Just for fun, I'd like to share a few of my guesses about what might happen in the last 2 episodes of Game of Thrones. These guesses will probably be wrong ( because Game of Thrones has always been unpredictable ), but I've got to do something to fill the time before the next episode.
( Before I go on, this post assumes you have watched Games of Thrones up to and including episode 4 of season 8. If you haven't gotten that far yet, you probably should not read further. )
I'm going to start by posting a link to a video that's been making the rounds because ...
1) It is delightful.
2) The theme of the video is related to one of my theories below.
By the end of the last episode ( episode 4 of season 8 ), we know that 3 people are heading down to King's Landing, independent of Dany and Jon's war maneuvers. Those 3 are ...
Jaime Lannister
Arya Stark Sandor "The Hound" Clegane
All 3 of them are on their own personal mission.
The Hound: He wants to kill his brother, Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane
Arya: She wants to kill Cersei Lannister ( and possibly The Mountain as well. I believe The Mountain is still on Arya's kill list, but I've got to believe that her primary focus is on Cersei ).
Jaime: The show hasn't made it entirely clear what his mission is, but it has something to do with Cersei.
Ever since Games of Thrones started, lots of fans of the show ( particular book readers ) have theorized that Jaime would ultimately be the person who kills Cersei. I agree with those theories. From a narrative sense, it would be most poetic and dramatic if Jaime is the one who ends Cersei's life.
Fans have also have strong feelings about who should ultimately kill The Mountain. Ever since The Mountain and The Hound briefly squared off with swords on the jousting field in season 1, fans have been clamoring for a rematch, even giving it the name "Cleganebowl". I'm certain there will be a Cleganebowl, and I'm certain The Hound will prevail and kill The Mountain ( Of course, I was also once certain that Ned Stark would be the hero for the run of the show, and later was also certain that Rob Stark would be the ultimate hero of the show. ).
Assuming I'm right, and Jaime kills Cersei and The Hound kills The Mountain, what is there left for Arya to do? What is her role in the story at that point?
Unfortunately, I think her role is to die.
Specifically, I think she is going to die at the hands of The Mountain ( hopefully not a head crush - I don't think I could watch another one of those ). The reason I believe this is that Arya dying at the hands of The Mountain perfectly meshes with The Hound's narrative arch. As much as The Hound hates his brother, I believe he loves Arya more. It's been clear for a while that The Hound views Arya as the daughter he never had ( The scenes they spent traveling the countryside together are among my favorites in the show. ). If the Mountain kills Arya, it will give the The Hound the motivation he needs to overcome all of his fears and doubts and finally defeat his bully of a big brother.
I know after what we've seen from Arya for the last few seasons, it seems unlikely that anyone could kill Arya, but I think The Mountain is a special case. There's no doubt in my mind that Arya can outfight The Mountain, and there is no doubt that Arya will be able to get past The Mountain's defenses to stab him several times. However, considering that the Mountain is now an undead Frankenstein monster-type creature, I don't think those stabs will have the desired effect. I think The Mountain will shake off those stabs, get his hands on Arya, and then ... ( please no head crush! ) ... The Hound will have to watch the person he loves the most die ( or perhaps Arya will just be mortally wounded, because after The Hound kills The Mountain, it would be nice if the show gave Arya the kind of final words they denied Jorah ). I think that ultimately, The Hound will kill The Mountain by chopping off his head, because I can't think of any other good way to kill the zombie-Mountain.
This isn't necessarily what I want see happen ( because Arya is one of my favorite characters ), but I think the show has been leading us to this moment for a while.
Now, as far as Jon and Dany go, your guess is as good as mine. If I had to take a completely wild guess, I'd say that Jon will die doing something brave and selfless, Dany will blame her blinding ambition for Jon's death, reverse the heel-turn she's been engaged in all season and decide to really "break the wheel" by declaring that all the Seven Kingdoms free to rule themselves and having Drogon melt the Iron Throne.
Of course, I'm probably completely wrong about all that, but whatever happens, I'll be glued to my TV the next two Sunday nights.
OK, let's me start by making it clear that this blog post is going to be full of Avengers: Endgame spoilers. Because I intend to post a link to this blog post on Facebook, and Facebook usually shows a preview of the first few lines of any blog post, I'm going to include the next few lines to make sure nobody accidentally reads a spoiler.
