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At one point in time I was in a work room in the Dept. Of Ornithology, with Dr. Raymond Painter. I was working in a sink, water running, while I cleaned useless skin and tissue from the skull of a small bird. Unexpectedly Dr. Ernst Mayr, head of the department, came in. I froze.
I knew the nasty German by reputation and it wasn’t sweet. Sure enough, he honored me with his nasty attention, standing by my shoulder watching as I was in-expertly -I will admit with not a small amount of embarrassment today- preparing a humming bird skull for study.
True to his character he observed what a bad job I was doing, so he instructed Dr. Painter, my boss, to tell me that I needed to be more careful so that the nasal processes were not destroyed. He was right. But I was incensed that he would not tell me that himself. He was standing by my shoulder for Christ sakes and I heard all he said as well as Dr. Painter did. The net result was that I began to personally and intentionally hate him, and still do today. Silly perhaps. But natural for the situation. I was an American, not a German, and I was egalitarian - and resented his harsh Germanic approach to human relations. Plus I was mightily embarrassed that I was doing such poor work on a scientific specimen. Dad would have been disappointed.
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