Dallas Dodecahedron Daze Days
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I recently spent a week at my son's campground in the countryside outside Dallas. While there, I was elated to espy a sizable dodecahedron made of twelve substantial wooden panels tightly wrapped in brown, buff leather. It had been constructed by a local artist about a dozen years ago.
Contemplating that cosmic shape, it brought back all those vibrant discussions of geometry, linguistics, and metaphysics from a year and a half ago. Esthetically and intellectually satisfying to commune with my old friend the dodecahedron, I fell into a reverie beneath those shaggy-scraggly-barked eastern red cedars that seemed to draw me up into their spreading branches that connected to the universe emanating from the dodecahedron that I held at my waist.
Selected readings
- "Roman dodecahedra between Southeast Asia and England, part 5" (6/7/24)
- "Roman dodecahedra between Southeast Asia and England, part 4" (6/5/24) — especially this extended, detailed comment by Brian Pellar
- "Roman dodecahedra between Southeast Asia and England, part 3" (5/24/24)
- "Roman dodecahedra between Southeast Asia and England, part 2" (5/12/24)
- "Roman dodecahedra between Southeast Asia and England" (4/30/24)
- "Wheat and word: astronomy and the origins of the alphabet" (3/15/24) — with references to seven substantial papers on this subject by Brian Pellar
- "The Alphabet and the Zodiac" (12/6/22)
Viseguy said,
January 28, 2026 @ 6:21 pm
The dodecahedron as madeleine! Proust would approve….
Barbara Phillips Long said,
January 29, 2026 @ 11:25 pm
The first dodecahedron I ever saw fascinated me. My father, a veterinarian, received it from one of the drug salesmen who came by regularly. It was a calendar that had a different month on each facet, and probably had the company name or other promotional information, but I just looked the shape.
AntC said,
January 31, 2026 @ 8:02 am
Dedicated Dodecahedrophiles should get themselves to Taichung National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. There's an open air sculpture park in the museum grounds, with an intriguing interlocked three dodecahedrons sprouting organically out of the ground. The pentagons form arches you can walk through and around.
I just can't find any photos online, even at the museum's website tssk tssk.
AntC said,
January 31, 2026 @ 9:12 am
https://share.google/KQNdd6v19B2nz6T7u
(hope that link works)
The sculpture jolly ought to be named Dendrododecahedrons.
Victor Mair said,
January 31, 2026 @ 11:08 am
@AntC
I lived in Taichung for two years (1970-72), but there was no Taichung National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (opened to the public in 1988) at that time.
Thank you so much for calling our attention to the Dendrododecahedrons (love that name you gave them!!). I will be coming to Taiwan for an extended stay in the not too distant future, and one of my first destinations after settling in will be to visit the Dendrododecahedrons at the Taichung National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.
BTW, I'm preparing a long and complex new post on dodecahedrons. Hope to finish within a week or so.
Philip Taylor said,
February 1, 2026 @ 7:51 am
"There's an open air sculpture park in the museum grounds …" — the web page for which (https://www.ntmofa.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=1588) embeds an 8256 px by 5504 px image as a 650 px by 443 px thumbnail :-(
Victor Mair said,
February 1, 2026 @ 9:32 pm
So that's why it took so long to load!
Victor Mair said,
February 1, 2026 @ 9:34 pm
BTW, in my next post on the dodecahedron, or one after that on the Celts / Gauls in the east, I will talk about 12 X 5 = 60.