OK, so let's start with the question I asked in the title of this post. What's going on in the scene near the end when Ned sees Peter in the hallway of the high school? Ned is acting like he hasn't seen Peter in a long time, which implies that Ned did not get "dusted" when Thanos snapped his fingers ( I'll just call this "The Snap" going forward ). However, considering that 5 years had passed since The Snap, Ned would have already been in college if he had survived it. Assuming this isn't a giant plot hole, I guess we are supposed to assume that Ned was dusted by The Snap as well, and he's just a really friendly guy who greets his friends that way all the time. Though, I guess to be fair, it may have been more than a few days since Ned had seen Peter, even if Ned had been dusted. It is quite possible that the Midtown School of Science and Technology was operating with an entirely new student body ( and many new teachers ) 5 years after The Snap, and it could have taken weeks ( perhaps months, with Board of Ed bureaucracy ) for dusted students to be reinstated. Still, you would think Peter and Ned would have contacted each other before coming back to school. In any case, assuming we accept that Ned was dusted too, we also know from the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer that MJ and Flash Thompson are also still in high school, and presumably were dusted by the Snap. It seems kind of convenient the the 3 most important characters in Peter's high school were also dusted, but I guess it is only a 1 in 8 chance that all three of them would be dusted, and that certainly would not be the most implausible thing to happen in the MCU.
I suppose one could argue that Bruce's snap just put everything back the way it was and wiped out the previous 5 years, but that argument doesn't make sense when you consider Tony's daughter still existed after Bruce's snap. Yes, I know Tony made it clear that he wasn't going to give up his daughter to get back everything that was lost, but I don't think Bruce was going to wipe out the existence of all the kids that had been born in the last 5 years. I believe that people were just "un-dusted" back into existence at the very moment Bruce snapped his fingers, which bring up the following questions ...
- How does Hawkeye's wife call Hawkeye right after the snap? She was almost certainly calling from a cell phone, and considering everybody's cell phone contracts last only 2 years, her cell phone account would have been deactivated in the 5 years between The Snap and Bruce's snap. Yes, I guess she could have been calling from the landline phone in the home that she shared with Hawkeye and their kids, but ...
---- That would assume that Hawkeye was still paying the landline phone bill for that house when he was traveling the world as an assassin.
---- I don't know about you, but the contact name on my cell phone for my landline phone is "Home", and the contact name for my wife's cell phone is her name. If Hawkeye's wife was really calling from the landline phone in their home ( assuming Hawkeye was still paying the bill for that phone while he was spending his time killing dudes in Tokyo ), I would think that the name that would appear on Hawkeye's phone would be something like "Home" rather than his wife's name.
She was clearly calling him from a cell phone, on an account that miraculously still existed 5 years after it was last used.
- Where does a person appear when they get un-dusted? Do they appear where they last existed? If so, a lot of people who were dusted while they were in a plane would have just fallen out of the sky when Bruce snapped his fingers.
- Why don't the Mets exist anymore? Don't Mets fans have enough problems? I think they would have started major league baseball again 5 years after The Snap. Sure, half the players would be gone, but they could have restocked MLB with minor league players. Or is the movie trying to say that New York only need one MLB team after the snap, and the Yankees would naturally be that team? If that's the case, screw you MCU!
- Bruce's snap almost certainly doomed the world to mass starvation. If the population of the world suddenly dropped from 7 billion to 3.5 billion, there is no reason why the remaining farmers, ranchers, and farming/ranching corporations would have continued to produced enough food to feed 7 billion people. When Bruce's snap brings 3.5 billion people back into the world, he brings them into a world that only has a large enough food supply to feed the 3.5 billion people that were in the world prior to Bruce's snap. Sure, more crops would be planted at this point to help feed all these extra people, but I think billions would die before all those crops could be harvested. Nice job, Bruce.
- I'd just like to remind everybody that if The Snap happened in 2018 when Infinity War came out ( the time travel segments in Endgame strongly implies that all the recent MCU movies are set in the years that movie is releases ), it is now 2023 in the MCU. I'm wondering future MCU movies will have any continuity errors that suggest the year is earlier than 2023.
- Speaking of 2023, if Steve Rogers was in his early 20's in World War II, he'd be about 100 in that scene at the end of the movie ( which presumably takes place in 2023 ). He doesn't look anywhere near 100, but I can accept that his enhanced physique has slowed down the aging process a bit.
