12 Jan
2022
12 Jan
'22
4:41 a.m.
i would add the general atmosphere of the Unix room, especially the very heavy mobile hung
from
the ceiling for a while (until someone noticed the cable supporting it was visibly
stretching).
also the bowling alley (the corridor that rob, ken, denis, doug and my offices were on) —
the pins
were under the printer table at the end. i also recall the time the bowling ball got away
from the
Unix room rolling down the main corridor towards a group of visitors led by peter
weinberger.
luckily, dave presotto grabbed the ball before anyone got hurt (but it was close).
i would also mention labscam; its not often we see a prank involving rob pike, Penn and a
Noble Prize winner.
On Jan 11, 2022, at 2:17 PM, John P. Linderman
<jpl.jpl(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Jan 11, 2022 at 3:45 PM Rob Pike <robpike(a)gmail.com
<mailto:robpike@gmail.com>> wrote:
Similar. Everyone at Bell Labs was so proper. (Except Ken, of course. Ken is sui
generis, and a Californian).
Perhaps (probably maybe) I misunderstand. There was nothing "proper" about the
Peter face on the water tower, or lock-picking a boot to move it to a patrol car, of Scott
Knaur wandering the halls in a Darth Vader costume, or Jellicat wearing a Cats costume, or
a thousand other examples. There was a lot of playfulness in the Labs (at least in the
early days), and I think it was wonderful.