{"id":28723,"date":"2016-04-20T11:50:59","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T16:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/mathgradblog\/?p=28723"},"modified":"2016-04-20T05:47:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T10:47:19","slug":"sale-baby-shoes-worn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/mathgradblog\/2016\/04\/20\/sale-baby-shoes-worn\/","title":{"rendered":"For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn."},"content":{"rendered":"

As the\u00a0perhaps apocryphal<\/a>\u00a0story goes, the title of this piece is a six-word novel written by Ernest Hemingway as part of a bet while at lunch with a group of writers. The idea behind the six-word story, also commonly know as flash fiction, is, well, to tell a story in six words or less. A quick googling reveals thousands of such stories ranging from the rather dark:<\/p>\n

\"Ernest

Ernest Hemingway in 1939. Public domain photo, Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cGoodbye, mission control. Thanks for trying.\u201d ~aiken_<\/a>~<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

to the lighter<\/p>\n

\u201cI leave. Dog panics. Furniture shopping.\u201d ~Reed<\/a>~<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That said, there seem to be very few\u2013I found two or three\u2013flash fiction stories pertaining to math. With this in mind I want to propose a challenge:<\/p>\n

Write your own six-word story\/stories capturing the life, experiences, or work of mathematicians and graduate students, and post them in the comments below. The best ones will be highlighted in my post next month!<\/strong><\/p>\n

To give some sense of what I mean, and maybe to help get your creative thoughts rolling, here are two six-word stories I wrote about common experiences in the lives of math graduate students.<\/p>\n

Working hard, checked arXiv. Start again.<\/p>\n

From: Grad Admissions. \u201cWe are sorry\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the\u00a0perhaps apocryphal\u00a0story goes, the title of this piece is a six-word novel written by Ernest Hemingway as part of a bet while at lunch with a group of writers. The idea behind the six-word story, also commonly know as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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