The Reason You Should Never Wear Orange to a Job Interview

The holiday season can be a stressful time of year for many people. But if you approach it armed with these helpful tricks, and a little yuletide cheer, the holidays can be an anxiety-free affair.

1. Buy a few small gifts for emergencies.

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When unexpected guests drop by, or you get invited to a last-minute gift exchange, it's nice to have something small on hand to offer, from canned preserves and candles to blankets and cozy socks—so stock up ahead of time!

2. Measure your space before you buy a tree.

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Whether you're going real or fake, picking the right Christmas tree is one of the most important parts of the holiday season—and there's nothing worse than finding the perfect tree then bringing it home ... only to realize it doesn't fit in your space. So before you go head out to the local tree farm or Christmas tree store, measure your space (don't forget to factor in the height of your tree stand). It's also not a bad idea to measure the door you want to squeeze the tree through. And before you get it inside, prune any areas that are unruly or extend outwardly from the shape of the tree. Keep in mind that pine trees tend to have longer needles, and fir trees tend to have softer needles. If you have allergies, consider a spruce tree; its scent is less pungent and fragrant than pine or fir. You can also go artificial, in which case you'll want to make sure you bend the branches and fluff the tree to hide the spaces between each layer. Then light a pine-scented candle to make it smell like the real thing.

3. Before putting your tree in its stand, cut it around the base.

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Cut a 1/2-inch thick disk off the base of the tree trunk to make it easier for the tree to absorb water. Your tree stand should have a deep reservoir; once your tree is set up, fill it to the top. After that, add water daily so it doesn't dry out—you'll need about 1 quart of water per inch of the trunk in diameter.

4. Use a PVC pipe and a funnel to get water to your tree.

An easy way to water your tree without getting gook or needles all over you is to place a 3- to 5-foot 3/4-inch PVC pipe into the reservoir with a 45-degree elbow connector and a funnel attached to its top. Then all you have to do to water the tree is pour water into the funnel, so it travels through the pipe into the reservoir.

5. Make room for big presents by elevating your Christmas tree.

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Trying to shove large presents under a low tree can be pretty frustrating, not to mention messy—so give your tree a boost. Place a few paint cans in a wide cardboard box to keep it sturdy, then place your tree on top. (You can also use a block of wood.) As an added bonus, your elevated tree appears larger than it really is and has a bigger presence in the room.

6. Use hand sanitizer to get rid of tree resin on your hands.

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Let's face it: Getting a real tree for Christmas is really messy. When you inevitably get tree sap on your hands and clothes, using soap and water to remove the sticky resin isn't the solution. Instead, trying using hand sanitizer. It contains alcohol, which will break up the resin on your skin in only a matter of seconds. If you don't have hand sanitizer on hand, cooking oil, peanut butter, or even toothpaste should also do the trick.

7. Use a lint roller to get rid of errant pine needles.

Regular watering of your tree will greatly reduce the number of pine needles that fall off it—but your tree will still shed, and those needles will end up everywhere. And even vacuums can't get every little needle. One of the best ways to clean up loose pine needles from your furniture is using an oversized lint roller. It might seem awkward, but it does the trick. If you'd rather stand while getting rid of the needles, consider buying a rubber broom, which works even on carpets: Use shorter strokes, which will build a static charge and help you pick up needles quickly. If there are still small pine needles hanging around, use a piece of duct tape (sticky side out) wrapped around your hand to dab needles off the floor.

8. Keep fake trees from tipping over with a bag of rice.

If you've got an artificial Christmas tree this year, make sure you use a hefty weight around the base so it doesn't tip over when you're decorating (or after you're done). A 10-pound bag of rice on the back of the base of the tree should keep it sturdy; you can also use a few bricks to balance out the weight.

