Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

One year ago, Frank got the Nobel phone call at 5:30 a.m. This year, one of those phone calls went to Roy Glauber, a Cambridge neighbor.
It’s full circle time–and, what a wonderful, funny (peculiar and ha-ha) year this has been.

• Fans of J Lo have besieged my husband for autographs.
• HRH Prince Carl Phillip of Sweden told me which kind of long underwear is best for the Ice Hotel (Middle weight, he said, and he was right.)
• Frank’s picture got added to Princeton’s Nobel gallery, a place we loved visiting, way back when we were courting.
• And I’m racing to sort out, by October 15, the rest of this year’s adventures for publication in a book with Frank!

Frank’s been invited to far more places than he could possibly go–and we’ve gone to far more of them than we probably should have. But how could we regret, despite battered suitcases now, and sometimes sore feet, all the places we’ve seen, the new things we’ve discovered, and wonderful people we’ve met?

Thank you, Nobel Foundation, for making this possible. And thank you, dear blogreaders all, for sharing this journey.

MacArthur Foundation announced this year’s 25 “genius grants” today.

Way back in 1982, when the program was young and prize amounts depended on how old you were (older folks got more money) and Frank had recently turned 31 … Frank and I and 7 year-old Amity and zero-year-old Mira went over to England so Frank could do some physics. Later, we headed off for a family trip, haphazardly aimed toward lovely, mysterious Avebury with its stone circles.

We found a farm bed and breakfast where Amity could help herd geese. Each morning, after porridge with creamy milk fresh from the cow, we’d go see some antiquities. Each afternoon, we’d come back to the big farm kitchen to drink tea made on their huge silver Aga.

A few days into this idyll, Frank had to phone Cambridge. Great excitement–everyone had been trying to find him! We were completely astounded. A MacArthur Prize? Wow!

Anyway, if you need a post-Katrina boost of optimism, check out this year’s list of prizewinners. Their impressive and varied talents will lift your heart.

Or, never mind the head of a pin, how many Nobel laureates can dance the Polonaise on a tiny dance floor in Lindau? About 47, I’d guess. after last night’s party.

Special kudos for stylish moves to Alan Heeger ( 2000 Chemistry) and of course Frank Wilczek (2004 Physics).

Aaron, who won for studying ubiquitin, the useful protein-murderer in our cells, gave a talk yesterday about how cells do quality control by breaking down defective proteins. Just tag the bad protein with some ubiquitin, and a huge scribbly proteasome will find and destroy it. (I am simplifying quite a lot here.)

Cells that can’t recycle protein get damaged–old useless proteins get in the way of more healthy processes–so there are a lot of medical possibilities.

Metaphorical possibilities too. I wish all of us had some mental “ubiquitin”–a mechanism to get rid of bad ideas and outmoded beliefs, after testing them carefully to see which ones are defective…

Of course, my ideas are all perfect–including this one–but several of yours, well, they really do need some rethinking.

…we have reached a classic comic subplot. Frank has been invited to address graduation ceremonies at his high school–and at his elementary school.

Talk about dreams of childhood, (or nightmares of childhood)…

And, for another rich Shakespearian irony, the New York Times decided to cover last week’s Nobel Monument ceremonies in its Sunday Style section, with weddings and glitzy fundraisers. This photo was not online, but (thanks to the sharp eyes of my friend Roberta) I now have a sheet of newsprint featuring Frank and NYC’s teenage Nobel essay contest winners sharing a page with party animals David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger.

Those student essayists will enjoy all the Nobel festivities in December, so I doubt they much care where the NYT put their photos.

…and that goes for Uncle Walter and Aunt Billie (who came with us to the Stockholm ceremonies) and cousins Cheri and Patti (and many more!) and cousin-in-law Jim too.

But this special picture shows Frank with his mom and dad after the Nobel Monument ceremony yesterday. It’s the first of all the many “praise Frank!” occasions they’ve been able to be part of. And we are so glad they came.

At the American Academy for Achievement’s 2005 International Achievement Summit, prizewinners each give a short speech to student delegates–about 200 Rhodes Scholars, etc. from 50 countries. So we all heard some darn good speeches but of course the best was given by Frank Wilczek–short, pithy, informative, and very funny.

I especially like his illustration of how to choose problems wisely:

It’s easy to give vague advice, but I will break new ground, and give you an algorithm. Many of you are probably thinking about getting married, and naturally you would like to maximize your chance of finding the best possible mate. I’ll give you an algorithm for that….

Wait, I hope this doesn’t mean I’m a problem…

If you want Frank’s algorithm, and to understand why my new nickname is “N over e plus one”, here’s Frank’s 5-minute talk including as a bonus Einstein’s favorite joke.

made a great funny short speech that ended with “I’m hungry”–the best kind of before-dinner speech–before getting his medal from four-minute miler Roger Bannister. Bill Clinton made an incredibly fascinating and incredibly long speech, but who would have expected him to do anything different?

I’m always thrilled when Frank gets a new award, but I’d never heard of the Golden Plate Achievement Awards. (Thank you, Mr. Google.) It seems the Golden Plate people like it that way–the press is not invited to their parties, but (in my capacity as Mr. Jennifer Lopez) this blogger is.

So here we are, in yet another hotel suite, this one the St. Regis in NYC, and as I head off for the gym I’m hoping that Katie Couric or Sally Field will be on the next treadmill over, because they’re here too for the next few days (among many others), doing symposia, meeting some fascinatingly brilliant grad students (200 I think), and getting their own Golden Plates.

More later, but one other big starstruck experience so far was dinnner last night in the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum. I kept hoping to see Big Bird or Snufflupagus. Anybody else remember Don’t Eat the Pictures?

Stockholm’s Grand Hotel played host to a record number of bodyguards when we were there in December, because the Israeli Nobel laureates arrived with a squadron of high-tech, mini-earphoned muscle–and then Jennifer Lopez showed up for a move premiere with her own complement of protectors.

“I was delighted too when I heard about the Nobel Prize, thinking as you did that my bongo playing was at last recognised. Imagine my chagrin when I realised that there had been some mistake — they cited some marks I made on paper some 15 years ago — and not one word about percussion technique. I know you share in my disappointment.”

Excerpts from RP Feynman’s letters, with link to a new book of them.