Some mid-week thoughts:

There was a royal Albanian Sabella family which was overthrown and driven out of the country, eventually settling in southern Italy. My father’s parents were from a small Calabrian fishing village named Porta Canon which was primarily an Albanian-speaking region. Does this mean my family is descended from Albanian royalty? Perhaps, but the fact that they were actually overthrown makes them a more desirable ancestry!

Today was the annual American Math Competition, which is the centerpiece of the competitive math year. Students who do well on this contest qualify for the prestigious American Invitational Math Exam, which helps their college applications. We almost did not participate in this year’s contest because the purchase order was never sent by some unknown person in the central office–and I think it’s better I do not know who was responsible–so I had to phone Nebraska frantically Monday, pay for the contest and overnight shipping with my own credit card at a cost of $302, and then be told by the vice-principal that the district will not reimburse any credit card purchases. *sigh*

If you shop at the Parsippany Shop-Rite, be sure to check out the plaque of this year’s Shop-Rite Stars and you’ll see some of the Math Lab regulars smiling down at you!

Currently Listening: Steve Forbert is an underrated singer-songwriter whose music is on the border of folk and rock. Streets of This Town is one of his finest works.

Currently Reading: Gardner Dozois’ Galactic Empires is a collection of 6 novellas set in the far-future, which range between interesting and outstanding. Good stuff.