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Since that's wrapped up the Pinburgh Tournament part of the event, I'll return to my loosely chronological sequence of reports. Since that's going to be our anniversary trip to New Jersey, I'll start that on Monday. Tonight, I'll close out the Mean Streak Retirement Ceremony trip with some pictures taken of what we did after Mean Streak's funeral.

Laughing Sal. It's a marionette that shakes around while a never-ending recording of laughs goes off. Kennywood's had one forever and has had it on display. Cedar Point ... not so much. This was new when we visited for Mean Streak's retirement and we have no idea where they got it from. The park's old Laughing Sal? A newly-acquired or newly-made one? No hint.

Skeptical onlooker not Laughing at Sal.

Close up of the ValRavn logo, on the giant throne that sits outside the ride's queue. Because, wow, it's a great-looking logo and lit up like this in the dark it's even more so.

View of ValRavn's lift hill and some of its track as seen from the queue underneath. It's a beautiful roller coaster, and in the dark, it's only moreso.

The deeply green lighting of the Raptor roller coaster's launch station (see the crowds waiting to leave on the left). I'm not quite sure how I got this picture; I think it must be a tight zoom from the ValRavn station.

Blue Streak, the remaining wooden roller coaster at Cedar Point, as seen from the Raptor station. In the background are ValRavn, Top Thrill Dragster, Millennium Force, and, somewhere deep in the distance, the unlit husk of Mean Streak.

Trivia: A report on the building of the hedge lining the India Customs Line estimated that over 1876-77 some 115 workers died, 276 were dismissed, 30 deserted while on duty, 360 failed to return after leave, and 23 were ``removed as unfit''. Source: The Great Hedge of India: The Search For The Living Barrier That Divided A People, Roy Moxham.

Currently Reading: The Improper Bohemians: Greenwich Village In Its Heyday, Allen Churchill.

And on to another busy week at my mathematics blog. What might you have had on your Reading Page if you added this to it?

• Reading the Comics, August 9, 2017: Pets Doing Mathematics Edition
• The Summer 2017 Mathematics A To Z: Gaussian Primes
• Reading the Comics, August 12, 2017: August 10 and 12 Edition
• The Summer 2017 Mathematics A To Z: Height Function (elliptic curves)
• The Summer 2017 Mathematics A To Z: Integration
• Reading the Comics, August 15, 2017: Cake Edition

Plus, What's Going On In Gasoline Alley? May - August 2017 So that should clear some things up. And now the big moment ... our last ride on Mean Streak!

Catching the sunset behind Mean Streak as the green train makes one of its last ascents.

Finally! We waited for a front-seat ride and here we are, ready to get it when the green train pulls out.

Ride operator taking a picture for the people in the front row.

Our chariot awaits! The gold train approaching the station for what would be our final ride on Mean Streak. Note the hill it drops down, a bunch of gravitational potential energy that couldn't be put to some entertaining use.

The pall-bearers gathered as nearly off-stage as possible. The eulogy for Mean Streak was being delivered here, even as the ride was still, you know, crowded and running two trains. (The third had already been taken off and set up as a prop in the ride graveyard.)

o/` People take pictures of the summer ... o/` The funeral ceremony for Mean Streak, guarded by people recording or photographing the whole thing. Behind it, Mean Streak rumbles on, heedless of the jokes about how rough it supposedly was

Trivia: Light bulbs became a comic strip standard for representing inspiration only in the 1930s. Source: American Cornball: A Laffopedic Guide to the Formerly Funny, Christopher Miller.

Currently Reading: A Gambling Man: Charles II's Restoration Game, Jenny Uglow.

It's been a second week of this summer's A To Z on my mathematics blog. Bit closer to an ordinary publishing schedule, too. Here's what you were missing:

• Reading the Comics, August 5, 2017: Lazy Summer Week Edition which I published a day late by accident and nobody said anything? Well, that's not worrisome.
• The Summer 2017 Mathematics A To Z: Diophantine Equations which was a fun little A To Z article and then ...
• The Summer 2017 Mathematics A To Z: Elliptic Curves which I thought was the most challenging A To Z I've had to write and then ...
• The Summer 2017 Mathematics A To Z: Functor which has definitely been the most challenging A To Z I've had to write.
• Reading the Comics, August 9, 2017: Pets Doing Mathematics Edition

And on the comic strip side of thing, have you wondered What's Going On In Dick Tracy? June - August 2017 is at your easy read now. It's got more Chumbawamba than you would have guessed if you haven't been paying attention. Meanwhile eleven months ago in Mean Streak's last day of operations:

I told you Mean Streak Henry was in high demand. We never rode with him, what with not being single riders.

