WBUR Spring Festival

Byron and I went to the WBUR Spring Festival I was looking forward to a fun day and the event did not disappoint. The station gave out free t-shirts; well since you had to pay to get in, I guess they were part of the price of admission. Several local companies who purchase sponsorships on WBUR were there handing out samples of their food. There were two different companies selling baked goods, one sold bread the other pastry. They looked great, but I had to stay away from both places. The pastry group only brought one kind of pastry, the one covered with almonds and made with marzipan. The bread people had one bread with almonds, but had used the very same knife to cut each loaf. Happily the sherbert and ice cream were nut free! The flat bread pizza was delicious, and I got a chicken & cheese piece for Byron to snack on.

It was hot in the sun, and after a while Byron and I sat by in the Community Rowing building. It was out of the sun and felt much cooler. We listened to Livingston Taylor sing and he made several small friends. They had a guy making balloon animals for kids, which I kept Byron away from. He does not like balloons at all. When we were sitting, a few people who had balloons let the balloons touch the ground where the cement was in the sun and warm. Byron just about jumped out of his skin. It took a while to calm him down. When the event ended he was more than ready to head home.

I posted all the pictures I took on Byron's face book page Byron at Spring Festival We got to meet several of the radio hosts. The Car Talk guys were there, and the pictures I got of the two of them with Byron are precious!

Talking about math...

Here in Boston our public radio station wbur WBUR Boston I listen to them during the day and always enjoy the conversations, and information I get from the station. At 3:00pm they have an hour long show on local issues, called Radio Boston. Today's show was about the need to increase the amount of math taught in local schools . From the required two years to four years. Many people called in to say four years was to much, me I called in to say four years was not enough.

Just before I got on the air the host of the show Meghna Chakrabarti was talking to a high school student, who felt even two years was more than he needed. He was taking a course called "Business Math" to fill his math requirement. He said "when am I going to need math in my daily life. So when I started talking the first thing I said was "Hang on a second I just have to use the quadratic equation and put on my eye glasses!" She tried to say the quadratic equation and could not remember it! I giggled and said my piece, and the professor being interviewed at the station told her what it was. And, to be honest I can no longer do the equation in my head, I need to put pencil to paper. SIGH....

Well WBUR is doing it's fund raising drive, and for the next few station breaks everyone was teasing her, not knowing the formula and wondering how good her math skills were. I felt so bad that she was being teased, because I felt at fault. Had I not been a bit of a wise ass, she would not have been made to look foolish.

She has a twitter account, and I sent her a tweet telling her I was sorry for putting her on the spot like that my twitter feed She wrote back and told me that her not knowing the formula actually proved my point that it was important to teach and make the teaching stick. I felt a lot better. I sent her a message back letting her know that I have a few holes in my education as well. I said that in history or literature I am quite sure she knows far more than I do.

Only me people, only me!

I got my parking pass for the garage, my car is now parked in secure parking under the building. It will make me feel a lot safer coming home late at night.