nine of them and you're... Yeah. We got three so far.
[00:56] Grumpy, is that one? Sneezy. No.
[01:04] I think I don't know any more of them. Okay, we'll go to Harper. Dancer. Prancer. Oh, Prancer.
[01:12] Okay, see, that's the thing, they all rhyme. So Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid,
[01:18] Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph. Harper wins this week. Nice work. Do we know who won last week? I
[01:26] don't even think we had a winner last week. I think we just like gave up at some point.
[01:30] Yeah, we did give up. I just had to make it easier. I thought the rhyming would help,
[01:37] but we didn't get into it. Yeah, it was not easier.
[01:42] I don't sing many of the Christmas carols these days.
[01:46] I don't think that's in a Christmas carol. I think it's in a book. It's a story. It's a poem.
[01:51] So don't read children's books very often. Yeah, the night before Christmas and all through the house.
[01:59] Not a creature was stirring. Not even a mouse. That's where that comes from. Yeah, yeah.
[02:08] Yeah. So whoever wrote that came up with all the names. Is that taken as gospel though?
[02:17] For sure. That is Christmas gospel, my friend. And Rudolph wasn't in that one. We've just
[02:26] added him later. You're lucky I gave you that one. He's one of the non-traditional reindeers.
[02:32] Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had a cartoon later and that's why he was connected.
[02:38] And fun fact, Clement Clark Moore wrote, was the night before Christmas.
[02:45] I'm glad we shouted his name out because I've never heard that.
[02:49] I've never heard of that dude in my life. But extremely essential to Christmas lore.
[02:55] Right. Which makes it extremely essential to Christianity. So is he like,
[03:01] you said it was gospel. Yeah, those were Jesus's disciples, I think.
[03:07] Actually, it was Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Clement. And then Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen,
[03:15] Comic Cupid. There's 12 of them there somehow. I want to read that Bible that you've been reading.
[03:25] My parents are so proud right now. Next up, we've got an undegoogleable for you.
[03:34] Gloobles, that was the play. I'm super excited.
[03:46] I told us we had to.
[03:49] We signed up for it. In the end, it's going to be better and more true than Google can give you.
[03:58] And I hope the question is not where do babies come from. It's because that answer is from Victor's
[04:02] album, Vio. That's where babies are made. And the lab that we listened to it in.
[04:07] And the Chinese lab with the genetically altered babies.
[04:14] So I was at a live show at the White Rabbit last night or two nights ago.
[04:22] And one of the bands decided to do a cover of Jet Airplane's White Rabbit song.
[04:31] And I started thinking about it like, Alice in Wonderland is so culturally pervasive.
[04:38] And I don't remember it that well.
[04:43] And I was wondering if we collectively could come up with the plot of Alice in Wonderland.
[04:55] Joey, did you ever read this book?
[04:57] It's been a little while.
[05:00] See, that's yeah.
[05:02] I don't think I've ever read it.
[05:04] You've never read it? Okay, so I remember. So in The Matrix, he has to take one of two pills.
[05:11] And that's a reference to going down the rabbit hole.
[05:19] To going down the rabbit hole.
[05:20] I in fact, I play a game called wiki rabbit hole all the time.
[05:26] So again, it's just part of our vernacular.
[05:32] One of the things that I remember and as I was thinking about this last night was
[05:36] the Jabberwocky. You guys familiar with this poem?
[05:41] I learned it very young and was blown away by it.
[05:44] And I still remember pieces of it.
[05:50] Oh, frabjous day.
[05:51] Kalu kalay.
[05:52] He chortled in his joy.
[05:55] Now, I remember I was asking my dad about this and he was like,
[05:59] it's really clever because none of it's English, but it still makes kind of sense.
[06:04] And it really blew my mind.
[06:09] Welcome to the show, Jason.
[06:11] Jason is back.
[06:13] So gentlemen, we're doing our under Google and Coalson wants us to tell.
[06:22] I need us to piece together Alice in Wonderland.
[06:26] What the hell is that about?
[06:27] Yeah, that's what we were supposed to be doing.
[06:29] And then he just started reciting Jabberwocky.
[06:31] I see.
[06:33] Okay, so this is like she falls down.
[06:40] Well, she chases a white rabbit.
[06:43] Down a rabbit hole.
[06:44] Down a well?
[06:45] Down a rabbit hole.
[06:47] Okay.
[06:47] And ends up in an alternate dimension.
[06:50] Yep.
[06:50] Okay.
[06:51] And then and then there's she takes two pills or one pill makes her grow 10 feet tall.
[07:01] He has something like that.