However, what I can't accept is that old Steve Rogers is in our MCU timeline at all. When The Ancient One was talking to Bruce, she made it clear, the that changing something in the past would not affect the future, but would instead create an entirely new timeline. This was confirmed when Nebula killed the past version of herself and did not immediately cease to exist and disappear. ( It also worth noting that Thor did not wipe out his history with his hammer when he swiped the hammer from the timeline in the past, but he was bit of a dick to make the Thor in the other timeline go the rest of his life without his hammer. ). Thus, after Steve Rogers decided to stay with Peggy in the past, he would have created an entirely new timeline and would not have would up on that bench as an old man in our MCU at the end of the movie.
A few more random notes ...
- I'm glad Valkyrie and Korg survived ( because they were great in Ragnarok and I was disappointed not to see either of them in Infinity War ) , but it doesn't really make a lot a sense that they ( and a large enough number of Asgardians to populate a seaside village ) would have survived what happened at the start of Infinity War. It seems like almost everybody on board that spaceship of Asgardians was dead when the movie started, and then Thanos blew up the ship. I could believe that a bunch of Asgardians ( and perhaps Korg ) could have fled the ship in escape pods of some kind ), but I can't believe that a conscious Valkyrie would not have fought against Thanos to the bitter end ( and if she has been unconscious when Thanos blew up the ship, she would have certainly died ( unless she was just as extremely lucky as Thor was after the ship was blown up ).
- Based on the explanations I've heard/read about Ant-Man's powers, I don't understand why he doesn't have the density and strength of sea foam when he turns into Giant-Man. I'm not the only one who feels this way. See this, and this.
- Finally, I understand what the filmmakers were going for when all the other female heroes decided to help Captain Marvel get across the battlefield with the Infinity Gauntlet. But let's face it, she didn't really need anybody's help. With perhaps the exception of Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel is more powerful than all the heroes that tried to help her combined.
All that said, I really enjoyed this movie, and I'm probably going to see it again in one of the coming weekends. I do wish the MCU played a little less fast and loose with science, continuity, and common sense, but I guess I shouldn't expect that much about a cinematic universe that features walking trees and talking raccoons.
Editor's Note ( the "editor" would be me ) : I posted this story on my Facebook today, because a lot more people look at my Facebook posts than look at this blog, but I thought I'd post this story here for posterity.
I'd never posted any math awards Michael had won in years past, because Michael always had the reputation as the math wiz, and I didn't want to seem like I was bragging about him too much. However, I feel Peter's always been short changed in that regard ( friends and relatives have often talked about how good Michael is in math while Peter was in earshot ), so I'm going to do some bragging about Peter's accomplishments today. First of all, to give Michael his due, in the previous two years ( 7th and 8th grade - he's in High School now ) Michael finished in 2nd and 3rd place ( winning swag like Amazon Kindles and Echos ) in a middle school math competition at St. Joseph's High School, which includes about 300 competitors from 20 middle schools. Michael also won some swag in a few other smaller math competitions. At last year's St Joseph's completion ( Michael in 8th grade, Peter in 7th grade ), Michael did great ( as noted above ), but Peter did so poorly he was crying in the school lunch room after the competition. This year, Peter returned as an 8th grader to that competition and finished 7th place overall and 1st in his middle school. He also went to a middle school math competition at Princeton this year with and won 1st place for his middle school in the team competition with 3 of his 8th grade teammates. About 2 or 3 weeks ago, Ruth found out about about another middle school math competition ( one that didn't exist last year ) that allowed each of the schools participating to send multiple teams of 4-6 student each. The teams would be formed by the students themselves and the teams would do their own preparation without the help of teachers. Peter's school sent multiple teams of 5 and 6 students, and one of these teams with 5 kids ( including at least one of Peter's 8th grade teammates on the 1st place Princeton team ) invited Peter to join. However, Peter isn't very social or assertive and he didn't get back to the team on time, and the day before teams and their members needed to be submitted, Peter was left without a team. Peter was resigned to not being on a team, but Ruth scrambled, started calling some parents, and at the last minute she put together a team of Peter, two 7th graders and one 6th grader. That team might be at a disadvantage against teams of 5 or 6 8th graders and including Peter's 1st place teammates from the Princeton competition, but at least Peter had a team. Last Sunday, the 3 other kids came to our home and had about a 3-hour training session with Peter ( about halfway through the session, Michael chipped in to help with the training ). I was so proud watching Peter explain some concepts to his younger teammates. It reminded me of the times I used to teach Peter math sitting on the floor of a hallway while Michael ( who was prodigious in math at a much younger age than Peter ) was taking classes in competition math on Saturday mornings. All that hard work paid off today as Peter's team finished 1st in the math competition ( out of 35 teams )! Great job, Peter!
