Saturday, 16 September 2006
A philosopher without a bicycle is like a ...

Well, is like a _what_? Paul Teller didn't want to find out. He announced a while ago that he'd be visiting the Center for a week or two in September. Was that OK? Yes--terrific. We love visitors!

A few days before he was to arrive, he sent an urgent email. Was there anyway he could get the use of a bicycle? I'd seen a few bicycles standing around the Center with an abandoned look to them. I had a hunch about them but I am still too new an occupant of the Director's office to know for sure. So I checked with Karen. Yes, visiting fellows sometimes buy bicycles and then donate them to the Center when they leave. Too hard to take home with them. Paul would have a choice of three bicycles!

By the time I got the news to Paul, it was too late. He has been to Dick's Sporting Goods, he told me, and there was a 612 gear, gran turismo turbo with speed paint and real rubber tyres for $120. So he bought it. "No doubt worth every cent you paid for it," I thought wryly to myself. Paul laughed; and I realized I'd actually said it. Fortunately Paul has a sense of humor.

So shortly we will have four bicycles and be that much farther from the answer to the riddle.

John D. Norton