Today we are managing orientation for the incoming class here at MIT. It isn't often when you get to bump into faculty from other departments (like any other large university), but I had the fortune of re-meeting an esteemed colleague from the Math department. I had introduced him to my Associate Advisor Lihua Bai and there was a brief moment where we struggled to figure out what to talk about until the Math professor said to me quite proudly, "I'm going to do a special Freshman Seminar on Euler." I admit that I do not dwell much daily on the life of the great Euler with the same admiration, but do indeed enjoy the music of a similarly named person and said to the Math professor, "You should definitely add in a unit on Usher," and smiled as this was of course a little joke.
The Math professor registered with his eyes that he knew of Usher, but he sort of stood there perplexed and going into deepest thought. Lihua and I weren't sure what was happening to him at this moment and slowly stepped back. After a long silence, he replied back with complete disdain, "I'm sure you're not thinking we can compare the great accomplishments of Euler ... with ... Usher (his voice laced with contempt)." I apologized for committing this mathematical felony, and we quickly ran away.
Posted by maeda at August 27, 2007 07:59 PM