Lewis Thomas

Last weekend, I spent some time in my mother's basement, looking through old books. I found my father's 1969 edition of The Double Helix, by James Watson--which, incredibly, I'd never read. (Please don't ask me how I managed to avoid reading this book, even though I grew up around a copy of it. I really have no excuse.)

I also found an early edition of The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher, by Lewis Thomas, one of my favorite authors. (I'm happy to say that I've read this one, but not recently enough.) I'd forgotten that Dr. Thomas had been on the faculty of the University of Minnesota. I think that's fascinating. It's one more reason for me to enjoy going there.

Also of interest is that according to the Wikipedia article about him, "He also failed to graduate high school." So did I. I would not often recommend taking this path through life, but it worked well for me, and it doesn't seem to have hurt him any, either.