9. Trim your tree in the right order.

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Hanging and wrapping garland and tinsel should be the first thing you do after you set up your tree. Use a simple burlap garland or tinsel to fill out any shallow spots or holes. It's also an easy way to spruce up your tree if you're using an artificial one or you don't have a lot of ornaments and other holiday decorations. For every foot of your tree, you should wrap about 9 feet of garland or tinsel around it. Next, add lights, starting from the bottom and working your way up. Real Simple recommends placing the lights randomly, putting some near the trunk and some near the front to create depth. For every foot of your tree, you should use about 100 lights (or more if they're particularly small). You can also use large and small sized lights around your Christmas tree to make it look fuller. Then it's time to hang your ornaments. Make sure ahead of time that you have enough hooks for each ornament you use (or pick up some green florist's wire, which blends in better than traditional hooks). If you have pets, use ribbons instead of hooks, so your cat or dog doesn't get hurt if they play with the ornaments. (Also consider placing ornaments on higher branches so there's less a risk of your pet knocking one over—or chewing on one.) When placing ornaments around the tree, put heavier and larger ones on the sturdier inside branches, and the smaller ones on the outer tips. Lastly, place the topper at the very top.

10. Set up a spreadsheet to track budgets and presents.

Martha Stewart recommends making a list, separated out by category, before you head out to do your holiday shopping, which is a solid tip. But if you celebrate the holidays in several different locations, or need to buy for a ton of people on a budget, you might need to go a step further and create a holiday spreadsheet, which Mental Floss's editor-in-chief swears by. It should have rows for gift recipients and where they're located; the gift you're planning to buy; how much you have budgeted for that gift, and how much you actually spent; and whether or not the gift has been wrapped. This not only helps track where you are with your shopping, wrapping, and transporting of gifts, but also with budgets. Creating a new sheet within the tracking document every year will allow you to see what you've bought for everyone on your list in previous years, so you don't accidentally repeat yourself.

11. Keep your receipts.

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Unfortunately, not every gift will be a hit—or a fit. So keep your receipts together in a safe place, writing the recipient's name on each one, in case they need to make a return or exchange. (Or ask for a gift receipt when purchasing the gift, and tuck it into the packaging so that the recipient can take care of any returns on their own, without the awkward task of having to ask you for the receipt.)

12. Wrap first, add decorations later.

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Regardless of whether you call it a gift or a present, Martha Stewart offers this wrapping tip: Wrap the presents first and leave the decorations for later. If you have to travel, you'll be able to easily stack the wrapped gifts, and you won't smush your decorations. When wrapping or decorating, keep these expert tips in mind.

13. Remove packaging before wrapping gifts.

Ripping through wrapping paper is fun for kids. What's not fun for kids (or adults) is trying to get through the tape, zip ties, screws, and heavy plastic that surround their new toys. Valuable playtime is at stake, so give your kids a break by removing the toy from its packaging before you gift wrap it. Use a package opener tool to make quick work of the maddening manufacturer's packaging before placing the toy back into the outer box and then wrapping it. If a toy needs some assembly, take the toy out of its package and put it together before you wrap it with wrapping paper. Now when your kids open their gifts on Christmas Day, they can spend more time playing with their toys, and you can spend more time relaxing.

14. Use a toilet paper roll to hold wrapping paper.

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The best way to secure and hold your wrapping paper in place for storage is to use an old toilet paper roll. Cut the tube longways down the middle to open it up. When you're done wrapping, take the opened toilet paper roll and wrap it around your wrapping paper like a napkin ring. The wrapping paper will stay secure and not unroll when you store it. If you have multiple rolls of wrapping paper leftover after the holidays, store it in an old waste paper basket or hang them in a garment bag until next year. It will keep them neat and tidy, instead of loose on the top shelf of your closet.

15. Use a paper towel holder for easy access to ribbons.

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A paper towel holder can be used for more than just paper towels: Place a few spools of gift wrapping ribbon in a paper towel holder from largest to smallest from the bottom up. This is the quickest way to organize and dispense ribbons to finish off the perfect holiday gift.

