Dear Kid,

Continuing on with Part III of learning about the number three, we’re on day 3 of threes (Part I and Part II). And we’re talking about Sports. Also sports.

(Huh? What’s the difference? Sports with a lower case “s” refers to things like a three-legged race. Sports with a capital “S” refers to things that don’t typically occur in one’s back yard.)

A regulation hockey puck is three inches in diameter. Also in hockey, there are three periods in regular playing time.

Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh is located at the confluence of Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers. You knew that.

In volleyball, a team can touch the ball three times before it must cross the net. You knew that too.

You can score three points in football with a field goal and in basketball by shooting behind the cleverly named three point line. Also in basketball, referees are very protective of the lane (also known as the paint which I learned from Jenelle); you’re only allowed to be in there for 3 seconds without doing anything productive.

In many sporting events (and by “many sporting events” I mostly mean the Olympics), there are three medals awarded: gold, silver, and bronze.

A hat trick refers to three goals scored in a game by a single player. The hat trick originated in cricket (bet you didn’t know that). “Toby is a dumb name for a cricket.” Three extra points for knowing that quote.

Three letters are generally used to indicate a team or country during competition.

Perhaps my favorite three in sports is from baseball: Three strikes and you’re out. Think about that—professionals getting more than one chance to get it right. Life ought to be more like that. (“What? My stock pick went down? Strike one! Let’s start again!”)

And a Preview of Threes for St. Patrick’s Day

The Shamrock, the three-leaf clover, is a symbol of Ireland. St. P used the three-leaf clover to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity (no word on what he did if you inadvertently picked a four-leaf clover).

If you catch a Leprechaun and set him free, he will grant you three wishes. Be sure to negotiate the wishes before you release him—leprechauns are quite sneaky that way.

There is magic associated with drinking three glasses of beer on St. Patrick’s Day. No one knows what this is because no one has ever had only three glasses of beer.

Wishing you three kinds of happy for today.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Welcome to Part 2 of our discussion of the number three. Go read Part I if you missed it, I’ll wait.

Today we’re talking about the number three in mythology. (Have you ever noticed that when we imitate an echo, we say the words three TIMES, Times, times…?)

The Valknut (which sounds like it belongs in an Opera) is the Viking symbol of three interlocked triangles and is associated with Odin.

There are three Norns, who are like the three Fates (see below).

I’m sure there is more about Norse mythology and the number three, but I don’t know enough to tell you about it (input welcome).

Meanwhile, Greek and Roman mythology is rife with threes.

Three brothers, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, were each rulers of the three areas of the world, Sky, Ocean, Underworld. (Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto in Roman mythology.) Poseidon took the threes further with his trident.

Three brothers is a pretty standard structure. Think Hallows, Grimm, and a bunch of other stories. I’ll leave you to look them up in your free time.

There are three Graces lavishing beauty in the world. There are three Fates determining how long each person will live. There are three Furies who punished people who committed the worst crimes (like killing a family member). You do not want to meet the Furies. Or any of the three Gorgons (Medusa is the most famous, but the others are equally nasty—they just didn’t have as good a PR team.)

Monsters are also big on threes.

Cerberus was the hideous three-headed watchdog of the Underworld. Quick, name another three-headed dog! (Fluffy, in case you couldn’t remember.) There were three Harpies, three Cyclops, and three Hekatoncheires (hundred handed giants).

The Sphinx killed people who couldn’t answer her riddle about the three stages of man.

Sphinx: What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?

Oedipus: Man

Sphinx: Aaaggghh…

Hecate was the three-faced goddess associated with the three phases of the moon. We can talk about her another time.

Speaking of three legs, tripods were sacred to Apollo. You’d think he would prefer a good comfy recliner, but he preferred the three legged stool (probably easier to schlep around and perform from). The priestess at Delphi would sit on a tripod (which makes sense because the oracle belonged to Apollo).

Tune in tomorrow for the threes of sports and St. Patrick’s Day.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Today is the Wonder that is Pi Day. Which means we must think in increments slightly larger than three but not so large as 4 and contemplate the giggle that is your sister.

