September/October 2020

Features

Departments

The Comfort of Routines
Inside Track

The Comfort of Routines

By Eric P. Harding
Ours is a family of routines. Especially these days—I’m talking about with kids home for summer vacation, but I might as well be talking about the coronatimes as well—we all need a little structure to help the days fall into place.

Picture Yourself in a Boat on a River
President's Message

Picture Yourself in a Boat on a River

By D. Joeff Williams
For the past nine months in this space, I have been sharing small stories and ­material related to two of my favorite distractions when not doing my day job—both seeing and learning about art (more specifically, paintings and sculptures) as well as classic rock music.

Cryptic Corners
Cryptic Puzzle

Cryptic Corners

By Tom Toce
Here’s another puzzle constructed by one of my test solvers, Jerry Miccolis. Jerry is a retired actuary. He is a serious crossword constructor and lately, an author. Look for his book The Boys of Late Summer, which is about his senior softball team.

Squaring the Circle
Puzzles

Squaring the Circle

By Stephen Meskin
As with many mathematical concepts, “squaring the circle” has become a metaphor, in this case for something impossible to do. The ancient Greeks asked if by using a straight-edge and compass one could draw a square with the same area as a given circle in a finite number of steps.