You know him, but you might not love him. Doctor Martin Ellingham may be brilliant when it comes to medicine, but he is anything but when it comes to the feelings of others. That can be attested by the number of folks that storm out of his Port Wenn office, or the on-again-off-again status of his relationship with Louisa. But the good ole’ Doc isn’t the only brilliant, but troubled, man out there — and watching the penultimate season of Doc Martin got us thinking. What are some of the more interesting quirks of the brainy, yet bizarre? Catch Season 8 of Doc Martin – broadcasting now on WGBX 44, Wednesdays at 9 PM.
1. Victor Hugo
Afraid of missing his deadline for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hugo locked away all of his going-out clothing until he finished the book. Confined to his pajamas, Hugo was house-bound, with limited means of distraction. Curious though it may be, it worked, and Hugo turned in his manuscript with time to spare.
2. Steve Jobs
The brilliant mind that pioneered the phone you’re probably reading this on wasn’t smart about everything. Jobs was convinced that his vegan diet would flush toxins from his body – especially if he stuck to fruit. Naturally, it didn’t work, and as a young developer at Atari, he was moved to night shift because of his co-workers complaints.
3. Pythagoras
We’re heading way back to another famous vegetarian – Pythagoras. Though he is often called “the father of vegetarianism,” Pythagoras did shun one plant. He believed that beans contained the souls of the dead, and refused to eat them. His belief became so infamous that both Pliny and Horace wrote about his aversion, making this the longest running fart joke in history.
4. Nikola Tesla
Tesla’s talent in the field of electricity seems like a perfect match for his own unfailing energy. The scientist normally slept for only two to four hours a night, as he felt he hadn’t enough time to do all the work that he wanted to do. It was this belief that also drove him to forgo rest altogether when on a project that excited him – once going so long as 84 hours without a break.
5. Albert Einstein
The man so smart his name is synonymous with ‘genius,’ Albert Einstein had his fair share of quirks. While his foibles ranged from fascinating to abhorrent, one of the most eccentric was his unabashed hatred for socks. Not only did Einstein believe them to be unnecessary, he flat out refused to wear them. That said, his solutions for foot odor and blisters have yet to emerge.
6. Truman Capote
The master of sass, Truman Capote, certainly wrote a lot – but he couldn’t write unless he wasn’t moving. Capote called himself a “completely horizontal author,” saying he couldn’t write unless he was reclined on a bed or couch, drinking a coffee, smoking, and writing in longhand.
7. Georgia O’Keeffe
Once O’Keeffe fell in love with the American southwest, her work habits were never the same. The painter often said that the back seat of her Ford Model A was her favorite studio. Driving the car across the desert landscapes we see in the majority of her work, O’Keefe hid from the sun in the safety of her car as she worked en plein air.
8. Marcel Duchamp
If you know anything about Duchamp’s art, you already know the father of Dadaism is a bit of a weirdo. But for his oddities, he had a relatively normal quirk. Once Duchamp had conquered the art world, he set about conquering the chess world. His obsession with the game becoming so intense, his friend Man Ray credited it with ending Duchamp’s first marriage.
9. Stephen King
The oft-declared master of modern horror is your average, run of the mill writer – if you don’t take into account his love for the scary, weird and grotesque. But there is something about his writing that is a little more special than just the supernatural – he abhors using adverbs in his writing, declaring that “the road to hell is paved in adverbs.”
10. Andy Warhol
The last on our list is Andy Warhol, the man who took peculiarity and made it into an art form. But after a studio move in 1974, Warhol began creating a series of ‘time capsules’ that took bits and pieces from around his studio. He created 610 of these sealed cardboard boxes with a variety of items inside – from cards and newspapers to toenail clippings and a mummifed foot. Creepy!
All of these foibles are a lot more intense, weird and shocking than Doc Martin's abrupt bedside manner. And as fun as we think it would be to have a legume-phobic lead on a show, we wouldn't have the Doc any other way.
SOURCES:
Victor Hugo – Languor.Us.
Steve Jobs: The Man Was Fallible. Freek Vermeulen. Forbes.
Anne Ewbank. Why Beans Were an Ancient Emblem of Death. Atlas Obscura.
John J. O’Neil. Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla.
Len Fisher. Why Einstein didn't wear socks and the nature of scientific inquiry. Australian Broadcast Company.
Kitty Burns Florey, 7 Famous Authors Who Wrote Lying Down. Huffington Post.
Georgia O’Keeffe, Her Life in Paintings. Artists’ Network.
Dylan Loeb Mcclain. Duchamp as a Chess Player. NYTimes.
Marlin Weteschnik. Understanding Chess Tactics. Quality Chess Europe AB.
Meg Miller. Why Stephen King’s Road to Hell is Paved with Adverbs. Huffington Post.
Simon Elmes. The secrets of Andy Warhol's time capsules. BBC.
