An Ode to PI Day ~ 3-14 March 14th now with more vintage pie goodness, and Private Eyes!

It's National PI Day

L'Eau de pi

Not lurid tabloid rag, nor a mixed bag

of Private Eyes and Mom's Pies. 

Not Bogie, Magnum or Drew, 

not pulp-fiction film-noir gumshoe. 

Not Dali's liquid pies or Givenchy's bottle full, 

nor Ms. Honey West, the Private Eyeful.

Not Moonlighting Angels from Mars, 

or the rest of the Private Investigator Stars,

Not pie-eyed Mickey's, or comics Pie-faced,

but of nerds so straight-laced, 

and the mathematical constant on which we rely 

to tell us the size of our pie.

I love vintage images, and have so much fun collecting them, whether they're digital, or real. Without the images inspiring me, there wouldn't be any blog posts.

They're a huge part of my process. They talk to me,  and tell me secrets I would never have known if I didn't see them as a grouping. They're in my brain's archive now. A part of me.

Take the collage and poem above. I made the collage first, and then wrote a couple of rhyming lines, and clicked publish. But then I looked again, and thought a little more, and wrote a longer poem.

I'm not saying it's a great poem, and I'm sure it doesn't have a correct poetic format, but I still marvel at the combination of concepts that revealed themselves to me.

I mean, who knew there was pi perfume?

Or that I would pull the phrase 'Moonlighting Angels from Mars'
from an image search for "vintage p.i. shows"?

I love that phrase.

All because of trying to add vintageness to Pi Day.

Here's a quote from artist Austin Kleon (via Brain Pickings):

"We all carry around the weird and wonderful things we’ve come across while doing our work and living our lives. These mental scrapbooks form our tastes, and our tastes influence our work.

There’s not as big of a difference between collecting and creating as you might think. "

Read on for much more PI factoids!

A Date with Destiny

Every March 14th, 3/14, is National PI Day, to commemorate the infinitely long number called pi. (It's the Greek letter “π”) 

3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286...

Here's your math lesson, for those who don't remember pi from their school days:

• The number π is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, and is approximately equal to 3.14159. 
• It has been represented by the Greek letter "π" since the mid-18th century, though it is also sometimes written as pi. 
• π is an irrational number, which means that it cannot be expressed exactly as a ratio of two integers (such as 22/7 or other fractions that are commonly used to approximate π); consequently, its decimal representation never ends and never settles into a permanent repeating pattern.

Image source: Pi Day t-shirt, available here.

The Most Epic 'Pi Day of the Century'  

WAS  3/14/15 -- or as one popular Facebook group called it, "The Only Pi Day of Our Lives."

That's because pi to four digits after the decimal is 3.1415, and to ten digits it is 3.141592653, which means on 3-14-15 at 9:26:53 will be the most places of Pi we'll ever have on Pi Day in our lives.

It is of course irrational to think that we'll be around in 2115 to see the next instance of pi perfection.

The day is said to have been "invented" lat the San Francisco Exploratorium . Larry Shaw, who worked in the electronics group at the museum, began the tradition in 1988. Read more at piday.org

1. CNN article about 2014's PI Day Festivities around the country.
2. More info about pi the number
3. More info about PI DAY's history

Check out the very cool Vintage Private Eye Museum

Since celebrating PI Day started in 1988, it's not exactly antique yet, so it might seem irrational to write about it here on 'Tique Talk. But what the heck, it is an irrational number, so I say: 

"Here's to being irrational! 

Happy PI Day, to all!"

And while we're being festively irrational, Happy Birthday to Albert Einstein.

"It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed." -- Albert Einstein

Einstein's home town of Princeton, New Jersey, celebrates Pi Day with a full schedule of activities including a walking tour of Einstein's neighborhood and a pie-eating contest.

Dali Loves Pi -- The Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida also celebrates PI Day, as "Dali loved the irrational numbers Pi and Phi, often using ... mathematical principles in his art."

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Ms. Dow Antiques Blog 'Tique Talk is published by msdowantiques.com
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