Do you know your neighbors? I don't know all of mine... I know some of them, and I know more of them today than I did a few days ago. After a tree fell next to a neighbor's house, they got to host an impromptu party of neighbors (the wail of a two-stroke engine calls men out like a siren song).
But actually, this post was inspired by a man that passed away in 1998, and that I hadn't seen since 1989. His name was Otto H. Schmitt. We lived next door to each other on Como Ave SE in Minneapolis, near the U (University of Minnesota), and just up the street from Joe's Market. We only actually talked a few times, but he made an impression...
The first conversation was regarding his fascination with my Mazda truck. I never plugged it in during the winter, yet it always started. He had an old station wagon... maybe an Oldsmobile... and despite being plugged in during the cold season, I had to give him a jump start several times. He asked me once why my truck always started. I told him about the Mobil 1 Synthetic oil that I used. We chatted about it for 30 minutes out in the cold.
He was kind of an eccentric... 
On another occasion, he was curious about the new toy I had parked behind the house. It was a 1985 Shelby Charger Turbo. He was curious about the turbo... not the functional theoretics, but rather about the mechanical efficiencies. He knew what they did, but was curious about how the turbo could be improved. After a few moments of talking about basic specs (engine size, max. RPM, exhaust pipe diameter), he told me how much air the engine pumped... He did the calculations in his head. Now, I know a lot oabout cars, and a fair amount about automotive math. I have a reasonable grasp on the theory and function of the pieces that go into a power train. Using a computer and the internet, I could come up with the numbers he came up with in a couple of hours. And I was kind of curious, so I checked the numbers with a friend of mine that raced a similar car and had a LOT of dyno time with the engine. Otto's numbers were more accurate off the top of his head than I would have been able to ever come up with.
He was also a genius...
I have remembered his name for 20 years. And today I Googled him. I knew that he had a couple of doctorates. I knew that he invented the Schmitt Trigger. I even knew what biomimetics was... after he explained it to me.
I knew Otto as a cool, kind of eccentric guy next door. I didn't know Dr. Schmitt as the scientist that was central in the creation of the Magnetic Anomaly Detector... which was one of the most effective weapons in the fight against Nazi submarines in the Atlantic. Nor did I know him as the multi-disciplinary futurist that some did.
BTW, he told me that his brother, Frank, was the really smart one... Frank was at MIT... and Frank was a pretty smart guy too.
Do you know your neighbors?
I'll have to try to not take mine for granted...
