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Texan Believe It Or Not!

Most of the following anecdotes were written, misspellings, mistakes, and all, by me. I have listed below each anecdote the person from whom I originally heard the story and I have e-mailed each person who I have credited with a story. I have received verification of the annecdotes which have a green square bullet.

"A" Students

In a multivariable calculus course, I sat in the front row next to another student who was really full of himself. Before Dr. Ball arrived, he always bragged about how smart he was to me and other students around him. One day, Dr. Ball was handing back the first exam of the semester, and when he handed this student his paper, it had a score of 60. The student promptly handed the exam back to Dr. Ball and remarked, "there must be a mistake, this is not my exam." Dr. Ball looked at the name on the exam, asked the student if that was his name, to which the student replied, "yes, but that cannot be my exam." Dr. Ball developed a puzzled look on his face and said, "It has your name on it, therefore it is your exam." The student curtly replied, "It cannot possibly be my exam, because I am an 'A' student." Dr. Ball chuckled and said, "not anymore." The student became quite angry, and continued to argue, insisting that he was an A student and that he could not possibly have scored a 60 on an exam. He folded his arms and refused to accept the exam from Dr. Ball. So, Dr. Ball asked the student to either take the exam or leave the classroom. The student stormed out and never returned. The class sat in stunned silence as Dr. Ball passed out the rest of the exams, then continued with the lecture as though nothing had happened. That was 20 years ago, and when things occasionally go badly in life, I think of that day and jokingly tell myself "this can't be happening to me, because I am an 'A' student!" and I get a good laugh which makes things seem better.

Moore Had a Soft Spot?

Although I took only 3 courses from Dr. Moore, I have a very interesting annecdote to tell you. When the course of first semester calculus was over I discovered that my grade was a B. I was truly alarmed so I decided mistakenly to ask Dr. Moore about it. He was talking at the time in his office with another student. I said the wrong thing when I said " I think I deserve an A. " . Dr. Moore exploded and said numerous well chosen things including " Do you think you know what you deserve? ". I was young and foolish and said " Well pardon me for living " , to which he replied " You can stop living if you so desire . " Then I made the final mistake of saying " So can you. " , and left. When the Spring semester began, I had cooled off and hoped that Dr. Moore had done likewise, but I never expected to take another of his courses. Nevertheless, I decided to sign up and go to class for calculus, being mentally stimulated by his style of teaching and learning to try proving things on my own. When class began, Dr. Moore called the role, finally reaching my name. He said " Mr. Lumpkin, there are 2 more sections of this class." I took this to mean that I should get up and leave the room, but I came up with " Yes sir, but yours is the best !! ". He cleared his throat after that remark and said " What about that remark the other day? " . I promptly and belatedly appologized with " I am very sorry about that sir, and will see that it never happens again!! ". He continued to conduct class. I attended the integral calculus class, worked hard, and ultimately succeeded with the hoped for A at the end of the semester. This verifies that Dr. Moore had a soft spot in his heart and was willing to forgive student transgressions at times when you would least expect it. I later took his Foundations of Geometry summer course when I was on a roll and made another A, QED.

Andy Lumpkin

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Wall's advice on the stock market

It took me a long time to understand that Dr. Wall was not being facetious about what he said. After a while of taking classes from Dr. Wall, most of us came to know that he took great interest in the stock market and there were rumors that he was very wealthy on account of it. A student who was very interested in the rumors asked him in class how he made so much money in the stock market. Dr. Wall looked down at his hands and very delilberately pointed his right index finger to his left index finger and said,"First, you buy low." Then he pointed to left pinky and said, "Then you sell high." He then silently looked up at the student with his that's the way it is look.

Joel Finegold

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Topological socks

Dr. Ettlinger: Dr. Moore, I just bought a new pair of socks, and one of them has a hole in it.

Dr. Moore: Well, if it didn't, how could you put it on?

Dr. Ettlinger: I'd expect something like that from a topologist.

Ben Fitzpatrick, Jr.

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What is it about the sandals?

Apparently, Moore quite often conveyed his thoughts to people by speaking to others.

