On Tue Jul-02-2013 10:42, Roy Witt (1:387/22) wrote to Roger Nelson:   
      
    PQ>> This sounds very much like 1940s-ish SF.  (Quite similar to the hype   
    PQ>> surrounding breaking the sound 'barrier'.)  Send more, over...   
      
    RN> I was a voracious reader back then and read anything that looked   
    RN> interesting, from murder mysteries, WWII stuff and from Sci-Fi to   
    RN> Elementary Physics, which, believe it or not, was easier for me to   
    RN> understand than Algebra 101.   
      
    RW> Algebra is nothing more than learning how to manipulate   
    RW> mathematical formulas. The real test comes later when you take   
    RW> Geometry, Trigonomitry and so forth. I got As' in Algebra, but I   
    RW> only got Bs' in the rest. Even so, I can still manipulate a   
    RW> mathematical formula today.   
      
   I was a flop at Algebra, but it's a story which is both long and boring.   
      
    RW> It's funny how you lose the ability to do things if you haven't   
    RW> used them for a while. I used to be a whiz with a slide rule, but   
    RW> couldn't figure out how it would work today. All thanks to the   
    RW> invention of the electronic calculator.   
      
   Just like muscles atrophying.  My dad, who died when I was 6, taught himself   
   to read a slide rule and began to get contracts in New Orleans building roads   
   and other things.  He was a cabinet maker when I was born and none of that   
   rubbed off on me, but I did inherit his fondness for mechanical things,   
   especially car engines.  I was at my doctor yesterday and upon leaving, the   
   clerk had to use a calculator to figure out how much I owed for yesterday and   
   my two previous visits.  As she was reaching for her calculator, I blurted out   
   the amount and she verified it.  It's good to keep the brain active as one   
   gets older because one never knows when it will come in handy.  (-:   
      
      
   Regards,   
      
   Roger    
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna - (1:3828/7)