Rich
P.S. The name of this post is the name I suggested for Peter's math team but Ruth did not submit to the school, because we both knew it was terrible name to submit to the school for many reasons. Still, in my mind Peter's math team will always be "Weapons of Math Destruction", because those kids destroyed those math problems today.
Over the last couple of years, a narrative has emerged that pits your two generations against each other . You baby boomers complain that millennials are entitled, lazy, self-centered, and ruining traditional institutions and businesses. You millennials respond that baby boomers are at fault for the sad state of our world, our politics, and basically everything.
I'll admit that I found this conflict entertaining for a while, but it's frankly getting a little bit old, so I think it may be time for the folks stuck in the middle of all this to speak up.
Hey there, remember us? We're Generation X.
You baby boomers should remember us. There was a time when you couldn't stop talking about us. You didn't have a lot of good things to say about us, but you sure talked about us a lot. You called us underachievers. You called us "slackers". Heck, yo even made a movie about us called "Slacker". You gave us the name "Generation X" in part to represent how unknowable and uncertain our future was. We saw plenty of newspaper and magazine articles back then that told us we were going to be "the first generation to have a lower standard of living than their parents".
Sound familiar, millennials? It's a little bit hard to find online ( because a lot of the magazines and newspapers back then never published online ), but believe me when I tell you that baby boomers were saying the same things about Gen X 25 years ago that they are saying about millennials today.
According to boomer pundits in the early 90's, the Gen X generation was destined to struggle, but I think we turned out OK. If you're a millennial, there's a pretty good chance that your boss ( or maybe your boss's boss ) is a Gen X-er. Maybe I'm just patting myself on the back here, and maybe it's just a reflection of the Gen X people I happen to know, but just about Gen X-er I know is doing fine. Obviously not everyone is doing fine, and there are people struggling in all generations, but I see no reason to believe that any new generation has ever been doomed. In 25-years, a lot of us Gen X-ers will be retired ( or at the end of their career ) and you millennials will be running the world.
All that said, I do have one thing to get off my chest regarding millennials. There was time when Gen X was the hot new generation, and now we seem to be largely forgotten ( or completely forgotten? ) and millennials get all the media attention. I've got to admit that I'm a little jealous of you guys because of that ( either that, or the fact that you guys don't have to get out of bed to pee at 3 in the morning ).
OK, so let get back to the boomers. I'm know you might be kinda pissed of at me at this at point because I have pretty much been taking the millennials side in this conflict, but I hope you can remember a time when you were in the millennials' shoes. After all, this song was written for your generation:
The song My Generation came to mind when I was trying to come up with a title for this post, but it's actually not the song that most sums up the theme of this blog post. I think the song the best expresses what I'm trying to say in this post is another song that a lot of baby boomers might remember:
In case it isn't clear, the key line in this song that I'd like to highlight is ...
Why can't they be like we were, Perfect in every way? What's the matter with kids today?
I've always loved that lyric because of its timelessness. In the play/movie, the character who sings that line is a member of the Greatest Generation singing about the baby boomer generation, but it is really a line that could be sung by any older generation about the younger generation.
The story never changes. Each young generations gets criticized by older generations and then grows up and criticizes the generations that follow it.
"What is it with these kids and that crazy new music?"
"Why are these kids spending so much time in front of the TV ( the "boob tube" )?"
"Why are these kids playing so many video games?"
"Why are these kids spending so much time on that internet thing?"
"Why are kids faces always buried in their phones?"
So, I hope you boomers can remember that you were once the brash young generation that your parents' didn't understand, and I hope you millennials will have some empathy with the younger generation when you become old and crotchety, because it's more than likely that you're not going to die before you get old.
Imagine you're a 24-year quarterback who is about to play in his first Super Bowl on Sunday February 3rd. Imagine that your team wouldn't have made it to the Super Bowl without the benefit of an extremely controversial decision by the referees in an earlier playoff game. After the officiating controversy, your team managed to send the playoff game into overtime on a clutch field goal as time expired, and then won the game on another clutch field goal in overtime.
