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Einstein’s Birthday

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This is the anniversary of Albert Einstein’s birth. The Nobel Prize winner entered space-time in 1879. Here’s a nice photo of him that proves there’s a place for smart people in radio.

He was a brilliant physicist and a famous introvert, saying:

“My passionate interest in social justice and social responsibility has always stood in curious contrast to a marked lack of desire for direct association with men and women. I am a horse for single harness, not cut out for tandem or team work. I have never belonged wholeheartedly to country or state, to my circle of friends, or even to my own family. These ties have always been accompanied by a vague aloofness, and the wish to withdraw into myself increases with the years.”

OK, apparently Einstein was not the life of the party, though he did enjoy music and jokes. So for the wild-haired Doctor, born so close to St. Patrick’s Day, a birthday limerick that may mis-interpret the theory of relativity:

Albert Einstein knew more than you know.
And he loved to go out to a show.
When he started to dance,
in his short smarty-pants,
He’d get younger the faster he’d go.

Actually he wouldn’t get younger, but he’d age more slowly as he approached the speed of light. I think. The notion of getting younger may come from an episode of Star Trek. That distinction, however, does not fit comfortably into the last line of this limerick, so I ignored it. Once again, accuracy is sacrificed to the demands of art!

Ever change the facts to improve a story?

73 thoughts on “Einstein’s Birthday”

    3. I agree with that saying by Einstein. I don’t agree it should always apply. When doing science, proof is needed to support things that are imagined and knowledge becomes at least equally as important as imagination from my point of view.

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      1. ah yes, verifiable data is important, but doable by any good and diligent technician. The imagination to come up with the right “what if” question-that is where the real science gets done.

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      2. Probably having the imagination needed to ask the right question is the most important part of science. However, there are people who don’t seem to want to make the effort to do the research needed to see if they can prove what they think might be true. Also, there are some who don’t seem to realize that well designed tests are needed to get good data to support a theory or to discover that their theories probably aren’t true.

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  2. From my book about my parents:

    I thrilled to my father’s stories as a child. Later, with the cynicism of a teenager who has discovered the hypocrisy of adults, I got huffy when I caught him jiggering truth to improve his stories. Later still, I grinned at my father’s creative ways with fact because by then I understood the distinction between a liar and a romantic. While my father respected truth—indeed, he revered it more than most men—he could always imagine a more splendid story than the thing that actually happened, and that more poetic story was the one he preferred to tell. What tedious stiffs we would be if everyone acquiesced to the tyranny of bald, literal truth!

    This week we meet an old friend who has been sadly absent: temperatures in the 50s! Have a heckuva week all you dear baboons and all you pregnant goats.

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    1. I love this… the distinction between a liar and a romantic. Can I use this if I make sure you get the credit?

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      1. Sure thing, VS. I’ve thought about it in slightly different terms. The liar wants to make himself look better. The romantic, the one who adores the enhanced story, is in love with the story itself and wants it to be as moving as it can be.

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      3. Story telling is a place where the truth and fiction get mixed together in a ways that can be very complicated. We had a good story teller at our sustainable farming chapter’s annual meeting yesterday. He said you learn a lot about yourself and become more truthful when you tell your story to others.

        I’m sure a good story teller, including the one we heard yesterday, can’t keep from stretching the truth. Story tellers probably do learn a lot about himselves when they tell their stories. However, I think it is usually a balance between truth and fiction and not absolutely truthful even when the story is presented as a true story.

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      4. I think this is true, Jim, that you learn about yourself by telling your story to others. I think it’s a bit of why we are drawn to this blog where there is a new question to think about every day, and see how we relate to it.

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  3. Rise and Shine Baboons:

    Well, I try not to change information for the sake of a story, especially if I am in a Non-fiction situation in which I “swear this information is true.” I’m going to see the accountant today with my tax information, an important non-fiction situation in which the IRS has great power to put me in a non-fictional wage garnishing, or worse, jail predicament. Then I do not change the facts. I just hand over the money.

    However, fiction is a different kind of thing. If I say it is fiction, then imagination is the point! I might make up anything at all for the sake of a story. There are a few things, though, the Troll MB for example or the recent stories from Wisconsing, in which no fiction could out-do the truth.

    Thanks to the BBC who sent food my way with my husband yesterday. I slept through the meeting time. Thanks BiR who hosted the meeting. I understand we are into Jules Verne, now with “Around the World in 80 Days.”

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    2. I’m thinking if you could sleep with that shoulder, it was a good thing.