16. Stock your kitchen with basics and supplies ahead of the holiday meal.

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Nothing will send stress skyrocketing than starting to cook a meal and realizing you don't have an ingredient you need. To make sure you're covered, go shopping for essential ingredients ahead of time—just make sure you don't use them all before it's time to prep for your party. According to experts, the best time to shop for specific ingredients for your meal is a couple of days before the holiday. Make sure you bring a list so you don't forget anything.

17. Make a meal plan—and stick to it.

After you've gotten your guest list together, and determined whether anyone on the list has a food allergy or dietary restriction, it's time to choose which dishes you'll serve. You can keep things simple—and your sanity intact—by serving no-cook appetizers. Once you've determined what you want to serve, it's time to go shopping, and though it might be tempting to deviate from the plan, don't do it! It will only cause stress.

18. Set reminders and put together a to-do list well before the event.

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It's also helpful to set reminders for when you need to do certain things, like calling the butcher, so that you don't forget anything in the run-up to the holiday. Give yourself a list of other little things to do every day—like decorating, for example—so you don't have to do it all immediately before the day.

19. Forgo individual cocktails for a batch of punch.

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Individual cocktails might be classy, but avoid them; they'll keep you behind the bar when you should be chatting with guests. Instead, Real Simple advises making a big batch of punch. You could also go with Martha Stewart's suggestion: a self-serve cocktail bar.

20. Set everything up the night before the party.

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The key to a stress-free event, according to Good Housekeeping, is to set up for your party the night before. Rearrange furniture, set the table, and make sure there's plenty of toilet paper in the bathroom. You can also prep ingredients the night before to make the day of the party a little less stressful. Putting together a list of what needs to happen day-of can keep you on track, too.

21. Use bread to clean up broken ornaments or glass.

Whether you drop an ornament or your party guest drops a glass, don't reach for the vacuum—the glass can damage it. Instead, reach for the bread bag: After sweeping up the big pieces with a broom, you can easily clean up tiny shards with a slice of bread; just press the slice onto the floor where the glass was shattered, then toss it out.

22. If you're flying for the holiday, pack light—and smart.

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Getting hit with an overweight baggage fee is no way to kick off holiday travel, so make sure you pack light. Use these tips to make the most of the space in your suitcase, especially when you're packing winter clothes (or for basic economy) and don't forget to swap a few belongings with the people you're traveling with so that you'll still have some things on hand if one of your suitcases gets lost. And if you're flying with gifts, leave the wrapping for later in case the TSA needs to examine them.

23. Know what to say and do if your flight gets canceled.

According to Cranky Concierge's Brett Snyder, the first thing you should do when your flight is canceled is call the airline—even if you're in line to speak with a counter agent. "This way, you're essentially cutting the line in front of you," Snyder told Real Simple. And no matter what the situation, remember to be polite; Snyder even recommends offering the agent a sandwich, which can set you apart from other irritated customers. "Don't forget that ticket agents have been doing this all day, and many haven't had a break," he said.

Here are a few other tips for what to do if your flight gets delayed or canceled.

24. Get your car's maintenance done before you travel.

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Getting over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house will be impossible if your car breaks down. The Better Business Bureau recommends getting any necessary car maintenance done before you make a long trip, and to have a car safety kit—which should include a blanket, radio, first aid kit, and jumper cables, among other things—in your vehicle just in case.

25. Store strings of lights on a hanger.

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When the holidays are over, prepare yourself for a stress-free season next year with a little prep work. Christmas lights are a pain to untangle every year. Instead of messing around with a rat's nest, wrap your lights around a plastic coat hanger or cardboard paper towel roll. It will be easier to untangle and unwrap as you string them on a Christmas tree or window. Be sure to plug the ends into each other to keep your lights secure and tangle free.

26. Use coffee tins, apple containers, or egg cartons to store ornaments.

Instead of throwing ornaments in an old shoebox, place medium to large ornaments in an old coffee tin or cheap plastic drinking cups. Clean out an old coffee tin and gently place larger Christmas decorations wrapped in newspaper inside. For medium-sized ornaments, store them in plastic drinking cups inside of a larger plastic storage bin. Use an empty egg carton to store smaller Christmas ornaments. Plastic apple containers or paper beverage trays work great, too. This is a good way to keep ornaments tidy, compact, and easy to access next year.

