Hello Folks -
The following originated as correspondence with my old college. We're planning to donate some scholarship funds to the school. In the course of communication, I was seized with another wacky idea (presented tongue in cheek to the committee.) A victim of my own insufferable wit (I roll in the aisle every time I think of it) I thought I'd inflict it on you as well.
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The world seems to be headed for some sort of dark age, when superstition, hatred and chaos will have their day - and I hope that it's for no longer than a day. "Against the fall of night" (as Arthur C. Clarke put it) can only stand education, and the forces of enlightenment. Ann and I would much rather see such funds as we have dedicated to the furtherance of education - the research and the transmission of knowledge to students, in the fine tradition of Professors O___ and H___, than tossed into a hole in the ground.
There is something else that I might propose if I had the money of a B___ or a K___ . Unfortunately, I can only dream about it. But I'll tell you anyway.
Somewhere on campus - I hear that they are making a park on the grounds of the burnt-out Normal School (or State Teacher's College). Picture this. A series of 'endowed chairs' - but not the kind that supports a professor, just good sturdy outdoor chairs - perhaps in teak or wrought iron. These chairs would be arranged in a rather large circle. They would have labels on them, such as "Chair of Physics", "Chair of Mathematics", Chair of Astronomy, and so on, so on. Students, teachers, and just we commoners would go there to sit in peace, to contemplate, to have lively (but civilized) discussions, or perhaps to hear lectures.
One of the chairs would be double-wide and would be called the "Chair of Love and Laughter". It would be reserved for couples, such as A___ and me, who have found that the "highest form of of wisdom is love and laughter - intertwined." (I think here, again, of Don and Lois, and the H___'s.)
I put that in quotes because it is a phrase (of my own concocting) which I use as a signature on a bulletin board I frequent.
Now for the pièce de résistance (a phrase my French dad taught me). At the center of the circle of chairs would be a fountain - and what a fountain! At the periphery would be successive rings of nozzles projecting higher and higher from outside to inside, representing waves of human knowledge, building on each other (the "shoulders of giants" concept). At the very center would be a pair of nozzles, close together and rotating so as to form a twin stream, spiraling upward, entwined. Lots of bubbles would be injected into the streams, and these would shoot higher than all the other streams - this being the stream of "love and laughter, intertwined."
Also - the jokester in me can't resist this - hidden in the fountain, under computer control (as is the whole fountain) would be certain nozzles, pointing at the chairs, one nozzle for each chair. At random, and well-spaced, intervals, a stream would emerge to wash the chair clean (and surprise any occupant who might have been napping during a lecture.) The streams would serve to remove any encrustations which might have formed, allowing that chair of knowledge to go forth, clean, and perhaps in a new direction. This would be representative of what happens repeatedly in all the sciences, all the humanities, even in religion. This is Galileo, asserting that the earth revolved around the sun, and hosing the Catholic Church in the process. This is Newton, Einstein, Heisenberg and the rest of the quantum 'mechanics'.
But I won't attempt to list the equivalent in the many other disciplines. I'm sure that there would be many willing hands to help with that! I would just suggest that these 'surprise' nozzles be named after the aforementioned figures in their respective disciplines.
Well! T___, as you can tell, I'm having a lot of fun with this. Do you happen to know any billionaires who would care to join in the fun?
The following originated as correspondence with my old college. We're planning to donate some scholarship funds to the school. In the course of communication, I was seized with another wacky idea (presented tongue in cheek to the committee.) A victim of my own insufferable wit (I roll in the aisle every time I think of it) I thought I'd inflict it on you as well.
**********************************************************
The world seems to be headed for some sort of dark age, when superstition, hatred and chaos will have their day - and I hope that it's for no longer than a day. "Against the fall of night" (as Arthur C. Clarke put it) can only stand education, and the forces of enlightenment. Ann and I would much rather see such funds as we have dedicated to the furtherance of education - the research and the transmission of knowledge to students, in the fine tradition of Professors O___ and H___, than tossed into a hole in the ground.
There is something else that I might propose if I had the money of a B___ or a K___ . Unfortunately, I can only dream about it. But I'll tell you anyway.
Somewhere on campus - I hear that they are making a park on the grounds of the burnt-out Normal School (or State Teacher's College). Picture this. A series of 'endowed chairs' - but not the kind that supports a professor, just good sturdy outdoor chairs - perhaps in teak or wrought iron. These chairs would be arranged in a rather large circle. They would have labels on them, such as "Chair of Physics", "Chair of Mathematics", Chair of Astronomy, and so on, so on. Students, teachers, and just we commoners would go there to sit in peace, to contemplate, to have lively (but civilized) discussions, or perhaps to hear lectures.
One of the chairs would be double-wide and would be called the "Chair of Love and Laughter". It would be reserved for couples, such as A___ and me, who have found that the "highest form of of wisdom is love and laughter - intertwined." (I think here, again, of Don and Lois, and the H___'s.)
I put that in quotes because it is a phrase (of my own concocting) which I use as a signature on a bulletin board I frequent.
Now for the pièce de résistance (a phrase my French dad taught me). At the center of the circle of chairs would be a fountain - and what a fountain! At the periphery would be successive rings of nozzles projecting higher and higher from outside to inside, representing waves of human knowledge, building on each other (the "shoulders of giants" concept). At the very center would be a pair of nozzles, close together and rotating so as to form a twin stream, spiraling upward, entwined. Lots of bubbles would be injected into the streams, and these would shoot higher than all the other streams - this being the stream of "love and laughter, intertwined."
Also - the jokester in me can't resist this - hidden in the fountain, under computer control (as is the whole fountain) would be certain nozzles, pointing at the chairs, one nozzle for each chair. At random, and well-spaced, intervals, a stream would emerge to wash the chair clean (and surprise any occupant who might have been napping during a lecture.) The streams would serve to remove any encrustations which might have formed, allowing that chair of knowledge to go forth, clean, and perhaps in a new direction. This would be representative of what happens repeatedly in all the sciences, all the humanities, even in religion. This is Galileo, asserting that the earth revolved around the sun, and hosing the Catholic Church in the process. This is Newton, Einstein, Heisenberg and the rest of the quantum 'mechanics'.
But I won't attempt to list the equivalent in the many other disciplines. I'm sure that there would be many willing hands to help with that! I would just suggest that these 'surprise' nozzles be named after the aforementioned figures in their respective disciplines.
Well! T___, as you can tell, I'm having a lot of fun with this. Do you happen to know any billionaires who would care to join in the fun?
