Was Jim P. really a chemistry teacher?

When it comes to chemists and chemist teachers in particular, they are in a catagory all their own.

My experience is that many scientists, etc., have just incredible senses of humor.  Strange humor sometimes, but incredible . . .

Jim is a man of many talents, as most who know him here and in "real life" know.  He is a dear friend and has become a valued contributor to the magazine and to this forum.  He's also modest about his own skills and talents, but the volumes of great stuff he manages to create--often in a surprisingly short time--speaks for itself.

Allan, you didn't interpret my post as somehow being critical or questioning Jim, did you?  I think you know that Jim and I sorta 'know' each other, not well, but well enough I think to kid with each other.  Thus the smiley.

Hopefully you were trying to enhance what I said for those that aren't as familiar with Jim's work and excellent talents and whimsy.

thanks - Walt

Gotta watch those chemistry types; sometimes they break bad. Fumes.

Precisely, Walt!  Never even considered that you weren't being entirely complimentary to a fellow who surely merits compliments.

I had a year of physics in high school with a fabulous teacher who made it really interesting.

Guys,

It's even worse than you think - I was a physics teacher, not a chemistry teacher....I can't even blame it on the fumes.

I would always take it as the ultimate compliment when one of my students would say, "You know, you really don't act like a physics teacher." 

...and Lee definitely has it right about the strange humor and the science types!

...and thank you, Walt, for the kind words about the article. It was fun to do, and we are absolutely good enough friends to give or take any amount of friendly needling.

Ace, that's one of my favorite Far Side cartoons.

Jim

...which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

"There is a correlation between the creative and the screwball.  So we must suffer the screwball gladly."   - Kingman Brewster

KD

Most chemical engineering professors seem to possess a good and frequently displayed  sense of humor.

R Byron Bird, U Wisconsin, had a secret message in his Polymer Fluid Dynamics  text preface for extra course credits if you could find it.

I do not know Jim (wish I did) but I do look forward to his articles and his posts on the forum. He is a super talented modeler.

Malcolm

Always loved unconventional teachers that break the preconceived stereotypes.

Jim P,

Would you be as unconventional, irreverent, and funny as the late physicist Dr. Richard Feynman? 

I was lucky enough to work with a few scientist during my working years as a communications technician and I found them full of humor.

They needed it when they had to explain what they wonted me to do out in the field.

In any case they where just a bunch of people like the rest of us. They did have  alot more questions in their heads though. I remember telling one fellow from Germany who worked for SEL Radio that my life whould be alot simpler if he could just give me a yes or no answer.

I asked him what all the white nose was that ran accross the bottom of the Spectrum Analyzer and the next thing I knew I was reading a book on the history of an attom from the big bang to it's death in a black hole in deep time. He also gave me an article on the effects of the Doppler Shift on starlight.

He told me that if I stayed awake in High school I would of gotten into a good engineering  school and would not have to ask such mundane questions.

Of course this was all over beers and in good fun.

Bottom line when I got out to the repeater hut where they wonted the TWT (Travelling Wave Tube) tested I know what I was looking at on the SA and not run a report on some odd harmonic of the carrier.

As  for our Jim Policastro he is like that as well and you can see it in his work. I don't care if you look at his skills as a hobbyist, or a writer he has a real tallent for accenting  the detail of a subject.

I bet the world has many good minds working on  our problems because of his gift to teach.

You have to ask? Look at that grin on his face!

Jim, your articles about the 1950's are my favorite.

Allan, does Jim post an article in every issue or just certain issues?

Jim provides articles whenever the mood strikes.  I never know what might appear in the mail in one of those familiar large manila envelopes.  They are, of course, always welcome.

Thanks Allan, I enjoy those articles very much, especially the ones about the 1950's.

Also, your editorials that deal with the 50's are also my favorites as well.

I frequently re-read your editorial from a year or two ago about how you got into Lionel Trains; it is the editorial with the black and white photo of you in a Hawaiian shirt.

John,

Unconventional - yes, irreverent - definitely, funny - ? - depends on your sense of humor, ....but there the similarity would end, since brilliant is the next adjective I would use to describe the late Professor Feynman - plus he had more hair on his head.

They say that once during a food fight in the cafeteria, he became fascinated with the way plates would rotate when thrown across the room. He sat there scribbling equations to describe their motion as French fries sailed past his head. He was also unmatched as a lecturer. He always drew a crowd.

gg1,

I always enjoy hearing of the exploits of former students. It was a little sobering though when one of them told me recently that he was about to retire soon from his position as head of the materials engineering department at a local college. Gettin' old here!

chipset,

Don't go giving Allan any ideas about a regular schedule ...can't make the articles seem like work. They are more fun to do just when the mood strikes! Thanks, for the kind words.

Jim

Wait a minute...I thought Professor Irwin Corey was the foremost authority on, well everything:

Jim P is one of quite a few folks on here that I always read what they have to say.

Thanks for all you've done Jim

Thanks, Bob.

Yep, some similarities with Professor Corey too. I could expand on them at length and width but some people perfusing this might get the compression that I was using more herbiage than was needed to get my pernt acrosst.

...or was that more like Norm Crosby?

Jim

How about "Dr. Proton" played by Bob Newhart on The Big Bang Theory? 

Yep, have and read that book (hilarious, witty & moving, and you don't have to understand physics to enjoy it), as well as his other book, "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" that he was working on while battling cancer that ultimately took his life.  Also funny and witty, if not quite as tightly together as the first book,  but a lot of it also covers his perspective into the investigation into the space shuttle Challenger disaster, where he was on the investigating commission.

I though it was James Burke from the Connections series.

Science has always been my strong point in school, alongside music.  First I wanted to do paleontology, then deep-sea marine biology (giant squid, anglerfish, and that kind of stuff), now it's physics.  I'll just take it in stride and see how well I do in college.

Aaron

Scientists funny???  You bet!  Try some of these books

A Random Walk in Science – Weber

More Random Walks in Science – Weber

A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown – Baker

Whatever Happened to “Eureka”? Cartoons on Science - Downes

...and since chemistry was mentioned let us not forget the famous sports fable...

When Hydrogen played Oxygen

The game had just begun

Hydrogen scored two quick points

and Oxygen had none

Then Oxygen scored a single goal

and thus it did remain

Hydrogen 2, Oxygen 1

Called because of rain

...so much for chemistry

....and Isaac Asimov's "Treasury of Humor" complete with instructions on how to best deliver the punchlines.

....and when particle physicists found they could discover all sorts of interesting things when they hit one particle with another, they needed a unit of measure to represent the target area within which a collision could take place. They could have just used square centimeters to measure the area they needed to hit, but found it more entertaining to coin the new unit "the barn". Then they could see if they could hit the "barn" (or broad side thereof!)

By the way, 1 barn = 0.000000000000000000000001 square centimeters

It's true - as Casey Stengel would say, "You could look it up."

**********************

And just to keep this all slightly train-related, some science humor always tends to find its way onto the layout. If Tesla were to have had his way, we never would have needed catenary or third rails to power electric locos.

Jim

Do you know who else is a Physic's Teacher AND loves model trains?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCNrs23r4DA

As picky and knowledgeable as Sheldon is, I'm surprised he's not a rivet counter or overly concerned with prototypical accuracy or operation.  Could you imagine him at an operating session?