Nobel 2014 2: He Did What, Now?
When I was a kid I watched TV. A lot of TV. Some might have said too much TV. So when I turned on the news at 5:45AM on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 and saw the words “Stanford Chemistry Professor Wins Nobel Prize” crawling along the bottom of the screen I felt vindication. TV, my friend, you’ve never let me down.Actually, I felt rising anticipation and nervousness. You see, a Stanford professor won the Chemistry Prize in 2013. And another Stanford professor won the Chemistry Prize in 2012, too. So excuse me if I say that I’ve been burned by false hopes before. Damn you, Stanford, and your consistent excellence. I think there may be PEDs involved here.
So I remained calm. That means I leapt out of bed and tore downstairs in hopes of finding more information. Go to cnn.com and quickly search the page of “Nobel Prize” – ah, a link! Click. Damn, this is a link to the physics winners from yesterday. I’m so enraged I can’t see straight…oh, wait…I ran downstairs without my glasses. No matter. I’ll squint. Time to google for “moerner nobel prize”. <squint> There are matches – I think. Click the first link. <squint> I’m pretty sure that it says he’s won…<squint>. Dammit! A quick sprint back upstairs to get my glasses, then back downstairs and…BINGO!
Now, if I’d had my wits about me I would have checked email first. My sister Sharon had sent out the news around 4AM. But that was apparently too much thinking to expect from me at 5:45AM.
I ran back upstairs and told my wife Eileen, then woke oldest son Robert up (Actual statement: “Wakey wakey! Oh, by the way, Uncle Weo won the Nobel Prize! Time to shower.”) and went back downstairs to call Sharon and Weo. I was actually a bit shocked that their phone wasn’t busy at 6:00A. Sharon picked up – obviously excited – but it turns out that Channel 2 was not only at the house but was filming at that moment. No doubt the film of Sharon answering my call was deemed too powerful for Emmy submission. So our conversation at that time was basically:
Me: Good morning, Mrs. Nobel Prize Winner!Such pathos. Really gripping stuff. I want Christopher Walken to play me in the film adaptation.
Her: Thanks! Weo isn’t even here – he’s in Brazil.
Me: Is your phone already ringing off the hook?
Her: Yes. In fact, Channel 2 is here right now, filming as we speak…
Me: Oh, in that case, send Weo our love and I’ll talk to you later. Bye!
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Anyone else recall this “Far Side” cartoon? It showed a busy intersection in a town somewhere. In the distance was a rising mushroom cloud of nuclear origin, while in the foreground the citizens of the town were rushing about screaming in panic. On the street corner stood a dog, who had spotted another dog in a passing car and was wagging his tail in happiness, completely oblivious to the drama around him. The point was that we all see the world through certain blinders, and we pick up on those things that catch our narrow interests.
Here are some great examples of this. Coverage of Weo’s award from decidedly different perspectives:
• Eagle Scout wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Jefferson High School claims second Nobel Prize Winner
• Radio Amateur is Among Nobel Prize in Chemistry Winners
• A Second Bassoonist Wins a Nobel Prize
Way to go, WN6I. And holy smokes Jefferson High in San Antonio, Texas – let some other school have a chance, why don’t you?!
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So what’s the first substantial Nobel-related thing you do when a family member has won a Nobel Prize? I'm talking about the period AFTER you’ve called the (absent, in this case) winner? Well, in this day and age you blast it out on the internet, of course. So before leaving for work on the morning of the announcement I posted the news on Facebook.
This is around 6:30AM, which is about three-and-a-half hours after the announcement in Stockholm. What is incredible is how many news releases are already out there on the internet. There were literally already hundreds of references out there*, some already quoting Weo – who may or may not be already doing interviews…don’t yet know at this point how looped in he is at his conference in Brazil. Most of the quotes, though, are still from Sharon, who fielded the initial 3:00AM-ish phone call from the AP seeking comment on the award.