It seems that Moore did not like students to wear sandals to class. One day Moore came to class and found a student doing just this and Moore raised his voice and said, "Mr. So & So, don't ever wear sandals to my class again." Moore then promptly turned to a second student, seated next to Mr. So & So and said, "Mr. Such and Such, do you ever find a habit annoying, yet you decide that it is too small an issue to say anything about? But then, a few days later it occurrs again and now you decide not to say anything about it because you feel that if you do say anything while bothered about it, you will make far too much of such a small thing? Then, finally, you just blurt it out and make far too much of it? Has anything like that ever happened to you?"

Bob Dorroh

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What's time to an old pig?

I've always heard that discovery method takes too long to find answers that everyone should know with a lot less effort. Dr. Wall once responded to this consideration with the following story. A man was driving down a country road when he noticed a farmer holding a young pig in his arms so the pig could eat some persimmons hanging from a tree. The driver was so surprised, he slammed on his brakes, U-turned, and hurried back to the farmer. When he asked the farmer, "Doesn't that take a lot of time?" the farmer casually looked up from what he was doing and said "Time? What's time to a pig?"

Joel Finegold

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Why motorcyclists drive so fast?

Bill Mahavier rode a 1951 Harley as a student at The University of Texas. He regularly parked it outside of Benedict Hall in the motorcycle parking area which was directly under R. L. Moore's open office window. One afternoon as Bill and his wife Jean prepared to leave the campus, Bill could not get the bike started. It had only a kick starter and Bill kicked it many times to no avail. Finally the bike started, Jean got on and they left as fast as the Harley would go. The next morning Dr. Moore met Jean at the top of the stairway in Benedict Hall and asked: "Mrs Mahavier, is it true that the reason people drive so fast on motorcycles is to make up the the time they lose getting them started?"

William S. Mahavier

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He failed to get a Ph.D.

In order to live in campus housing at UT John Mohat needed to be enrolled in a course at the university. Therefore he enrolled in one of Dr. Moore's courses. Preparing for his new job and the move, he neglected to attend class. When he met up with Dr. Moore, he asked, "What would you do if a student were registered for your class, but never attended?" To this, Moore replied, I would probably seek out the student in an effort to determine if there were extenuating circumstances." After the brief conversation, Mohat went back to preparing for his move, never attended Moore's class, and received a grade of F in the course. How many doctoral students do you suppose there are with the final grade on their transcript an F.?

unknown

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Is McNerny Reflexive?

One day at Chapel Hill, Mac Nerney's graduate class in analysis decided to pull one on him and seat themselves in the room in a manner that was the mirror image of their usual seating arrangement. When John walked into the room, he went straight to his appropriate mirror image seat and said, "Do you wish to continue with your proof, Mr. X"

unknown

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Ettlinger's Chauffeur

Ettlinger got up at 4 a.m. and liked to take drives around the countryside. One day the famous Texas ranger, Homer Garrison, came to Ettlinger's classroom door. Homer was the chief of police at the time and was there to arrest a student, who we will refer to as Mr. V., for participating in cock fighting. Homer was a huge man, but Ettlinger informed him that he would have to wait until the class was concluded. After class, Ettlinger went with Homer and Mr. V. to the police station and got Mr. V. released in his custody. Now Ettlinger had a chauffeur for his morning drives.

Dan Mauldin

Andendum:

The next morning Ettlinger roused Mr. V. from bed at some early hour. Mr. V. protested, saying, " Aren't we at least going to have some breakfast.?" Ettlinger replied to this by tossing two eggs in a cold skillet, holding the skillet briefly over the fire, and then tossing the eggs onto a plate, saying, "Eat up boy, we don't waste food in this house!"

unknown

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Some rumors about Moore and guns

It is rumored that while at Princeton, R. L. Moore once had a recurring discipline problem in a class and later walked into that class, laid a six shooter on the table, and proceeded to teach.

While I have personally heard this story from Steve Armentrout, even he cannot vouch for it as a first hand observer.

When considering rumors about Moore and guns, it is important to recall that Moore was born in November of 1882. When, according to Reginald Traylor's Creative Teaching: Heritage of R. L. Moore, "Whiskey could be purchased for $1.00 a gallon" and "He was raised in a home which honored the Southern attitudes, stressing gentlemanliness, honor, integrity, and independence."

