Saturday, May 25, 2019

R.I.P. Dr. Gell-Mann

Probably the last polymath of the last fifty years - physicist who figured out quarks, archaeologist, mathematician, linguist, music-lover.

Quite possibly a difficult person with a prickly personality and notoriously competitive with Feynman, they were antipodes.

Both New Yorkers, both hyper-charismatic, Murray Gell-Mann was the wine-loving music-loving aesthete to Feynman's easy-going "aw shucks" persona.

Best friends with Cormac McCarthy too.

There's no better way to end this obituary but to raise three glasses (three quarts?) from Finnegans Wake where HCE dreams of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (as Dr. Gell-Mann undoubtedly knew.)

Three quarks for Muster Mark!

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