Pun Salad

It's the 21st Annual Celebration. Maintaining our geeky tradition from last year, this post should show up on 3/14 at 1:59:27pm EDT. Here's a simple yet profound animated GIF from the Pi article at Wikipedia for you to contemplate:

(Click for the big version and a whole bunch of WikiLegalese.)

• Last year's post on this was pretty good (if I do say so myself); since π's a constant, it still holds up pretty well.

• What's new this year: House Resolution 224 "Supporting the designation of Pi Day, and for other purposes" (which passed in a squeaker: 391-10). Betsy Newmark rolls her eyes at the recent Politico article describing the legislative process. She notes a typical bit of Congressional egomania:

  "It makes you realize how consequential you really are," Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) said with a smile.

  Betsy comments:

  Yup, that's how consequential you Congress critters are. You can pat yourself on your collective backs for recognizing something that people have been doing on their own for 20 years.

  Good point. But as one of Betsy's commenters notes: wouldn't it be great if Congress could limit itself to harmless stunts like this?

• If you haven't made your celebratory plans yet, there's a wikiHow article you can mine for ideas. Number seven is intriguing:

  Progressive rock musician Kate Bush performed a song titled π on her 2005 album Aerial. Bush sings pi to its 137th decimal place, but omits the 79th through 100th decimal places of pi for currently unknown reasons. Playing π on Pi Day, therefore, is left to the discretion of the celebrant. Just watch out for party-crashers playing Zero by Smashing Pumpkins.

  And that's not the worst idea! An MP3 of Kate's song can be had for a mere 99 cents at Amazon.