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I always sat in the second seat in the second row, left side, closest to the window with a thermos full of coffee on Saturday mornings. He then used to circle a sizable portion of the formula on each side of the equation, and we all had to agree or disagree with his eliminations on either side of the = sign. Elimination is a process wherein you circle a portion of both sides and assume they were equivalent and then eliminate them.
If you disagreed you had to defend your reasoning, which we, of course, always eventually lost the argument. Obviously there was a subtle diversion in the equation as the equation always eliminated to 0=1, every time, which was erroneous, of course. He then took us back to some obscure part of the equation where we divided by zero on an elimination of one side or another, a no-no. Wow, for me it was heaven because you did not have time to think, too long, as the eliminations were kept at a brisk pace.
Occasionally, as he was a visiting professor, a few of the faculty and other assistants (I was a research and teaching assistant) would go out for dinner. He used to knock off a bottle of red wine himself at dinner. I remember one time that it was snowing and also freezing cold. I was dressed up like an Eskimo when we left and we stood outside a restaurant chatting. He would be wearing a thin long sleeved shirt never even noticing the cold. The man produced heat! His classes were performances and I wish I could relive it again.
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