[*One week later, the search “moerner nobel” will yield over 108,000 matches. This, children, is why you NEVER EVER post anything on the internet that you will later regret. Once it is out there it is out there forever. [Interesting side note: in 2019, this same search will yield “only” 72,900 results. Day old bread apparently loses its luster.]
Keep in mind that the AP, with little time to prepare, had managed to find their home phone number, but at 3:00AM the mighty Nobel Committee still hadn’t yet made contact with Sharon or Weo. They were apparently trying to call Weo’s cell phone, which was either turned off or simply not reliable in Brazil – I still don’t have the full details on this one. So for the sake of dramatic tension let’s just assume that Weo had dropped his phone into piranha-infested waters.
I’m not the only one putting out the word on Facebook. Daniel (Sharon and Weo’s son) has also posted. Sharon had, of course, called him right after calling Weo – but his cell phone was on the fritz and disconnected after ringing once. So Sharon called Stef’s (girlfriend, later fiancé, later wife) cell phone, which Daniel answered because he’d seen the caller ID on his phone and suspected it was Sharon. He’d also apparently received a congratulatory text from a friend by now so knew what the call had to be about.
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So how DID Weo finally learn he’d won? (Turns out the reason he didn't get it direct from the Nobel Committee was because he had his cell phone set to airplane mode. Sometimes, being frugal bites you in the butt....) Anyway, Sharon had sent him a text sometime between 3 and 4AM Pacific (6 to 7 AM in Brazil). Obviously, he knew it was "Chemistry Announcement Day" and the fact that Sharon was texting so early in the morning made him suspicious, so he checked the internet and realized he'd won. Sharon did finally was get through to his room at the hotel in Brazil (after some language difficulties with the front desk) and the conversation – as quoted later in different news articles, was:
Sharon: Congratulations! You won!We may have to punch that up in editing. I’m thinking
Weo: What?
Sharon: Congratulations! You won!Or
Weo: What? Why is there a shaved donkey in the corner of my room?
Sharon: Congratulations! You won!Sharon mentioned when we spoke later in the day that she’d heard that the announcement had been delayed a few minutes and I guessed that someone had seen the Live Blog at http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/10/live-blog-chemistry-nobel-prize/ At 10:40am Stockholm time (in other words, around 2:40am California time) they mentioned a delay. I suggested (and I suspect that I’m correct) that the reason for the delay was that they were still trying to reach the wayward Weo before making the public announcement.
Weo: You talkin’ to me? Are YOU talking to ME?
As an aside, the 3:00A-ish call from the AP asking for reaction (i.e. the first notification that Weo has won) is just the start. The phone at their house starts ringing constantly as soon as Sharon hangs up from the AP. In fact, I think Sharon may have had to field 1-2 more calls before she could even begin to track Weo down. News channels were calling her to send cameras over – they don’t care that Weo isn’t there. They just want to report on The Moment It Happened. If The Winner can’t be there that’s OK – they’ll film The Wife as she pours cornflakes or even talks to Her Brother. The Beast must be fed. All hail The Beast!
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In the initial hours of the announcement of Weo’s win of the Nobel Prize – trust me, typing some variation of “Weo won the Nobel Prize” does NOT get old -- when Sharon isn’t talking to Weo or the media she’s trying to wrangle him a flight home from Brazil with United. Apparently, to get home from where he is (Recife) he first has to fly 3 hours SOUTH to Sao Paulo, layover there, then catch another flight to SFO which has yet another stop somewhere. Total flight time is somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 hours. Ugh.
She’s apparently agonizing over whether to upgrade him to Business Class to save wear-and-tear on his back. Sometimes they can be too damn humble for their own good. When we talk later we both laugh when I comment that our late sister Debra would NEVER have agonized over this decision. (In reality, Debra wouldn’t have needed to make this decision because she would never have considered flying Economy in the first place.) “Take the upgrade out of the Prize money”, I sagely advise.
I’m a genius at spending other people’s money.
