An excellent recovery book to cleanse my mind after Portnoy's Complaint, which I had had from the library for three months and umpteen renewals.
I've been thinking of words I associate with my mother. Umpteen is one. What is that from? Also, "jot" instead of "write" and "yea" as a modifier ("about yea high").
From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
And "iddy" served the same for "dot."
"Jot" is from "iota" and "yea" is an Americanism of only a few decades' standing. She's also fond of "a little dab'll do ya," which I thought for many years was her own thing, but it turns out Brylcreem's slogan is just a good fit for her frugality. Oh! My sister likes Anne Taintor and must have given our mother a magnet I saw last week on the latter's fridge: "Frugal is such an ugly word." She kept it! keeps it out in the open! Is this the germ of a glint of a possibility of her having a sense of humor about herself?
/tangent
This was a great quick read. I got over the thing on the first page and zipped right along. The Speed of Dark unsurprisingly lost more ground in comparison, because for all that book's protagonist Lou's work being pattern recognition, Mark Haddon actually showed Christopher's ability in maths and pattern recognition. And when Christopher said he wanted to be an astronaut, I recoiled, not wanting him to have anything in common with Lou, but in fact I liked Moon's character if not her book overall.
I was pleased that I immediately understood the Monty Hall problem but disappointed that I approved Siobhan's suggestion that the geometry proof be in an appendix and that I kind of glazed right over it.