27. Save time for next year by wrapping your fake tree in plastic wrap, ornaments and all.

Taking down a Christmas tree is never as fun as putting it up, so if you're using an artificial tree, simply wrap the entire Christmas tree with lights and decorations on it with plastic wrap. Once you've wrapped it around the tree a few times, store it in your basement or garage. When Christmas comes again the following year, it will be easier to set up and display for another holiday season.

JACK KILBY STEM DAY 2019

It was almost like magic when Dr. Arthur Benjamin performed mental math in front of an audience of high school students Monday. In fact, Benjamin started his performance with a card trick and proceeded to amaze students by calculating the square of a five-digit number in his head.

Benjamin's presentation was the kickoff to the annual Jack Kilby Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Day at Barton Community College. Combining magic and math, Benjamin calls himself a "mathemagician." He's also a professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College and earned a Ph.D. in mathematical sciences from Johns Hopkins University. He has created "The Secrets of Mental Math" and other DVDs for The Great Courses.

"My goal is to convince people that math can be fun," Benjamin says. "The point of my presentation is not to show the audience how smart I am, but how smart they can be."

Mentally finding the square of random numbers called out by the audience, Benjamin continued to make his challenges more intriguing.

"I shall attempt the impossible," he said. "Or at least, for my skeptics out there, improbable." He could tell students who provided their date of birth what day of the week they were born on. Then, as an audience member checked on a perpetual calendar app on his smartphone, Benjamin asked the student to choose any date from 1600 into the future. He chose something like Feb. 17, 4567, and Benjamin said it would fall on a Monday. "And it will be sunny," he joked. But his math matched the date on the app.

Unlike many magicians, Benjamin was willing to share some of the secrets of mental math. After delivering the keynote to this year's Kilby Day, he was scheduled to meet with teachers and youth leaders. "During the workshop, if you want to see the algebra (for a particular stunt), I'm happy to do it," he said.

Students could also attend two breakout sessions after Benjamin's presentation. There were a variety of subjects to choose from, said Biology & Environmental Science Instructor Charlotte Cates.

"We have quite a few new diverse breakout sessions this year that highlight our tagline 'STEM is Everywhere,'" Cates said. "These include a session on the Physics of Dance presented by our new Dance instructor Danika Bielek in the new Studio 34. Breakout sessions on food Science, pet nutritional needs and origami tech are also new this year. Dr. Kristen Hathcock will use drones to demonstrate math concepts in our new active learning classroom ... (and) drones will be flown on the Soccer Field."

This is the 16th year that the college has invited high school students to a Kilby Science Day, named after former Great Bend resident Jack Kilby, who won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his role in inventing the microchip. "Last year we expanded Jack Kilby Science Day to include all the STEM Fields," Cates said. "This year our theme is math, which is the language of STEM."

Eight high school teams competed in a double-elimination Math Bowl this year. Students met in the Kirkman Center for lunch and an Academic Fair where they could learn more about Barton and other programs.

Hagerman the Magician makes math magic at the Ice House

BERKELEY SPRINGS â€" Hagerman the Magician is coming back to the Ice House Wednesday by popular demand. Math-A-Magic is Hagerman’s newest show to hit schools, featuring his sense of humor and magical talents. The show has comedy, magic, audience participation, and, as the title eludes, math. Admission is by donation.

Math can be fun, he believes. He said his show invokes a sense of wonder in children when they see miraculous things done with familiar concepts. Math-A-Magic may be educational, but it’s also entertainment perfect for all ages and open to all.

Hagerman was born and raised in Missouri. His interest in magic began when his father went to a library to learn magic to perform at one of his birthday parties. Then one day, Hagerman saw an episode of “The Brady Bunch” where Peter went to a magic shop and became a magician. He was inspired; so he asked his mother to take him to a magic shop for his ninth birthday.

