For Claudio: A 60th Birthday greeting Stanley Deser+ Dear claudio Let me preface this, at times indiscreet, 60th birthday message with the consol tion that, were it not for the impossible 18h(each way)plane journeys, you would have had to suffer the insult of hearing it live! The much appreciated invitation to your celebration made me both count and re member: we have known each other for over half your life so far, and it led me back to our first encounter, of early 1975, in Princeton. You were then already famous the successor in the lineage of Feynman and Misner-as the latest of Wheeler's discoveries, " having reached New Jersey by the route closest to Johns heart, crazy electrodynamics. Since were also traveling backward in time, that takes care of leining Dicks way, while Charlies(more recent)exploit was to destroy the beauty of Maxwell-Einstein theory by(re-discovering its-horribly complicated, already metrical version. Your road was the radiation reaction prob- lem, which you clarified so much that it forced Sidney Coleman to(sort of) do it right later, also using exotic Feynman propagators, come to think of it. What most pressed me however, in that initial meeting, was of a non-physics nature: you looked like a Jeune Premier(someone will translate)and you(claimed you)were equipping an ancient and highly unlikely-looking wreck of a yellow Land Rover for the journey home(merely to Santiago, rather than Valdivia, but still) down the ( then highly unfinished)Pan-American highway. In drab, conventional, Princeton one can imagine that these characteristics stood out most vividly! I had been invited for an informal visit by the Physics Department. I had a lot of fun -except when the whole Physics Department-from Wigner down, would close for grading Freshman hysics exams(a Princeton custom, I was told! ) Despite this quaint custom, you and I were able start what would become a long-standing research collaboration. whose first result was our Phys Rev electromagnetic duality paper(surviving those unsettling local mores). It was to become famous, long before duality became fash- ionable, but not before going through the usual "it's wrong and trivial"scoffing. It still gets quoted, and as you know, served as a basis of three of our further collab- orations, with Henneaux and gomberoff, at your Institute some two decades later. as well as of more recent papers by you and Marc, that in turn generated ones by Domenico Seminara and me. Duality has indeed evolved from breakthrough to tru- ism, as(legend has it)good physics ideas always do! The second big thing for us came less than 2 years after, early in 1977, when we met on a freezing day in Harvard Yard (they all are) and realized that we had both been dreaming that the then brand-new Supergravity might be the key to one of the Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA and Caltech, Pasadena CA, USA. e-mail: deser@ brandeis. edu6 Greetings For Claudio: A 60th Birthday Greeting Stanley Deser4 Dear Claudio, Let me preface this, at times indiscreet, 60th birthday message with the consola￾tion that, were it not for the impossible 18 h (each way) plane journeys, you would have had to suffer the insult of hearing it live! The much appreciated invitation to your celebration made me both count and re￾member: we have known each other for over half your life so far, and it led me back to our first encounter, of early 1975, in Princeton. You were then already famous – the successor in the lineage of Feynman and Misner – as the latest of Wheeler’s “discoveries,” having reached New Jersey by the route closest to John’s heart, crazy electrodynamics. Since we’re also traveling backward in time, that takes care of defining Dick’s way, while Charlie’s (more recent) exploit was to destroy the beauty of Maxwell–Einstein theory by (re-) discovering its – horribly complicated, “already unified” – purely geometrical version. Your road was the radiation reaction prob￾lem, which you clarified so much that it forced Sidney Coleman to (sort of) do it right later, also using exotic Feynman propagators, come to think of it. What most impressed me however, in that initial meeting, was of a non-physics nature: you looked like a Jeune Premier (someone will translate) and you (claimed you) were equipping an ancient and highly unlikely-looking wreck of a yellow Land Rover for the journey home (merely to Santiago, rather than Valdivia, but still) down the (then highly unfinished) Pan-American highway. In drab, conventional, Princeton, one can imagine that these characteristics stood out most vividly! I had been invited for an informal visit by the Physics Department. I had a lot of fun – except when the whole Physics Department – from Wigner down, would close for grading Freshman physics exams (a Princeton custom, I was told!). Despite this quaint custom, you and I were able start what would become a long-standing research collaboration, whose first result was our Phys Rev electromagnetic duality paper (surviving those unsettling local mores). It was to become famous, long before duality became fash￾ionable, but not before going through the usual “it’s wrong and trivial” scoffing. It still gets quoted, and as you know, served as a basis of three of our further collab￾orations, with Henneaux and Gomberoff, at your Institute some two decades later, as well as of more recent papers by you and Marc, that in turn generated ones by Domenico Seminara and me. Duality has indeed evolved from breakthrough to tru￾ism, as (legend has it) good physics ideas always do! The second big thing for us came less than 2 years after, early in 1977, when we met on a freezing day in Harvard Yard (they all are) and realized that we had both been dreaming that the then brand-new Supergravity might be the key to one of the 4 Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA and Caltech, Pasadena CA, USA, e-mail: deser@brandeis.edu