#14 - week 9 - The Feynman Carnival
“How is it possible, that an ‘intelligent’ guy can be such a goddamn fool when he gets into a bar?” ~ Richard Feynman
A weird edition that mixes Carnival with the Nobel Award Winner Richard Feynman.
Shortly after I won the [Nobel] Prize, Gweneth and I received an invitation from the Brazilian government to be the guests of honor at the Carnaval celebrations in Rio. We gladly accepted and had a great time. We went from one dance to another and reviewed the big street parade that featured the famous samba schools playing their wonderful rhythms and music. Photographers from newspapers and magazines were taking pictures all the time—“Here, the Professor from America is dancing with Miss Brazil.” It was fun to be a “celebrity,” but we were obviously the wrong celebrities. Nobody was very excited about the guests of honor that year. I found out later how our invitation had come about. Gina Lollobrigida was supposed to be the guest of honor, but just before Carnaval, she said no. The Minister of Tourism, who was in charge of organizing Carnaval, had some friends at the Center for Physical Research who knew I had played in a samba band, and since I had recently won the Nobel Prize, I was briefly in the news. In a moment of panic the Minister and his friends got this crazy idea to replace Gina Lollobrigida with the professor of physics! Needless to say, the Minister did such a bad job on that Carnaval that he lost his position in the government.
~ Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman
In 1992, the italian TV Show Scommettiamo che…? made a challenge where they had to fit a marching band of 30 members inside a nine-seater van, along with their instruments and they would still have to play a tune while inside.
A short time before Carnaval, there was going to be a special competition between the samba schools of the beaches—Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon; there were three or four schools, and we were one. We were going to march in costume down Avenida Atlantica. I felt a little uncomfortable about marching in one of those fancy Carnaval costumes, since I wasn’t a Brazilian. But we were supposed to be dressed as Greeks, so I figured I’m as good a Greek as they are.
On the day of the competition, I was eating at the hotel restaurant, and the head waiter, who had often seen me tapping on the table when there was samba music playing, came over to me and said, “Mr. Feynman, this evening there’s going to be something you will love! It’s tipico Brasileiro—typical Brazilian: There’s going to be a march of the samba schools right in front of the hotel! And the music is so good—you must hear it.”
I said, “Well, I’m kind of busy tonight. I don’t know if I can make it.”
“Oh! But you’d love it so much! You must not miss it! It’s tipico Brasileiro!”
He was very insistent, and as I kept telling him I didn’t think I’d be there to see it, he became disappointed.
That evening I put on my old clothes and went down through the basement, as usual. We put on the costumes at the construction lot and began marching down Avenida Atlantica, a hundred Brazilian Greeks in paper costumes, and I was in the back, playing away on the frigideira.
Big crowds were along both sides of the Avenida; everybody was leaning out of the windows, and we were coming up to the Miramar Hotel, where I was staying. People were standing on the tables and chairs, and there were crowds and crowds of people. We were playing along, going like sixty, as our band started to pass in front of the hotel. Suddenly I saw one of the waiters shoot up in the air, pointing with his arm, and through all this noise I can hear him scream, “O PROFESSOR!” So the head waiter found out why I wasn’t able to be there that evening to see the competition—I was in it!
~ Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman