Talk:Irving Joshua Matrix

Speculation

Iva Matrix named after Iva Toguri D'Aquino, Tokyo Rose announcer? ubiquity 13:09, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Categorization

I removed the categorization of Category:Seventh-Day Adventist Church because Matrix is not an example of that church, or anything to do with the church. Just because the article mentions the church doesn't mean the categorization is appropriate. Start a category called "Fictional children of missionaries of the Seventh Day Adventist Church" and this article will belong there. (Actually, please don't, just trying to clarify by example). --ubiquity 10:39, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Iva or Eva?

I thought it was Eva, "..his lovely Eurasian daughter."Rich 06:54, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

It's Iva, for certain. See, for instance, here— it has a quote from Gardner mentioning Iva. Of course Iva is often pronounced "Ee-va", so maybe that's what you're remembering. --ubiquity 08:33, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Unrequited

Was Gardner's interest in Iva unrequited? I could have sworn they go off together at the end of at least one of the chapters. --ubiquity 08:39, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

You may be right, we could remove unrequited.Rich

Return of Dr Matrix?

I saw a book recently called Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers ...And the Return of Dr Matrix (1997, ISBN 0-883-85521-6) which suggested, in the brief look I took at it, that Matrix had not died as earlier reported. Has anyone seen this? Can someone who has please update this page accordingly? --ubiquity 00:10, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

In the essay "The Fibonacci Sequence" which is in When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish by Martin Gardner and published in 2009 the following was written:

It has been almost two decades since I last interviewed Dr. Matri at a math conference in Lisbon. (The Interview is the last chapter of a collection of my Scientific American columns, Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers.1 Since then I had completely lost track of the old scoundrel and his half-Japanese daughter Iva. So it was with great surprsie and pleasure that I encountered him in October 2006 at a conference on number theory at Stanford University. He was scheduled to lecture on "Little Known Curiosities About the Fibonacci Sequence."

Iva was no longer traveling with him. She had married a Japanese magician in 1991, the doctor told me, and was living in Tokyo with her husband and two teenaged sons, Irving and Joshua.

68.97.4.171 (talk) 11:15, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

"Important" missing attributes.

Please, please, please, can we have added as a prime example of the "... accomplished prestidigitator ..." that he could "clap one hand in the air" when, for example, he wanted to catch the attention of a waiter or one of his minions. This is explicitly stated in several Scientific American articles although of course I can no longer remember the dates.

Also, and this is a VERY pedantic point, although the story is always told in the narrative, it is not necessarily Martin Gardner the author who tells it, and thus not necessarily he who is romantically interested in Iva. It is an important (albeit implicit) element of the humour that the story is told by an anonymous person. But maybe this is too deep a point for those who have never read any of these stories.

Finally, as well as living under assumed names, I can recall that he also tailored his appearance to match the assumed names. The seeing through of these personae by the author was another important part of the humour. Old_Wombat (talk) 11:41, 20 September 2011 (UTC) Well, since no-one has commented on this, I might have a go at doing this over the next few days. Old_Wombat (talk) 10:01, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

OK, done it now, waiting for critical comment. Old_Wombat (talk) 12:27, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, I am unable to supply any criticisms. 69.255.153.126 (talk) 13:52, 22 December 2012 (UTC)