Jen Is Famous

1 Sexy Stomach Rule

jen — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:09:15 +0000

This was on an online dictionary website:

I think I know what the sexy stomach rule is!

Try giving birth!!! And also being a completely different person!

Monday Math Problem: Danica’s Endorsement Deals

jen — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:54:29 +0000

Every Monday, I’ll be posting a math problem on this site; every Friday, I’ll post the answer to that week’s problem. Give this one a shot and post your solution in the comments!

This Week’s Math Problem:

Danica leaves her house and drives exactly 30 miles due west at 45 miles per hour before realizing that, as she is on her way to the racetrack to drop off her racecar, she really ought to be driving the racecar rather than the Prius. So she turns around and drives back home over the same route at the same speed.

When she arrives back home, she gets in the racecar and drives due west for 120 miles at 360 miles per hour.

After dropping off the racecar, she gets on a bus going due north and goes 202.5 miles at 15 mph, then gets off the bus and transfers to a Segway, on which she travels (also due north) 67.5 miles at 22.5 miles per hour. She then trades in the Segway for a pogo stick (only because of an endorsement contract from Northway Pogo) and travels 10 miles (also due north) at 30/19 miles per hour. She decides that, endorsement be damned, anything is better than traveling by pogo stick, at which point she transfers to the back of a tortoise traveling due north, and travels 15 miles at .6 mph. At this point, she is joined by her blind date, who, having noticed that both of their online dating profiles mentioned the movie Secretary, suggests she crawl due north for 18 miles at 1.5 miles per hour, which she does. The blind date doesn’t work out, at which point Danica looks up and sees that she could’ve been traveling by cable car this whole time. Fortunately, she is precisely at the cable car stop, and then travels by cable car (also due north) for 97 miles at 19.4 mph.

After getting off the cable car, she picks up the new car she will be endorsing. She has a bit of trouble with the new car’s speedometer, but ultimately travels back home via the shortest possible route, the straight line distance from her current position to home, at √1168 (the square root of 1168) miles per hour. What was Danica’s average speed for the journey, disregarding any time spent not traveling? Please submit answers in fraction form.

Spelling Word of the Day: atomic weight 223

jen — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:15:59 +0000

Every day of 2010, I’ll be posting a spelling word here for those who would like some spelling bee practice. Photo at right is from the Williamsburg Spelling Bee, as photographed by Kimi Milo.

Start the audio file to hear the word, definition, and etymology. Once you’ve spelled the word for yourself, click “Read More” to see the answer.

(more…)

Spelling Word of the Day: moving forward-ly

jen — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:46:13 +0000

Every day of 2010, I’ll be posting a spelling word here for those who would like some spelling bee practice. Photo at right is from the Williamsburg Spelling Bee, as photographed by Kimi Milo.

Start the audio file to hear the word, definition, and etymology. Once you’ve spelled the word for yourself, click “Read More” to see the answer.

(more…)

Spelling Word of the Day: a doughnut-shaped chamber used in fusion research

jen — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:46:13 +0000

Every day of 2010, I’ll be posting a spelling word here for those who would like some spelling bee practice. Photo at right is from the Williamsburg Spelling Bee, as photographed by Kimi Milo.

Start the audio file to hear the word, definition, and etymology. Once you’ve spelled the word for yourself, click “Read More” to see the answer.

(more…)

Monday Math Problem: The Answer to “Divisibility of Your Mom”

jen — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:56:22 +0000

Every Monday, I’ll be posting a math problem on this site; every Friday, I’ll post the answer to that week’s problem. Give this one a shot and post your solution in the comments!

This Week’s Math Problem:

If m is your mother’s age rounded to the nearest integer, and there is a number n such that n is the square of m, and 45 < m < 65, what are all of the possible numbers of unique prime factors n could have?

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Spelling Word of the Day: starring Nathan Lane

jen — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:46:09 +0000

Every day of 2010, I’ll be posting a spelling word here for those who would like some spelling bee practice. Photo at right is from the Williamsburg Spelling Bee, as photographed by Kimi Milo.

Start the audio file to hear the word, definition, and etymology. Once you’ve spelled the word for yourself, click “Read More” to see the answer.

(more…)

Paul Wing’s Spelling Bee, Circa 1938

jen — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:37:24 +0000

Did you know that the first-ever televised game show — in 1938 — was a spelling bee?

According to UKgameshows.com, that program (or rather, programme) began with a US vs. UK match featuring Harvard and Oxford students (US won), followed by a US/UK rematch featuring actresses and various notables (UK won), followed by “Under Twenty” vs. “Over Forty” (over 40 won), followed by Women vs. Men (women won). The show was a tight 15 minutes, and was ultimately canceled when the imminent war made televised spelling seem a bit frivolous. Incidentally, the spelling bee game show led to several spinoffs, including, amazingly, Tactile Bee.

The impetus for this post is that my longtime Williamsburg Spelling Bee co-host, bobbyblue, found a copy of the board game “Paul Wing’s Spelling Bee” on eBay, purchased it, and allowed me to borrow it for purposes of investigative reporting.

The game of zest and test!

(Apparently, Paul Wing was a giant in the field of film stereography, continuing his career from the 1930s through the 1990s, and also, according to IMDB, survived the Bataan Death March; it is perhaps lost to the shifting sands of time exactly how Mr. Wing ended up hosting a televised spelling bee).

What’s inside!

Hmmn.

Apparently, spelling fans are called “rooters.”

Every hostess will appreciate a game that doesn’t require moving the furniture!

One of the harder sets of words. One list had food words, including “pumpkin.”

The game was played by choosing a word caller, then going around the room and having people pull numbered disks out of a bag; the number on the disk determined the word you would spell (and some words were notably easier than others, so it was a bit of a game of chance). Correct moves got you a little green counter called a “honey,” and wrong moves got you a little red counter called a “stinger” (because it’s a bee, get it?)

I only had my gentleman consort around, and it’s a pretty lame game with only two people. I asked him to spell “blancmange,” and he insisted that I had not pronounced it like a true French person (neither, I imagine, did most people playing Paul Wing’s Spelling Bee in 1938), so I gave him a re-do and he got “pumpkin.” We sort of shrugged and gave up.

Zest and test! I kind of like the slogan.

Spelling Word of the Day: how you’d pay for your spot at the Lyceum

jen — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:46:09 +0000

Every day of 2010, I’ll be posting a spelling word here for those who would like some spelling bee practice. Photo at right is from the Williamsburg Spelling Bee, as photographed by Kimi Milo.

Start the audio file to hear the word, definition, and etymology. Once you’ve spelled the word for yourself, click “Read More” to see the answer.

(more…)

Spelling Word of the Day: eggs, eggs, eggs

jen — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:46:07 +0000

Every day of 2010, I’ll be posting a spelling word here for those who would like some spelling bee practice. Photo at right is from the Williamsburg Spelling Bee, as photographed by Kimi Milo.

Start the audio file to hear the word, definition, and etymology. Once you’ve spelled the word for yourself, click “Read More” to see the answer.

(more…)