I know some kids who go to fancy private schools--maybe they'll let me sneak a peek at their texts. Sorry about the five times less--I felt a twinge, but couldn't find an obvious misinterpretation. Dan> Which is a bit like using the phrase

"most unsuperlative"

; or one could ask which imaginary animal is

"most nonexistent"

; and it could be quite useful to ask what of all things is the

"most vacuous"

, given how complicated a vacuum seems to be in modern physics.

There's a comedian (Steve Wright?) who perplexes burger-flippers by *insisting* on extra-medium. I concluded:

To sum up, p295, Caption: Wall Drug is a landmark in South Dakota. The store's fame began during the 1930s--the Great Depression--when it offered free ice water to travelers. Seriously, to sum up, at the end of a course taught from this book, I doubt anyone could answer the question "What is algebra?". And he would have approximately zero manipulative skill. This book could serve a course called Compulsory Algebra ("No lout nor ditz left behind"). It doesn't matter that the Snowflake photo on p15 *completely* misses the point of fractals--the sullen sufferers would forget the correct, self-similar picture just as quickly. But there must also be Nerd Algebra for those who damnwell *will* leave the others behind. And the only pictures in its book would be parts of problem descriptions. (E.g., click on Algebra Lesson on my bogus Google page: http://gosper.org/Googebra.htm .)

PS, p 73: IMPROVING YOUR REASONING SKILLS A glyph is a symbol that presents information nonverbally. No it isn't. It's a carving, e.g. petroglyph or dermatoglyphics. They probably mean ideogram. Way to go, Accuracy Checker. --------------------------------- Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us.