A Quantum Diaries Survivor

Tonight I used an excel spreadsheet to prove my wife she was wrong…

She has been concerned with Ilaria's weight for a while, and ventured to say that Filippo at her age was 39 pounds (Ilaria is 3 years old). Of course, the gross overestimate of the problem is typical of Mariarosa's need of reassurance, which she often expresses through quoting falsified data. Too bad she lives with a scientist, who cannot manage to be pious enough to forgive the wrong claims and simply give the reassurance she is asking for.

So I said 39 lb really sounded too much to me at 3 years of age - Filippo has always been lean-, and walked to my laptop, from which I fished out the excel data file. It showed that Filippo was 36 pounds at 4 years of age.

Mariarosa tried to question the data, and claimed she remembered very well of having weighed Filippo while on vacation in Croatia. I have the highest consideration for Mariarosa's memory, but even higher is my trust on the data I put in my files. Indeed, we have a very precise scaler at home, and if three separate determinations (in three different days)say 36 pounds, the weight has to be 36+-0.2 lb, period.

So my wife had to acknowledge Ilaria's weight (31 lb) is not so outrageously low for her age. A relief for me, but I feel bad for having used my computer against her… However, I think I sort of achieved my aim of reducing her worries about Ilaria's weight.

While I was writing this post, Mariarosa came by and read what I was writing… She actually points out she is not an apprehensive mother! I think she is right in a way - some of her friends typically keep under siege the pediatrician's office day after day. Maybe the right evaluation is that she is a mildly apprehensive mother, with friends who are plain nuts!