Watson, the DNA guy, gave a talk, which I attended, at the MBL last night. It was an interesting talk even though it was mostly just an autobiographical sort of talk. I was actually kind of pleased that it wasn’t a talk about something scientific because I wasn’t really in the mood for that, as such.
Autobiographical talks are always kind of nice because they let you get an impression of the kind of person that someone is, and I like that stuff. Turns out that Watson spent some time in Woods Hole and experienced the Woods Hole thing. He mentioned things such as the Captain Kidd, which is the local bar that tends to be frequented by MBL sorts. It’s kind of fun to think that I’m going to the same bar with my to-be-scientist friends that Watson used to go to with his scientist friends. Ah Woods Hole, such great traditions you have. I also have a little quote that I took from him, which I would like to reproduce here, “They were the sorts of parties where you got drunk and the person you went home with was probably not your wife.” He is, of course, discussing parties in Woods Hole of his youth and is probably admitting to fornication and not to adultery. Incidentally, if you can picture the 76 year old, co-discoverer of DNA making this remark, imagine the response of a hige crowd of educated people.
It was a good talk, and there are more important and insightful ways in which I could discuss it, but I’d rather not because plenty of other people will have that bit covered. The key thing that I took from it was that J. D. Watson was just another young scientist in Woods Hole, like so many of the rest of us.
