Zero Degrees of Separation...
So, I'm in the middle of Dr. Jane Hawking's Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, Jane Hawking's autobiography.
While I think that everyone who reads this blog knows this, its worth noting that I've been a big fan of Dr. Stephen Hawking for decades. Indeed, I'm named for him. Everyone, of course, calls me "Doc," but the full name is "Richard Connor Stephen Kinne." The "Stephen" is for Dr. Hawking.
This is actually the second time I've read Jane's autobiography. It's one of the rare books in which I've put notations in the margins. A couple of things struck (or perhaps re-struck) me during this current reading.
Just after Stephen and Jane got married, they attended a summer school session at...wait for it...Cornell University. Jane writes about how totally large the buildings and even the fields seemed to be as they rode in a car between Ithaca airport and Cornell University. It was amazing that I'd spent years driving along the same roads that Stephen and Jane had driven along the very year I was born just 2.5 hours away. Jane talks about going down to Woolworths in Ithaca to buy housewares. I would do the same thing 32 years later.
* * *
One of the best films about Hawking is the 2004 BBC One film appropriately called...wait for it...Hawking. I have it on DVD, but I'd not spent a lot of time looking at various details. Yesterday I found myself doing that. I love this film, and now I know why.
Music by: Murry Gold.
Written by: Peter Moffat (who directed several classic Doctor Who stories including "The Five Doctors" and "The Two Doctors."
* * *
Further browsing led me to the book Stephen Hawking: A Biography a small biography written in 2007. The author was Kristine Larsen. Wait. I knew that name. Could it be...? It was! Dr. Kristine Larsen of Central CT State University, a friend and colleague, and also author of The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who!
So now I have another book to get so she can autograph it!
While I think that everyone who reads this blog knows this, its worth noting that I've been a big fan of Dr. Stephen Hawking for decades. Indeed, I'm named for him. Everyone, of course, calls me "Doc," but the full name is "Richard Connor Stephen Kinne." The "Stephen" is for Dr. Hawking.
This is actually the second time I've read Jane's autobiography. It's one of the rare books in which I've put notations in the margins. A couple of things struck (or perhaps re-struck) me during this current reading.
Just after Stephen and Jane got married, they attended a summer school session at...wait for it...Cornell University. Jane writes about how totally large the buildings and even the fields seemed to be as they rode in a car between Ithaca airport and Cornell University. It was amazing that I'd spent years driving along the same roads that Stephen and Jane had driven along the very year I was born just 2.5 hours away. Jane talks about going down to Woolworths in Ithaca to buy housewares. I would do the same thing 32 years later.
* * *
One of the best films about Hawking is the 2004 BBC One film appropriately called...wait for it...Hawking. I have it on DVD, but I'd not spent a lot of time looking at various details. Yesterday I found myself doing that. I love this film, and now I know why.
Music by: Murry Gold.
Written by: Peter Moffat (who directed several classic Doctor Who stories including "The Five Doctors" and "The Two Doctors."
* * *
Further browsing led me to the book Stephen Hawking: A Biography a small biography written in 2007. The author was Kristine Larsen. Wait. I knew that name. Could it be...? It was! Dr. Kristine Larsen of Central CT State University, a friend and colleague, and also author of The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who!
So now I have another book to get so she can autograph it!