Unexpected book gift contains letter to author
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understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.
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In 1979, shortly before I wed my wife of nearly 35 years, after reading one of John Simon’s columns in Esquire, I wrote to the eminent critic of the arts. Without mentioning me by name – “A much more sophisticated letter comes from a teacher in Yuma, Arizona, yet it, too, profoundly disturbs me” – he quoted a paragraph from my epistle in a later column before verbally ripping it to shreds. Unaware of my having corresponded with John Simon or the Esquire column, in December 1980 my wife’s older sister (whom I had met but once by then) & her husband sent me a book, Paradigms Lost by John Simon, as a Christmas present, which included the same piece that had been published in Esquire.
Date submitted:Mon, 29 Feb 2016 02:14:15 +0000Coincidence ID:8477
