RIP Rickey Henderson (1958–2024)

One of Baseball's all-time legends — both in terms of on-field performance (Wow!) and in terms of the many awesome stories — has left us. Inner-circle Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson has died.

You can read about his career, his personality, and a couple of his unreachable Major League records in this article. This article has a collection of 25 great stories (most of them true), and this article has a collect of 10 great instances of Rickey talking about Rickey in the third person. (There is some overlap in the stories in these two collections.)

As Tom Verducci wrote in 2003, "There are certain figures in American history who have passed into the realm of cultural mythology, as if reality could no longer contain their stories: Johnny Appleseed. Wild Bill Hickok. Davy Crockett. Rickey Henderson. They exist on the sometimes narrow margin between Fact and Fiction."

Rest in peace, Rickey.

RIP Willie Mays (1931–2024)

The legendary Willie Mays died today. Mays was the oldest living baseball Hall of Famer; he took the mantle in 2021 when Tommy Lasorda died. You can see Willie Mays' statistics on this page.

I believe that Luis Aparicio is now the oldest living baseball Hall of Famer.

Somewhere, In a New Mexico Desert...

Oh, wow. The legend is actually true!

You want to see me include a lot of exclamation points and mean it? Well, now you get to! Now this is AWESOME!!!!

P.S. I actually beat that game. It was painful. Because of control glitches and other glitches, you keep getting stuck in a damn well. And it takes more than 30 minutes of real time each time to get the damn alien out of the well. And the game just sucked in general as well. There is a good reason that these cartridges were buried.

Update: A desert, not a "dessert". Please excuse the typo in the original title.

The Continuum-Mechanical Properties of Styrofoam and Peking Duck

Well, I evidently have not yet been domesticated.

I think the most "impressive" part of my masterpiece is that some of the styrofoam actually managed to fuse to the metal grating and harden rather significantly. (And I left all of my peeps who are continuum-mechanics experts back in Oxford... I have a problem for you to study!) I was warming up some Peking duck and brown rice in this toaster oven (or whatever it is called), and the oil and fat from the duck seems to be what helped fuse the bits of styrofoam to the metal grating.

The only word for this is "awesome".

Absolutely Legendary

I decided to check what Google Books felt are the most similar books to Legends of Caltech III: Techer in the Dark. Some of them make sense, but others are a bit surprising. The following books were on the first page:

Lectures on Physics: Exercises by Feynman (yay!)

Legends of Caltech (of course)

Proceedings [Volume 1] of the National Academy of Sciences (ok, I can go with that)

The Brotherhood of Eternal Love: From Flower Power to Hippie Mafia: The Story of the LSD Counterculture (I actually know why that is there ... something to do with "Lloyd grade")

and ... Mentally Incontinent (wait... what?)



P.S. Wait until the movie comes out!

The Legend Continues

After coming back from coffee this morning, I did an extremely "awesome" thing: I accidentally walked into the wrong apartment, which I can assure you is not a very good idea. I love how it took me a couple of minutes to figure out what I did, and for a while I was just confusedly thinking "That's odd. How did Kin [the friend with whom I'm staying] manage to buy a dog in the 30 minutes I've been gone. And all that while he's asleep."

I am really awesome sometimes.

Some notes:

(1) I didn't actually see the dog---only the carrier in which it can be transported. [I chose this phrasing on purpose.] I am guessing that the apartment's resident was out walking the dog.

(2) Kin's apartment is exactly one floor up from the one I entered, and in the analogous spot.

(3) This isn't a Robert Downey, Jr. situation. I was just groggy.

(4) I have been going into this apartment on numerous occasions, so I made this mistake after lots of previous successes. So while it's odd that I failed on this occasion, allow me to stress that my success rate is actually rather good. Also, see (3).

(5) After entering the apartment---I'm not sure how the key managed to work (maybe it wasn't really locked?)---I locked the door behind me. Then I had my time pondering about the dog before realizing that a more likely situation was that I was in the wrong apartment. The unknown flip-flops by the door confirmed that notion. Then I realized how bad this could be and tried in vain to unlock the door to leave. I eventually managed to unlock the door and went upstairs to Kin's apartment. Oy vey.

