I have been using variations on “Uncle Hyena” as an online handle since 1998 (back when people still used online handles), and someone recently asked me where the name came from. I know I have told the story several times over the years, but I don’t think I have ever written it all down, so here we are. Continue reading
Category: Magic (Page 2 of 9)
We were waiting for take-out food, and an elderly gentleman in a veteran’s unit cap sat down next to me while his son went for their car. I asked him if he had been in WWII, or Korea. He said WWII, and I said he must be just a bit older than my father, who had been in boot on VE Day, and in an advanced school on VJ Day, and had then served with the Japan Occupation force. Continue reading
Abdul, the new clerk at the local convenience store, is from Saudi Arabia. We have had enough conversation for him to know that I am a bit different from his usual customers…
Today, I was buying lottery tickets, and he asked me if I knew the mechanism for determining winners in the multi-state lotteries; he had never seen a drawing. I described the machines, and we fell to a discussion of probability. He is a programmer, and knew a few things, though he said he was trying to figure a loophole in the lotteries; I wished him luck. Continue reading