"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" - unam.

government, or else I can't talk in the city college. And I have to sign it double, OK?
Then I have to sign some kind of release to the city ­­ I can't remember what. Pretty soon
the numbers are beginning to climb up.
I have to sign that I was suitably employed as a professor ­­ to ensure, of course,
since it's a city thing, that no jerk at the other end was hiring his wife or a friend to come
and not even give the lecture. There were all kinds of things to ensure, and the signatures
kept mounting.
Well, the guy who started out laughing got pretty nervous, but we just made it. I
signed exactly twelve times. There was one more left for the check, so I went ahead and
gave the talk.
A few days later the guy came around to give me the check, and he was really
sweating. He couldn't give me the money unless I signed a form saying I really gave the
talk.
I said, "If I sign the form, I can't sign the check. But you were there. You heard
the talk; why don't you sign it?"
"Look," he said, "Isn't this whole thing rather silly?"
"No. It was an arrangement we made in the beginning. We didn't think it was
really going to get to thirteen, but we agreed on it, and I think we should stick to it to the
end."
He said, "I've been working very hard, calling all around. I've been trying
everything, and they tell me it's impossible. You simply can't get your money unless you
sign the form."
"It's OK," I said. "I've only signed twelve times, and I gave the talk. I don't need
the money."
"But I hate to do this to you."
"It's all right. We made a deal; don't worry."
The next day he called me up. "They can't not give you the money! They've
already earmarked the money and they've got it set aside, so they have to give it to you!"
"OK, if they have to give me the money, let them give me the money."
"But you have to sign the form."
"I won't sign the form!"
They were stuck. There was no miscellaneous pot which was for money that this
man deserves but won't sign for.
Finally, it got straightened out. It took a long time, and it was very complicated ­­
but I used the thirteenth signature to cash my check.
It Sounds Greek to Me!
I don't know why, but I'm always very careless, when I go on a trip, about the
address or telephone number or anything of the people who invited me. I figure I'll be
met, or somebody else will know where we're going; it'll get straightened out somehow.
One time, in 1957, I went to a gravity conference at the University of North
Carolina. I was supposed to be an expert in a different field who looks at gravity.
I landed at the airport a day late for the conference (I couldn't make it the first
day), and I went out to where the taxis were. I said to the dispatcher, "I'd like to go to the