## Smullyan

August 11, 2016

I have just posted on my papers page a preprint of a review of

MR3379889
Smullyan, Raymond
Reflections—the magic, music and mathematics of Raymond Smullyan.
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., Hackensack, NJ, 2015. x+213 pp.
ISBN: 978-981-4644-58-7; 978-981-4663-19-9

that I have submitted to Mathematical Reviews.

## 1941

May 17, 2013

Because of this, I decided to take a look at Cardinal Algebras, a monograph by Alfred Tarski, né Alfred Teitelbaum, published by Oxford University Press in 1949.

Here is the closing paragraph of the Preface:

It would be impossible for me to conclude this introduction without mentioning one more namethat of Adolf Lindenbaum, a former student and colleague of mine at the University of Warsaw. My close friend and collaborator for many years, he took a very active part in the earlier stages of the research which resulted in the present work, and the few references to his contribution that will be found in the book can hardly convey an adequate idea of the extent of my indebtedness. The wave of organized totalitarian barbarism engulfed this man of unusual intelligence and great talentas it did millions of others.${}^4$

${}^4$ Adolf Lindenbaum was killed by the Gestapo in 1941.

## Secret history

February 5, 2012

One of the deepest results to emerge from Hall’s school was […] This was obtained by Hall’s student Peter Stroud, who was tragically killed in an accident shortly after completing his doctorate; as a result, the proof was never published, and remains quite difficult to get at (Stroud’s thesis may be consulted in the Cambridge University Library, but photocopying is not allowed).

Dan Segal, Words. Notes on verbal width in groups, Cambridge University Press, 2009.

## Update

January 13, 2012

There is this book we read at bedtime, All the things I love about you, by LeUyen Pham. Francisco has added to it a few twists of his own:

For example, here the boy is running away from an explosion.

He is learning to spell, but he is stubborn. And sometimes he spells backwards. So Y-R-M-A-C A-T-O-Y-O-T spells car.

His favorite movie right now is Jumanji. During the stampede scenes, the living room gets destroyed. He is thorough.

For christmas he got the Doctor, and for his birthday, a bike. And, of course, a million other things.

All of which must be uniformly spread through the living room while elephants trumpet.

## Set theory and its applications

January 15, 2011

Set theory and its applicationsL. Babinkostova, A. E. Caicedo, S. GeschkeM. Scheepers, eds. Contemporary Mathematics, vol. 533, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2011. ISBN-10: 0-8218-4812-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-8218-4812-8