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Harold and Kumar Poem May 3, 2008

Posted by halfawake in Entertainment.
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I’m not going to review Harold and Kumar, but I will say that it made me feel… conflicted. My favorite part was the poem that Kumar recited near the end, which is apparently a real poem by David Feinberg:

I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

-David Feinberg

This is how I wish I applied my creativity more often. The lives of scientists are sad irrationalities.

Comments»

1. asad123 - May 3, 2008

Cool poem, but it’s “Harold” not “Harlod.”

2. halfawake - May 3, 2008

Thanks for the catch asad!

3. weirleader - May 5, 2008

sweet! I love the poem! (and I will never see H&K) :-)

4. tuttle bain - May 7, 2008

me and panda just had a moment about is poem…

5. abby - May 9, 2008

i love the poem..

6. Carrie Anne - May 10, 2008

I love the poem!! and it actually makes sense too!

7. tom d - May 11, 2008

thanks you helped me make time with my wife :)

8. sane genius - May 11, 2008

i dont get the part about the integer how would they become one?

9. halfawake - May 11, 2008

@sane genius (sqaure root 3) * (square root 3) = 3. Since square root 3 is irrational, and 3 is an integer, the two have combined to form an integer.

The question is, what’s so bad about being irrational?

10. amina - May 11, 2008

it’s david feinberg.. not david kleinberg

11. halfawake - May 11, 2008

oops. Thanks for the correction, amina!

12. Tina - May 14, 2008

hehe there are two kleinbergs in the CS department

13. halfawake - May 14, 2008

Yeah, I think that’s how I got Kleinberg into my head. Speaking of Kleinberg, I saw him at the Ithaca book sale last weekend.

14. Sangeev - May 22, 2008

awesome poem

15. crazy baldhead - May 29, 2008

just want to make corrections. i see the posted version all over the net, but i watched the vid on youtube several times.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YPBmyoOIO8E

and it’s clearly..

“i FEAR that i will always be..”

and

“HAS quietly come waltzing by.”

several times, it sounds more like “a” than “the” (i’ll leave it open for debate, but those two corrections make the poem make more sense, and i’m pretty sure anyone who actually watches the clip again will agree with me.

thanks.

16. halfawake - June 3, 2008

@crazy baldhead - is it possible that they modified the original in the movie?