{"id":73,"date":"1994-03-31T15:17:20","date_gmt":"1994-03-31T15:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/?p=73"},"modified":"2023-03-07T12:52:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T20:52:41","slug":"dr-kaons-koan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/?p=73","title":{"rendered":"Dr. KAON’s Koan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

A poem written by Jess H. Brewer on the occasion of
\nErich W. Vogt’s retirement party, 31 March 1994.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Born on the prairies in TRIUMF tradition,
\nthe second of six Vogt family additions,
\nErich soon showed that he loved competition,
\nconceived an interest in nuclear fission
\nand set out to overcome all opposition.<\/p>\n

Erich took leave of his fair Manitoba
\nfor Princeton, where he’s now a Department prober.
\nPerhaps his dignity still must recover
\nfrom a party to celebrate school being over,
\nthe only time he’s been seen not sober.<\/p>\n

Through Birmingham he continued his story
\nto Chalk River National Laboratory,
\nwhere Erich pursued the implacable quarry
\nof knowledge, while stocking his inventory
\nof children and accolades solemn and hoary.<\/p>\n

Vice President Erich, we were shown,
\nhad a will of iron, not a heart of stone.
\nHe treated the UBC tribe like his own,
\nbut that student reporter should have known
\nhis position on sensitive issues was “prone.”<\/p>\n

Despite this penchant for un-P.C. quips,
\nhe was offered the TRIUMF Directorship.
\nAs Erich accepted, he made one more slip:
\n“This is only for five years – read my lips!”
\n(Not counting, of course, the time spent on trips.)<\/p>\n

In fact, Erich stayed for “two terms and a while”
\nas the KAON proposal passed trial after trial.
\nThrough political intrigues like Penrose tiles,
\nwe learned to love Erich’s management style:
\n“Come in with a worry, go out with a smile!”<\/p>\n

And thus with his vision we all were infected,
\nand all to KAON became connected.
\nOh what a relief, to be briefly protected
\nfrom “realist’s” sad, morose and dejected
\npredictions that KAON would soon be rejected.<\/p>\n

They were right, I guess – KAON finally fell,
\nbut defeat is no shame in a battle fought well.
\nIt was wise of the bureaucrats not to tell
\nErich Vogt they wouldn’t build KAON ’till Hell
\nfroze over; we’d freeze it!
\n(And there they could dwell.)<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Tomorrow we start with a brand new boss:
\nAlan Astbury is his name.
\nHe’ll have to rewrite the rules of the game
\nto build new victories out of our loss.<\/p>\n

If Alan intends to avoid any anguish,
\nhe’ll remember our birthdays, every one,
\nthe names of our spouses, daughters and sons,
\nand cheerful greetings in every language.<\/p>\n

But one thing I’m sure he will freely confess:
\nhe must learn to lean out of his office and yell,
\n“VOGT!!!<\/b><\/em>” with the requisite decibels
\nor pay for conventional public address.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A poem written by Jess H. Brewer on the occasion of Erich W. Vogt’s retirement party, 31 March 1994.   Born on the prairies in TRIUMF tradition, the second of six Vogt family additions, Erich soon showed that he loved competition, conceived an interest in nuclear fission and set outRead More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1980-1999","category-occasional"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}