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Ulam at Harvard
Nov. 18th, 2014 11:35 pmThe chairman of the society was L.J. Henderson, a famous biologist, author of the book, The Fitness of Environment,...
Good French Burgundies or Alsatian wines accompanied the meals. These were the pride and joy of Henderson, who once told me that if he ever deserved a statue in Cambridge, he would like to put it in Harvard Square with a bottle of wine in his hands, in commemoration of his having been the first person to obtain University funds for a wine cellar. George Homans, one of the Junior Fellows, a descendant of President John Adams, was one of the young men entrusted with the selection and sampling of wines. I considered it a great distinction when I, too, was put on the wine-tasting committee of the Society. This was my first administrative job in America!
Good French Burgundies or Alsatian wines accompanied the meals. These were the pride and joy of Henderson, who once told me that if he ever deserved a statue in Cambridge, he would like to put it in Harvard Square with a bottle of wine in his hands, in commemoration of his having been the first person to obtain University funds for a wine cellar. George Homans, one of the Junior Fellows, a descendant of President John Adams, was one of the young men entrusted with the selection and sampling of wines. I considered it a great distinction when I, too, was put on the wine-tasting committee of the Society. This was my first administrative job in America!
Ulam in England
Nov. 12th, 2014 10:29 pmBesicovitch invited me to visit him in his rooms in Trinity College. When I entered his place, he said nonchalantly, "Newton lived here, you know." This gave me such a shock that I almost fainted. Landmarks in the great history of science like this literally kept me in a state of excitement for the rest of my stay in England.
Scottish book
Nov. 11th, 2014 01:52 pmSometime around 1933 or 1934, Banach brought into the Scottish Cafe a large notebook so that we could write statements of new problems and some of the results of our discussions in more durable form. This book was kept there permanently. A waiter would bring it on demand and we would write down problems and comments, after which the waiter would ceremoniously take it back to its secret cache. This notebook was later to become famos as "The Scottish Book".