      As previously stated on this blog, I have no trouble veering from the strict truth when telling said truth will do no one any good and may indeed cause a bit of a ruckus.

      In cases such as Wisconsin, where feelings are running high anyway, I do think checking sources before passing on information is important, but as Jacque points out, there is plenty there to amaze without hyperbole.

      Interesting story on NPR this morning about the way the story about the exec was “editted” to lead the viewers to some questionable conclusions. We enjoy seeing that sort of thing on the special features of dvds, but as journalism, not so much.

      Photoshopping with goats, now, that is something else-that is ART.

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  4. I will tell the truth when it needs to be told and embroider upon it when the situation calls. Like Steve’s dad, I am not above adding a bit to enhance the story telling – but only bits and pieces as my Lutheran Guilt kicks in quickly if the embroidery gets too elaborate.

    Happy Pi day (and Albert Einstein’s birthday) all!

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  5. Alberts birthday and pi (3.14) day are special around my house because it is my now 18 year old and 22 year olds birthdays. This is the first year they have been separated on their shared birthday. Tara the 22 year old was called to cosovo by her fiancé to lessen the loneliness in that country. Spencer meanwhile will be slaying dragons on his 18 th and is anxious to make a contribution to the Indian nation down at the casino. I’ll be remembering the birthdays gone by when the birthdays were reliant on cakes and party ribbons foe success. Today while Albert acts as inspiration they will go their own way and make their own mark in the world. kinda like Albert huh?

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  6. Last night I started roughing in my sermon for next week, trying to find, as I always do, a good human tale to use. I thought of the life stories two old men told me about how they came to America. But I may not use the tales because they will have the double whammy of how their aging changed their stories intentionally or unintentionally AND how my memory has then added to the changes.
    One week from today I will begin moving the hundreds and hundreds of boxes we have already packed for the move to our new home.

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    2. Reminds me of that Wanda Gag book “Millions of Cats”…
      Hundreds of boxes,
      Thousands of boxes,
      Millions and billions and trillions of boxes.

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  7. Good morning to all:

    Of course, I’m sure we all have had experience with people who stretch the truth and I guess most of us have not been able to competely resist doing this. I can’t think of a lot of examples of fibs, except a lot of big fibs told by politicans. I guess I try not to remember my own slip ups with the truth. There is one I do remember.

    I told my cousin a story that I presented as the truth when my family was visiting his family. My cousin decided to repeat my story when our families were having diner together. I think my parents and my cousin’s parents might have known my story wasn’t true. No one said anything about the story. I don’t know if they could tell that I was very embrassed to have my false story told and I think my cousin really didn’t know that I had made up the story.

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  8. If you go to Mentalfloss.com/store and search for Einstein, they have an Einstein Relativity Watch – the numbers rotate.

    This would be a good day to hear the Albert Einstein song:

    Einstein was a genius
    As smart as he could be.
    He wrote one equation every day.
    On Mondays he wrote three,
    On Mondays he wrote three.

    Albert dance around, Albert be profound,
    Albert let your hair stick out, and your socks hang down.
    Albert dance around, Albert be profound,
    Albert let your hair stick out, and your socks hang down.

    I found this version on youtube…………

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    2. We had the Best of Keepers version with our breakfast and will be having pot Pi for supper! I love the minor holidays-no gifts to buy or events to plan for or attend to, just good old geeky goodness (and food).

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      1. Thanks for the suggestion of Pot Pi for supper, MIG.
        I have some left over beef barley soup. Do you think I could turn it into Pot Pi(e)s without much trouble?

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      3. Dale,
        There are recipes for chicken pot pie soup which basically thicken the soup a bit and float a piece of puff pastry or other crust on top. If you serve it in a ramekin you will look especially festive.

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  10. a gracious good morning to You All – and if i said we had kids on the ground, i’d be stretching the truth. Alba is playing with me but she can’t do it forever- those kids will be born.
    OT – thanks to Krista in Waterville, i have names decided (watch Alba have three bucks now) –
    Gaia, Freya, Terra. we’ll see how many of the three we get to use this year. all earth goddesses, (Freya – not really it’s Gunnlod – but that’s the way i’m telling the story 🙂 and Gunnlod doesn’t end in ‘a’.

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    2. very nice names all around. Isn’t Freya something to do with Spring??? Surely Alba is as ready to move on to the next stage as you are, maybe she is waiting for the warm spell?