(6) Did I mention that I'm "awesome"?

Making my mark in Somerville

I think I might have added another incident to the Legend of Mason today. (Actually, there is another recent addition as well, but I want to use the exact quote from the magazine's editorial before I discuss it fully here.)

I got to lunch in Somerville a little later than usual today because of a seminar. I was in a really crappy mood, but I recognized that I was in such a state (I still am, to some extent, though I am feeling slightly better now), so I tried to avoid people and use lunch for nourishment only. Unfortunately, my efforts to sit on my own were foiled for various reasons (one time, I was about to sit off on my own when a couple of people sat near there, so I needed to go somewhere else), and I ended up just taking the next seat on High Table and sitting near people. (I also didn't want any of the staff to set up an extra table setting somewhere for me. They shouldn't have to do extra work for this.) I put my plate down after my brief random walking in the dining hall, and the garlic bread on my plate bounced off onto my chair---spreading tons of crumbs to the chair. Some people were already amused by this. I was rather annoyed by what I had done to my seat, so I put the bread on the plate but I was sufficiently frustrated that I mildly slammed it on there. Unfortunately, this caused garlic bread shrapnel to hit the old lady sitting next to me. (I think this was an Emeritus Fellow of Somerville.) She quietly, casually wiped it off and gave me a look of mild dismissal. The other people nearby tried to give me disdainful looks, but they weren't able to keep the straight faces necessary to do so. I think I was too ashamed to apologize, and my mood definitely didn't help turn my thoughts in such sensible directions. (As you can tell, I feel a bit guilty for not giving the apology and I hope I get a chance to do this reasonably soon.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Legendary status is a combination of personality and circumstance. It's rarely a matter of setting out to achieve such things.

More media sluttage

Here is the blurb on Legends III by Engineering & Science, one of Caltech's alumni publications.

This is a bit belated, but here is the book review that appeared in The Tech in May. Also, here is an an article from The Tech about the book's release.

By the way, when the judge of the case I might be on found out I worked at Caltech, her next sentence included a comment about Caltech pranks. In particular, she mentioned Rose Bowl hijinks. Under other circumstances, I would have mentioned the book.

More Legends III coverage

Here is a small blurb that appeared on 6/24 in a tiny venue called the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

I'll let you know when the scheduled LA Magazine, Popular Science, and San Jose Mercury News things come out.

And I still don't understand why my hometown paper (Beverly Hills Weekly, which often publishes trivial things about alums) and especially the Pasadena papers haven't picked up the story.

Did I mention that I'm a media slut?

More media coverage of Legends III

I'm such a media slut.

There will be coverage of Legends III in Engineering & Science (a Caltech publication, so duh) and Los Angeles Magazine. (The latter one should give the book some good exposure, especially considering that the Caltech bookstore sells something like 250 each of the first two books each year.)

I already linked to the LA Times blurb in an earlier post. There was supposedly something in San Gabriel (though I can't find it online) and there is going to be a book review of Legends III in the San Jose Mercury News. (I think the latter one is kind of using the Autumn as a local person spin, which makes sense. Also, there are a ton of Techers in the Bay Area.) The book is slated to be mentioned (and hopefully discussed at some reasonable length, but I don't really know how much) in an upcoming article on tech-savvy pranks in Popular Science.

At some point, I am supposed to meet with Tom Mannion and some guy who is producing a some sort of documentary on Caltech pranks. (The meeting hasn't been scheduled.) This is the guy who I'll be talking to about movie possibilities -- my hope is to try to inspire a sort of modern version of Real Genius.

You know what city's publications are missing from the above discussion? Pasadena! Go figure. (Actually, it would also make sense for Beverly Hils Weekly to cover this because I'm an alum, and maybe they'll do that after they see the stuff in the LA Times and LA Magazine. Hell, I know the editor of that paper and I'm pretty sure I told him about the book.)

I don't expect to go beyond California publications (and Caltech's stuff), but we'll see. There were blurbs about my college football ranking stuff all over the world (including by Nature), and it's sometimes surprising who cares about what.

