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Albert Einstein Anecdotes: Urban Legends?

A

Anonymous

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I read somewhere that Einstein was once out dining, and ate the flower display on the table whilst complimenting the waiter on the salad.
Surely just another of those "incredibly brainy people who are so brainy they are out of touch with normality" ULs?
I also believe he didn't wear socks.
 
Dark Detective said:
Surely just another of those "incredibly brainy people who are so brainy they are out of touch with normality" ULs?
I also believe he didn't wear socks.
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But then, neither did that well known genius Don Johnson :). I've heard the floral display story about other celebs too, most consistently regarding Harpo Marx, which tends to indicate it's a UL.
 
i have a good quote from that bloke off coldplay
"einstein never wore socks. geniuses don't wear socks. Do i wear socks? always."
 
Let's get this right . . . Boys without socks are somehow related to
Einstein? Did he have spotty ankles too? I was going to post this
among my pet-hates, but now I feel like an anti-intellectual! :cross eye
 
There's little data on Einstein's ankles, though the post mortem showed his ankles were ten times more intelligent than "normal" ankles.
 
I never, ever wear socks. In fact, at the moment, I am actively NOT wearing socks. Does this mean owt?
 
I'm just confused as to how you can actively not wear socks. :confused:
 
Einstein once said it was a fashion thing in Berlin where he came from(not wearing socks that is)
Of course the old hyperbrain might have been lying
 
Talkies

I have often heard it said that Einstein didn't talk until he was about 3/4 years old (thus leading to his parents worrying that he was a bit of a thicky).

A quick Google turns this story up a number of times on the net.

Does anyone know categorically if this is true? It just seems rather convenient that the one person who would universally be seen as a genius was a slow developer - therefore acting as a beacon of hope for parents of children who seem to be falling behind.

If there is no basis for this - where did it come from?
 
Seems to me that alot of the wacky stories about Einstein are some way of playing to the 'mad scientist' side of things. Let's not forget that he had a pretty mundane run-of-the-mill job until he had the oppurtunity to get his theories into order and published.
 
I have often heard it said that Einstein didn't talk until he was about 3/4 years old (thus leading to his parents worrying that he was a bit of a thicky).
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Did he have older siblings though? (More or less) everyone I know who grew up with older siblings in the house put off talking until they had to express a concept more complex than 'want that' leading their parents to wonder if they were slow.
 
JerryB said:
Seems to me that alot of the wacky stories about Einstein are some way of playing to the 'mad scientist' side of things. Let's not forget that he had a pretty mundane run-of-the-mill job until he had the oppurtunity to get his theories into order and published.
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The whole "Mad" scientist, genius, myth is probably a way of setting these sorts of people and their talents apart from the popular concept of "normal" people.

i.e. They must be different, thinking and acting in a strange way, from the common herd. The old saw about there being "only a fine line which separates genius from madness." Which also suggests that the great mass of "normal" humanity can never acheive their heights in other fields, because only a few such "special" people can exist at any one time and they might even risk insanity, in the attempt.

That nowadays it's the truly brilliant scientists and artists, who are revered in a similiar way to those perceived as the holy men and women, or "Holy Fools," of old, extends to the fact that similiar legends seem to accumulate around them.
 
I read a biography of Einstein, and in it I think they mention that he was very late in talking. Though wether he really did get bad grades in school was a bit more spurious. He had a sister, I believe it was a younger sister. As for the socks, maybe he just didn´t like wearing them.

In the movie The Fly with Jeff Goldblum he mentions that Einstein had a lot of identical sets of clothes, so he wouldn´t waste time choosing in the morning. Anyone know if that is true?
 
It's a widespread belief that clever peeps are also absentminded or eccentric.
(That's how my mother explained the ex's abnormal behaviour. :rolleyes: )

Dunno about socks, I mean you have to be very sure about your shoes before going foot-commando. ;)

One of my dogs has spotted that I only put socks on to go o*t, possibly for w*lkies, and so takes a keen interest if I step near the sock drawer. :D
 
I'm sure I read the Einstein / sock thing in a book called something like "Great Inventors & Discoverors". I heard, late in life, he had forgotten to put his socks on before he went out. Some one pointed this out to him and he said if socks were so trivial he (Einstein) could forget them they weren't worth bothering with. I shall try and dig the source out some time.
 
The alledged quote I always remember is a young Einsten being told by one of his teachers.

"You will never amount to much".
 
I have often heard it said that Einstein didn't talk until he was about 3/4 years old (thus leading to his parents worrying that he was a bit of a thicky).
Click to expand...

I remember hearing or reading this somewhere too - can't remember where.
In that version, the three- or four-year-old Einstein commented one day that his soup was cold - his very first words.
When his parents asked him why he hadn't spoken before, he said his soup had never been cold before! :D
 
Dark Detective said:
I read somewhere that Einstein was once out dining, and ate the flower display on the table whilst complimenting the waiter on the salad.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily a UL.

Albert had a well developed sense of humour, and may have eaten the flowers for effect.

I myself am partial to the odd chrysanthemum. The petals are perfectly edible and look brilliant sprinkled on salads.
 
The alledged quote I always remember is a young Einsten being told by one of his teachers, "You'll never amount to much".
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Slightly o.t. but i used to go to school with a lad who later played footy for England. One day while he was watching the lads playing outside on the pitch instead of paying attention to the lesson, the teacher said to him "You make think you're clever xxxx but you'll never play for England" How wrong he was!!!
 
I remember hearing or reading this somewhere too - can't remember where.In that version, the three- or four-year-old Einstein commented one day that his soup was cold - his very first words.
When his parents asked him why he hadn't spoken before, he said his soup had never been cold before!
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or was that benny hill perhaps???
I do like that gag.
 
milk said:
or was that benny hill perhaps???
I do like that gag.
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I can imagine Einstein chasing around a field with some scantily clad women in sppeded up motion.:)
Has anyone else seen "Insignificance"?
 
Bilderberger said:
I have often heard it said that Einstein didn't talk until he was about 3/4 years old (thus leading to his parents worrying that he was a bit of a thicky).

Does anyone know categorically if this is true? ...
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According to this site:

http://www.albert-einstein.org/article_handicap.html

... Einstein was reported by his grandparents and sister(?) as having been able to verbally express himself as early as age 2 or 2.5.

On the other hand, it also mentions Einstein himself told his biographer he'd been delayed in speaking.

Einstein - particularly in his childhood years - was more a reluctant than a incapable speaker.
 
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