I am a Genius! By Bill Russo
I met Albert Einstein in 1953, two years before he would pass away.. I was twelve years old.
Einstein would vacation in a little town called Cutchogue, N.Y. He would meet with other great minds outside of Rothman’s general store on Main Rd. Max Planck, Neils Bohr and other physics minded people would talk about atoms, matter, space and of course, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
One day, as I was passing Einstein who was sitting on a big rock along Long Island Sound, with no one to talk to and looking quite sad, I walked over to him and asked if he was alright. He smiled and said that he was fine but was having trouble with his now famous equation, E=mc 2 . “I can’t remember what the E stands for” he said.
“I know what it stands for. It stands for Entenmann’s. They make great cakes, cookies and all sorts of things. If you try one you will feel much better.”
The great physicist thanked me and then I said I would check on him the next day. So I did.
“You are a genius, my boy! A genius!!. I had an Entenmann’s coffee ring..The whole thing! It was delicious and I feel so much better. Thank you for curing my sad feelings from yesterday. Always remember, you are a genius. People always tell me that I am a genius so if I am a genius and say that ‘you are a genius’ it is most assuredly true! You, my boy, are a genius!”
When I went to high school and did poorly in all of my math classes I was sure that my teachers didn’t know they were dealing with a genius....but I knew I was. Einstein said so...By the way, if I say that you too are a genius then be assured that you are one. After all, I should know.
Below is an excerpt from the NY Times.
At a corner of Main Road in downtown Southold, the North Fork of old is converging with all that is new.
Rothman’s Department Store, a bric-a-brac shop that has sold everything from thumbtacks to toasters since 1918, has moved down the block. In several months, its old home will reopen as Einstein Square. Named for the famous physicist who once spent a summer nearby, the new development will include rental apartments and a retail store around a pedestrian plaza.
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