Axiomatic Mexican platter theory, with Elvis

Combo Platter,
originally uploaded by egseah.

At Marginal Revolution there is a post up about the phenomenon of random combination platters at Tex-Mex restaurants. It does seem as if as if this is more characteristic of those sorts of restaurants than those of other types.

Rather than the economic perspective they adopt, I prefer to think of it from a mathematical point of view. Consider S, the set of all n individual dishes they sell on the menu. The maximum variety of combination platters which could be assembled from these is the set of all subsets of S, known as the power set of S, P(S) and has 2ⁿ elements, ranging from an order of no dishes at all ("I'll just have a coffee, thanks.") to one comprising all the dishes at once ("One of each, please.")

Thus a restaurant with five house specialties could post an exhaustive menu of platter combinations thereof:

{}, {chile rellenos}, {elvis green chile fried chicken}, {chile rellenos,elvis green chile fried chicken}, {chicken flautas}, {chile rellenos,chicken flautas}, {elvis green chile fried chicken,chicken flautas}, {chile rellenos,elvis green chile fried chicken,chicken flautas}, {chuychanga}, {chile rellenos,chuychanga}, {elvis green chile fried chicken,chuychanga}, {chile rellenos,elvis green chile fried chicken,chuychanga}, {chicken flautas,chuychanga}, {chile rellenos,chicken flautas,chuychanga}, {elvis green chile fried chicken,chicken flautas,chuychanga}, {chile rellenos,elvis green chile fried chicken,chicken flautas,chuychanga}, {steak burrito}, {chile rellenos,steak burrito}, {elvis green chile fried chicken,steak burrito}, {chile rellenos,elvis green chile fried chicken,steak burrito}, {chicken flautas,steak burrito}, {chile rellenos,chicken flautas,steak burrito}, {elvis green chile fried chicken,chicken flautas,steak burrito}, {chile rellenos,elvis green chile fried chicken,chicken flautas,steak burrito}, {chuychanga,steak burrito}, {chile rellenos,chuychanga,steak burrito}, {elvis green chile fried chicken,chuychanga,steak burrito}, {chile rellenos,elvis green chile fried chicken,chuychanga,steak burrito}, {chicken flautas,chuychanga,steak burrito}, {chile rellenos,chicken flautas,chuychanga,steak burrito}, {elvis green chile fried chicken,chicken flautas,chuychanga,steak burrito}, {chile rellenos,elvis green chile fried chicken,chicken flautas,chuychanga,steak burrito}

Fudging the prices somewhat would make it just about impossible for one to tell easily what the best deal for the money would be.

Having made it through the entree, one could then work one's way through the combinations of the 31 flavors of ice cream offered.

Again with the book covers

Debra Galant (and others) has noticed the prevalence of a certain body part on books meant to appeal to women:

Look at almost any representative of woman’s literature these days and you’ll see the female body beheaded and hacked into discrete parts. Sometimes the heads are hacked off at the neckline, sometimes lower. Sometimes, as with Alex Witchel’s book, you just get the legs.

In fact, you always get at least the legs. And unlike my children, who always lost the Barbie doll shoes, the art directors never lose the shoes. Oh no. High-heeled shoes are a must for this particular art form.

Here's a recent example:


In contrast, the O'Reilly line of reference books for software engineering has featured animals for many years:

Now, there is much hand-wringing about the difficulty of attracting bright young women into the field of computers and technology, and it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, it might have something to do with the choice of cover art that prevails. By golly, if they want legs, why on Earth don't they just go ahead and give them legs to look at? Of course, to match the existing style, we would want vintage engravings, not just any illustrations. So, I did some searching and devised this mock-up.



I even covered the bare foot with an engraving of a shoe with a bit of a heel.

Now I will be the first to admit the idea might need a bit of fine-tuning, but I maintain that the reasoning is absolutely sound.

Image credits: Bartleby, Vintage Victorian

La plume de ma tante

I was looking at the recent pageload activity for this blog over at Statcounter's excellent service and stumbled upon this totally excellent re-rendering of part of my sidebar from the French Babelfish.

Thank you for that. I am thinking it might be nice to change the language used on the sidebar periodically, every other day, maybe.

No, I'm serious!

Robots, Giant, Space-Based

Giant Space Robot,
originally uploaded by designplanetlab.

So they have finally put one up in orbit, not to be confused with the two bands named Giant Robot or the Giant Robot magazine and stores. So, if you're looking for a name for your group, I would suggest you name it The Band Called Giant Orbiting Space Robot Not Found In Stores just to be certain.