The final month of 2011 was approaching and I was brunching with a friend in Inman Square. We hadn't seen each other in a couple of weeks, so we spent some time catching up. At some point in the pedestrian conversation, we both remarked on the importance of having health goals. Both of us would be turning thirty in 2012 and wanted one last stab in our twenties to get into peak physical shape. We both had been rock climbing for years, but had recently struggled with a lack of motivation. We needed a game plan. I reached back into my childhood of growing up in the dirty south and latched onto some lessons learned from a rich history of riverboat gamblers–we would need to hedge our bets if this was going to shake out. But how exactly?

For the week of May 14th, I had the pleasure of having my very own intern. This wasn't just any intern, but Dana Fry, an intern excited about mathematics—rare, I know. After spending some time thinking about a project that (a) would have a relatively low technical barrier to entry, (b) would be open-ended enough to allow exploration (like a freeform jazz odyssey) and (c) wouldn’t require too much cobweb dusting on my part, I decided upon the relatively simple question:

When I was forced asked to write a blog post, naturally I did what anyone would do when looking for inspiration: I went home, opened a beer and started streaming old episodes of MacGyver. There is something truly marvelous about combining a few simple household items and getting yourself out of a near-death situation. As MacGyver put it himself,