There is further evidence to support such a rumor. In Joe Eyles dissertation, R. L. Moore's Calculus Class, one may find the following quotes:

J.P. Holmes: I never have heard anybody talk about his calculus. I mainly hear stories about the graduate courses and incidents like bringing a gun to class, which I assume, must be true since I've heard them so many times.

and

Michael Lacey: Actually, when my father arrived at the UT math department, Moore was close to the end of his career, and the department was literally divided into two camps: the Moore, and the anti-Moore. The Moores had the fourth floor, and it was armed: Guns in the drawers up there.

Steve Armentrout also conveyed to me that while living on W. 23rd street, Moore once heard a noise in his yard, opened a window, and fired a warning shot.

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What time does class really start?

H. J. Ettlinger's exams were given from 7 - 9 a.m. and you could come in and start them whenever you wanted to - no one knows how early he actually arrived.

unknown


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Porcelli threw more than obscenities at his students.

It was Brook's first week at LSU and he had Porchelli for a graduate course which met Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Monday Porchelli stated some axioms, theorems, etc. as Texans are wont to do. He also stated that no one was to look for proofs in any texts. On Wednesday he asked if anyone had it and no one did. He walked out. On Friday he called each student by name and asked if they had the problem. No one did. Brooks claimed to have worked 22 of 24 hours the day before and slept two hours. Someone in the class finally spoke up and asked if indeed that was the Cauchy Integral Formula that he was asking them to prove and Porchelli threw, and hit him, with a piece of chalk, thus demonstrating his anger at the student for looking elsewhere for solutions.

Paul Lewis

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Kudos to Moore

Gene Kaufman, Mac Nerney's last student, told me this recently. He came upon a paper R.L. Moore published in 1917. The paper dealt with a subject that was a part of Dr. Moore's Foundations of Point Set Theory Course when both of us followed the course. What Gene described in the paper sounded just like something that had been presented in the last class that I had with R L Moore 52 years later. Gene remarked that he felt perfectly at home with the paper, having only to think about what was there and not to have to wonder about what some word or agglomeration of symbols meant. Despite the wealth of mathematical discoveries and social influences that came to be during those 52 years, Dr. Moore, all the while,held fast to his belief in the fundamentals of his outlook. His quest not just for personal intimacy with the subject he loved, but also his desire for raising this thirst within his students exemplified the title Doctor of Philosophy. He, as well as many of his students, developed significant ideas from subject matter that many influential academics characterized as exhausted and going nowhere. Instead of taking exams, they examined their assets everyday and made something new out of them just as consistenly as the most famous of those who scrapped what they did yesterday because someone seemed to have a more popular barstool topic.

Joel Finegold

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What do Mathematics, Poker, and Landscaping have in common?

A few days ago I mentioned to some of you that Dr. E. was wont to say "Let's put all our cards on the table." This usually happened when he felt that a presentation in class of a proof of a theorem or a solution to a problem needed more detail. On other occasions, when he thought that less detail was necessary, he would say, "Let's not clutter up the landscape." Some of his students used to joke among ourselves about how we could get all our cards on the table without cluttering up the landscape. Not worthy of use by Jay Leno, perhaps, but we derived some amusement from it.

Ben Fitzpatrick, Jr.


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Moore was fast at more than mathematics

Moore not only drove his automobiles at a high rate of speed, but he once indicated that he could *prove* that it was safer to drive faster due to such factors as the decrease in chances of a rear end collision, less time on the road, etc.

Harry Lucas, Jr. and Louis Beecherl

Moore liked to drive out west because the roads were straight and he could drive faster.

Jean D. Mahavier

Moore continually tried to beat my fastest time from Austin to Houston which was set on 1951 Harley.

Wm. S. Mahavier

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So, you don't have time to teach four classes and do research?

Moore taught five courses until forced into full retirement at the age of 85.

Redge Traylor, Creative Teaching: Heritage of R. L. Moore

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A Great Moore Quote

When asked about the teaching of mathematics to non-mathematics majors, Moore responded, "Not everyone can be a mathematician, but everyone can want to be a mathematician."

unknown.

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