Since we have previously covered all the interesting facts about Pi, Pi Day, and Pi Approximation Day (and I’m not currently in the mood to make up research New and Interesting Facts about Pi), I thought we could round down and talk about the number three.

Turns out there are a LOT of interesting things about the number three, so we are going to cover the number three in 3 days. See how nicely (nice-three?) that works out? Today we’ll cover the basics of the number three (which includes some not so basic stuff), tomorrow is the number three in sports, and Friday we’ll talk about the number three in mythology (including a preview for St. Patrick’s Day). Exciting, yes?

Let us begin.

The Number Three | The Basics

Three is a prime number, a triangular number, a Fibonacci number, and a Lucas number. You knew it was prime.

If you add all the digits in a number and the sum is divisible by three, then the original number is divisible by three. You knew that too.

Tri means three. Which means Trigonometry test should only have had three questions and the whole class should only have lasted three days. Or three weeks. Trig teachers never got that.

The letters A F H K N Y Z are all made up of three lines.

All kinds of things come in threes. Like See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. And bears, Teletubbies, chances, wishes, little pigs, and billy goats.

Three is considered the number of harmony, wisdom, and understanding. Or at least it was in the 1960s.

A tress of hair originally meant a plait or pigtail with three interwoven strands of hair. In other words, a braid. Which were very popular in the 1960s.

There are three barleycorns in an inch, three feet in a yard, and three miles in a league. No one knows what any of that means…

Joke break
Spell ‘mousetrap’ in 3 letters…
Answer: C-A-T.

If the number of petals on a flower is a multiple of three, it is probably from a group of plants called the monocotyledons which includes crocuses, daffodils, tulips, lilies and other plants grown from bulbs. No one cares because it’s pretty easy to identify crocuses, tulips, daffodils.

There are three primary colors—mostly because there are three kinds of cones in our retinas to interpret color.

You need a minimum of three colors to create camouflage patterns.

According to Benjamin Disraeli (British Prime Minister, 1804-1881) there are three types of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics. This is one of my favorite quotes, but I didn’t realize it was attributable to Disraeli until just now. The things I learn…

Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States.

There are three languages on the Rosetta Stone: Demotic (Egyptian), Hieroglyphic, and Classical Greek.

Octopuses (octopi?) have three hearts, so I think they should be the new symbol for Valentine’s Day. Camels and cats have three eyelids. They believe it makes them superior. To everything.

Gemini is the third astrological sign of the Zodiac.

In the Tarot, three is the card of the Empress. I don’t know anything about Tarot, but it seems to me the Empress should be #1.

And because it really is Pi Day:

Joke: A round pizza with radius ‘z’ and thickness ‘a’ has the volume Pi·z·z·a.

Ha.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

If one goes to Cozumel, and one should at some point, one should go scuba diving (if one likes that sort of thing) and/or snorkeling (if one likes that sort of thing).

If you don’t like that sort of thing, you might want to find a glass bottom boat tour or something.

The point is, life below the sea is stunning. The ocean is crystal clear, the reefs are teaming with life, and observers get to see a lot.

The fish (unfortunately) don’t have name tags which makes it hard to know who they are. But still—gorgeous.

Not only should one visit the reefs, one should visit the Starfish Sanctuary. This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. The sand was snowy white, the water was gorgeous, and (wait for it) there were starfish everywhere.

Starfish are not generally the most active of creatures, so there’s plenty of time to get a good look at them. (However, when starfish move, they can move pretty quickly using hundreds of tiny tube feet.)

They aren’t fish (no gills, fins, or scales) so these days they are generally called sea stars (which I find disconcerting because I grew up thinking they were called starfish).

Sea stars live a long time (up to 35 years) and they can be really heavy for their size (up to 11 pounds).

Don’t try to train a starfish (I really can’t help myself) because they don’t have a brain. They don’t have blood either; rather they use sea water to deliver nutrients through their nervous system.

Sea stars usually have five arms. I saw one with six arms, and there are varieties that have up to 40. Which makes it difficult to buy them sweaters. When they lose an arm, they can generally grow it back. But it can take up to a year to regenerate.

