Mad, Crazy Love

At left, Drs. Tolman and Einstein at CalTech. Copyright free photo as the original copyright has expired and was not renewed.

Dr. Einstein you know from General relativity. Dr. Tolman is the father of relativistic mass - a closely related concept. Both men were ultimately mathematical physicists and both brilliant in that they could explain the complex in very simple terms.

I have a copy of Dr. Tolman's 1938 text Statistical Mechanics.

But, enough of the history lesson. I'm writing today about a favorite topic because I'm otherwise completely insecure. I've just finished a work and am sending it out on submission and so ...

You can find the insecure fabulosity  here.

We're here today because of mad, crazy love. I love mad scientists.

I love the evil and the benign. I love their crazy way of looking at the world. I love the fact that social interaction and all that comes with it seems beyond their comprehension.

Facebook? Would drive even the most sane mad scientist right over the edge. [ It does me. I'm among the 4 billion people on Earth without a Facebook account for a reason].

Twitter? Well. This might be a novel way to deliver a ransom note to the U.N.

@UnitedNations: Hand Over Australia or I unleash the Wombat of Doom. You have 24 hrs. #amcrazy #amlaughingmaniacally.

Might work. Maybe.

What I love most about mad scientists is the juxtaposition of their unique - and perhaps singular - worldview with those of everyday people.

Now, imagine your parents were mad scientists. I'm close to Ann Arbor so that isn't a huge stretch for me.

I think I've seen this family downtown.

Mom with discrete Geiger counter in a Longchamp purse.  Dad using an infrared monocular to take daytime sightings of the planet Venus for some hastily improvised orbital mechanics. Sissy with her Hello Kitty backpack. Alison lagging behind pretending she's not actually with this group and hoping no one from her class is downtown at the same time. She's intent on her phone tweeting "lame lame lame lame lame #familyouting #inhell #savemenow"

Of course, her spell check (iCorrupt) causes her to actually tweet #savemeow and 92,000 cat lovers are suddenly confused believing an actual cat has mastered the art of tweeting from the humane society.

Conflict?

The molecularizer seems a useless piece of failed experiment. Dr. Barnardo  tries to get it to work for hours one Saturday morning before declaring to Igor that "it's junk."

Of course, all over the world no one can make toast.  Bread inserted into a toaster merely stales at an accelerated rate. No toast.

The Queen addresses an anxious nation.

Throw in a mad scientist and this stuff writes itself.

Throw in an insecure mad scientist and there's a good chance California joins Atlantis in the annals of history.

I'm off to engage in some experimentation of my own.

I call it writing.

My family calls it that period of time when Dad wanders the house talking to himself and sloshing coffee - with a pen behind his ear.

Important distinction that pen bit.