You're coming to the Super Bowl as underdogs. The team you are about to play won the Super Bowl just 2 years earlier, and has a quarterback that is a former MVP and Super Bowl MVP. The great MVP quarterback you're going to face had to overcome his own doubters in the past. Unlike a lot of great quarterbacks, he was not a first round draft pick. He wasn't a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th round draft pick. The NFL Draft after this QB's senior year of college made it clear that nobody thought this guy would be a great quarterback, and yet, here is, favored to win another Super Bowl.
Your fans have seen their team represent their city in the Super Bowl before, but they haven't seen their team win it. However, the fans are cautiously optimistic this time, because your team has a head coach that some consider to be a "genius". He's managed to lead your team to the Super Bowl in only his second year with the team, and if anyone can figure out a way to pull an upset in this Rams/Patriots Super Bowl, it will be him.
What I find most fascinating about this upcoming Super Bowl is that the description above could refer to either Tom Brady in 2002 or Jared Goff in 2019.
( I just listed the details of all the parallels between 24-year-old Brady and 24-year-old Goff, but I accidentally hit a key on my laptop that somehow wiped almost all those lines out. Blogger auto-saves every few seconds, so all those lines I wrote are now gone. I'm not going to take the time to write all those lines again, so if you want more details about these paralles, let Google be your guide ).
As a Patriots-hater, I'm really hoping that these parallels continue, and the 24-year QB manages to lead his team to a upset victory this Sunday. While many Patriots fans have said that another Super Bowl victory over the Rams would be a perfect bookend to Brady's career, I think it would be even better if the Brady/Belichick dynasty ended the way it started, with a 24-year old QB leading his team to an upset in the Super Bowl.
On a semi-related note, I can't believe that Tom Brady is still torturing me 17 years after the first Pats/Rams Super Bowl. 17 years ago, my wife and I were not ready to have kids yet. Now we have a 15-year old son who has his heart broken by Tom Brady last Sunday. I can't believe the my family has endured 2 generations of this crap.
In any case, all that being said, I'd rather think about Tom Brady and the Pats than the state of the world right now. So, instead of thinking about all the awful stuff in the new these days, spend a little time thinking about the following Super Bowl tidbits.
- This is Brady's 3rd Super Bowl rematch. He faced the Giants in the Super Bowl after the 2007 and 2011 seasons, and he faced the Eagles in the Super Bowl after the 2004 and 2017 seasons. In both cases in the past, the Patriots lost the rematch ( they actually lost to the Giants both times ). Hopefully this pattern continues in the 2nd Patriots/Rams Super Bowl.
- The Patriots are in the Super Bowl for the 3rd year in a row, which makes them just the 3rd team to accomplish this feat. The '71/'72/'73 Dolphins lost the Super Bowl and their first try and won the next two, and the '90/'91/'92/'93 Bills lost all 4 Super Bowls they went to.
- The 2007 Giants, the 2011 Giants, and 2017 Eagles, are the only teams to beat Brady in the Superbowl, and each of those teams played a base 4-3 defense. I don't think that is an accident. You can't beat Brady unless you run the passer effectively, and teams that put 4 defenders at the line of scrimmage generally have an easier time rushing the quarterback than teams that put 3 defenders at the line of scrimmage. It is also worth noting that teams that line up with 1 defender past the line of scrimmage always lose to the Patriots.
FYI, the Rams play a 3-4 Defense ( 😞 ).
- If Tom Brady wins his 6th Super Bowl on Sunday, the quarterback alumni of the University of Michigan will be able to boast 6 Super Bowl rings ( all belonging to Brady ). Michigan is currently tied with Notre Dame with 5 ( Montana 4, Theismann 1 ) Super Bowl rings won by its former quarterbacks. The school that can boast the most different quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl ring is Purdue University with 3 ( Len Dawson, Bob Griese, and Drew Brees ).
- For 15 out of the last 16 seasons ( including this one ), the AFC has been represented in the Super Bowl by a team lead by Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, or Ben Roethlisberger. Half of those times, it was Brady. The one exception to the Brady/Manning/Roethlisberger troika was Joe Flacco after the 2012 season.
