The 10th biannual Gathering for [Martin] Gardner will start Wednesday in Atlanta.
Anyone going?
Gathering for Gardner
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Bill Mullins
- Posts: 5915
- Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
- Location: Huntsville, AL
- Contact:
-
Bill Mullins
- Posts: 5915
- Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
- Location: Huntsville, AL
- Contact:
Re: Gathering for Gardner
I got word this afternoon that Tom Rodgers passed away from cancer yesterday. It was announced at the G4GX that he was terminally ill, and it definitely cast a pall over an otherwise excellent weekend. Tom has been a key sponsor and organizer of the Gathering since its inception -- he organized the exhibition of puzzles at the Atlanta art museum that evolved into the Gathering for Gardner.
Some of my best memories of previous Gatherings have been at the Saturday receptions at Tom's house, where several hundred mathematicians, magicians, and puzzle fans all get together. It was there I got to meet and talk with Jerry Andrus and Jamy Ian Swiss; to play with toy/puzzle dealer Tim Rowett's latest products; to have Bill Kalush tell me of his theories about Houdini being a secret agent and his excitement about the new digital magic library he was setting up (AskAlexander); watching Scott Kim design ambigrams on the fly; seeing Tom's puzzle collection, including many Harry Eng bottles; watching Lennart Green do rope tricks; being asked by former Omni games columnist Scot Morris "are you a turtle?"; listening to John Conway discourse on anomalies in the Gregorian calendar system, and explain how to quickly and easily calculate the day for any date. The Gathering for Gardner is a collection of very smart people (this writer excepted), and the smartest one of all may have been Tom, for pulling it all together.
Some of my best memories of previous Gatherings have been at the Saturday receptions at Tom's house, where several hundred mathematicians, magicians, and puzzle fans all get together. It was there I got to meet and talk with Jerry Andrus and Jamy Ian Swiss; to play with toy/puzzle dealer Tim Rowett's latest products; to have Bill Kalush tell me of his theories about Houdini being a secret agent and his excitement about the new digital magic library he was setting up (AskAlexander); watching Scott Kim design ambigrams on the fly; seeing Tom's puzzle collection, including many Harry Eng bottles; watching Lennart Green do rope tricks; being asked by former Omni games columnist Scot Morris "are you a turtle?"; listening to John Conway discourse on anomalies in the Gregorian calendar system, and explain how to quickly and easily calculate the day for any date. The Gathering for Gardner is a collection of very smart people (this writer excepted), and the smartest one of all may have been Tom, for pulling it all together.