The Perils of Impersonation.
I must tell you all about this, I have just remembered, talking about impersonation...and its perils.....
Albert Einstien was progressing on a lecture tour in the US, in the early 1950's, sponsored by Princeton University.
And he did this travelliing by road, in a chauffer driven car.
By coincidence, his driver bore a striking resemblance to him, and as the tour progressed, both men got to know each other very well.
On one occasion, my namesake confided in his driver that he was bored, because at every presentation people were apt to ask the same silly questions, again and again, just like here.
The driver promptly came up with a brilliant idea to relieve the boredom for the beleagured physicist.
"Well boss" he ventured to say, "I have heard you deliver the same presentation every time, and I have heard it so often, that I feel confident to be able to stand up there on the podium with the blackboard, and deliver it myself, exactly as you do".
Albert, who was sitting on the front seat, next to the driver, turned to him and replied with a grin on his face "Now that is a really interesting idea"..."do you think we could get away with it ?".
"Sure !" Said the driver, "don't forget that there are many people who haven't met you personally or seen you before except in newsreels or photographs"....
"Shall we try it ?" asked Albert mischiviously.
"Yes, why not !" replied the driver.
So there and then, they went into a gas station, and went into the gents and swapped clothes and hats, and Albert takes the wheel of the car, and finally they arrive at the venue, that was packed.
Now at the back of the hall there was a cold buffet serving dinners.
Albert caught sight of these dinners and promptly helped himself to one and put it on a tray, and sat down quietly at the back of the hall and began to tuck in.
The driver was announced, and he walked in, down the aisle, to tremendous applause, and mounted the podium, and began his explanations.
This went on for some time and the audience, though undoubtedly not understanding very much, was in rapture, you could hear pins drop, as the driver proceeded to explain in detail with diagrams and equations why and how the Theory of Relativity actually worked, and so on.
Unfortunately, one of the organisers had the idea to invite the audience to ask questions,
Many of these questions were sort of personal, you know, about what he liked or did not like, and what he believed or did not, and about his formative years, and some questions about physics, that Albert had answered in detail at other venues that the driver had been present at and so all this went very well so far.
But now someone in the front row ventured to ask a very difficult question that had the driver completely stumped because he had never heard it asked or answered before. As fortunately there was only one or two minutes left of the session, the timing could not have been better.
The driver explained that he had answered that question so many times, that he was tired of answering it, but he was sure that even his driver, who was sitting at the back of the hall eating a turkey dinner would be capable of answering the question for him, since the concept was so simple, so basic.
He then called upon Albert to answer the question from the back of the hall.
All necks were craned backwards to hear the explanation, which proved to be very satisfactory indeed and was able to satisfy totally the curiosity of the enquirer, and that was that.
And so they left hurriedly, but never tried that stunt ever again.