"toto" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:02:17 +0000, Sarah Vaughan
wrote:

I've always thought that being smart to the degree of ignoring social
conventions had more to do with that. Like the math whiz who works as a
school
custodian, submitting papers to mathematical journals (may be apocryphal
story
though ...).

Heh - I thought that was the plot of 'Good Will Hunting'? ;-)

I do wonder if some of that legend came from the career of George
Bernard Dantzig.

At my college in Oxford, one of the night porters had (according to rumours)
been a high flying student at one stage. She got a job after finals, but had
problems with stress and decided that she'd be happier doing a non-academic
job, so she became a porter. She'd been there about 10-15 years when I left,
and (I think left a few years after with a job in academia).
This wasn't ever confirmed to me, so it may have not been true. She was a
lovely (and interesting) person to talk to anyway.
Debbie