I would so hire the person that answered as follows to this brain-teaser question during an interview:

During a screening interview, I was asked how I would design a bike fit for someone visually impaired. I responded something to the effect of, “What, like, for blind people?”, and she answered yes.

I thought for a moment and then I responded, “Well.. a blind person riding a bike doesn’t sound like a very safe idea, so I would make the bike stationary, maybe with a fan blowing in the person’s face. He probably wouldn’t even know the difference.”

She was speechless.

I think it’s a great answer. It avoids anything impractical, and it’s entertaining to boot!

I agree with the general thrust of the article: as much as I love riddles, I don’t think they’re much help in finding a good candidate. Maybe early on when the concept was novel it was a good way to see into a candidates thinking processes, but when the candidate studies possible questions and when the interviewer is interested in the answer, not the thought process, it’s nothing more than a silly memory test.

David and I took the boys and our camera to the SAM Olympic Sculpture Park. We loved it.
The Richard Serra installation is so gorgeous we could have stayed all day. So much art hard against the rocky shore, open to the warm air in spring’s cathedral… it was unforgettable, and we will be back often.

The whole experience reminded me of this Kenneth Slessor poem:

Fixed Ideas

Ranks of electroplated cubes, dwindling to glitters,
Like the other pasture, the trigonometry of marble,
Death’s candy-bed. Stone caked on stone,
Dry pyramids and racks of iron balls.
Life is observed, a precipitate of pellets,
Or grammarians freeze it into spar,
Their rhomboids, as for instance, the finest crystal
Fixing a snowfall under glass. Gods are laid out
In alabaster, with horny cartilage
And zinc ribs; or systems of ecstasy
Baked into bricks. There is a gallery of sculpture,
Bleached bones of heroes, Gorgon masks of bushrangers;
But the quarries are of more use than this,
Filled with the rolling of huge granite dice,
Ideas and judgments: vivisection, the Baptist Church,
Good men and bad men, polygamy, birth-control . . .

Frail tinkling rush
Water-hair streaming
Prickles and glitters
Cloudy with bristles
River of thought
Swimming the pebbles—
Undo, loosen your bubbles!

The rest of the photos are here.

Another fun game today:

High-scoring game, even though there was only one bingo (from my opponent, SIEVING). Some nice plays on the big letters though: JEANS (for 80) along with that bingo put me behind for most of the game, but ZEAL (for 94) put me back in the running. My first high-scoring use of ZA, there. The Q got a lot of play: QUIRKY, QUIT, QUITE, QUITED (can’t find a definition for that one, but it’s in the scrabble dictionary it seems), and finally a nice touché move from my opponent with REQUITED. Pulled out a win at the end only by leaving my opponent with 9 points in his rack.

Here’s how you would explain quantum physics to a dog. Sadly, as smart as Max and Easy are, I doubt they’d accept decoherence between the branches of the wavefunction as a suitable explanation for a lack of treats. And what good is Quantum Physics when it can’t explain why they always go chasing after squirrels in the wrong direction?

Marti couldn’t possibly know how much I needed this laugh yesterday.

Max and Easy definitely have some work to do!

(By the way, nonfamous contributors: I have now made it really easy to embed YouTube videos. Give it a try!)

I usually play a game of Scrabble online over lunch. Today’s was a fun one. Not the highest-scoring game I’ve ever played, but it was satisfying to pull a win after my opponent got two bingoes:

(I’m nonfamous, in blue.) Most of the Scrabble games I play tend to end up with compact, closed-in boards but this one was wide open the whole game, which made it a lot of fun. I’ve never seen a game where all 8 triple-word-score tiles get used, but this one came close. Not too many wacky scrabble-player-only words, either, not even the newly-allowed two-letter powerhouses ZA or KI or JA.

This is the first I’ve heard of this story, but apparently the
CEO of BP has resigned following revelations of a gay relationship. Is this 2007 or 1977? I’m flabbergasted that this kind of thing still happens today. I’ve got no love for BP, but I can’t help but feel sympathy for any person targeted by the execrable Daily Mail.