“[My father] had this quirky thing of not believing in gravity. And giving me a constant headache about that one. He would say if I showed any interest in gravity, I was becoming a dupe of the system. He could see indications I was beginning to believe in it.” IfsGivingBelieveFatherInterestBecomingConstantGravityIndicationHeadacheQuirkyDupes Author:Paul Laffoley
“I would say [to my father], "Why don't you actually take some courses in physics instead of saying [you are not believing in gravity]?" But he would never do it. Businessmen for some reason or other, think, because they're successful in a single direction, that they know everything. You know what I mean? You ever meet people like that?” PeopleThinkingKnowsBelieveMeanReasonCoursesFatherSuccessfulPhysicsGravityBusinessman Author:Paul Laffoley
“The Babson Institute, which is now an actual university, was started by this guy [my father] who also had a problem with believing in gravity. And so he started the Babson Institute in New Boston, New Hampshire, which then moved to Gloucester. Each year they have a competition of one thousand dollars for one thousand words of an essay on gravity. That's the way they do it.” WayYearsBelieveProblemGuyFatherThousandMovedDollarsCompetitionUniversityGravityEssaysThis GuyBostonInstituteHampshireNew HampshireGloucester Author:Paul Laffoley
“Stephen Hawking won [Babson Institute competition ] one year with his black hole stuff. It's keeping an open mind on whether gravity exists or not. I think my father believed this because ... when the wind blew on him, he'd get angry, because it was something he couldn't control.” ThinkingYearsMindFatherStuffBlackWindAngryCompetitionHolesGravityOpen MindInstituteBlack HoleKeep An Open Mind Author:Paul Laffoley
“As a kid, I was getting information in areas that no one else was getting. I think that was one of the reasons my mother didn't want me to go to school too soon. Because I would be beaten to a pulp, you know, if I walked down the street and said there was no such thing as gravity.” IfsThinkingKnowsWantSaidReasonWould BeKidsSchoolMotherStreetsInformationAreasWant MeGravityBeatenPulp Author:Paul Laffoley
“My father would conclude his dissertations by saying, "Of course, [Albert] Einstein never believed in gravity. It was a distortion of space." And so my father couldn't believe that an attraction at a distance was a reality.” BelieveRealityCoursesFatherSpaceDistanceAttractionGravityDistortionDissertation Author:Paul Laffoley
“You know, in the suburbs, most people believe in gravity, but they don't have much of a sense of humor.” PeopleKnowsBelieveSense Of HumorGravitySuburbs Author:Paul Laffoley
“To have that radical a mind in that bourgeois-looking body was really hard for a lot of people to take, because, when my mother would want to have people over she'd tell [my father], "Don't start with the gravity stuff." And then he would invariably do this and the guests would look at each other and say, "Well, I think it's time to go now."” PeopleThinkingWantMindWellsLooksHardBodyMotherFatherStuffRadicalGuestsGravityBourgeois Author:Paul Laffoley
“I met a guy who had the same theory and wrote a book about it. His name is Walter C. Wright Jr. His book is called Gravity Is a Push. I wrote to him and told him about my father, and he said he wished he'd met him. My father died quite a while ago.” SaidBookGuyFatherNamesTheoryMetsDiedGravityFather DiedMy Father Died Author:Paul Laffoley
“Walter C. Wright has a more cogent presentation than my father did about [gravity] being a push. But he had the same basic belief, that the idea of magnetism attracting something was not the reason why the effects of what we call gravity occur.” IdeasReasonFatherBeliefEffectsReason WhyGravityPresentationMagnetism Author:Paul Laffoley
