Statue of the demon "Möbius," Dark Lord of the Impossible Teller, of “Penn and…”, has an excellent essay in this week’s New York Times Book Review assessing “Undiluted Hocus-Pocus,” an autobiography by Martin Gardner. I’d never heard of Gardner, and now I feel like I missed out. Perhaps I’ve stumbled across this “beloved Scientific American columnist, journalist and author or editor of more than 100 books of philosophy, humor, mathematics, poetry, puzzles, fiction, science, anthologies and annotations (e.g., “The Annotated Alice”), and essays on topics from logic to literary criticism,” but I don’t think so. He died in 2010. I missed my chance to be excited for his next article, puzzle, or annotation. But, it looks like there’s plenty catching up to do.
I highly recommend the article—which at over 1575 words is 1575 more words than most of us have ever heard Teller say. Not only does it make you want to read the book—as any favorable review should—it presents an inspiring portrait of a life well lived. Gardner seems like a man filled with both curiosity and joy for life. This article itself makes me more curious and brought a little bit of joy.
What drives me to my keyboard, though, is not to tell you to read it, though you should, but to assess this strange sentence in the second to last paragraph of an otherwise glowing review:
I highly recommend the article—which at over 1575 words is 1575 more words than most of us have ever heard Teller say. Not only does it make you want to read the book—as any favorable review should—it presents an inspiring portrait of a life well lived. Gardner seems like a man filled with both curiosity and joy for life. This article itself makes me more curious and brought a little bit of joy.
What drives me to my keyboard, though, is not to tell you to read it, though you should, but to assess this strange sentence in the second to last paragraph of an otherwise glowing review:
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