Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character

by Richard P. Feynman

we were standing outside, ready to go into the classroom, when this pneumatic blonde came along. You know how once in a while you get this feeling, WOW? She looked terrific. I said to myself, “Maybe she’s going to be in the Spanish class—that’ll be great!” But no, she walked into the Portuguese class. So I figured, What the hell—I might as well learn Portuguese.

When I got to Rio I met Cesar Lattes.

The cameramen said, “Act as if you’re talking. Say something—anything.”

That night, Brazilian TV audiences saw the director of the Center for Physical Research welcome the Visiting Professor from the United States, but little did they know that the subject of their conversation was finding a girl to spend the night with!

Big crowds were along both sides of the Avenida; everybody was leaning out of the windows, and we were coming up to the Miramar Hotel, where I was staying. People were standing on the tables and chairs, and there were crowds and crowds of people. We were playing along, going like sixty, as our band

started to pass in front of the hotel. Suddenly I saw one of the waiters shoot up in the air, pointing with his arm, and through all this noise I can hear him scream, “O PROFESSOR!” So the head waiter found out why I wasn’t able to be there that evening to see the competition—I was in it!

After the lecture some students came up to me in a little delegation, and told me that I didn’t understand the backgrounds that they have, that they can study without doing the problems, that they have already learned arithmetic, and that this stuff was beneath them.

Then I say, “The main purpose of my talk is to demonstrate to you that no science is being taught in Brazil!”

Then I held up the elementary physics textbook they were using. “There are no experimental results mentioned anywhere in this book,

“I want a picture of a nude toreador girl being charged by a bull with a man’s head.” “Well, uh, it would help me a little if I had some idea of what this drawing is for.”