In 1966, the famed Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, a passionate drummer, was asked by a Swedish encyclopedia publisher to supply a photograph of himself "beating the drum to give a human approach to a presentation of the difficult matter that theoretical physics represents." Feynman's reply?
"Dear Sir,
The fact that I beat a drum has nothing to do with the fact that I do theoretical physics. Theoretical physics is a human endeavor, one of the higher developments of human beings, and the perpetual desire to prove that people who do it are human by showing that they do other things that a few other humans do (like playing bongo drums) is insulting to me. I am human enough to tell you to go to hell.
Yours, RPF"
I couldn't begin to begin to begin to tackle theoretical physics, but I *am* The Offbeat Drummer, so this naturally struck a chord with me. (Never mind that in the photograph, he's almost clearly playing a conga drum and not a bongo drum...) I can't master the laws of natural physics, never mind theoretical physics. I can't even park a car in an angled, slotted space correctly.
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