The Dalai Lama? Jk...how was your Thanksgiving? Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm going to try to share this little cartoon from back when I was a hippie in the Haight:

Couldn't add attachment. Sorry.

Not Dalai Lama

6. I lived most of my later years in Pasadena, California.

7. I once corrected one of my daughter's high school teachers. He refused to teach her further. I had to "home school" that subject.

Richard Feynman

Feynman it is. I figured you'd know that one.

8. One of my wives had a severe form of tuberculosis and I could not even physically touch her.
9. I loved to travel, but only if I could live as the locals did and not stay in a westernized hotel.
10. Albert Einstein once told me he thought my early work was "not correct"
11. Cliffg37 never met me, but two years ago he met and shook hands with my then 49-year-old daughter.
12. I was known for my sense of humor and referred to as a "Curious Character."
13. I played drums, did sketches, and throat sang.
14. I won the Nobel prize for figuring how electrons spin.
15. I knew why the challenger space shuttle blew up. I testified to this in front of congress.
16. I was an early recipient of Radiation Therapy, but I died of cancer in 1988

This truly brilliant man was a member of the Southern California American Association of Physics Teachers, a local chapter of a national academic organization. He passed on 10 years before I became a member of the group, but I am proud to be its President today. I actaully got his daughter Michelle Feynman to come and give a talk in his name.

That's yet another person I've never heard of. I guess it's obvious why I failed math and science at school ...

P.S. Very impressive credentials, Cliff!

Thank you, Arthur.

Check this out, Feynman's bit starts about 2 minutes in...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOzoLdfWyKw

I was working as a warhead designer when the Challenger accident occurred. One of my coworkers did some hydrocode analysis on the booster design after the accident and showed that even if the cold weather hadn't compromised the o-rings, the design was still flawed and likely would still have failed.

I'll come up with a new person tomorrow morning.

If you read Feynman's findings on the issue, one of the things he states was that every dept had calculated an overall possibility a failure percent. He said it was all Wah Wah (His way of saying the bull word) because they had had not fired enough shuttles into space to record any form of meaningful data. Statistical analysis was meaningless, and yet the shuttles were sent off as if the safety margin was really calculated.

If you read "Riding Rockets" by astronaut Michael Mullane, he talks about the plan NASA came up with after the Challenger disaster to have astronauts skydive from a crippled shuttle. His comment was that there would be no success in even getting to the hatch, never mind jumping.

Unfortunately, NASA was sometimes pretty cavalier with the lives of the astronauts. IIRC, Nixon had two speeches ready on the eve of the moon landing--one to celebrate its success, and another to give condolences in the event of an accident.

Cliff and S2000magician: I am in awe of your scientific knowledge. But since you mentioned Challenger — if you’ll allow me to digress — I have a totally different story regarding that tragic event.

After the success of The Goonies, I wrote another song for Cyndi Lauper entitled Heading For The Moon. Cyndi liked it so much, she planned to make it the title track of her next album. We recorded a basic home demo for the studio musicians to copy during the actual recording date. Unfortunately, by then Cyndi’s ego had become so big that she thought as he could do anything. So she produced the song herself (along with a “yes-man” co-producer). And sadly, she lost sight of the charm of my original musical arrangement.

To make matters worse, the studio musicians spoiled my song’s “groove” by overplaying. Plus, an eclectic guitarist Cyndi hired to recreate one of my rather important instrumental counter-melodies, added a 5th effect on the guitar, which ruined the simplicity of the original demo. Once the musicians had left, Cyndi actually called me from the studio to come and salvage the arrangement. I re-played and fixed a few things, but it was too late. The damage had already been done.

Nevertheless, Cyndi still planned to make Heading For The Moon the title of her new album … until Challenger exploded. She thought the allusion was too close. Can’t say I blame her for that. But not only did she change the album title, she also completely nixed the song off the album!

I had to fight hard to get her and her management to at least put it on the B side off the first single. Luckily that single was True Colors, which went #1 all over the world. So while I did not earn any money from airplay, I did receive some good compensation from sales of the single.

Anyway, sorry for the diversion! I just thought you might find my Challenger story interesting.

And now ... back to the quiz!

Great story, Arthur. Thanks.

Sorry for the delay; these last few days have been too busy.

1. I was born in San Francisco.

2. I was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives twice.

3. My father was a mining engineer.

Gavin Newsome?

Nope, not Newsome.

(How alliterative!)

4. I was enrolled in, attended, and was expelled from Harvard College.

No idea yet, but it's getting interesting...

5. I once ran for mayor of New York City, but wasn't elected.

Ottinger?

Not Ottinger, either.

6. I ran a second time for mayor of New York City, but wasn't elected.