018 • Turing
Recalling my chum, Alan Turing
Whom people once talked about ‘curing’:
His craving for cabbage,
His crush on Charles Babbage;
Ah! Memories fond and enduring.
Fond and enduring indeed: he had charm and genius in equal measure. Though, so do most people, frankly. Perhaps I mean, ‘in equally high measure’, if that doesn’t sound too awkward.
6 thoughts on “018 • Turing”
I typed ‘Did Alan Turing like cabbage?’ into my search engine, which yielded no new information. So I tried ‘Alan Turing’s favourite food’ which led me to a conspiracy theory about death by poisoned apple, which I didn’t know. So thank you.
If dear Alan had died with a poisoned cabbage by his side, not an apple, perhaps the computer multinational would have chosen a more brassicate name. And wasteful accessories like the Cabbage iPhone would have been less popular – no bad thing for this beleaguered planet, I think.
I am reminded of that rotting cabbage thrown by a critic at Oscar Wilde, prompting his barbed gratitude: “Thank you. Whenever I smell it I shall think of you.”
Jason,
You may also know ‘The Medusa Frequency’ by Russell Hoban, in which the rotting head of Orpheus manifests as a cabbage, among other spherical items. Well worth a read.
Go well,
REL
I am assuredly familiar with this and other works by the much missed Mr Hoban. Nnsvnu tsrurgh! (Spelling?)
NIM VUGMIS NIM DENGSVO ZOKNIS NA BLVGSVODMA !