I don't know why, but I'm always very careless, when I go on a trip, about the address or
telephone number or anything of the people who invited me. I figure I'll be met, or somebody else
will know where we're going; it'll get straightened out somehow.
One time, in 1957, I went to a gravity conference at the University of North Carolina. I was
supposed to be an expert in a different field who looks at gravity.
I landed at the airport a day late for the conference (I couldn't make it the first day), and I went
out to where the taxis were. I said to the dispatcher, "I'd like to go to the University of North
Carolina."
"Which do you mean," he said, "the State University of North Carolina at Raleigh, or the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill?"
Needless to say, I hadn't the slightest idea. "Where are they?" I asked, figuring that one must be
near the other.
"One's north of here, and the other is south of here, about the same distance."
I had nothing with me that showed which one it was, and there was nobody else going to the
conference a day late like I was.
That gave me an idea. "Listen," I said to the dispatcher. "The main meeting began yesterday, so
there were a whole lot of guys going to the meeting who must have come through here yesterday.
Let me describe them to you: They would have their heads kind of in the air, and they would he
talking to each other, not paying attention to where they were going, saying things to each other,
like 'G-mu-nu. G-mu-nu.'"
His face lit up. "Ah, yes," he said. "You mean Chapel Hill!" He called the next taxi waiting in
line. "Take this man to the university at Chapel Hill."
"Thank you," I said, and I went to the conference.