not quite your everyday occurrence, but ..

two unusual things happened to me, today:

1. someone walked into my office, took a copy of federεr from the bookshelf, turned precisely to one page, and told me about an open problem that i could solve.  (he was friendly about it, though.)


2. i wrote to a fιelds medalist, which shook me to my nerves.
   
   i kept re-reading the text of the email, making sure that nothing could possibly be taken as an offense or annoyance.
   
   here's hoping that it works out ..