Learning magic helped the young man in his studies. He not only wanted to know how a trick worked, but more importantly, why it worked. His research uncovered the real secrets of magic, which he said is science. He taught himself basic scientific principles through the magical art. As a result, he excelled in his scientific studies. It almost came naturally to him as reflected by the many academic competitions he won during his scholastic career. He had dreams of becoming a chemist or a mathematician: the magician was always just a fantasy.

After college, he started performing for money. When he was 22, Dynamic School Assemblies, an agency based in Detroit, Mich., contracted Hagerman’s services for nine months and sent him to California. This would be his first regular engagement. But this wasn’t for magic as such. This was for science shows. The next year, the school asked Hagerman to take the number one performing position in the company, the Midwest tour. Hagerman averaged four shows a day, five days a week for years. Years later, he is still entertaining audiences.

The Morgan Arts Council brings Hagerman’s Math-a-Magic program to county schools November 4-6 as part of its Adopt-a-School program. Funding for this and other Adopt-a-School programs comes in part from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation, Tom and Virginia Seely Foundation, the Clay Center, and local hotel/motel taxes.

The Ice House is at the corner of Independence and Mercer Streets. For more information, call 258-2300 or visit www.macicehouse.org. For more information on Hagerman, see www.hagermania.com or Hagerman the Magician on Facebook.

The Myth and Magic of Generating New Ideas

Where do ideas come from? That's a big question. Here's a smaller one: Where do mathematical ideas come from? I've wondered about this from the time I first contemplated being a mathematician until long after I officially became one.

My earliest memory of anything like a mathematical idea comes from a childhood walk with my dad. We left the house and made our way toward downtown Metuchen, the tiny town in central Jersey where I grew up, to a little luncheonette called the Corner Confectionery. I can still picture it: the rack of newspapers, magazines, and comic books; the ice-cream treats in the back corner; the long counter with stools, where I used to sit and spin until I was told to stop. It was about a mile-long walk, reserved for special occasions. On that bright fall morning, we strolled up Spring Street—a beautiful street lined with huge oak trees—and talked about fractions, though I wouldn't have known to call them that. We were puzzling over—or, rather, I was puzzling over—how to fairly divide a pie (probably one of the Corner Confectionery's apple pies). My dad, a mathematical physicist, a man with an active mind, but one of few words, was a gentle guide, letting me think through things o n my own.

We took our time walking, and we also took our time thinking and talking about the basic properties of numbers. In my head, it was easy to cut the pie in half, and then in half again, and again: two, four, or eight pieces. But, somewhere near Main Street, I got stuck on how to reliably create three, five, or six pieces. I started thinking about making bigger numbers out of smaller numbers. This leisurely walk through the neighborhood soon led me to the exciting idea that twelve was a great number. Twelve could be divided by one, two, three, four, and six. That's a lot of numbers! If I had a pie cut into twelve pieces, it would be easy to divvy up dessert for many different-sized groups of friends. By the time we crossed the railroad tracks and arrived at the door of the Confectionery, I thought that I had made a remarkable discovery: Everyone! Stop! We need to think about the world in terms of twelves!

Ten or so years later, when I was a college freshman, I would learn that I had stumbled upon an instance of what is called an abundant number, a phenomenon first studied by the ancient Greeks. An abundant number is smaller than the sum of its divisors: in my case, the sum of one, two, three, four, and six (twelve's divisors) is sixteen. That morning with my dad, I didn't have a name for this phenomenon, but I was happy nonetheless, and maybe even happier because I was ignorant of the larger picture. It was my own surprising little discovery, born of walking and puzzling. Magic all around.

As odd as it might sound, I've never been particularly confident of my mathematical abilities. I don't mean the arithmetic part, the part that people usually associate with being a mathematician. ("Hey, let Dan calculate the tip! Ha ha!") It's true that I'm probably better than average at mental math, but that's not really what makes a mathematician a mathematician. My job is to come up with ideas. Sometimes we mathematicians call the things we think about and work with "objects," which doesn't mean triangles, spheres, or other shapes. Mathematical objects are big ideas about algebra, geometry, and logic, about the properties and definitions of numbers.