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  11. I’ve been known to enhance a story
    with my sister – I wanted more glory.
    For parents I’d alter it
    I wanted no fault for it.
    They needn’t know anything gory

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  12. My life is odd enough without embroidery or elaboration. Thanks for the Einstein video, Sherrilee. My largest cat, named Albert, is so thankful that everyone is talking about him today. He is seated on the computer right in front of the speaker to remind me to mention this to you all.

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    1. Renee – your “largest cat” suggests a pack? How many total? I just have the one cat, but he rules the roost over the two dogs…..

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      1. We have three cats, a grouping that I believe can be referred to as a “brace” of cats. Albert weighs in at about 18 pounds. He is grey striped. Then there is Ginger Pie, an orange striped 15 pounder with 7 toes on each front foot and a short, corkscrewed tail. Peanut is the smallest one, 8 pounds, a grey and orange torticalico and very shy. We have so many cats because of our children and my inability to say no at times. It really is too many cats, but since we made the commitment to them, I feel we need to keep them. The little one certainly keeps the big boys from getting too tubby, as they chase and tussle quite a bit.

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      3. As a 3-animal household, I understand… sometimes it’s a little chaotic. I have toyed w/ getting a second cat, but my current fellow, Zorro (tuxedo cat – 12 pounds) doesn’t seem to like other cats much. We’ve babysat for other cats before (once for a week, once for six weeks) and Zorro didn’t care for the arrangement at all. So I’m thinking that at the age of 11, I won’t disrupt his life if I can help it and he will be an only cat.

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      4. We also have a dog who believes that she rules the cats, only it is really the other way around. I think that puts us over the limit of animals one can have in a home according to our city statutes. I am truly never alone or bored in my home.

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      5. Sherrillee, have to ask, is tuxedo cat an actual designation like calico? If it isn’t it should be.

        Our 6# chief of homeland security would be most unhappy with us for adding any complication to her life. We like dogs, but as the s&h even says, he sees why we could not have one (tiny house, tiny yard-people not home enough-this is no place for the border collie of my dreams).

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      6. No, I don’t think “tuxedo cat” is official. On the chart at the vet’s office, he falls in the widely diverse “American Shorthair” variety… which I always figured was catspeak for “mutt”. But tuxedo cat describes that kind of black and white cat so well — I have seen a calendar titled “Tuxedo Cats” before.

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      1. Yes… although my Zorro doesn’t have as much white on his face… he has a black mask, hence the name. He came w/ the name, so I can’t take credit for it unfortunately.

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      2. We used to have 4 (probably plaster) figurines of the Pinoccion characters, and the favorite was Figaro. Wonder if Sister still has them.

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      1. I like the sound of that. One and a half brace of cat. My girlfriend has three large Maine Coon cats (Oberon, Talieson and Pippin) — I’ll have to tell her she has 1.5 brace!

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  14. I have a question for Albert E. At what speed and distance would a 15 pound cat need to leap to knock over a 20 gallon fish tank? We moved the tank last night from a room in which Ginger had no access to a room in which he does, and Ginger is showing far too much interest in the tank. If I shut the door to the room in question he becomes anxious and vomits and misbehaves with regard to the litter box. Perhaps he needs Prozac?

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  15. Morning everyone–

    I spent an hour sitting in the sun and 70 degree’s in Charlotte NC Saturday morning but you know, it’s always good to come home. And the human members of my family were as glad to receive me as were the dogs, chickens and ducks.
    I learned lots about electric motors, roller chain, media servers, LED lights, how to play the Tenure game and other theater related things. Made myself a miniature hat out of millinery wire too.

    Now, on to Einstein. A good friend of mine made me a poster with a picture of my cluttered shop and an Einstein quote: “Out of clutter find simplicity. From discord find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

    In theater we call fudging the facts ‘Suspension of believe’.

    I haven’t yet been able to find words for everything coming out of Japan … … … … … … … …

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    1. The correct term is “suspension of disbelief” — whether theater, TV, movies, etc. A very apt term …

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  16. OT in response to Keith’s first post yesterday:
    There is a children’s picture book – The Wave by Margaret Hodges, that seems to have been reissued in 2005 – about this very topic. An elder urges the village to go to higher ground when he feels the earthquake, knowing from HIS elders about the impending tsunami. No one believes him except for one boy… It’s a very moving book, I’ve remembered it all these years, since the mid ’80s. (At least I had written it down, or I wouldn’t have known the author.)

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    1. Another wonderful Japanese children’s book is Three Strong Women, about a sumo wrestler who learns humility and strength from a young woman, her mother, and her tiny grandmother. Grandma in this story carries cows and throws trees over mountains.

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