On another day Mr. Ghamisi began defining various functions for us. After describing odd and even functions, he went on to define a neither odd nor even function as one that was neither odd nor even. Likewise he explained that a both odd and even function was both odd and even. We all laughed at his explanation, pointing out that such functions really didn’t need a description as what they meant was clear from their names.

“It’s not always the case where something is what its name describes,” he countered. “For example if someone introduced themselves as Hossein Gholi prime, would you take the derivative of Hossein Gholi to find out what their name is?”