Graffiti

The former elementary school nearby had a playground which was one of the dog's favorites.

The city of Atlanta public schools has decided to use that space, so they have Winter Construction busy making a kindergarten for Morris Branden Elementary right now. Hopefully, that will help boost property values.

Last fall, I noticed that we were getting some graffiti on the Winter Construction sign. I was walking the dogs every morning and at least some evenings at that point. I would see it almost every night, but it was ALWAYS gone by the next morning. I became intrigued because it reminded me of the chapter about the New York subway in The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. The subway authority cleaned the cars EVERY night, until the graffiti artists finally gave up.

The folks at Winter Construction must have read that book, I thought. I was even on the lookout for the truck that had the new signs. It must be expensive to put new signs out every night, but what a statement it was making. I was looking for the manager of the construction project to compliment him on his perseverance.

I mentioned this whole pattern to Mary Anne and got her to come on the walk with me one evening. Sure enough, there was the graffiti again. As always, it was the same symbol. Kind of a sideways "V", with a vertical line through it. I didn't know what gang that represented, but it had to be something, despite the fact that this really isn't a neighborhood full of gangs. Anyway, when she looked at it, MA said "What graffiti?". We walked closer so she could see it better. Then she said "That's the shadow of the street sign caused by the street light".

The angle from this light

through this sign

leaves this shadow


As herself says, I'm a freakin' genius.

The Bucket Test

Buckets can be used for a lot of things. The girls used to think they were great hats.



It must have stuck with me, because when I interview people, I give them "The Bucket Test". I borrowed it from Die Hard 3. It has 2 correct answers, so it's interesting to see if people can get them both. I have even taken to giving homework of the second answer if an interviewee does well enough with the first answer.

As I phrase it, the question goes like this:
"I'm going to give you two buckets, a three gallon bucket and a five gallon bucket. They are both empty. You've got all the water you can use. I want you to give me back precisely four gallons."
Herself is by now very tired of the way I say "precisely" whenever this gets discussed at home.

Most of my daughters' boyfriends have had to take the bucket test. As with the job interviews, mostly I'm just watching to see how folks react to a difficult question.

Before tonight, I had last looked up this problem on the internet a few years ago, and didn't really find anything. By now, like everything else, it's on Answers.COM. No clicking that link if you ever want to work for me (or date my daughters).

Once you've figured out (or cheated using the link above) the first way, just start again, filling the other bucket first. The second answer needs to take the same number of steps as the first answer. Let me know if you need some help.