Fun

My interests in language, math, and computers were sparked and strengthened by exposure to the works of Willard R. Espy, Louis Phillips, Mike Keith, Dmitri Borgmann, Jim Butterfield, and others. These writers share a great talent for making technical or linguistic topics fun and accessible to a general audience. This page collects some of my own contributions to popular and recreational mathematics and linguistics, plus a few other odds and ends.

Logology

Logology, or recreational linguistics, is the study and practice of word games and wordplay. Since 2012 I've been writing the Language Games column for Babel: The Language Magazine, and I am a regular contributor of language-themed articles and puzzles to Lingo: The Language Magazine for Younger Readers, Games World of Puzzles (formerly Games Magazine), Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics, and other magazines.

Recreational mathematics

These papers are mainly for fun, though some of them have some serious research content:

Light verse

A selection of my humorous poetry:

  • "Firing the Fireman" (published in Light, Winter/Spring 2014)
  • "Ichthyopoesis" (published in Light, Winter/Spring 2014)
  • "Quadrature" (published in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, July 2015)
  • "Paradox" (published in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, July 2015)
  • "Apprehension" (published in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, July 2015)
  • Haiku (published in Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics, February 2014)

Miscellaneous humour