Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- The Mystery of the Four-leaf Clovers
- A Fugue
- Tombstone Inscriptions
- The Two Lights
- MMM
- Acquiring Some Personal Items for MMM
- Difficulty in Explaining Relativity Theory in a Few Words
- Difficulty in Obtaining a Cup of Hot Tea
- Hail to Thee, Blithe Spirit
- C. D.
- Cupid's Problem
- The Lighter Life of an Editor
- The Two Kellys
- Some Debts
- Hypnotic Powers
- Founding the Echols Mathematics Club
- Meeting Maurice Fréchet
- Mathematizing the New Mathematics Building
- Finding Some Lost Property Corners
- The Tennessee Valley Authority
- How I First Met Dr. Einstein
- Catching Vibes, and Kindred Matters
- A Pair of Unusual Walking Sticks
- A New Definition
- Dr. Einstein's First Public Address at Princeton
- Parting Advice
- Two Newspaper Items and a Phone Call
- Wherein the Author Is Beasted
- The Scholar's Creed
- The Perfect Game of Solitaire
- The Most Seductive Book Ever Written
- The Master Geometer
- Sandy
- The Perfect Parabola
- Three Coolidge Remarks
- Professor Coolidge during Examinations
- Professor Coolidge's Test
- Borrowing Lecture Techniques from Admired Professors
- My Teaching Assistant Appointment
- A Night in the Widener Memorial Library
- The Slit in the Wall
- Nathan Altshiller Court
- An Editorial Comment
- Intimations of the Future
- A Rival Field
- A Chinese Lesson
- The Bookbag
- Running a Mile in Twenty-one Seconds
- Winning the 1992 Pólya Award
- A Love Story
- Eves' Photo Album
- A Condensed Biography of Howard Eves
- An Abridged Bibliography of Howard Eves' Work
Acquiring Some Personal Items for MMM
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- The Mystery of the Four-leaf Clovers
- A Fugue
- Tombstone Inscriptions
- The Two Lights
- MMM
- Acquiring Some Personal Items for MMM
- Difficulty in Explaining Relativity Theory in a Few Words
- Difficulty in Obtaining a Cup of Hot Tea
- Hail to Thee, Blithe Spirit
- C. D.
- Cupid's Problem
- The Lighter Life of an Editor
- The Two Kellys
- Some Debts
- Hypnotic Powers
- Founding the Echols Mathematics Club
- Meeting Maurice Fréchet
- Mathematizing the New Mathematics Building
- Finding Some Lost Property Corners
- The Tennessee Valley Authority
- How I First Met Dr. Einstein
- Catching Vibes, and Kindred Matters
- A Pair of Unusual Walking Sticks
- A New Definition
- Dr. Einstein's First Public Address at Princeton
- Parting Advice
- Two Newspaper Items and a Phone Call
- Wherein the Author Is Beasted
- The Scholar's Creed
- The Perfect Game of Solitaire
- The Most Seductive Book Ever Written
- The Master Geometer
- Sandy
- The Perfect Parabola
- Three Coolidge Remarks
- Professor Coolidge during Examinations
- Professor Coolidge's Test
- Borrowing Lecture Techniques from Admired Professors
- My Teaching Assistant Appointment
- A Night in the Widener Memorial Library
- The Slit in the Wall
- Nathan Altshiller Court
- An Editorial Comment
- Intimations of the Future
- A Rival Field
- A Chinese Lesson
- The Bookbag
- Running a Mile in Twenty-one Seconds
- Winning the 1992 Pólya Award
- A Love Story
- Eves' Photo Album
- A Condensed Biography of Howard Eves
- An Abridged Bibliography of Howard Eves' Work
Summary
I mentioned, in the tale devoted to MMM, some of the personal items that ended up in that collection. It may be that certain readers are interested in how those items were secured. Here is the story of a few of them.
Professor Wiener's Hat
When I was a graduate student at Harvard University, a friend and I sought a ride to New Haven to attend a mathematics meeting held at Yale University. In those days very few students possessed cars, so we went about contacting professors and finally secured transportation in the car driven by Professor Norbert Wiener of MIT. Professor Wiener and Professor Dirk Struik (also of MIT) rode in the front and we two students rode in the rear. It was a very hair-raising ride, for the car wove perilously from one side of the road to the other as Professor Wiener, with his hands seemingly more often off the steering wheel than on it, energetically gesticulated during his conversation with Dr. Struik.
We finally arrived, miraculously safe, in New Haven. The day was rainy and we all wore hats to keep the rain from running down our necks. About noontime our group walked over to a cafeteria at Yale for lunch and we hung our raincoats and hats on a clothes tree in the front part of the cafeteria. After lunching, we rose to don our hats and coats.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Mathematical Reminiscences , pp. 29 - 34Publisher: Mathematical Association of AmericaPrint publication year: 2001