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Goldberg variations As we scouted the archives of the California Pelican for art to accompany this issue’s “Recalling Cal,” we were intrigued by a Rube Goldberg cartoon we found. Some of us, shorter of tooth, had heard of “Rube Goldberg solutions”--absurdly complex ways to solve relatively simple problems--but had to admit we hadn’t known for sure that he was a real person, much less a Cal alum (Class of 1904). We asked Dick Corten ‘65--a Pelican editor in the early ‘60s and editor of California Monthly in the 1970s--for the skinny on Goldberg and how the mildly risqué cartoon at right came to the pages of the Pelican in February 1963.
“We prayed to two gods--I sent contribution requests to our most famous cartoonist-alums, Ted Key ‘33, creator of ‘Hazel,’ and Rube Goldberg, who was 80 by then but still doing occasional political cartoons for the New York Journal. Rube was our connection to the beginning of time, a contributor to the Pelican in its first year of existence and our most famous alum by far. Goldberg was (and is) the Bird’s only Pulitzer Prize winner and the only living person whose name had entered the English language. We fervently hoped he would help us celebrate in his inimitable style. “But the days passed and we didn’t hear a peep from Goldberg. Finally, on January 31, I received a telegram saying, ‘WILL BE GLAD TO MAKE CONTRIBUTION TO FEBRUARY ISSUE IF NOT TOO LATE. RUBE GOLDBERG.’ A few days later, Rube’s ‘Old Gentleman’ arrived to fill the gap, with these words: ‘If people must be nullified, let them be nullified by laughter instead of atomic bombs. And you are the guys to do it. Keep up the good work.’“ Unsportsmanlike conduct
But while showing little regard for the Berkeley ideal of free speech, the noted liberal did confirm his commitment to the environment: “For the record, I did put some in the recycle bin.” You make the call January 14, 2003 marked the 250th anniversary of the death of George Berkeley, the 18th-century bishop for whom the town and University are named. In commemoration, Steve Finacom ‘82, curator of a new Berkeley Historical Society exhibit on the bishop, wrote: “George Berkeley was an original thinker, serious scholar, humanitarian, social reformer, and promoter of both odd and inspirational dreams. One of his biographers said that his classmates at Trinity College, Dublin regarded him as ‘either the greatest dunce or greatest genius in the college.’“ Two-time loser If you’re feeling down, just be glad you’re not New York Giants coach Jim Fassel, who was quoted as saying: “This is about the worst loss I have ever felt in my entire life,” after being beaten by the San Francisco ‘49ers on January 5. That’s a pretty heavy statement from the man who was the offensive coordinator for Stanford when it lost to Cal, courtesy of a certain Play, in 1982. |
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