May 7, 2006
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Bagombo Snuff Box
(in memory of
Burt Kerr Todd)
“Well, it may be the devil
or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to
serve somebody.”– “Bob Dylan”
(pseudonym of Robert Zimmerman),
quoted by “Bob Stewart”
on July 18, 2005“Bob Stewart” may or may not be the same person as “crankbuster,”
author of the “Rectangular Array Theorem” or “RAT.” This
“theorem” is intended as a parody of the “Miracle Octad Generator,” or
“MOG,” of R. T. Curtis. (See the Usenet group
sci.math, “Steven Cullinane is a Crank,” July 2005, messages 51-60.)“Crankbuster” has registered at Math Forum
as a teacher in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). For a tall
tale involving Ceylon, see the short story “Bagombo Snuff Box” in the
book of the same title by Kurt Vonnegut, who has at times embodied– like Martin Gardner and “crankbuster“– “der Geist, der stets verneint.”Here is my own version (given the alleged Ceylon background of “crankbuster”) of a Bagombo snuff box:
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