It's not at all obvious how to go about thinking up some new twist on these things—the transformation from test-taker to theorem poser and then theorem prover is difficult to articulate. My ideas have always felt contingent and magical to me. I don't think I'm alone, at least as far as the magic goes. Henri Poincaré, the father of chaos theory and the co-discoverer of special relativity, is famous for a story that appears in his 1908 book "Science and Method," about an insight being jarred loose while boarding a bus: "At the moment when I put my foot on the step, the idea came to me, without anything in my former thoughts seeming to have paved the way for it." The Irish mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton, who devoted many years to searching for a way to multiply numbers in higher dimensions, had a similar epiphany, in 1843, just as he was strolling by the Brougham Bridge, in Dublin, while on a walk with his wife. He was so delighted that he stopped and carve d the defining algebraic equation into the bridge: i2=j2=k2=ijk=-1. One person's graffiti is another person's breakthrough.

These stories suggest that an initial period of concentration—conscious, directed attention—needs to be followed by some amount of unconscious processing. Mathematicians will often speak of the first phase of this process as "worrying" about a problem or idea. It's a good word, because it evokes anxiety and upset while also conjuring an image of productivity: a dog worrying a bone, chewing at it to get to the marrow—the rich, meaty part of the problem that will lead to its solution. In this view of creative momentum, the key to solving a problem is to take a break from worrying, to move the problem to the back burner, to let the unwatched pot boil.

All problem solvers and problem inventors have had the experience of thinking, and then overthinking, themselves into a dead end. The question we've all encountered—and, inevitably, will encounter again—is how to get things moving and keep them moving. That is, how to get unstuck.

For me, the quest for a breakthrough often requires getting myself into literal motion; one small step for Poincaré but a whole sequence of steps for me. I'll take a long hike, during which my mind has nothing to worry about except putting one foot in front of the other, or I'll go for a long drive, so that my primary focus is on the road. Maybe it's the endorphins, or maybe it's refocussing my attention on some other activity which enables a new idea. Perhaps it is the momentary feeling of being untethered that gives the mind free rein—the space to have a good idea.

In college, I was about twenty hours into a twenty-four-hour take-home algebra exam when I became convinced that I'd hit a permanent block. I went to the weight room, where, bench-pressing in the midst of noisy midday regulars, I finally figured out the key to proving the irreducibility of a certain group of symmetries (in the case of the exam question, all the symmetries of a soccer ball). It happened again a few years later, in Somerville, Massachusetts, when I was in the final stages of my Ph.D. During a regular workout at Mike's Gym, a friendly, bare-bones place tucked back by the railroad tracks, I experienced an epiphany that would inspire the final chapter of my dissertation. My power-lifting and body-building buddies got a shout-out in the acknowledgements.

Perhaps the most memorable instance was a breakthrough jog I took in Hanover, when I was a young professor at Dartmouth. My colleagues and I were trying—and mostly failing—to come up with an efficient method for solving a class of equations that describe all kinds of waves: both the familiar ones we find in the shallows of oceans and the cosmic ones generated by the Big Bang. We spent every day drawing on blackboards and chasing one wrong idea after another. After one afternoon spinning our wheels, I decided to take advantage of a beautiful day and threw on my running clothes. I had a regular route, which I varied by running it in reverse every other time. That day, I headed away from campus, on a tree-lined and leaf-filled ramble. As I crested the last hill, I saw it all at once: the key to modifying the algorithm we'd been puzzling over was to flip it around, to run it backward. My heart started racing as I pictured the computational elements strung out in the new, opposit e order. I sprinted straight home to find a pencil and paper so that I could confirm it. I'm pretty sure I didn't shower.