[07:02] I think that's so the red pill blue pill thing is from the matrix, but it's
[07:07] right.
[07:08] Sort of an allegory, I guess, to earn illusion to Alice in Wonderland, I think.
[07:14] But yeah, there was like the different potions she could take or whatever.
[07:20] Yeah, she eats a cake or drinks something.
[07:24] She hanging out with a witch.
[07:27] Well, no, if I recall, she's my vision is she stuck in a house really big.
[07:32] Like there's a drawing of her like really big and stuck inside a house because she grew too big.
[07:39] Mm hmm.
[07:40] So are these potions just there?
[07:43] Yeah.
[07:43] No, I think she just shows up in this world when she gets down this hole and there's a house.
[07:47] She's hungry and she eats the cake or something like that.
[07:50] Okay.
[07:50] And the cake makes her small.
[07:54] Yeah.
[07:54] And then maybe yeah, I don't know.
[07:56] I don't remember.
[08:00] And I think there was a chess game in there, right?
[08:02] Yep.
[08:03] Definitely a chess game.
[08:04] A giant chess game.
[08:06] And there's the the queen of hearts.
[08:10] And there's the mad hatter.
[08:13] Oh, there's a tea party.
[08:15] Chessire cat.
[08:17] Pretty much nailed it.
[08:18] Yeah, nailed it.
[08:19] Do we?
[08:19] I don't think we've done enough drugs to have this conversation.
[08:22] This is what I'm saying.
[08:23] Like this whole thing is freaking insane.
[08:25] Wasn't there a walrus and a egg man?
[08:31] Coo coo coo choo.
[08:32] And she's selling she sells by the she shore.
[08:40] No, that I don't remember.
[08:41] Or they're selling cakes, mud pies to something.
[08:48] I don't know.
[08:49] I think that the general idea is that she is in this weird universe
[08:56] and she's trying to get out.
[08:58] She's trying to figure her way out, right?
[09:01] And that's where she goes along the path.
[09:02] And that's where she meets the Cheshire cat.
[09:06] It was like an illusion or something like that.
[09:08] And then there's that weird caterpillar dude that like.
[09:11] Oh, the caterpillar smoking dope.
[09:13] Yeah, and then it was dope.
[09:17] Wasn't the the queen trying to kill her off of her head?
[09:22] Yes, I forget why.
[09:28] Well, they're playing chess, right?
[09:29] Aren't they?
[09:30] And does somebody cheat or something?
[09:33] Why are they all cards and they're playing chess?
[09:37] Because there's like a question of that.
[09:42] That's the thing here.
[09:43] If we could just answer that everything else.
[09:44] Where it all falls apart for you.
[09:48] So she just gets trapped in this weird world and she's trying to get out.
[09:53] Does anybody remember how she gets out?
[09:54] Is she saved?
[09:55] So she's she's taken eating a cake and been small or big.
[10:00] She somehow meets a cat and a caterpillar.
[10:06] And there's some tea and there's a mad hatter.
[10:11] There's chess and cards.
[10:13] She eats some mushrooms at some point.
[10:15] Oh.
[10:16] Yeah, that's that's not very even thinly veiled.
[10:22] None of it is thinly veiled.
[10:29] So she gets taken to this world she or she gets there
[10:33] and then she's just trying to get home.
[10:34] That's the 30,000 foot view of this, right?
[10:40] That's my memory of it, yeah.
[10:42] And there was drugs.
[10:43] Lots of drugs, apparently.
[10:45] Lots of drugs.
[10:46] She ate mushrooms multiple times.
[10:48] It did weird things.
[10:52] Is there what's the looking glass?
[10:54] Does she there's she's through Alice through the looking glass.
[10:57] Is that the same book?
[11:01] Could not tell.
[11:02] Is that like a sequel?
[11:04] I think it was a sequel.
[11:06] Okay.
[11:08] Or is that like the name of it?
[11:09] And we just remember it as Alice.
[11:11] I believe there was more than one.
[11:13] Okay.
[11:16] Because if you need to write a drug addled kids book,
[11:19] you might want to write a sequel.
[11:21] Sure.
[11:21] Okay.
[11:22] That's basically my memory of it.
[11:24] There is a walrus and an egg man, right?
[11:27] Yeah, there was.
[11:29] Um, and then there was a talking clams.
[11:33] There was a book and then the there was like a Disney movie, I believe,
[11:39] where they animated all this.
[11:43] I think it was relatively true to it.
[11:47] It seems like most of the story is just her
[11:49] trying to get back to being the right size.
[11:52] Right.