- Too bad a Manning bother is not involved in this Super Bowl, because Tom Brady is 0-5 in playoff games against a Manning brother that are played outside Foxborough. 2 of those 5 loses came in the Super Bowl and 3 or them came in the AFC championship game. If Archie Manning had never met his wife, maybe Brady would be trying to win his 11th Super Bowl this Sunday. Of course if Cooper Manning had decided to play QB, maybe Brady would have none. *
* - Far-fetched, considering that Cooper was a wide receiver and his football career ended after high school due to spinal stenosis - but a guy can dream, can't he?
About a week ago, I came across the post below on Facebook.
The left half of the video above shows a multiplication problem being done using the Common Core method. The right half of the video show a person solving the same problem using the traditional method, followed by that person making a cup of coffee and taking their dogs outside to play. The actions on the right side of the video take exactly as long as the actions on the left side of the video. The obvious point of this video is to ridicule Common Core math. Judging from 95% of the comments of this Facebook post, most people seem to agree that Common Core math should be ridiculed.
I don't comment very often on public Facebook posts, but in order to inject some sanity into the discussion, I made the following comment.
I was heartened to see at that at least 14 people and a teacher agreed with me, but for those of you who still don't agree, allow me to expand my argument a little bit.
Common Core math teaches kids to consider multiple ways to solve the same problem. It may seem odd to solve a problem in an indirect way when the direct way works just fine, but the ability to solve math problems in several different indirect ways is an important mathematical skill to develop, because in higher orders of math, the direct method almost never works.
In just about every important mathematical proof, terms of equations need to be re-arranged in what can sometimes seem to be counter-intuitive ways. Take the quadratic formula, for instance. Many basic calculations in science and engineering rely on it. I'd be shocked if the systems that run you car or your phone do not use the quadratic formula to calculate something. If you take a look at how the quadratic formula is derived, you'll find that the derivation cannot be done without rearranging the terms of the equation multiple times.
The need to rearrange terms in mathematics equations only increases as one progresses through higher levels of math. By the time one gets to advanced calculus, a high percentage of equations cannot be solved without dealing with imaginary numbers. *
* A quick lesson in "imaginary" numbers for the uninitiated. An example of an imaginary number is the square root of -1, which is referred to in mathematics as the letter "i". "i" is defined such that i multiplied by i equals -1. Expressed as an equation ... i x i = -1 A basic mathematical principal is that a positive number multiplied by a positive number yields a positive number and that a negative number multiplied by a negative number also yields a positive number. For example ... 1 x 1 = 1 (-1) x (-1) = 1 So, with that in mind, it seems impossible that a number "i" could be multiplied by itself and yield a negative number, because ... If "i" is a positive number ... i x i = a positive number and if "i" is negative number ... i x i = a positive number. So, whether the number "i" is negative or positive, "i" multiplied by "i" will be a positive number. So, how could it ever be possible that "i x i" could be a negative number? The answer is that the number "i" is defined to be neither a positive number or a negative number. "i" is considered to be an imaginary number. If you've never heard of imaginary numbers before, this may sound a lot crazier to you than the concept of Common Core math. However, believe me when I tell you that imaginary numbers are vitally important, not only to mathematics, but to lots of the modern technology we enjoy today.
In advanced calculus, it is quite common that imaginary numbers are an intermediate step in solving equations that start with real numbers. For example, you could start with a real equation, with real numbers that needs to be solved for a real world application. It often turns out that the only way to solve the real equation is to convert it into the imaginary realm ( look up "complex numbers" if you want to learn more about this "imaginary realm" ), do additional calculations and transformations in the imaginary realm, and then convert the equation back into the "real" realm to get the final real solution.
It's been more than a quarter century since I've taken any courses in advanced calculus, or physics or engineering courses, so I'd be talking out of my ass if I told you I knew exactly what current real world applications rely on the advanced Calculus that uses imaginary numbers. However based on this and other things you can find online, I'd be shocked if your smart phone or GPS would work without the mathematics of imaginary numbers.
So, to get back to how this blog post started, my larger point is that the kind of thinking being taught in Common Core math is the kind of thinking is required to understands ( and develop ) the kinds of technology that makes our modern way of life possible. In the coming decades all this new technology is going to replace a lot of traditional jobs. There may not be any human cab drivers. There may not be any human truck drivers. Cashiers in retail stores may be as uncommon as non-automated tellers in banks today. AI has already replaced a lot of jobs that used to be handled by receptionists, secretaries, and customer support, and these jobs will only become more scarce as AI improves.
So, if you're a parent you've got to ask yourself if you want your child's education to train them for jobs that are disappearing, or if you want your child's education to train them to work in the technological fields that are going to make so many of these traditional jobs obsolete.
