Two Pins and Buttons
Description: The number 42 is especially significant to fans of science fiction novelist Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” because that number is the answer given by a supercomputer to “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Booker also wanted to know the answer to 42. That is, are there three cubes whose sum is 42? This sum of three cubes puzzle, first set in 1954 at the University of Cambridge and known as the Diophantine Equation x3+y3+z3=k, challenged mathematicians to find solutions for numbers 1-100. With smaller numbers, this type of equation is easier to solve: for example, 29 could be written as 33 + 13 + 13, while 32 is unsolvable.
Description: The Prancing Pony (i.e. the Inn of the Prancing Pony) was an inn in Bree where Frodo Baggins, Sam, Pippin, and Merry first met Strider. The Prancing Pony was based inside the central hub of the town, near stables and various merchant stalls. Since Bree was built on the major road of the Greenway, it was a fairly well-traveled inn, and was so accustomed to hobbits that designated hobbit-rooms had been built. Barliman Butterbur was the inkeeper at the time of the War of the Ring. Nob and Bob were two hobbits that worked under him: Nob was a general servant, and Bob was as a ostler, tending to the horses and ponies.
Description: This group is a gathering place for the smokers, collectors and creators of tobacco pipes made in the territories of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. While many of the most well known names in pipe making come from the famed centers of production in northern Italy, the incredible artists and artisans creating smoking pipes in the territories of southern Italy and Sicily - the lands that once constituted the ancient Kingdom of the Two Sicilies - are sometimes difficult to identify, and far-too-often completely overlooked. We’ve set out to catalogue, collect, and circulate the fine works being crafted in the Two Sicilies today.
