Pi day

The smug looking fellow above is, of course, one Albert Einstein, born this day 1879, in Ulm, Germany. Since today is 3-14, and is Pi day, I thought Albert would make a good (second) hero of the day, and since the next hero I was going to blog about was going to be number 200, why not chose a man that was voted Time magazine's Person of the Century. After all, 200 is a milestone, at least for me, and we needed a larger than life hero to celebrate it. Herr Einstein certainly fits that bill to a "T." He was born the son of a saleman/engineer who would go on to found a company that was based upon the promotion of direct current. Papa Einstein and his brood were non-observant Jews, and little Albert when to a Catholic school from the ages of 5 to 10. In 1894, his father's business failed as direct current lost the "war of currents" to alternating currents, and the family moved to Italy. There are at least two 800 page biographies of Einstein that are supposed to be fine books. I must confess to having not read either of them. They are on my, ever expanding, to read list, and I am sure if you really wanted to you could read them before me (considering my to read list is about 14 books long at the moment). If you manage to make it through those books, I am sure you will know all the reasons that Herr Einstein makes it onto the hero list, and why he is reserved for the number 200. I am not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV or in real life, so the majority of his works sail over my head by a good distance. I do know that any man's name that becomes synonymous with the word genius, must have been pretty damn smart. That genius got him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921, along with a host of other awards throughout his lifetime. His Theory of Relativity is probably what is he most known for, and I could not explain it if I wanted to. Sort it out for yourself, and then come explain it to me, but I am warning you, you better bring beer when you try. He had his detractors, and made his mistakes, but who the hell does not? And I figure a mistake by Einstein is better than the majority of us could do on our best day. So for all those numerous contributions to science, and for being a pretty damn decent human being in the process Albert Einstein (March 14th, 1879-April 18th 1955, at the age of 76, of abdominal aortic aneurysm), you are my (200th) hero of the day. Happy birthday you fucking genius!