Legends of Caltech III briefly covered in LA Times

A brief article in today's Los Angeles Times covers the new Legends book that Autumn Looijen and I wrote. It is only mentioned very briefly and our names aren't included, but it's better than nothing.

I've made some other venues before (such as The Washington Post and ESPN: The Magazine) via my research, and maybe I'll eventually make the New York Times.

I haven't seen Legends III mentioned anywhere else, though I wasn't actually looking either. I could the Pasadena Weekly would be the most likely place I should check? (Of course, my brother is the one who told me about this one because it's not like I read the LA Times, so maybe other people can be my eyes and ears.)

Caltech press release for Legends III

Here is the official press release for Legends of Caltech III: Techer in the Dark.

I expect to get contacted by some local media at some point because at least the Pasadena newspapers should be interested in this. I have work to catch up on (new stuff that built up as well as old stuff that was already there) when I get back to campus, so hopefully that won't disrupt my researcg too much.

I'll blog more about the conference later. Among other things, I want to discuss the cannibalistic locusts. (Yes, there are cannibalistic herbivores.)

Legends of Caltech: The Weekend

The book release party was on Friday night. Many of you were there.

Yesterday was the book signing and a brief honor just before the main seminar day session in Beckman Auditorium. There was a bit of a communication issue (hmmm... that's eerily familar) and Autumn and I were not informed that we were supposed to go into the side entrance of Beckman (well, the regular entrance would be ok as well) and that we had reserved seats in the front. We were sitting in the back so we could escape after our names were mentioned and we stood up because neither of us had any desire to see the talk. I was not informed that I was supposed to pick up a name tag (because I hadn't registered for Reunion Weekend), so I had to spend several minutes convincing the ushers to let me into Beckman in the first place. (Actually, it occurred to me in advance that this might happen and my general reaction was one of extreme amusement. A big part of me was hoping that they wouldn't let me in because that would have been truly spectacular.)

The book signing was rather busy. Thankfully, some of my friends stopped by, so it was good that I had a chance to see them and talk to them for a little while. Autumn and I signed a lot of books over a 2 and a half hour period. Jorge Cham was also there signing for a little while. We got more customers than he did this time around, and that obviously had a lot to do with the timing and general event. As of 2:30 pm, 167 copies of Legends III had been sold (since it's Thursday 5/10 release; I think the bookstore started actually selling them on 5/11). About 250 copies each of the first two books in the series are sold every year, so we're doing quite well. Of course, the sales of our book will eventually stabilize as well, though it should be at higher than 250 because our book has an ISBN (so that it should show up on Amazon.com at some point).

One of people who showed up to buy the book and get an autograph yesterday was Tom Apostol. He had met Autumn before (from when she dressed up as a giant copy of Tommy I -- this picture is in the book) and he asked her to sign the book. Autumn pointed out that he should get my autograph as well, but he decided to dis me and go right in line to buy the book instead. I would expect better of a fellow mathematician. :) Ah well... you can't win them all.

Today was the Rickets-Dabney House reunion dinner. I recognized a few people from the late 90s, including one person whose gender seems to have changed in the intervening years. (I can give a little more detail privately.) I talked a bit about the new book (and the fact that we want submissions for Legends IV) and then we raffled off a few free copies of Legends III. One of the Alumni Association (AA) people at the event accidently gave me a raffle ticket, so I joked around at the end of my "speech" (unlike Tom Mannion, the other speaker, I didn't use a script) about hoping that I won one with mine. I then went back to my seat. Another AA person then drew the first winner, which turned out to be me, which gave me the perfect opportunity to make an additional snarky comment publicly. (She had previously stated that I wasn't eligible after I first made the joke.) I was highly amused! (Actually, most of the audience members were rather amused by this.)

More interesting news: I found out from Tom Mannion that somebody is planning to produce a documentary about pranking at Caltech, so I'm going to be having lunch (or dinner) with that guy, Tom, and current Lloydie (and former ASCIT President) Todd Gingrich (who contributed to Legends III). I told Tom about the idea of trying to get a modern version of Real Genius, and this will be an excellent way to proceed in that direction. The meeting probably won't occur until after the school year, so I'll keep you posted on this new development.