I believe that Common Core math is a great first step in training children for the jobs of the future. If you can't see that, your going to be doomed to stay stuck in the past.
After spending consecutive Sundays watching a fun Fantastic Beasts movie and another depressing Jets loss, I got to thinking about how Jets fans are like Hufflepuffs. As any Potterhead knows, Hufflepuffs value dedication and loyalty, and you've got to be dedicated and loyal to remain a Jets fan after all these years of losing. In additional to dedication and loyalty, I noticed one Hufflepuff trait that fits Jets fans in this quote from the Harry Potter Wiki page on Hufflepuff:
"Hufflepuff is the most inclusive among the four houses; valuing hard work, dedication, patience, loyalty, and fair play rather than a particular aptitude in its students."
I highlighted "patience" above, because if there is one thing Jets fans need a lot of, it's patience.
So, having categorized Jets fans as Hufflepuffs, I thought it would be fun to sort the fans of the rest of the New York City area sports teams in Hogwarts houses.
A few notes before we begin ...
- I'm sorting fans of a team based on the collective average psyche of all the fans of a team. Obviously there is going to be variation across a populations of fans. For example, any Jets fan who bravely suffers loses without getting down and greets each new season with optimism is a Gryffindor. However, most of us are Hufflepuffs who subscribe to the philosophy of "same old Jets".
- I should also note that when I tried to figure out the average psyche of a fan base, I considered how fans might vary over different age ranges. For example, any New York Giants fan old enough to remember their 25+ years of futility prior to 1986 probably belongs in a different Hogwarts house than a Giants fan who started rooting for them in 1986. I did my best to consider the age distribution of a fan base when sorting them into a Hogwarts house ( I just made estimates - it wasn't like I was pulling up actuarial tables for each fab base. ).
- It is also worth noting that the same individual can be sorted into 2 or more different Hogwarts houses in relation to the teams they root for. For example, a large number of my friends root for both the Yankees and Giants, but I think their Giants-fan persona needs to be sorted into a different house than their Yankees-fan persona.
OK, so with all that said, let's get out the sorting hat.
Yankees fans:Slytherin
OK, I've got to start with the Yankees, because I know this is the one I might get the most grief for. Yes, I've always hated the Yankees, and I'm sure that's part of the reason why I have sorted the Yankees fans into the "evil" Hogwarts house, but I swear, there is a lot more to it than that. One of the most prominent attributes of Slytherins ( and important plot points of the book series ) is the pride they have in their pure-blood lineage. To Slytherins, ancestry matters a lot; being from the right family matters a lot; having distinguished ancestors matters a lot. Slytherins tend to think that their ancestry makes them better than other wizards. Well, how many time have you heard a Yankees fan tell you that the Yankees have won 27 championships? They talk about "Yankees Pride", and they always seem the project a sense that they are better fans than you because they root for a team that is better than your team.
Yup, Yankees fans are Slytherins.
Giants fans: Gryffindor
And yet, almost all of those Yankees fans who are Slytherins in their Yankees-fan persona are not Slytherins in their Giants-fan persona. Sure, there are a small percentage younger Giants fans who have only seen relatively good years and might have some of the Slytherin qualities of Yankees fans, but very few Giants fans have the arrogant pride of Yankees fans. Older Giants fans suffered for years. They remember losing the championship to Johnny Unitas in overtime. They remember Joe Pisarcik. They remember Bill Parcells going 3-12-1 in his first year. Even the Giants fans who grew up with the LT championship teams suffered through the 6-9 strike season after winning the Super Bowl, Flipper Anderson, blowing a 24-point lead in the playoffs to the 49ers, and losing their chance to repeat as champions in 2008 because their star wide receiver shot himself in the leg. Giants fans understand that winning isn't something you can take for granted. They are true-blue fans who not only root for their team passionately, but also do not show any resentment during the rare times the Jets are the better team in town. I've also never encountered a Giants fan who teases Jets fans about how bad the usually Jets are ( even though a lot of they same people do tease Mets fans ). Giants fans respect their rivals, but they don't fear them. Giants fans felt confident facing an 18-0 Pats team, couldn't wait for a rematch with the Pats during the 2011 playoffs, and would love to get a shot at Tom Brady again. These folks are Gryffindors.
