"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" - unam.
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" - unam.
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" - unam.
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"Cut it out, <strong>Feynman</strong>; this is serious! Sam! Did you take the door. . ." it went all<br />
the way around. Everyone was shocked. There must be some real rat in the fraternity who<br />
didn't respect the fraternity word of honor!<br />
That night I left a note with a little picture of the oil tank and the door next to it,<br />
and the next day they found the door and put it back.<br />
Sometime later I finally admitted to taking the other door, and I was accused by<br />
everybody of lying. They couldn't remember what I had said. All they could remember<br />
was their conclusion after the president of the fraternity had gone around the table and<br />
asked everybody, that nobody admitted taking the door. The idea they remembered, but<br />
not the words.<br />
People often think I'm a faker, but I'm usually honest, in a certain way in<br />
such a way that often nobody believes me!<br />
Latin or Italian?<br />
There was an Italian radio station in Brooklyn, and as a boy I used to listen to it<br />
all the time. I LOVed the ROLLing SOUNds going over me, as if I was in the ocean, and<br />
the waves weren't very high. I used to sit there and have the water come over me, in this<br />
BEAUtiful iTALian. In the Italian programs there was always some kind of family situa<br />
tion where there were discussions and arguments between the mother and father:<br />
High voice: "Nio teco TIEto capeto TUtto. . ."<br />
Loud, low voice: "DRO tone pala TUtto!!" (with hand slapping).<br />
It was great! So I learned to make all these emotions: I could cry; I could laugh;<br />
all this stuff. Italian is a lovely language.<br />
There were a number of Italian people living near us in New York. Once while I<br />
was riding my bicycle, some Italian truck driver got upset at me, leaned out of his truck,<br />
and, gesturing, yelled something like, "Me aRRUcha LAMpe etta TIche!"<br />
I felt like a crapper. What did he say to me? What should I yell back?<br />
So I asked an Italian friend of mine at school, and he said, "Just say, 'A te! A te!' <br />
which means 'The same to you! The same to you!' "<br />
I thought it was a great idea. I would say "A te! A te!" backgesturing, of course.<br />
Then, as I gained confidence, I developed my abilities further. I would be riding my<br />
bicycle, and some lady would be driving in her car and get in the way, and I'd say,<br />
"PUzzia a la maLOche!" and she'd shrink! Some terrible Italian boy had cursed a<br />
terrible curse at her!<br />
It was not so easy to recognize it as fake Italian. Once, when I was at Princeton, as<br />
I was going into the parking lot at Palmer Laboratory on my bicycle, somebody got in the<br />
way. My habit was always the same: I gesture to the guy, "oREzze caBONca MIche!",<br />
slapping the back of one hand against the other.<br />
And way up on the other side of a long area of grass, there's an Italian gardner<br />
putting in some plants. He stops, waves, and shouts happily, "REzza ma Lla!"<br />
I call back, "RONte BALta!", returning the greeting. He didn't know I didn't know,<br />
and I didn't know what he said, and he didn't know what I said. But it was OK! It was<br />
great! It works! Afrer all, when they hear the intonation, they recognize it immediately as<br />
Italian maybe it's Milano instead of Romano, what the hell. But he's an iTALian! So it's