May

Did you know that although “interminable” starts with “inter”, it's not derived from the Latin preposition “inter”? It breaks down as “in-terminable”. I only learned that a few years ago. (It's a rare thing. There's basically only one other word like that in my medium-sized dictionary.)

Now let me tell you about continued fractions! Back in November I said that I had plans for two and a half essays, meaning two large essays and one medium-sized essay, and that only one was complete. Well, here's the current plan.

The True Pattern
Mutations
Some Definitions
The True Formula
     Square Roots of −1
More About Symmetry
More About Properties
More About Chains
The Stern-Brocot Tree

The first four are complete, the next two are incomplete, and the last three are suppressed. So, I added six essays and finished three … and I have to say, it does not feel good to find myself back in a Sisyphean ordeal of writing about continued fractions. I'm optimistic, though. I have solid outlines for the rest of the essays, and if there are any surprises, things so amazing that I'm forced to write about them, well, at least they'll be amazing.

Or, here's a different view that I found by serendipity, if you'll permit me to quote from a book I haven't read.

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.