I'm getting on-line first with birthday greetings, onaccountabecause I'm standing in the Apple Store in the Kahala Mall in Honolulu trying out a MacBook Air for the first time. It's tomorrow on the East Coast, so I'll exercise my opportunity to wish you many happy returns . . . from yesterday.
PS: Isn't about time, Tom, that you recount (in exquisite detail) where the MamaMoose came from . . .err . . . was earned???
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PS: As luck would have it, Herr Dr. Professor, here's a physicist-story for your combined natal celebration and Valentine's Day . . .
QUOTE
Physicist on Valentine's Day
Every Friday after work, a physicist goes down to the ice cream parlor, sits in the second-to-last seat, turns to the last seat, which is empty, and asks a girl, who isn't there, if he can buy her an ice cream cone.
The owner, who is used to the weird local university types, always shrugs but keeps quiet. But when Valentine's Day arrives, and the physicist makes a particularly heart-wrenching plea into empty space, curiosity gets the better of him, and he says, "I apologize for my stupid question, but surely you know there is NEVER a woman sitting in that last stool, man. Why do you persist in offering ice cream to an empty space?"
The physicist replies, "Well, according to quantum physics, empty space is never truly empty. Virtual particles come into existence and vanish all the time. You never know when the proper wave function will collapse and a girl might suddenly appear there."
The owner raises his eyebrows. "Really? Interesting. But couldn't you just ask one of the girls who comes here every Friday if you could buy HER a cone? Never know -- she might say yes."
The physicist laughs. "Yeah, right. How likely is THAT to happen?"
