A genius, it seems, may be dazzlingly brilliant along some few lines, and
hopeless along others.
Not long ago two physicists, both at the top of their professions, determined to
take vacation at the same time. Both men longed for a few
days of simplicity, so they settled on a small, secluded location in the midst
of farming country.
Out for a walk one day, the fellows were engrossed in conversation, and
discoursed freely upon the finer points of particle physics. Passing a
farm, they approached the barn in which there were a number of calves. The
weather was hot and while switching their tails, whipping away flies,
one animal's tail accidentally dropped through a knot hole in the side of the
barn. As the geniuses approached, one of them scratched his head and proclaimed:
"I have been trying to figure out how that calf ever got through that hole."
With dazzling clarity, the other came to the rescue,
"That doesn't worry me half as much as how he through that far and now can't get
through the rest of the way."