Mets fans: Hufflepuff
Mets fans in in the same boat ( house ) as Jets fans. The Mets have made their fans suffer in myriad ways over the years. There has almost always been a far superior team across town, and yet Mets fans have remained loyal.
Knicks fans: Gryffindor
Based on the Knicks terrible history, you might think Knicks fans would belong in Hufflepuff with Mets and Jets fans, but Knicks fans don't get any credit for being loyal when the alternative has always been the Nets. However, you do have to pretty brave to keep rooting for a teams that's been so bad for so many years, and when the Knicks are actually good, the fans at the Garden have a swagger that no other NYC fan base can match. They are definitely Gryffindors.
Nets fans: Hufflepuff
Any Nets fan who abandoned the Knicks when the Nets moved to Brooklyn is a Slytherin, but most Nets fans have been life-long Nets fan from the New Jersey Nets days ( some go back to the Dr. J New York Nets days ). Part of me thinks they should not get credit for being loyal Hufflepuffs when the alternative has always been the woeful Knicks, but ...
1) Despite the Knicks being a terrible team, there has always been for more cachet attached to being a Knicks fan than being a Nets fan, particularly when the Nets were in New Jersey. If you walk down a crowed street in New York City in a Knicks T-shirt, there's a good chance a fellow Knicks fans might give you a thumbs up, regardless of the Knicks record. If you ever walked down a street ( be it New York, New Jersey, or anywhere else ) in a New Jersey Nets T-shirt, people on the street would just feel sorry for you ( including any Nets fans on the street ).
2) While I'm impressed that most New Jersey Nets fans did not becomes Knicks fans, I'm even more impressed that most Nets fans did not give up watching basketball altogether after watching some of those Nets teams.
It sucks to be the a fan of the number 2 team in a given sport in a city, but you can understand and accept it when the number 1 team has been a much more successful franchise than your team. It's got to be really disheartening to be the number 2 team in town to the Knicks. If you can handle being second fiddle to the Knicks, you are a proud Hufflepuff.
Rangers fans: Gryffindor
Rangers fans are tough sons-of-bitches. They never failed to chant "Potvin Sucks" while the New York Islanders dominated the early 1980's, and I've heard stories that wearing the wrong jersey in the old "Blue Seats" could get you maimed. They would never think of leaving the Rangers the Islanders or Devils, and unlike the sad sack Jets and Mets fans of Hufflepuff house, the Ranger fans always seemed to believe that next year would be their year, regardless of any evidence to the contrary.
Devils fans: Ravenclaw
When the Devils ( the former Colorado Rockies ) move to New Jersey, New Jersey hockey fans were presented with a choice. They could keep rooting for the Rangers ( there were probably very few Islander fans in New Jersey at the time, consider that MSG was much closer to Jersey than the Nassau Colosseum ) or they could give the new team in town a try. Considering the Devils have won 3 championships since then and the Rangers have only won 1, I think the New Jersey residents who switched made a wise Ravenclaw choice. They also get some brainy Ravenclaw cred for being only hockey fans who really understand and appreciated the neutral zone trap.
New York Islanders fans: ???
I saved this one for last because these are the hardest fans to sort. The Islanders fans who mercilessly chanted "1940!" at suffering Rangers fans were certainly showing some Slytherin tendencies, but there are plenty of Islanders fan under 40 who don't ever remember when the Islanders were the undisputed kings of the NHL, and anyone under 30 probably doesn't even remember the "1940!" chant ( because the Rangers finally ended their title drought in 1994 ). It's been a really rough 35 years for Islander fans since the their team last lifted the Stanley Cup in the spring of 1983. The team has almost always been terrible, ownership has been inept, their stadium crumbled around them for years, and then their team abandoned their loyal Long Island fan base and moved to Brooklyn ( but they'll be coming back to Long Island soon ). Through it all, Islander fans have been loyal, which makes me think they might be Hufflepuffs, but I just can't give the Hufflepuff designation to a fan base that won 4 championships in a row in my lifetime ( No other team in the 4 major American sports has matched that feat since then ). Middle-aged and older Islander fans can still look back on 4 championship. The only champion Hogwarts Hufflepuffs have to look back on is Cedric Diggory ( and SPOILER ALERT, Cedric didn't get to enjoy that glory for long ). So, Islanders fans have a little a bit of Slytherin and a little bit of Hufflepuff, but not enough to be sorted into either of those houses. However, they still have a fighting spirit after the all these years so ...
