ode to my advisor

my advisor, dr. zeilberger is known for practical jokes. remember in february when he pulled this on us? our only required homework of the class to date

*that* i saw right through.

he also has a tradition of april fool's jokes. he has an opinions page on his website, and 4 of the 5 years from 2000-2004 has posted a humorous and goofy opinion on april 1st for kicks. see:

April 1, 2000: Opinion 41: The British Government Should Declassify Turing's Counterexample to the Riemann Hypothesis

April 1, 2002: Opinion 45: The Clay Mathematics Institute Should Pay Most of the Million-Dollar Prize to the Anonymous Genius Who Proved that the P vs. NP Problem is NP Hard

April 1, 2003: Opinion 52: The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics and arXiv.org Should Reverse their Unfair and Bigoted Decision Not To Publish On the So-Called Genome Code

April 1, 2004: Opinion 59: The Rutgers Math Department's Executive Committee's Decision to Forbid Sleeping and Other Improper Behavior in Seminar and Colloquium Talks Should Be Adopted by All Mathematics Departments

in other words, he has a reputation. :-P

somehow, when we all got the following email yesterday morning though, none of us caught it at first:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 08:57:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Doron Zeilberger
Subject: Important Information about Monday's Class


Dear Class,

I apologize for the short notice, but I just found out
about this today. As you know, Nobelist John Nash is
scheduled to speak at the Experimental Math seminar
on April 21.

When I invited him to give a seminar, I also suggested that
he deliver a guest lecture at our Math587 class,
on April 4, using Mathematica rather than Maple. He kindly agreed, and
I didn't tell you before, since I wanted it to be a surprise.

To my great embarrassment, he must have told about it to
some media people, and as a result, PBS wants to
film this class. Of course, I couldn't say no,
since I didn't want to hurt Nash's feelings.

But the down side is that PBS requests that the class will look
"professional". We (including myself) are expected to dress
up in suits (or dresses for women), and to look presentable.
Also, all you people who often come late: for once, please come
on time, or even ten minutes early.

Otherwise, just act naturally. Please keep this secret, since
we don't want there to be a mob scene.

See you Monday,

Dr. Z.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In retrospect, yeah, how plausible is it that PBS would be filming our class?,... and it IS awful suspicious that he sent it out on April 1st, but Nash really is coming to speak on April 21st, and his offices are only half an hour away at princeton, so really it's not completely unreasonable that he could make it here twice... we're just unsuspecting tired grad students... anyhow, just about everyone i talked to believed it for a bit until we started talking amongst ourselves. this morning, dr. z. sent out a follow up message.... he got us good... enjoy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2005 10:08:49 -0500 (EST)
From: Doron Zeilberger
Subject: John Nash regretfuly cancelled

Dear Class,
John Nash forgot that he had a previous important
engagement, and hence the bad news is that you would
have to put up with me, as usual, and the good news is
that you can come as you are. However, you may still
come on time!
Best wishes
Dr. Z.
P.S. Here are some disrespectful reactions from some of you
alleging that it was an April Fool's "Joke"
(except from Paul!). Would I do
something as tacky as that? I am really offended.


--------------------------------------------------
From: Paul Raff
To: Doron Zeilberger
Subject: (MathIsFun) Re: Important Information about Monday's Class

Amazing! I know Padmini is notoriously late (and she admits it herself)
but I'll make sure she is on time, even if it means picking her up from
Livingston.

[paul]



Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 10:28:14 -0500 (EST)
From: Thotsaporn Thanatipanonda
To: Doron Zeilberger
Subject: Re: Important Information about Monday's Class

Dear Dr.Z,

I was very excited for awhile. Then I realize that this might
be your famous April fool joke. This is really funny though.

Sincerely,
Aek

MathIsFun

---------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 11:38:44 -0500 (EST)
From: Eric Rowland
To: Doron Zeilberger
Subject: Re: Important Information about Monday's Class

Dr. Z,

I don't suppose we can clue PBS into the fact that business attire isn't
required in graduate school?

Also, I don't think the ARC computers have Mathematica installed.

Eric




Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 11:59:38 -0500 (EST)
From: Eric Rowland
To: Doron Zeilberger
Subject: Re: Important Information about Monday's Class


Happy April Fool's Day!

MathIsFun

Eric
-----------------------

Is there any particular significance to the fact that you sent this
email on 4/1 rather than, say, 3/31 or 4/2, or any other day of the
year?

Best,
Vince

-----------------------------

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at least Nash REALLY is speaking here in 2.5 weeks and we'll meet him then; so it's not a complete loss :-P but man, dr. z. got us good.

happy day after april fool's day :-P