The Daddy

I once read in a magazine article about Bill Gates and his passion for board games.  As I remember from the piece, Bill grew up in a home that relished the spirit of competition.  The play was serious and winning was important. Bill continued his love of mentally challenging games with Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer, buddies from high school and college.   The article said Gates  was especially fond of the game of  Risk.

I remember reading this article and thinking how Bill Gates and his family and friends seemed so different from me.  I don't like games. I didn't grow up with games. I didn't have friends who like games. Then I met David.

To say the least, David didn't marry me because I share his interest in board games. Apparently no one else in David's family liked playing games with him either.  I guess they got tired of always losing to David too.

Fortunately, David's interest in solving problems and puzzles has led to his academic research in the area of  randomness and computation.  Here is an essay David wrote for a general audience called, "Can Random Coin Flips Speed Up a Computer?"

Recently, David showed Emma this new game, RoboZZle.  This blog discusses RoboZZle, a robot programming game that demonstrates the essential elements of algorithms used to solve complex problems. Emma seems to like playing this game almost as much as watching episodes of Electric Company.

After receiving my "Most Important Thing About Mom" book last May, Emma and I thought that it would be only fair for Emma to create a similar tribute for the "The Daddy Pataddy" (as we like like to call him).  Emma wrote this lovely poem for her daddy which she gave to David on Father's Day.

It seems as if Emma gave her daddy the ultimate Father's Day gift, the gift that he always wanted but could never get from his family: an always-eager game partner.

Here is David's game of Risk. Note the heavy wear and tear on the box.