Subj : [OT] Jerry Rice (was: What's "lunch"?? (was: Personal connections)) To : comp.programming,comp.lang.lisp From : rem642b Date : Wed Sep 07 2005 10:52 pm > From: Kenny Tilton > Well, even Jerry Rice* could not overcome old age... > * retiring after twenty years as the greatest (American) football > receiver ever. He played a game, while people watched. He was very good at his one role (catching passes) in playing that game (American scrimmage football), but that's not anything useful. Did he ever do anything significantly useful in his whole life so-far? If so, what? Did he ever solve a previously unsolved math problem, or devise a new algorithm for solving a practical problem by use of computer, or devise a utility that make some kind of useful work more efficient, or discover a new kind of plant or fungus with medicinal properties, or capture a terrorist responsible for the 9/11 attack on NYC, or jury-rig some onboard equipment to save three astronauts after an explosion onboard the return-from-moon capsule, or talk a 13-yr-old out of committing suicide, or hold up a beam to prevent roof collapse after a coal-mine explosion so that others could escape, or port Lisp or Java to a new platform, or anything else majorly useful?? .