[ExI] Martin Gardner

[rex]

spike <spike66 at att.net> [2014-01-06 16:46]:
> 
> I discovered Gardner's work when I was in high school.  Later I went back
> into a collection of old Scientific American bound volumes and read every
> Mathematical Games column starting in 1956.  Excellent stuff!

Me too, except I didn't have to go back as I was a subscriber in 1956.
 
> If you go look in those old Scientific American issues, it is really
> striking how much attention span they assumed back in those days.  It
> required a lot more focus, drive and endurance to go through most of the
> articles.  

Yep. SciAm used to be a real almost-journal for laymen, and The Amateur
Scientist was seriously meaty with dangerous stuff (xray machines,
etc). Now, it's more PopSi with a political slant. I no longer read it
regularly.

-- 
Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson; you find the present tense and the 
past perfect.