strong drink loosens tongues.

bugger this for a lark: somehow, tonight, i gave advice to an applied mathematician about numerical analysis. (s)he actually seemed to consider it, too.

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as far as i've seen, there is a principle about mathematicians and alcohol.

• 0-1 drinks: talking about mathematics, nothing too technical,
• 2-4 drinks: gossip ensues, sufficiently normal conversation.
• 5+ drinks: mathematics returns to the conversation, and almost always it's the latest problem you cannot solve. the pens come out, and one starts writing on napkins.

this only gives more evidence that mathematιcs is a language.

spend enough time thinking about ideas, and it almost becomes a mother tongue;

drink enough beer in the evenings, and suddenly you cannot speak any language except that which is most familiar to you.