Internal Affairs: San Jose City Council hails 'Square Root Day': 3/3/09 Sunday, March 28, 2008 By the Mercury News Council hails a 'faux-liday' for geeks It may be the only "holiday" that Hallmark hasn't figured out a way to cash in on yet. But Square Root Day received an animated civic celebration on the right flank of San Jose's City Council on 3/3/09. (Do the math.) The council's Geek Squad — made up of Pete Constant, Kansen Chu, Pierluigi Oliverio and Ash Kalra — held up cards that formed the equation 3 x 3 = 9. In his less-than-brief remarks commemorating the occasion, Constant described it as a "Silicon Valley's geek holiday." Judging by the man-giggling going on in the chamber, he had found Square Root Day's core constituency. Constant was so pleased with his discovery of this faux-liday that he mounted a video himself and his fellow mathletes on his Facebook page (you can see it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDp6GqhLWc0). Notably not in the picture, but sitting at the other end of the council dais, was Councilwoman Madison Nguyen, who was facing a recall election in District 7 that day. Nguyen overcame the recall effort, but if she hadn't won, it would have reduced the number of council members from 10 to, well, 3 squared.   Internal Affairs is compiled by Mercury News staff. Send tips to internalaffairs@mercurynews.com, or call (408) 271-3638.