Samantha-
Yes, JC was a funny man even then. It's a long time ago (well over fifty years now) and my memories are no longer that clear. We had a physics teacher who had a severe stammer and a total inability to maintain discipline, and he regularly got taken to pieces by members of his class. How far JC was actually involved in this I really can't remember but he was always an excellent collaborator and must surely have been at least a participant. Despite all this he (the teacher) was a very nice man with a genuine gift for his subject, who taught me enough physics eventually to get me a scholarship at Oxford, and taught JC enough to get him into Cambridge. Strangely, we both ended up by majoring in law, and the teacher became a clergyman. I do remember a very funny impromptu (well, it seemed that way) open air performance by JC and collaborators, from the fire escapes up the side of one of the school buildings (actually there may have been two such performances from different sets of fire escapes on different buildings). There were also some famous practical jokes. Some time ago, when JC was going through his psychoanalytical phase, I remember hearing him claim in an interview that he was "a shrinking violet" while at school; that certainly isn't in line with my memories. He was still only about 30 when he was elected Rector of St. Andrew's University, my wife's alma mater.
To get back on topic and relating to your most recent post, I read an article somewhere recently which suggested that the synthetic female hormone DES might be responsible for an unrecognized epidemic of transsexualism because of the enormous number of DES sons, most of whom are oblivious that they are such. I believe that the total number of DES sons in the USA alone is estimated to be in excess of ten million, so only a very small proportion of these would need to have the masculinisation of their brains disrupted by DES to constitute a well hidden but massive problem which could well affect many of the members of this forum.
Yes, JC was a funny man even then. It's a long time ago (well over fifty years now) and my memories are no longer that clear. We had a physics teacher who had a severe stammer and a total inability to maintain discipline, and he regularly got taken to pieces by members of his class. How far JC was actually involved in this I really can't remember but he was always an excellent collaborator and must surely have been at least a participant. Despite all this he (the teacher) was a very nice man with a genuine gift for his subject, who taught me enough physics eventually to get me a scholarship at Oxford, and taught JC enough to get him into Cambridge. Strangely, we both ended up by majoring in law, and the teacher became a clergyman. I do remember a very funny impromptu (well, it seemed that way) open air performance by JC and collaborators, from the fire escapes up the side of one of the school buildings (actually there may have been two such performances from different sets of fire escapes on different buildings). There were also some famous practical jokes. Some time ago, when JC was going through his psychoanalytical phase, I remember hearing him claim in an interview that he was "a shrinking violet" while at school; that certainly isn't in line with my memories. He was still only about 30 when he was elected Rector of St. Andrew's University, my wife's alma mater.
To get back on topic and relating to your most recent post, I read an article somewhere recently which suggested that the synthetic female hormone DES might be responsible for an unrecognized epidemic of transsexualism because of the enormous number of DES sons, most of whom are oblivious that they are such. I believe that the total number of DES sons in the USA alone is estimated to be in excess of ten million, so only a very small proportion of these would need to have the masculinisation of their brains disrupted by DES to constitute a well hidden but massive problem which could well affect many of the members of this forum.