Next Monday, as no doubt you already know, is Pi Day. Regarding which, the

indefatigable Howard Greenspan emails me thus:

“John—Our Pi-Day link to the PiDepartment at MathematiciansPictures.com

has been a lot of fun. And while the MathematiciansPictures.com site is

nominally apolitical (is anything apolitical?) there definitely seem to

Politics of Pi.

“While Pi to 5,000 digits, Pi-by-the-yard, and Pi-by-the-meter seem to be

mainstream (if you consider purchase of shirts and posters to be votes),

there is also an opposition group (left or right we’re not sure) who

consider the precision to be of no practical value, and simply obsessive.

For them we have introduced ‘Casual Pi’ (Pi is approximately equal to 3)

shirts and posters which allow them to picket and protest the more

mainstream group.

“We’re not sure which is the ‘red’ team, and which is the ‘blue’ team:

PERHAPS YOUR READERS HAVE AN OPINION?

“Of course, the larger mainstream group insist that the reason to tackle

Pi’s infinite irrational precision is clearly the logic of tackling any

great natural challenge: ‘because it’s there’.

“And, while the natural beauty of the Pi-in-the-Sky, Pi-cubed, and newly

introduced Strawberry Pi shirt (and newly introduced mug) – first entry in

our PI-Of-The-Month Club – have a strong following, the down-to-earth ‘Pizza

Pi’ shirts and posters are clearly filling a need.

“The BIG QUESTION (currently being puzzled) is what Pi Tshirt would George

Bush wear?”

The one that shows where, in the decimal expansion of pi, is the number of

votes needed to get Social Security reform through the House?