Coming to America

I’m working pretty hard on this paper submission, but I did manage to do the Sunday NYTimes crossword puzzle unassisted this week! No doubt you crossword pros will scoff at this modest accomplishment, but as a novice, I’m celebrating every small victory :).

Speaking of random puzzles, I came across this one the other day. Count the number of people in this image, then wait till it moves, and count again.

Fun, huh? We were pretty stumped by it until stephentyrone took a look and busted out with the observation that it was just like an old trick counterfeiters used to employ to make more money…

So the Sox have been rolling, and if you’re a serious Sox fan, of course you’re terrified that they’re going to blow this 2-0 lead like the 2-0 lead they blew in 1986 (and then they even won the first two games on the road!). But of course this year is different. At least I hope so ;).

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My parents immigrated to the U.S. from India. They’re obviously very proud of Indian culture (as am I), but they came quite a while ago, though (my dad in 1969, to Berkeley, actually, and he stayed in IHouse, my former residence!; my mom about five years later), so it’s been interesting to see what aspects of American life they’ve taken the most to.

There have been some standouts, like my dad’s obsession with the OJ trial, or my mom’s love of pop music — she can name way more of the songs on Top 40 radio today than I can. Two prominent ones of late:

My mom’s always been a sports fan, watching tennis, basketball, baseball, the Olympics, whatever. She’s been rooting for the Sox quite heavily in the last month, obviously (I’ve been brainwashing her well over the years :), even staying up past midnight as necessary to watch all the games, but I didn’t quite realize the extent of it until I called home yesterday shortly before the game was about to start. We were talking about Schilling, and I mentioned an AP article that had just come out about how the second round of sutures was much more painful than the first, and so Game 2 might be his last outing. I was pretty surprised to find out that she had already read the same article, even thought it went out over the wire only half an hour earlier! It warms my heart to imagine my mom surfing the web for Sox articles as obsessively as I do :).

On the flip side, my dad’s taken to the other great (well, greater) competition coming up, the presidential election. My parents have always been solid Democrats, but this year’s he’s taken it to another level, with a constant succession email forwards, both humorous and insightful, about the election. Sample joke he’s forwarded:
Q: What’s the different between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War?
A: George W. Bush had a plan to get out of the Vietnam War.
Haha… Or check out this funny Florida voting spoof. Anyway, it turns out that he’s considering going with a friend of his to Ohio to help promote increased voter turnout. Cool! It would be funny if he had to miss teaching class for that… although I bet his students would approve :).