On three…one…two…three…E=MC2!!!
Whew!! I’m glad that’s over. Let’s get to two of his other “theories” that I happen to find interesting.
One:
“A reporter interviewed Albert Einstein. At the end of the interview, the reporter asked if he could have Einstein’s phone number so he could call if he had further questions.
“Certainly” replied Einstein. He picked up the phone directory and looked up his phone number, then wrote it on a slip of paper and handed it to the reporter.
Dumbfounded, the reporter said, “You are considered to be the smartest man in the world and you can’t remember your own phone number?”
Einstein replied, “Why should I memorize something when I know where to find it?”
Now that is a nice and clever thing to say. What else would you expect from Albert Einstein?
Having said that, I would not want to have someone looking up how to perform CPR on me while I’m lying on the floor clutching my chest and gasping for air.
So this theory works for simple things. And it’s much easier today than it was back then what with iPhones & SmartPhones & 4G Tablets. You can pretty much look up anything you want, 24 hours a day, without ever having to resort to opening any kind of book.
And, as it is with all things, that has its Yin & Yang.
Books are great! Anyone who has ever been to my house knows how I feel about books. I think that I have 30+ bookcases filled with books of all types. I know that, when I retire, I could probably read a book a day from the collection and never re-read one book before I shuffle off this non-immortal coil.
But, when you are looking for historical facts, you’ve got be careful when reading a book that has not been written by someone who actually lived through the events.
My favorite books about history are ones that contain the speeches and letters of people who lived at that time. You have to remember that many famous people in the past never considered that their words would live beyond their own lifetime so they spoke their minds.
For example, I don’t ever recall reading this speech in my high school history classes:
It wasn’t until after my wife, Leslie, got me into reading primary history that I found that a lot of what I was taught was a lie.
So, while Mr. Einstein liked to rely on the phonebook as a source of as simple piece of information, I look to other sources for more intricate subjects.
WikiPedia is NOT one of those sources.
Two:
“Another story about Einstein that is highly exaggerated but has some basis in reality concerns his clothing. Many say that Einstein wore the same thing every day and had a closet full of the exact same suit, shirts, ties, and shoes. This isn’t true, especially when Einstein’s second wife, Elsa, was alive. Elsa took a firm hand when it came to her husband’s appearance, and pictures of the two of them touring everything from Japan to the American Southwest show Einstein in beautiful silk vests, and dapper neckwear — as well as in a kimono and an American Indian headdress. But after Elsa passed away and Einstein spent his last 20 years as a professor emeritus at Princeton, his clothing did become more, er, irregular. He openly disliked wearing a suit and while already legendary for often going sockless, now he wore sandals. Perhaps the most common pictures of Einstein from that time show him happily shuffling around his Princeton study wearing a big gray sweatshirt. Luckily for Einstein, his life coincided with the invention of the cotton sweatshirt — for he was enamored of the soft warm comfortable garment.”
I think that, without Elsa’s obviously evil influence, this story WOULD be true and would be the second of Einstein’s “other” theories that I admire.
I did spend 20 years wearing various Air Force uniforms but my penchant for buying lots of the same clothes began when I started buying my own clothes. I was 11 years old and was tired of my folks picking out what I should wear, so I got a job delivering newspapers and took care of myself.
I lived near Boston so my autumn-winter-spring ensemble consisted of flannel shirts, jeans and boots. Fine for delivering newspapers when the temperature was cool and equally fine to wear to school.
I did spend the first 10 years of school going to Catholic schools, so there I had to wear a school uniform. But I got tired of the boys in one class, girls in another, setup and decided to switch to public school in 11th grade.
It was the late 60s and I was just in time for the switch in public schools from formal dress to something more casual. Like flannel shirts, jeans and boots. I did have other clothes and, one day, when I was in public high school, one of the girls said something about how I always wear the same clothes.
The next day I went to school wearing a grey double-breasted suit with a white turtleneck under a gold & black paisley shirt. The day after that I returned to my usual outfit and she never opened her yap again.
Oh yeah, my summer ensemble was usually t-shirts, jeans and boots.
Flash forward ahead several decades.
I now have a job which consists mostly of behind-the-scenes, hidden tasks that I perform along with several other co-workers. People know that we exist, but few people ever contact us unless they need something from us.
And that’s the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it.
We all work in our Cube City fixing corrupt data, researching possible fundraising prospects and making sure that no one gets access to information if they are not supposed to. I’m on a great team that does its job very well.
And I wear the same clothes every day.
And I keep my work clothes at work for a very good reason. I started taking public transportation 9 years ago, and after a few months, I got tired of getting up from the seat only to see that some foreign substance had attached itself to my shirt that I just got out of the cleaners or my nice suit which I had just had dry-cleaned.
So I wear jeans and a black t-shirt to work. Change there, then change back for the ride home. There is an excellent dry cleaners right outside my office building and that works out very well for me.
My work ensemble is dark blue or black slacks with a gray or black dress shirt. I have a couple of other colors just to keep things interesting (for me, at least), but I find that having that wardrobe is what works for me.
After all, if you see someone who always looks the same way, you tend to feel more comfortable around them. And if I have to go tell someone that they have committed a possible information violation, I don’t want them to feel uncomfortable.
The downside of this occurred when I was going to night school to get my M.A. In Writing. I tended to show up in my jeans, boots and a black t-shirt.
Like the young lady waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy back in my high school days (I graduated high school in 1970), someone made a comment about my style of dress.
But, unlike my high school days, I shook it off.
Until, one day, I was on stay-cation and had to go to school that night. It was cool out so I put on a long-sleeved tie-dye shirt. You can see that shirt here: http://bit.ly/K1TuAA
I got to class that night and a couple of the other guys showed up in jeans and black t-shirts. They were disappointed that I had not worn my usual shirt. And they meant it as a compliment. I should tell you that, other than one student, all the people I took class with in my scramble to get my M.A. In Writing, were some of the nicest, finest human beings you could ever hope to meet.
Now…if I could just get them all to wear jeans, boots and black t-shirts…
A Man's Got To Know His Limitations 
Nice. You and the lead guitarist got the tie-dye memo. The rhythm guy, not so much 🙂