So You're That Boy From Queens?
The boy in question, is Richard Feynman. If you haven't heard of him then it's tempting to say "shame on you!" But then I'd have to admit that I wasn't really aware of his existence, or at least not that I remember, for a large part of my life, despite growing up in a world he helped to shape.
If you are not aware of him, he was a scientist, thought by many to be of the same calibre as Einstein. He was into quantum mechanics and all that weird stuff which, despite its weirdness, has had such a large impact on our lives. But that's not why I'm writing this - if you want to know more about all that stuff, and his life history, then Wikipedia is as good a place as any.
The reason I'm writing this post is because of his New York City accent. I watched the three videos below after reading this post at Open Culture, and I suspect it was down to my 'British ears', but I struggled to understand what he was saying at times. It seemed incongruous, in a charming way, that I was having trouble understanding such a brilliant man, not because he was talking 'above my head', but because he grew up in Queens (and I grew up in the Home Counties of England).
If you have the same trouble figuring out what he's saying as I did, persevere. A beautiful mind is putting thoughts into words.
The Feynman Series is a companion project of The Sagan Series
https://www.facebook.com/thesaganseries
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