Berkeley - Trip to San Francisco Day 4

Another day, another college. This morning we took BART to Berkeley. The tour of the school was interesting. There were not as many freaks as I would have expected; maybe it's because school was not in session. As far as the architecture on the campus, it was a far cry from the subtle luxury of the Stanford campus, as you would expect from a public school. The school's main library is a very impressive building; my wife described it as a little piece of luxury in a generally plain campus.

UC Berkeley has six Nobel Laureates on their current faculty: George Akerlof (Economics, 2001), Daniel McFadden (Economics, 2000), Steven Chu (Physics, 1997, who won the prize while at Stanford), Yuan Lee (Chemistry, 1986), Charles Townes (Physics, 1964) and Donald Glaser (Physics, 1960).

Our tour guide pointed out parking spaces with a "NL" sign. Apparently one of the perks of winning the Nobel Prize is that you get an assigned parking space, a quite valuable benefit given the extremely tight parking situation on campus. We saw a car with the NL parking decal in one of the spaces; based on its location it was probably Dr. Lee's car. Later we saw a second car in one of the NL spaces, but it wasn't a second Laureate sighting - it was just a dumbass who got a parking ticket for not realizing a space right outside the physics building was too good to be true.



Saw the town, very pretty. Walked around Telegraph Avenue. Wanted to go see Cody's Books, about which we had heard good things. When we arrived, it had closed. At first I thought it was a shame; then I saw this diatribe posted on the door.

One would think in a society that puts so much emphasis on information that a store like Cody's would thrive. But people wanted a different kind of information that was provided by the Internet. They wanted it fast and often, they wanted it glib. Cody's was offering something that was a little deeper, a little slower. [...] Great books that couldn't get the media hype were forgotten, left on the shelves and ultimately returned to the warehouses. We resisted these trends. But in spite of this, we found that increasingly we were selling more media-driven best sellers and less of our wonderful wide ranging back list. [...] We have celebrated the diversity of the human intellect. It is with great sadness that I must say that the world does not embrace these values today.

As somebody who still reads "great books" on a regular basis and who truly celebrates the human intellect, spare me your righteous indignation. I'm inclined to think that the true reason your store had to close is that you couldn't really accept the reality of your business. Did you regularly berate your customers without even realizing it, as you did by taping this multiple-page lecture to your door? Moe's Books two doors down from your place was a very enjoyable bookstore and seems to be doing quite well.

After that we walked to the Gourment Ghetto neighborhood, which boasts some great restaurants. My wife was positively giddy as we walked around. We ate at Chez Panisse, which is consistently ranked as one of the best restaurants in the world by Restaurant Magazine (#20 in this year's list). The owner, Alice Waters, is often credited as the founder of California cuisine. The restaurant's menu changes daily, so that she can serve only the freshest ingredients. And for lunch it was quite reasonable, only $60 or so for the two of us. For desert we had Ciao Bella gelato next door to Chez Panisse.

We returned to the campus. I bought a math calendar in the campus bookstore. Continuing to tour the campus, we saw the physics building - which aside from the three Nobel Laureates previously mentioned, also boasts the authors of two of my graduate textbooks: John Jackson (Classical Electrodynamics) and Charles Kittel (Solid State Physics). The author of yet another book I used in school, Frederick Reif (Statistical and Thermal Physics), also had an office there until recently.

Our last stop was the law school, which we ran into somewhat by accident. My wife recognized it immediately, without a map, due to the ridiculously long-winded quotes engraved on plaque above the two entrances.

You will study the wisdom of the past, for in a wilderness of conflicting counsels, a trail has there been blazed. You will study the life of mankind, for this is the life you must order, and, to order with wisdom, must know. You will study the precepts of justice, for these are the truths that through you shall come to their hour of triumph. Here is the high emprise, the fine endeavour, the splendid possibility of achievement, to which I summon you and bid you welcome. (Cardozo)

When I think thus of the law, I see a princess mightier than she who once wrought at Bayeaux, eternally weaving into her web dim figures of the ever-lengthening past--figures too dim to be noticed by the idle, too symbolic to be interpreted except by her pupils, but to the discerning eye disclosing every painful step and every worldshaking contest by which mankind has worked and fought its way from savage isolation to organic social life. (Holmes)

Leaving aside that these quotes are a little too heavy and a lot too long for an inscription over a door, they both struck me as more than little pompous. "You must order the life of mankind"? Justice Cardozo had a somewhat exaggerated opinion of the value of his profession to humanity. "Figures too symbolic to be interpreted except by her pupils"? Holmes had a somewhat exaggerated opinion of the intelligence of his colleagues relative to the general public.