On 10/14/06, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote:
Not so. It's a lot like actor's Bacon numbers: Meeting someone is one thing, but co-author a mathematical paper or acting alongside them is slightly less trivial than that.
It's important to put the emphasis on the word "slightly" in that last comment. I have a priestly cousin who likes to hand out pictures of himself shaking hands with the late pope. He gave me one of those pictures. This would give me a degree of separation from JP2 of 2. Speaking as a person who usually favours inclusionist policies, could we consolidate these templates into one about degrees of triviality?
Does everyone in your profession have a "Papal Number", talk about it sometimes over beer, and sometimes put it in resumes?