The time has come

the walrus said, to speak of many things.

From a mailing list I'm on:

> The best book on programming for the layman is Alice in Wonderland;
> but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.

This just reminded me of my maternal grandfather, who 'turned me on' to Lewis Carrol when I was maybe 7 or 8. He also exposed me to Scientific American (when it mattered), of course leading to Gardner's columns on Life (cellular automata), which led me to meet Ed Fredkin years later, which led to...

He also did two other things I can never forget: 1) he explained what Ninkompoops were (people who invested in his inventions but didn't really understand their true potential, and wouldn't cough up that last $10 million). and 2) showed me how an electric motor worked, by building one from scratch, using plywood, metal, and wire.

A life-long atheist, his soul burns brightly still within me, and it's all done without a lick of magic.


-dbm