The key here isn't fitness—it's just a feeling of being free, of forgetting for a moment that we are bound by gravity and logic and convention, of letting the magic happen. For me, perhaps it's that my ideas just need to be jostled into the right place. Jogging jogs them. But there are mathematicians who try to alter their brain chemistry a little more directly. The Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős was notoriously prolific, someone to whom the magic tricks seemed to come enviably easily. So, what was his secret? His friend Alfréd Rényi, a fellow-Hungarian, once said, "a mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." And both men were caffeine enthusiasts. But Erdős was a person of extremes, and he also fuelled his ideas through a don't-try-this-at-home technique: he used stimulants such as Ritalin and Benzedrine for much of his career. At one point, a friend, worried about Erdős's health, challenged him to go off the drugs for a month, and Erd ős agreed, but when the experiment was over he said that, on the whole, mathematics had been set back by his weeks of relative indolence.

Whereas Erdős sought hyper-focussed vigilance, other eminent mathematicians have found a hazy drowsiness to be the most fertile state of mind. Poincaré described lying in bed in a half-dream state as the ideal condition for coming up with new ideas. The philosopher and mathematician René Descartes famously loved to lounge in bed in the morning and think (I suppose to give evidence that he was). It was on one such morning—as the story goes—while dreamily watching the path of a fly flitting around on the ceiling, that he came up with the xy plane of Cartesian coordinates.

I have had similarly dreamy mathematical experiences of my own, though never one that has quite borne fruit once the mist cleared. Once, I dreamed that I had stumbled upon a means to multiply matrices in a way that would be dramatically faster than any known method. In the dream, I stood in a room with a blackboard covered in notation—numbers, Greek letters, diagrams. I was far enough away that I couldn't decipher the formulas, but I was certain that they showed the way around an obstacle I was facing in real life—if only I could get close enough to read them. I had the dream night after night, and each time I approached the blackboard I discovered that what looked like math was just scribbles. For a while, I took to going to sleep with a writing pad by my bed in hopes that I could force myself into wakefulness and write down the solution. But my dreaming self was never able to read the board. My kids are right—I really do need to work on my handwriting.

This kind of hallucinatory visual phenomenon is one of a host of well-known phantasms. Despite the ultimate frustrations of my dreamed mathematics, I sometimes wonder if they did in fact help spur my creative process in a subconscious way. Many of my topologist colleagues, who study the properties of geometric objects, seem to live in an alternative, imagined world. Their hands are almost always in motion when they are lecturing or discussing ideas, as if they were rotating and examining a magical crystal ball in space. Other topologists nod along, appearing to instantly see the imaginary objects being conjured between their colleagues' fingertips. I confess that I am rarely able to join them in this shape-shifting mental world. That said, I know that some of them are less comfortable in my world of algebra and computing. It's reassuring to remember that all sorts of intellectual—and hallucinatory—predilections can find a way into mathematical work.

The origin stories of big ideas, whether in math or any other field, generally highlight the eureka moments. You can't really blame the storytellers. It's not so exciting to read "and then she studied some more." But this arduous, mundane work is a key part of the process; without it, the story is just a myth. There's no way to skip the worrying phase. You work, and you work, and you work, and then you get a glimmer of understanding. In college, I would spend hours in the library, rewriting class notes to insure that I really understood them, and then pushing to take that understanding to a new level. I was an office-hours rat, to the delight of some of my instructors and the annoyance of others. (I still remember the gleaming head of one eminent, bald professor who welcomed me with a resigned look every time I appeared at his door.) As a graduate student, I'd wake up early each day, pouring coffee down my throat while poring over my notes and books. Progress was gradu al, and sometimes imperceptible. Chance really does favor the prepared mind; when the moments of discovery came, often unexpectedly, my hours of hard work felt newly valuable.

My waking, working life, like my dream life, can sometimes feel like a series of epiphanies that are just beyond my reach—nonsensical symbols that I can't read and invisible objects that I can't see. I still don't know where ideas come from, but I now seem to at least know something about my own methods for finding them, which I keep holding on to even as the realities of my professional and personal life evolve. I read around and talk to colleagues, trying to keep a steady flow of new ideas in my daily work. Honestly, the homework never stops—it just isn't graded.

