Mike, I wish I had been introduced to you and your enthusiasm for mathematics in my teens instead of my 30s. But still, I'm glad to know you and your work. I enjoyed the background on what the shapes have meant historically. Tetrahedron = fire, etc. I had realized that you were a juggler and that you went to clown college, but I didn't know that you were a trapeze artist. Or if I did know, I had forgotten. You must have one of the most interesting CV's out there. Do you have any video of your trapeze/circus days? Do you keep in touch with anyone from your circus days? I'd be very interested to know more about that world. I imagine it is fascinating. Bible, Kuran and Euclid's Elements. -Thanks for that bit of trivia. Regarding the history of polygons, you mention that the square represents justice. I wonder why people that are uncool or not desirable are referred to as being "square?" Do you know the reasoning there?
I had a VHS tape with all of my acts. One of my juggling partners borrowed it and it went missing. I think it got taped over with Seinfeld episodes. A terrible loss. Especially the juggling routine -- it had a 3-minute dropless routine filmed on it. I have some nice photos though, and the memories are etched in my brain forever. I still keep in touch with several of my friends from Clown College, all of whom have gone on to do really interesting things ... performing, broadway, puppetry, starting a toy company, costuming and so on. My class had 30 VERY creative people in it, and we became quite close during the experience. Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Clown College was perhaps the most amazing experience I've had.
Thank you for that!In the parlance of jazz, a square was a person who failed to appreciate the medium, more broadly someone who was out of date or out of touch, hence the saying "be there or be square". In the counterculture movements that started in the 1940s and took momentum in the 1960s a "square" referred to someone who clung to repressive, traditional, stereotypical, one-sided, or "in the box" ways of thinking.
mike, what shape would be "jazz?"