Tomorrow is Today!

As I mentioned to some of you earlier, Tomorrow is today.

I was told the day Tomorrow would come a few days ago because I was helping Janet Sheung a bit with her stack. Towards that end, there were some shenanigans in my office earlier today. I'll hopefully post some links to pictures later, and I'll postpone a discussion of the events that transpired until then.

Until next time, remember the portentious words of Little Orphan Annie: Tomorrow is only a day away.

Update: Here are the Ditch Day pictures that Caltech posted on its website.

My book is out!

The printed copies of my book, Legends of Caltech III: Techer in the Dark (coauthored by Autumn Looijen '99) arrived on campus today.

We also have some web-only stories (and a submission form for new stories). We're still posting the final components of some of the stories, but they will be complete soon enough.

You can buy one online from the Caltech bookstore. If you're local, you can also go to the bookstore on Saturday May 19th from noon to 2:30 pm and get it autographed by Autumn and me. (Or, since I'm local, you can get me to autograph it at any other point as well.) The book has ISBN numbers, so it should be available on Amazon.com at some point.

It's listed today as a campus special.

Caltech should have a press release about the book in the near future and Autumn and I were contacted today by a contributing writer for Wired (which is now defunct) and Popular Science. He'll be discussing some of the book's contents in an upcoming Popular Science article. (I believe he found us via the magic of google. None of the public PR had started when he e-mailed us.)

By the way, if enough people buy the book, maybe we'll be able to screw with the Caltech Alumni Association's tax-exempt status...

Start the presses!

My book, Legends of Caltech III: Techer in the Dark (coauthored by Autumn Looijen '99), went off to the presses today. We started this project in May 2003, so it's taken quite a while. (Man, did I work hard on this...)

We'll have our first printed copies in two weeks, and the Caltech bookstore will start selling them a few days after that (either on Thursday 5/17 or Friday 5/18). There is supposed to be a book signing on Saturday 5/19 and there should be some sort of presentation as well. Naturally, Caltech will be having a press release, so it looks like I'm going to get to do my media slut routine again. I'm planning on having a book release party at my place on the night of 5/19 -- I'll keep you posted about that. (I hear one is supposed to have book release parties when one's books come out.) There is also a screenwriter looking at the book right now, and hopefully this will lead to a movie inspired by it. (I'm basically trying to inspire a sequel to Real Genius, though the movie aspect of things is at an extremely preliminary stage.)

Autumn and I are also writing Legends IV. You can submit stories to the above website. That book has an ETA of May 2010 or 2011.

Prank alert: The California Tech visits MIT

Well, this isn't much of an alert because the prank actually occurred on Friday. I'm just getting around to posting this entry now.

For April 1st, The California Tech decided to have a few fake pages in the style of MIT's school newspaper. There were some April Fools articles in the issue, but the plans expanded to writing an entire fake issue of the MIT paper and flying over to Boston to deliver it on their Campus Preview Weekend (what they call prefrosh weekend) in lieu of their regular paper. I approve!

I have only glanced through the actual articles -- one can find copies of the paper all over campus -- and they don't seem particularly funny (although a couple of things are amusing). However, the writing per se is far less important than the prank itself, which is awesome! (Autumn and I are definitely planning to have a story about this prank in Legends IV.)

One thing I don't know is whether our upcoming book helped motivate this prank. (An article about the book is going to be appearing in the next issue of The Tech, so such things had been stirring in the air around The Tech for a while now.) Naturally, one of the big motivations of the book is to encourage pranks, so hopefully that will happen. There have certainly been several encouraging signs over the past couple of years and some amount of money from each copy of our book that's sold will be going towards a prank fund, so there will be some money available for this stuff.

RIP James Brown (1933-2006)

James Brown died this morning, apparently of a heart attack arising due to complications from pneumonia.

While I don't like too many of his songs per se (with a couple notable exceptions), his musical influence (including on lots of stuff I do like a lot) is undeniable.