I don't lace up my running shoes as much anymore, but there is still the gym, the pool, the bike, and, of course, walking the dog. On the tennis court, my backhand still needs work, but the steady stroke of the racquet creates a conscious physical rhythm—just what I need to disrupt an unproductive mental eddy. I strike the ball and lift the weights, knowing that there is something about moving my body that will help move my mind.

Lego Club, Mock Trial, math magic funded by Conestoga Valley Education Foundation grants

Nearly $25,000 in innovative academic resources and programs are coming to students in Conestoga Valley School District this fall through grants awarded by the Conestoga Valley Education Foundation.

The programs are:

â€" Animals and their habitats, a hands-on project for elementary students to learn about world habitats.

â€" Explore and build tubs of supplies relating to three areas of the Profile of a CV Learner.

â€" STEM Wednesdays, which supplies materials for weekly STEM activities.

â€" Math magic, a magician who specializes in showing students mental math-related tricks and teaching interpersonal soft skills.

â€" Bucks vegetable garden collaborative, to build a garden in the newly renovated high school courtyard.

â€" Virtual reality emotional relief, which incorporates virtual reality in a high school classroom as a coping tool for students with anxiety, anger and depression.

â€" Mock Trial, which funds a trip to invitationals at Penn State University.

â€" Lego-based Social Skills Club. This award provides club materials for students with special needs.

â€" Sensory paths installation at Leola Elementary School.

â€" Math resources for STEM lab. The funding will purchase manipulatives, or physical objects used as teaching tools, and other resources for innovative math lessons at Brownstown Elementary School.

â€" Fritz Basketball Club for updated supplies at the elementary school.

â€" Yoga to improve sensory, self regulation and motor skills in kids facing sensory processing challenges.

â€" ManChoir, a one-day music-making event for school-aged male singers in Lancaster County.

â€" Flexible seating in the primary classroom for Leola Elementary School second graders.

â€" Art reproductions for all six district schools as a curriculum tool.

Since its inception, the foundation has provided more than $1 million in grants to teachers, administrators and students.

For more information about the foundation, visit Conestoga

ValleyEF.org.

Magic in McLean

Mario the Maker Magician performs on stage. Photo by Denise Lew/The Connection

New York-based entertainer Mario "the Maker Magician" Marchese appeared at McLean's Alden Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 3, as part of a national tour. Recognized for his dedication to the maker and the STEAM movement (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math), Marchese combines his own inventions of robotics, electronics and upcycled props with a new and cool kind of vintage slapstick magic. Hailed as "the best kids' musician in the world," by fellow magician David Blaine, Marchese has appeared on Sesame Street and NBC Universal's Sprout channel.

Marchese's magic career started by chance, when he was 22, by "stumbling into a magic shop, thinking it was an antique store," he said. "That small accident changed the course of my life," said Marchese.

After performing for a few years on the side, the magician went full-time with an occupation that he loved, entertaining family audiences and incorporating STEAM into his shows. "I build all of my props using cardboard, 3D printing, programming, and sensors. The show's purpose is to get kids excited about making," said Marchese. "We are trying to start a new video series, making magic tricks at home for kids of all ages, using programming and 3d design and printing," he said.

The innovative magician travels with his wife and manager, Katie, and his two young children, Gigi, 8, who often helps with tickets and merchandise, and Bear, 5, who loves greeting audience members and even helps clean up after shows.

Having made his inventions become reality with hard work and patience, Marchese is optimistic towards the future. "My dream would be to land on Broadway in NYC," he said. Marchese says that he undoubtedly hopes to come back to perform in McLean. "This is our first time in the area. We hope to explore and see new things, make new friends, then come back again and again," said Marchese.

For more about the Alden Theatre, visit www.mcleancenter.org

To learn more about Mario the Maker Magician, visit www.mariothemagician.com