Survivor Math

First, let me get this out of the way: "Hi, my name is Liz, and I watch Survivor." And yes, dad, I know -- it's all filmed in LA and the winner is picked out ahead of time. Whatever.

So I was watching Thursday night's Survivor online today (I believe I had surrendered control of the tv that night to let Wes watch a basketball game. When your husband's on call every third night, you do that for him.) In this week's immunity challenge, the contestants had to go through an obstacle course, memorize a series of mathematical functions, plug them into blanks on a slate, and calculate the result based on the numbers provided to them. The problem is, whoever set up the game forgot PEMDAS -- you know, Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally, the order of operations (not to be confused with King Henry died Monday drinking chocolate milk, which is the mnemonic for the metric system). The calculation began 6 -2 / 4... According to the order of operations, you would divide 2 /4 before subtracting the difference from six.

I've Googled this to see that others noticed the same thing. There's some discussion as to whether this was clarified in a pre-challenge Q&A session. But still -- what kind of message does it send our children, our future mathematicians, if Survivor doesn't follow basic rules of math? If you can't use your math knowledge in the wilds of Brazil, where can you?

I miss my sister when...*

• it’s either of our birthdays (“cause I’m the birthday girl!”);
• I watch Say Yes to the Dress and want someone to agree with me that some woman should say no;
• I see a sign anywhere with the word “self” in it;
• Oliver does anything cute;
• I’m singing loudly in the car along with a song I don’t really know the words to;
• I listen to Bert and Ernie’s Singalong;
• I see bougainvillea (or think I do, since I still don’t know what it looks like);
• I’m having a good hair day;
• I want someone to go shopping with, or out to eat with, or to the movies with;
• Lucy does anything cute;
• I eat really good French toast or order hot chocolate when everyone else is getting coffee;
• I buy a gift that I want to give right away, even though the occasion is still weeks away;
• I buy oats;
• I watch Perfect Strangers or The Facts of Life (“I just love saying ‘Tootie.’”)
• My father does anything funny;
• I watch You’ve Got Mail, or watch on television any movie I have on DVD;
• I hear “Mele Kalikimaka" or almost any Christmas music, especially if it’s out of season;
• I’m having my picture taken and try and position my head so as to minimize the appearance of my “gobbler”;
• I see women’s gymnastics on television;
• I go to get the mail.

Only 3 ½ weeks until she visits!

*Note: This is a partial list and is intended to be representative only.