Don’t invite a starfish to dinner as their table manners leave something to be desired. When they capture prey, they grab it with teeny little suction cups. Then (ick) they push their stomach out of their mouth (which is on their underside) to digest the food. It can even slide its stomach inside a closed clam or mussel, and can eat things bigger than their mouths because the undigested food doesn’t have to be swallowed. Once sea star is done eating it puts its tummy away.

Male and female starfish look alike so it’s been difficult for starfish dating sites to gain traction. In addition, they don’t have great vision even though they have an eye spot at the end of each arm. Presumably, the starfish figure it all out.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

And how things can change in a day.

Turns out that the east coast of These Here United States is going to get about a Vortex-full of snow and my trip to New Jersey has been rescheduled. To April. When presumably it will not be polar bear season in Newark.

The airline is rejoicing. Oh, no problem! We’ll happily exchange your $357 ticket for a $250 ticket (do not pass go, do not collect a refund). And thank you so much for staying out of our hair during what we are sure will be a rather nasty few days.

Dear Burglars,

I told you not to get your hopes up.

In other news, today is National Cereal Day. (Yesterday was National Oreo Day—how did I miss celebrating that one?!)

Factoid: CheeriOats was the original name for Cheerios

National Cereal Day is ridiculously easy to celebrate. Just pour a bowl of cereal and enjoy.

Factoid: The cereal industry uses over 800 million pounds of sugar a year (so it is closer to National Oreo Day than I thought…)

It’s not clear if National Cereal Day refers only to cold cereal. But since we’re about to be gripped in Vortex of Polar Proportions, I say go for it and eat oatmeal if you want.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

On our honeymoon, Dad and I saw wild capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica. On our recent trip we encountered semi-wild capuchin monkeys in Roatan, an island right off the coast of Honduras.

We were at the Lomalinda Natural Reserve, where first we saw a Great Kapok Tree (no joke).

Then we moved on to several kinds of iguanas (wild, but highly content to live off regular feedings by the professionals of the Reserve), macaws (somewhat less than wild and highly content to earn their living as professional models), and capuchin monkeys.

There are several other types of monkeys in the preserve, but the capuchins are territorial and generally run off the other primates from “Monkey Land” where they have the caretakers well trained to give them sunflowers for behaving nicely among the visitors. Important Note: One crosses La-La Bridge to get to Monkey Land. How could this not be a wonderful place?

The word “capuchin” was given to the monkeys in the 15^th century (that’s before you were born) by explorers who saw the little black tops of the monkeys’ heads and were reminded of the “cappuccino”, the small hat the friars of the Franciscan monks wore. The monkeys didn’t object, but they didn’t start wearing friars’ robes either.

The length of a capuchin monkey’s body is equal to the length of its tail. This is so that the monkey can balance as he or she swings through trees and leaps across branches. More importantly it’s so that the monkey can wrap its tail around my neck as he or she sits adorably on my shoulder.

I cannot begin to describe how soft these babies are.

Capuchin monkeys are diurnal which means that they spend their days looking for food (with a brief siesta after lunch—I am not making that up) and sleep at night. Mostly because there are no visitors play with after dark.

They are omnivores who mainly eat the sunflower seeds the handlers give them but are quite content to hunt for fruit, berries, leaves, flowers, insects, spiders (yay for the spider hunting monkeys!), birds, small mammals (wait, what?), and eggs. All of which is to say they aren’t that picky as long as they’re fed, but they draw the line at McDonalds. And kale. They’re much too smart to eat kale, imo.

And they are very smart. After all, they’ve trained the caretakers to feed them regularly. They also use tools like sticks, stones, and large chain saws to open nuts and hard seeds.

Natural predators include boa constrictors, jaguars, cougars, coyotes, birds of prey, and people of prey. (Which one of these doesn’t belong? Hunt with cameras people!)

After our time with the macaws, iguanas, and monkeys, Dad and I took a long walk on the beach before heading back to the ship.

Day, perfect.

Love, Mom