The "A Pi Is A π Is A JJ's Pie" Story

It was an ordinary day.  March 14th or 3.14 written as a decimal.  And, I remembered that today is Pi day, as in π day, while watching Jeopardy on television last evening and hearing one of the contestants say that he and his wife were married on Pi day.  They were both mathematicians and therefore planned their marriage for 3.14.  If you are not aware, π day is observed today, since 3, 1, 4, or to most of you March (third month) 14 are the first three significant digits of π.  After doing some Googling last evening I discovered that there is actually a yearly celebration of Pi Day in San Francisco Exploratorium.  It was organized in 1988 by Larry Shaw who happened to work at the Exploratorium as a physicist and who had staff from the place, as well as the public, walk around one of the Exploratorium's circular spaces, consuming fruit pies.  Hey, count me in on that idea.  Then in 2009 the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution recognizing March 14, 2009 as National Pi Day.  The following year Google Doodle celebrated the holiday by having the word Google laid over images of circles and π symbols.  

My favorite JJ's Pies

For me, I will celebrate the day by eating what my family calls a "Larry Pie".  I found the pies while on vacation in the Turks and Caicos Islands many years ago.  They were individually wrapped pies that we found at a grocery store and were marketed as JJ Pies.  Checked the info on the wrapper and found they were made in Erie, Pennsylvania!  I loved the things and after eating over a dozen of them during vacation, they became known as "Larry Pies".  I have found a location in my home town of Lancaster, PA that sells them, so I can now consume one whenever I care to have one.   Pi Day is observed in many ways, including  MIT, or Massachusetts Institute of Technology, mailing its application decision letters to prospective students on that day and Princeton, New Jersey hosting events relating to Albert Einstein's birthday that happens to be today as well as Albert having lived in Princeton for more than 20 years.  When I was in high school I had a math teacher who inspired me so much that I wanted to be a math teacher.  Ended up being a teacher, but Pi for me has since been just a dessert.  For the mathematicians, Pi, or π, is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and happens to be an infinitely long, non-repeating number.  I guess all mathematicians already knew that!   In 1981 an Indian man named Rajan Mahadevan accurately recited 31,811 digits of it from memory, but eight years later a fellow from Japan, Hideaki Tomoyori, recited 40,000 digits of it.  The Guinness World Record holder is Lu Chao of China who in 2005 recited 67,890 digits of π.  I'm going to start to practice and give it a try next 3.14.  My problem right now is that I don't know if I could actually count that high.  Gonna need to devour a whole bunch of "Larry Pies" before I start practicing.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - ready to give it a try....

    etc. etc. etc.