RIP Ben Bushman (1942–2016)

Ben Bushman, long-time principal of Beverly Hills High School (which I attended), has died.

"You come in here with a skull full of mush... and you leave thinking like a [Mathematician]."

We need to make a parody of the trailer for the movie The Paper Chase in time to show it to the new freshers in mathematics who will be joining us in the fall.

(There is also the matter of having a Scavenger Hunt. Some of you from Beverly Hills High School who are familiar with a certain chemistry teacher might find this vaguely familiar.)

And one of these years I will finally watch this movie. I have been meaning to do so for a long time.

Don't Box Them In

The current issue of Beverly Hills Weekly includes the following quote about fences and gates being added to my high school: "We’re doing some perimeter gates, perimeter fencing, motorizing some gates, putting some alarms on the inside of doors so kids don’t exit unless we allow them to," said Superintendent Gary Woods. "They can exit for an emergency but then the alarm goes off."

And this scary little thing is said in a matter-of-fact fashion as if it's perfectly normal and ok to do something like this. Pathetic.

RIP Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012)

Elinor Ostrom, the only Nobel Laureate to be produced by my high school (Beverly Hills High School), has died of pancreatic cancer.

(Tip of the cap to James Fowler.)

I'm still in shock.

A few days ago --- right after I got back to Oxford --- one of my friends from high school died rather unexpectedly. At the moment, I am not going to write a 'proper' obituary blog entry or even say who it is (as things need to run their course) because I don't think it would be fair to the family. I don't know if the cause of death is fully known yet, and I certainly don't know all of the details.

This is a tragedy in and of itself, but there are particular reasons why it's especially horrible in this case. Again, I am not going to say anything about this right now.

It was a shock when I first found out, and it's actually bothering me more day by day (though, as only a distant friend, this obviously is not even a blip on the radar screen in comparison to what's going on with relatives and so on!). I am hoping to shortly have a discussion with a particular one of my high school classmates with whom I am close.

Eventually, I would 'like' to post a proper obituary in remembrance, and to tell a couple of stories---but perhaps unsurprisingly I don't want to do that right now (and probably not for quite a while).

For what it's worth, this isn't even the only thing bothering me right now. I know how to address the second thing, however, so at least I know what to do to address the issue. In fact, I think it will work out fine, and my worries regarding that one are essentially due almost entirely to my worrying nature. For my friend's death, however, I have more of a helpless feeling even from my distance. It's bloody scary is what it is.

Another Piece of my Childhood is Gone

OK, so this apparently happened in November 2007, but I only just found out. Namely, Tony Silver (Beverly High class of 1979), the owner of the Beverly Hills Baseball Card Shop died in November 2007. (I read about this in the obituaries in the 2009 Beverly Hills High Alumni Highlights.) As a child, I went to that store regularly, and even after I left home, I would still go there on occasion during breaks from school when I was back home. I didn't know the guy well or anything, but I feel bummed out after reading this because of the fact that feels like a significant piece of my childhood just left. (OK, admittedly my feelings are rather selfish in nature in this case.) Although I moved quite far away, this is a 'people in your neighborhood' sort of thing.

I have actually been in the mood to open some packs of baseball cards for quite a while. I do have a number of unopened packs in my parents' house, but one of the things I'd like really like to do when I am home this winter is to head over to the Beverly Hills Baseball Card Shop and buy some baseball cards---this includes some new ones, but I think I'd like to splurge a bit and buy some packs from the 70s or earlier.

First Beverly Hills High School graduate to win Nobel Prize

I didn't realize this until I just saw this in the new issue of Beverly Hills Weekly, but Elinor Ostrom, one of the two new Nobel Laureates in economics (and the first woman ever to win this particular Nobel) was graduated from my High School in 1951. She thus becomes the first person from Beverly High ever to win a Nobel, and presumably my high school will place her in its hall of fame soon. (This seems like it's a pretty severe oversight that this hasn't happened already.)

I have to admit a very small bit of mixed feelings because I was kind of hoping (though obviously without thinking it would actually happen) that I might eventually become the first Beverly alum to do that. Ah well. Not that I'm ambitious or anything...

High School interventions

Here's the straight line (you provide the joke): My high school is adding "intervention periods" to its class schedule starting this fall.

(If you're interested, you can find the article about Beverly High's new fall bell schedule on the upper left of page 3 of the new issue of Beverly Hills Weekly.)

Life (and apparently an old schoolmate) imitates Wedding Crashers

One of my old schoolmates from Hawthorne Elementary School and Beverly Hills High School has apparently become very good at crashing Hollywood parties. He is apparently considered a blagger among blaggers.

I suppose I shouldn't reveal his name here, but the name being used in the article above is close enough. I'm sure there's a wikipedia entry in his future, which would make him the 3rd (to my knowledge) member of my Beverly High graduating class to have such an entry.

(Tip of the hat to the subject of the article linked above.)

This is wrong on so many levels

Occasionally, I find interesting things with boredom-inspired google searches. Here is the latest curiosity. The page is an eBay listing for a yearbook from my sophomore year in high school.

I have a very good guess of who the seller is (given the user id). Part of me is amused, and part of me thinks it's kind of pathetic to attempt to hawk an old high school yearbook with a minimum bid of 10 dollars. (To say nothing of thinking that the phrase "Mason Porter, the famous Oxford University mathematics professor, is pictured in a sophomore portrait." will actually help sell the yearbook.)

The auction is apparently going to close within the next day (if it doesn't get recycled), so if the link doesn't show what I've described, I hope my words above will prove sufficiently amusing.

Wikified Classmates

I now know of two of my fellow Beverly High classmates [in this case, people who I actually know] from the class of 1994 who have been wikified. (Maybe there are more, but I just found out about the second one today.)

I went to both Beverly High and Hawthorne elementary school (since 1st grade, if I remember correctly) with Dina Rae (though I know her as "Dina Franks"). I went to Beverly High with Saba Soomekh, whose sister Bahar has also been wikified. I took classes with Saba, but I don't remember whether I met Bahar (maybe I did), who has appeared in MI: III (among other films).

Then, of course, there is also Angelina (who I mever met, though my collaborator JP Onnela can tell you at least one story about her; she was one year ahead of me in school and apparently left after sophomore year) and this person (whose family lived a block away from mine and whose brother is the one who first taught me how to throw a frisbee).

So much for my sordid past. At least I can have second-order fame through the people I know.