So, one of the new electric six songs has the line "In the land of the blind, the night-vision users are laughing at the king," based on the quote "in the land of the blind, the man with one-eye is king", which I'd previously heard from a very funny scene in the norm macdonald movie "Dirty Work". Apparently it's from the story
"The Country of the Blind" by H.G. Wells, if you're interested.
Hehe, from a fellow named Tom Bowden:
Francis Crick, discoverer of the genetic code, became a founding
fellow of Churchill College in 1960. This was one of England's
attempts to imitate the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by
establishing a specifically scientific college.
Some wealthy patrons soon raised funds to build a chapel on the
new campus. Hearing of the plans in 1961, Crick (who referred to
himself as a skeptic and agnostic with a strong inclination toward
atheism) resigned as a fellow, sending Winston Churchill himself a
note explaining his reasons.
Churchill wrote back to Crick, saying: "I was sorry to learn that
you have resigned from Churchill College, and am puzzled by your
reason. The money for the chapel was provided specifically for that
purpose by Mr Beaumont and not taken from the general college
funds. A chapel, whatever one's views on religion, is an amenity
which many of those who live in the College may enjoy, and none
need enter it unless they wish."
Crick responded to Churchill with withering sarcasm:
"To make my position a little clearer I enclose a cheque for ten
guineas to open the Churchill College Hetairae [courtesans] fund.
My hope is that it will eventually be possible to build permanent
accommodation within the College, to house a carefully chosen
selection of young ladies in the charge of a suitable Madam who,
once the institution has become traditional, will doubtless be
provided, without offence, with dining rights at the High Table.
"Such a building will, I feel confident, be an amenity which many
who live in Cambridge will enjoy very much, and yet the institution
need not be compulsory and none need enter it unless they wish . . .
.
"[The trustees may] feel my offer of ten guineas to be a joke in
rather poor taste. But that is exactly my view of the proposal of the
Trustees to build a chapel, after the middle of the 20th century, in a
new college and in particular one with a special emphasis on
science. Naturally some members of the college will be Christian, at
least for the next decade or so, but I do not see why the college
should tacitly endorse their beliefs by providing them with special
facilities. The churches in town, it has been said, are half empty.
Let them go there. It will be no further than they have to go to their
lectures."
(This anecdote appears in *Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic
Code,* by Matt Ridley (Atlas Books, HarperCollins Publishers:
New York, 2006.)