Mean Streak's ride photo booth, which I never saw in operation all the time I've been going to Cedar Point. It still wasn't operating. When we visited Cedar Point in June we saw the photo booth was still apparently untouched. Underneath the overhang on the left is a table set up; this is where they were giving away souvenirs to the riders for the last day: pins commemorating our presence there and Mean Streak keychains, one of which I'd already had.

The exit queue for the Mean Streak, and some of its massive structure. You can spot the green train partway through the loop there.

Now there's a line. Queue spilling out of the Mean Streak queue --- none of the switchbacks that hide the queue length were open --- and onto the midway.

I told you there was a line. People waiting on line extended past the train that separates Mean Streak from the rest of that region of the park, and threatens to reach towards Maverick (the red loop in the distance, center right). We rejoined the queue, supposing that if we were on line we wouldn't get kicked off before a second ride.

It's Alkali! Well, no. But it is ... I'm guessing some high-level park official, dressed up as U.R.Dade and ready for Mean Streak's eulogy.

Trivia: Syncom III, which transmitted television from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to the United States, carried only solar cells, with no batteries. It could not transmit while in shadow. Source: How The World Was One: Beyond The Global Village, Arthur C Clarke.

Currently Reading: Under A Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894, Daniel James Brown.

My mathematics blog, as seen on your Reading page or on your RSS feed (I know, it's not either) had a busy week as the A To Z got started! Here's what's run since last Sunday:

• Reading the Comics, July 30, 2017: Not Really Mathematics Edition
• The Summer 2017 Mathematics A To Z: Arithmetic
• Reading the Comics, July 29, 2017: Not Really Mathematics Concluded Edition
• The Summer 2017 Mathematics A To Z: Benford's Law
• How July 2017 Treated My Mathematics Blog
• The Summer 2017 Mathematics A To Z: Cohomology
• Reading the Comics, August 5, 2017: Lazy Summer Week Edition

And let me answer this question: What's Going On In Prince Valiant? May - August 2017 It includes a deep dive into the Prince Valiant archives.

Now let's draw visually closer to the closing of Mean Streak at Cedar Point last year.

The other running train climbing Mean Streak's lift hill on its final day of operations. This time, I believe, we noticed the people on the ride and figured it was our big chance to get one more ride in for the last few hours of the roller coaster's operation.

Funeral stand set up outside Mean Streak's entrance. U.R.Dade was the name given to one of the undertakers for the park's Halloweekend events, and some park official dressed as the undertaker would give the ride's eulogy.

Some of the flowers set out around U.R.Dade's podium. Among the cards: 'It's going to be a lot quieter around here - Lusty Lil's Cast'. Lusty Lil's is one of the theaters in the area by the park. 'Whelp, See Ya Later! - Maintenance'. 'Don't Get Well. - The Carpenters'.

'So sad to see my friend go away - The Beast'. The Beast is the big wooden roller coaster and beloved star of Kings Island, now a sister park to Cedar Point. Other cards, in pictures not included: 'It's been a great streak! We'll miss pushing your buttons! - Ride Operations' 'Your apparel was nice while it lasted. RIP - Merchandise' 'Please accept our condolences. We will miss him very much - Sam Seagull' (along with some doodles of m-birds.) 'We will miss the way you made our jobs easy by not having to do any work around you or in your infield. Never change ... with love, Landscaping'.

And around back of the podium, with a couple bouquets that I suppose must have been intended for the ceremony which we couldn't hear very well, it would turn out. One of Mean Streak's return legs is visible on the left there.

Someone kindly took a photo of us together outside Mean Streak's entrance. We wore the shirts we had gotten in August, when we learned of the ride's closure and that Cedar Point had t-shirts for all their roller coasters. Note that the approximate wait time was still listed as five minutes, here, for the last hours of the ride's existence. It was a bit longer than five minutes then, but still, wasn't very long considering.

Trivia: On 15 April 1805 Napoleon decreed the Jacquard loom public property, and compensated Jacquard with an annual pension of 3000 francs plus royalty of 50 francs for every loom brought into use in France over the coming six years. Source: Jacquard's Web: How A Hand-Loom Led To The Birth Of The Information Age, James Essinger.

Currently Reading: Luna: Pittsburgh's Original Lost Kennywood, Brian Butko.