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Egressing Black History Month, I thought I’d publish my intersection with famous Blacks in the Riverdale section of the Bronx (yes, it is in the Bronx). 

First, and foremost, I met the great Jackie Robinson at PS 81 on a campaign stop for Hubert H. Humphrey (the “Happy Warrior” who lost to Nixon).  This was less than a year before Jackie’s death (at my current age!).  There was something so very majestic about him – a much larger man than I expected, with white hair, and nearly blind. 

Apparently, Willie Mays lived in Riverdale for a time.

I met Stokeley Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture), the father of “Black Power,” in an English class at the Bronx High School of Science.  He had graduated Science 10 years earlier, so what he was doing sitting in class I’ll never know – he didn’t talk to anyone.

Graduating Science in 1976, Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist and distinguished Director of the American Museum of Natural History‘s Hayden Planetarium.

 

Mark Brader’s Rare Entries contest MSB49 begins. This is another Rare Entries contest in the MSB series. As always, reply ONLY BY EMAIL to m s b @ v e x . n e t (no spaces); do not post to any newsgroup. Entries must reach Mark by Saturday, March 4, 2006 (by Toronto time, zone -5).

Where in the World is the World’s first World Sudoku Championship going to be held?  In Lucca, Italy!  Thanks to puzzles.com, here is where you can sign up for a chance to go.

Read about Sudoku, its mathematical foundations, and its relation to Latin Squares, on Wikipedia.  There is even a discussion board.

The Google group (used to be Usenet newsgroup – remember?), rec.puzzles has Rare Entries Contests, the best of which is run by Mark Brader.  The goal is to answer trivia questions with the least popular answer.  For example, the last quiz asked the following:

0. Pick one: heads or tails.
1. Name a country that, according to the current CIA World Factbook, is divided into more than 35 states or provinces as defined in (the revised) rule 4.1.2.
2. Name one of the 13 ranks in the standard deck of playing cards used for games such as bridge.
3. Some organizations have names containing a two-word phrase where one word specifies a color and the other a shape (either a geometrical term or a term commonly used for a stylized shape).  Name a color/shape combination currently used in this way.
4. Give an English word of one syllable that names a color.
5. Name a person who at the age of 50 was playing professionally on a regular basis in some team sport in a league with a high standard of competition.  (Events limited to players over 40, say, would not qualify as a high standard of competition.)
6. Name a country some of whose de facto land territory is also claimed by another country.  Note that rule 4.1.1 applies to both countries; this question is about border disputes, not separatism.
7. Name a person who was assassinated during the 19th century and, at the time, was the head of state or head of government of a country.
8. Name a unit of measurement which has been routinely used to express barometric pressure readings (of the atmosphere on this planet) either to the general public or to meteorologists.
9. Give a single word used in English as a noun to designate a type of gun (in the sense of a handheld firearm).  “Type” does not include brand names, numbers, or any forms derived from these.

Have a go at MSB49.  You will learn something.