Nicolo Paganini was a well-known and gifted nineteenthcentury violinist. He was also well known as a great showman with a quick sense of humor. His most memorable concert was in Italy with a full orchestra. He was performing before a packed house and his technique was incredible, his tone was fantastic, and his audience dearly loved him. Toward the end of his concert, Paganini was astounding his audience with an unbelievable composition when suddenly one string on his violin snapped and hung limply from his instrument. Paganini frowned briefly, shook his head, and continued to play, improvising beautifully.

Then to everyone's surprise, a second string broke. And shortly thereafter, a third. Almost like a slapstick comedy, Paganini stood there with three strings dangling from his Stradivarius. But instead of leaving the stage, Paganini stood his ground and calmly completed the difficult number on the one remaining string.

On a train journey in the American Midwest, Schweitzer was approached by two ladies. "Have we the honor of speaking to Professor Einstein?" they asked. "No, unfortunately not," replied Schweitzer, "though I can quite understand your mistake, for he has the same kind of hair as I have." He paused to rumple his hair. "But inside, my head is altogether different. However, he is a very old friend of mine—would you like me to give you his autograph?" Taking a slip of paper from his pocket he wrote: "Albert Einstein, by way of his friend, Albert Schweitzer."

[David Niven recalls the moment of John Huston's call-up for military service during World War II.]

The word came by phone when he was in the middle of directing Bogie in a scene in which the Japanese enemy had surrounded hero Bogart in a small building. His escape had been carefully rehearsed—who he shot, who he knifed, and through which window he would jump, etc.

"Huston never said a word about the receipt of his 'call-up,' he just tripled the number of Japanese around the building, boarded it up with the hero inside and left for Europe. A hastily summoned take-over director found a note on the door: 'I'm in the Army—Bogie will know how to get out.' "

On leaving a Cambridge party, H. G. Wells accidentally picked up a hat that did not belong to him. Discovering his mistake, he decided not to return the headgear to its rightful owner, whose label was inside the brim. The hat fit Wells comfortably; furthermore, he had grown to like it. So he wrote to the former owner: "I stole your hat; I like your hat; I shall keep your hat. Whenever I look inside it I shall think of you and your excellent sherry and of the town of Cambridge. I take off your hat to you."

Before retiring to bed, Roosevelt and his friend the naturalist William Beebe would go out and look at the skies, searching for a tiny patch of light near the constellation of Pegasus. "That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda," they would chant. "It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun." Then Roosevelt would turn to his companion and say, "Now I think we are small enough. Let's go to bed."