Thursday, April 3, 2008

Pig-headed

I've always wanted to include the phrase "pig-headed" in the index of a book, but I've been too timid to try to slip it past my publishers. My college freshman calculus textbook at Brandeis University—Calculus, by Michael Spivak —had "pig-headed" in the index, where it referenced a page describing some mathematician as pig-headed. As a freshman I was impressed (although not so impressed that it stopped me from switching from math to anthropology as a major). I just looked up Spivak on Wikipedia, and the entry includes this statement:

"In each of his books Spivak has hidden references to yellow pigs, an idea he apparently came up with at a bar while drinking with David C. Kelly."

I wish I had thought of doing something like this when I started writing books. I did include one or two little oddities in my upcoming book, Aztec City-State Capitals, but for now I will satisfy my desire to say pig-headed in public by including the phrase in my blog index. This may also help set anyone straight who thinks archaeology a very serious, no-nonsense field.

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