In 1940 during the darkest days of World War II English mathematician Godfrey
Harold Hardy wrote the very forthright and hauntingly elegaic "A Mathematician's
Apology". He was then 63, had had a heart attack in 1939, and very much aware that
while he had made significant contributions, especially as a result of collaborations
with John Ensor Littlewood (1885-1977) and Srinivasa Ramajunan (1887- only 1920,
alas), he was no longer capable of mathematical creativity. Hardy had held the
Savilian Chair of Geometry at Oxford from 1919 to 1931, but, unlike his predecessor
John Wallis, he was not wealthy and never fell in love. Despite having been very
unhappy at Cambridge as a student (starting in 1896) and as professor, he returned
there to take up the Sadleirian Chair - the most prestigous mathematical
appointment in England.
Apologizing in advance, when we titled this presentation "Swirls Before Nine" we primarily had in
mind illustrating to legislators the dire straits Solano County schools in particular find themselves
in. At the time, by sheer coincidence, nine of our applications were being worked on - we were using
cochleoids for deep water oil well methane explosions; submarine hydrocarbon plumes; high
altitude volcanic ash clouds and other geological unpleasantries. The one bright candle amidst the
dark disasters was that a tsunami rumbling up the Carquinez Strait which divides Contra Costa
and Solano counties would not do 1% of the damage of similar wave smashing Istanbul, Singapore
or Seattle. Unfortunately, that meant no one outside Solano was likely to care.
We were aware of the English version of the sixth verse from the Gospel of Saint Matthew chapter 7
(at the end of the Sermon on the Mount): "cast ye not pearls before swine".
For rock and roll fans, yes, we are aware that Tom Rapp restarted the band Pearls Before Swine
(1965-1972) after an absence of 27 years and that there is a website www.pbswine.com.
For comics fans, we are equally aware that Northern California's own Stephan Pastis (well, born in
1968 and raised in San Marino; graduated UC Berkeley in 1989 with a degree in political science;
then UCLA Law School in 1990; practiced law in the San Francisco Bay area from 1993 to 2002; and
now lives in Albany, we think) draws a widely published strip titled "Pearls Before Swine".