Learning It FromManny
The room was august in its order and simplicity. Books onthe shelves were perfectly aligned from spine to spine.Definitely a family man, I surmised, as I saw pictures of his wifeand three children, bedecked along with his plaques andcertificates. My eyes wandered to a shiny, yellow M&M mascotby the corner table, blissfully waiting for an eternal high-five.Manny gazed at me with poker-face intensity and started toexplain the rubrics of his laboratory. The declarations wereconcise but powerful: You work hard. You cooperate withmembers who need your help. You can work on any topic weagree upon. You take short vacations. Years later, these would bethe same rules I would gratefully reiterate to many high-school,undergraduate, and graduate trainees I had the pleasure to workwith in his laboratory. Manny stood up, shook my hand, wishedme luck — and then gave me my first quiz that broke the ice ofthat encounter: How do you get your candies from the M&Mmascot?
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