Here is what we talked about:
This is the ninth month. Nine is a perfect square. Today is the Twelfth. Twelve squared is 144. The sum of the digits of 144 is a perfect square, 9. 144 is also the product of two perfect squares, 9 and sixteen. 144 is also the smallest product of a fourth power and a perfect square of two non-identical integers, excluding one. Every digit in the number 144 is itself a perfect square.
All these things can be proved.
I told my son that I cannot prove, but hold as a conjecture that 144 is the only perfect square that is also a Fibonacci number. It is wonderful that the date tomorrow will consist of a perfect square, a fibonacci number and the largest prime number that is smaller than the fourth power of an integer that is not one.
All of the digits in all of the fibonacci numbers that are smaller than 144 that are not prime are either perfect cubes or perfect squares.
I conjecture that the only fibonacci number that is a perfect cube is 8.
My son sat on my lap and we talked about Fibbonacci, the man, who was a light in a dark time.
My son enjoyed this conversation. I can tell. All these things are magical and wonderful, especially if one is seeing things for the first time, as one can when one's age is the smallest cube other than 1.
All of this means nothing, of course, except maybe this:
It is the beautiful and simple things that make the future worth saving. We owe our children more than our waste.
There are personal reasons that this is a night for me to reflect and these were the things that were on my mind tonight.