Walt Disney had a hard time finding the right housekeeper for his home who also could get along with his two daughters. The housekeeper before Thelma Howard was a great cook but did not get along with his daughters and would tell them to stay in their room while she got about her work. But Thelma Howard was an instant hit at Disney’s house because she loved the company of his daughters and Disney even went so far as to call her “the real-life Mary Poppins.” Disney treated her with generosity that aptly rewarded her success in his house with liberal salary and even his company’s shares as bonus. Thelma never sold her stocks out of respect for Disney and she lived a normal modest life. According to her will she gave half of her fortune to her disabled son and the other half to charity.(source)
7 Albert Einstein was stopped so many times in public by his fans that he would often reply “Pardon me, sorry! Always I am mistaken for Professor Einstein.”
Before the Second World War broke out, Albert Einstein became very popular in America. He and his theories of relativity have been the subject and inspiration for many science fiction books, movies and plays. Added to it were his distinctive hairstyle and expressive face that were easily recognizable. His features were often copied to create cartoons and characters such as mad/eccentric scientists or absent-minded professors. It became a common occurrence that he would be stopped by people in the street asking him to explain “that theory” of his. But, he seems to have figured out how to deal with his ever approaching fans by politely excusing himself saying that he was often mistaken for Einstein.(source)
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8 Nikola Tesla openly expressed his disgust for overweight people and even fired his secretary because of her weight.
Nikola Tesla was not entirely a nice person and was very harsh with regards to other people. He was also very asocial and secluded himself from others with his work, though when he did engage in social life, those who met him always had great praise for him calling him refined, sweet, sincere and gentlemanly. This is in contrast to how he behaved at other times. He was quick to criticize clothing and on many occasions sent a subordinate home to change her dress. His disgust with overweight people was also very openly displayed, as was in the case of his firing a secretary because of her weight.(source)
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9 Thomas Edison taught his second wife Morse code so that they could communicate with each other when among family members by tapping on each other’s arms.
Edison was married twice, and he felt his first wife, Mary, was not as smart as he would have liked. Two years after she died, he met Mina Miller at the house Mr. and Mrs. Gilliard, his friends, and married her. During his visits, the Gilliards would always make sure to have an eligible young lady, one of whom was Mina, in the hope that they would find each other interesting. Edison was instantly smitten with her, and soon married. He even taught her to communicate in Morse code using finger taps on his arm when her parents was around and one day proposed to her using the same.(source)
10 Mark Twain hated Jane Austen with great vehemence and said that “Everytime I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”
In his correspondence with author and critic William Dean Howells, Mark Twain had often expressed his hatred for Jane Austen’s books. He even went as far as to say that “Just that one omission alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in it,” referring to her books. He often remarked that he felt as a uncouth barkeeper would when entering the Kingdom of Heaven or the polite parlor room society of Jane Austen’s novels. He also used to complain about how long or how many attempts it took him to read and finish any book of Jane Austen’s.(source)
