The key question yesterday was, can Babe Didrikson Zaharias do comedy or can Sid Caesar do sports. According to Mark Palko, Sid Caesar was by all accounts extremely physically strong. And I know of no evidence that Babe was funny. So Your Show of Shows will be going into the third round.
And now we have an intriguing contest: a famously immature mathematician who loved to collaborate, vs. an Albert Einstein who didn’t do science. Whaddya think?
Again, here’s the bracket and here are the rules.
What’s Brooks’ Erdos number? We’d all get a better a 1 from the man himself.
My guess would be 22.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZumS81KSw8
(casino scene from Lost in America)
Brooks was born on the 22nd of the month. So was I. Reason enough for him to win.
Now I’m morally bound to use the Erdos argument I said no one would see unless he made it to this round.
Andrew will take the speaker out to dinner, prove a theorem, publish it and earn an Erdos number of 1.
Plus, it’s likely Albert Brooks could do an Erdos imitation, but it’s doubtful Erdos could do a Brooks imitation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Q5T7hSa5Q
(Albert Brooks’ Impersonation Kit on Johnny Carson)
If you get Erdos, he will end up living in your own place for the next n months, and him being dead, well, let’s say it is probably not going to be pleasant.
s/living/staying/
Upon arriving, Erdős would surely say, “My brain is open.” Could Brooks top such an opening?
The following limerick, attributed to Leo Moser, is reason enough to choose Erdős. Does Brooks have any limericks about him at all?
A conjecture both deep and profound
Is whether a circle is round.
In a paper of Erdős
Written in Kurdish
A counterexample is found.
I couldn’t find any Brooks limericks, but let’s come up with one, just for fairness’s sake:
An Arthur whose last name is Brooks
Has quite a few films on the books.
His masterpiece, though
Is on Finding Nemo:
A clownfish’s voice–hence, no looks.
I think the Erdős limerick wins. Hence, Erdős.
Oops, my limerick did a belly-flop! Albert, not Arthur. All the more reason why the Erdős limerick–and thus Erdős–wins.
But Albert Brooks is buried in Limerick!
… that’s Albert T. Brooks, in Limerick, PA.
All the more reason why Erdős wins. If Albert T. Brooks is buried in Limerick, then Limerick, alas, has sunk him, which the lowercase limerick did too.