Initiation

... so I walk into the building and turn right into the lobby. There is a guard behind a large podium-like desk.

"This is building NE-43, right?"

"I am glad to see that MIT continues in its policy of accepting only the best and brightest."

Great. Just what I need in life, security guards who have watched Brazil one too many times. I turn to the elevators. Odd. There are eight elevators, for a building which can't be more than five stories tall. A tall guy with a briefcase is standing in front of one of the elevators, intently waiting for it to arrive. The elevator next to the one he is waiting for opens, and I enter. He does not move.

"Um, going up?" A quick glance at the buttons reveals no basement floors.

The man smiles at my ignorance. "No, thanks. This one is closer to my office."

Whatever. The elevator closes and takes forever to get me to the fourth floor. The elevator opens and

"SURPRISE!" A large crowd of people throw streamers at me and start singing Happy Birthday. They get to the "Happy Birthday, Dear Charles" verse when somebody shouts out, "Wait a minute! He isn't Charles!" The crowd lets out a disgruntled sigh, and two women start picking streamers off of me and rolling them up.

"Excuse me," I ask one of them, "Which way is Professor Minsky's office?"

"Go to the end of this corridor, take a right, and it's the third office on the right." I follow these directions, and from the end of the corridor hear the crowd shout out "SURPRISE!" again. This time they are huddled around my tall friend from the first floor.

The secondary corridor is considerably narrower than the first, and is lined on both sides by tall stacks of preprints. I almost trip over a small electronic rabbit which hops on by; it is followed by two apologetic postdocs. When I finally get to Minsky's office, I take a deep breath and knock on the door.

"Just a second!" an elderly voice yells out. There is a loud series of clanking noises which reminds me of the time I dropped my old CBM Pet off the top of my garage. After a brief pause, the door opens, revealing an almost completely empty room. There is one Japanese watercolor painting on the wall, one small table, two mats, and one SGI Indigo workstation. Marvin is sitting in lotus position on the second mat, behind the SGI.

"Please, take off your shoes and have a seat." I comply. He is much less intimidating than I had been expecting. "If you are wondering about the room, this is just where I hold my office hours. My real office is in the Media Lab. Now what's on your mind?"

"Well, Professor Minsky, I just wanted to say

LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!"