Weo expects to be picked up at SFO by a Stanford friend. In reality, a bunch of Stanford folks - basically all his colleagues including all his grad students and postdocs - greet him at the airport in a big limo for a joyous ride back to campus. There had been an idea floated to have the Stanford Band and Tree at the terminal when he arrived, but that ends up not happening. No doubt the Tree refused because Stanford wouldn’t supply red M&M and ONLY red M&Ms. I’m sure it had to be something like that. Damn prima donnas.
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What was happening for Weo in these early hours of winning? Well, after he talked to Sharon on the room phone he turned his cell phone on, for a start. And then discovered it wasn't really very reliable. So most of his communications for the next few hours were computer-based. And just what came in? Email, (missed) phone calls…and scams.
But let’s start at the beginning. After talking to Sharon and determining that he had about 6 hours before he’d have to leave for the airport, he got up and got showered and dressed. During this time his phone is going crazy with email and phone calls. He then quickly packed to clear the decks for action. Except he realizes that he’s going to be conducting interviews over Skype, so he has to go back into his luggage to grab dress shirt, jacket, and tie. Gotta look good, even when webcasting in a tiny window.
Interview requests are coming in via email and he’s got to quickly setup his wireless connection. Good signal is only available in a corner of the room, forcing him to wedge himself and computer in an awkward place. (If you saw any of his interviews from that morning – such as the snippets at https://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/october/moerner-nobel-prize-100814.html - this is why they have a bit of a 60’s Batman tilt to them.) Further, he is faced with a tough choice: open the windows, in which case the sounds of the neighborhood and beach interfere with good comms, or keep the window closed, in which case the sounds of the AC overwhelm everything. He finally settles on windows closed, AC off...and lots of sweating. Later in the morning the Brazilians figure out that there's a new Nobel winner at one of their hotels so they dispatch a photographer and reporter to the hotel and (thankfully) arrange for an air conditioned conference room for their interview.
CNN. New York Times. Stanford. Nobel web site (but still NOT the official Committee communications). Swedish TV. Meanwhile, messages continue to arrive. Listen to the constant “bings” in the background of the Skype videos. Don’t know how many arrived before he got on the airplane, but by the time he arrived back at SFO he had in excess of 1200 new emails. Somewhere in here he also made time to fire off congratulatory notes to his two co-winners.
Among those email are some “interesting” ones. Such as the person claiming to be the “official photographer for Noble [sic] winners.” And several requests from people that they require a copy of Weo’s signature for various “official reasons”. And also several requests from organizations in Sweden claiming that it is traditional that the winners speak at /their/ event. There’s some truth to this last one – the winners ARE expected to address a Swedish High School and possibly a university, as well as embark on a speaking tour the week after the awards ceremony…but it is less than clear that any of those groups would have been soliciting their visits via email.
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Behind the scenes, the family is emailing like crazy as news spreads and folks chime in. One of the best responses is from my cousin Rachel, who writes:
Hey, Hallmark - are you listening?I went to about 20 pharmacy's and 6 grocery stores today and they were all out of Nobel prize winner cards! Don't you think that's ridiculous for this time of year?
Other emails that make the rounds in the coming days include trading travel schedules, debating the meaning of "dark lounge suit", and inventorying the shared supply of cufflinks and shirt studs. The planning for this trip is just a teensy bit different than most other trips.
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Sweet story: Sharon teaches middle school math. Sometime during the morning, the principal makes an announcement that "Dr. Moerner's husband won the Nobel Prize today." (Yes, Sharon also has a PhD. And since I'm writing this particular paragraph in 2019, I'll mention that - literally just yesterday - Daniel received HIS PhD. His is in Philosophy. As they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.) Later, as Sharon is walking around the school at lunch the students see her and break out into spontaneous applause.
What happens next? Tune into the next episode by selecting another page from the "2014 Nobel" menu, above. These instructions cheerfully supplied as a public service for those who haven't won a Nobel Prize.
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