[11:53] Okay.
[11:55] She's drinking lots of unmarked bottles.
[11:57] She drinks a lot and eats a lot of cake.
[12:01] It's so, from what I, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[12:03] That's where I get a bell here.
[12:04] So I think like all the things that your parents told you when you were little,
[12:08] she did everything.
[12:09] She did all the things.
[12:11] They're like, don't eat things from strangers.
[12:13] And she's just like throwing mushrooms down her throat.
[12:17] Unmarked bottles.
[12:18] Chug, chug, chug.
[12:21] And then there's some croquet.
[12:23] Oh, croquet, not chess.
[12:25] Okay.
[12:25] Yeah, the balls and mallets are live animals, apparently.
[12:30] Right.
[12:33] She's in charge of a squealing pig for a while.
[12:39] Okay.
[12:39] There's a school under the sea.
[12:44] I don't remember that part.
[12:45] There's a turtle singing a song about turtle soup.
[12:53] And a griffon.
[12:54] The nave of heart stands trial for stealing the queen's tarts.
[12:59] And that's where the off your head stuff comes in.
[13:04] Right.
[13:05] And so she ends up at the court as a giant.
[13:10] So she's not scared.
[13:13] And then all the cards rise up and attack her and she wakes up.
[13:16] And she wakes up.
[13:18] So where's the jabberwock?
[13:21] It was all a dream.
[13:23] And where's the clam in the water?
[13:27] Walrus in the egg, man.
[13:31] I don't know.
[13:32] Next week, you can read it to us.
[13:34] No.
[13:35] Okay.
[13:35] So this is the sequel.
[13:37] Apparently Alice through the looking glass is where all that stuff comes in.
[13:42] So the caterpillar gives her the mushroom and that's how she controls her size.
[13:50] By eating the mushrooms.
[13:53] Oh, so it's like a Super Mario Brothers.
[13:57] Yeah.
[13:57] Magic mushrooms.
[13:59] Mm hmm.
[14:03] So the Adventures of Wonderland came out in 1865.
[14:07] And the sequel through the looking glass was 1871.
[14:14] Where everything's backwards.
[14:17] And everything is reversed, including walking to stay stationary.
[14:30] And that's where chess is involved.
[14:32] And the jabberwocky and the walrus and the carpenter, not the egg man.
[14:39] And Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb are in the looking glass one as well.
[14:45] And Humpty Dumpty.
[14:46] So my mind had combined the two of those things, apparently.
[14:51] Lewis Carroll was a pseudonym, which I didn't realize, for Charles Letwidge Dodgson.
[14:58] Mm hmm.
[15:00] So what was the overall message of these books?
[15:06] What's the lesson of these things?
[15:08] It's just super tricky.
[15:10] So the end of the second book, the last line says life.
[15:15] What is it but a dream?
[15:20] So I don't know if that helps.
[15:22] It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre.
[15:26] I did not know that was a thing.
[15:30] Coalson, that's where your book falls into.
[15:34] It's definitely true.
[15:35] You're in the number two slot.
[15:38] Fantastic.
[15:40] I remember reading this as an adult and just not understanding, like understand even less
[15:48] than what I did when I was younger.
[15:50] Yes.
[15:52] That's the thing.
[15:53] Children are more open to nonsense than you are, Joey.
[16:02] So Dodgson was a mathematician as well?
[16:05] Yeah.
[16:05] Did he lose care?
[16:06] There's some weird stuff in the second chapter, a pool of tears
[16:11] about multiplication and different base systems.
[16:22] He's a nerd.
[16:22] Primarily in the fields of geometry, linear and matrix algebra,
[16:27] mathematical logic and recreational mathematics.
[16:30] Ah, old recreational mathematics.
[16:33] That's where you do some drugs and
[16:38] it's a good Saturday night.
[16:42] Yes, it's killing.
[16:44] Yeah.
[16:47] Sweet.
[16:48] Well, I think we learned a lot here.
[16:50] Did we?
[16:51] I think we learned that there are some genres that I didn't realize that existed.
[16:56] Was it nonsense?
[16:57] What is it nonsense?
[16:58] Literary nonsense.
[16:59] Literary nonsense.
[17:02] All right.
[17:03] I think he was super stoked when he's probably started that genre.
[17:06] I think he was super stoked when they named that genre.
[17:08] Yeah.
[17:11] Also, I just realized that it was Jefferson Airplane, not Jet Airplane
[17:17] that wrote White Rabbit.
[17:19] I was so confused.
[17:21] That's like, I don't know what you're talking about.
[17:24] My memory of things is good.