Kong Posh: Why Albert Einstein stopped wearing socks

Sham S. Misri

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Germany. He was three or four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read. He had some trouble remembering his address. Einstein immigrated to the United States in 1933. He was a genius and a great physicist and a mathematician. Einstein had a son from his second wife, Cousin Elsa. He died on April 18^th 1955.

Einstein was a late talker, his parents were worried. At last, at the supper table one night, he broke his silence to say, "The soup is too hot." Greatly relieved, his parents asked why he had never said a word before. Albert replied, "Because up to now everything was in order."

Once, a Church in Manhattan planned to put up statues of the eight most famous scientists who ever lived, according to their liking. Einstein was included. When asked how it felt to be an "immortalized" living scientist in this way, Einstein answered, "From now on, and for the rest of my life, I must be very careful not to commit a scandal."

Once during the 1930s, Einstein said, "If my relativity theory is verified, Germany will proclaim me a German and France will call me a citizen of the world. But if my theory is proved false, France will emphasize that I am a German and Germany will say that I am a Jew."

Once, Einstein was asked by his hostess at a social gathering to explain his theory of relativity. Einstein said,

"Madam, I was once walking in the country on a hot day with a blind friend, and said that I would like a drink of milk."

"Milk?" said my friend, "Drink I know; but what is milk?"

"A white liquid," I replied.

"Liquid I know; but what is white?"

"The color of a swan's feathers."

"Feathers I know; what is a swan?"

"A bird with a crooked neck."

"Neck I know; but what is this crooked?"

"Thereupon, I lost patience. I seized his arm and straightened it. "That's straight," I said; and then I bent it at the elbow. "That's crooked."

"Ah!" said the blind man, "Now I know what you mean by milk!"

IN 1931 Charlie Chaplin invited Albert Einstein, who was visiting Hollywood, to a private screening of his new film City Lights. As the two men drove into town together, passersby waved and cheered. Chaplin turned to his guest and explained: "The people are applauding you because none of them understands you and applauding me because everybody understands me."

One of Einstein's colleagues asked him for his telephone number one day. Einstein reached for a telephone directory and looked it up. "You don't remember your own number?" the man asked, startled. No," Einstein answered. "Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a book?" In fact, Einstein claimed never to memorize anything which could be looked up in less than two minutes.

"When I was young I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a sock," Einstein once recalled. "So I stopped wearing socks."