I just got the email about our loss of Dr. Reid--my condolences to his family and to the department. I really enjoyed having him as a teacher during my first graduate year at Davis. I wanted to add a couple of humorous vignettes to the memories of him posted on the website.

Dr. Reid said a couple of things that I will never forget:

During a class Dr. Reid was teaching--graduate-level E&M, I think--Dr. Reid was complaining about the profusion of strange symbols for physical concepts. Seemingly out of frustration, he stopped talking, turned to the chalkboard, and drew a very random-looking squiggle. Then he turned back to the class, pointed to the squiggle, and said "This means, laughing, spotted cow!" I'm still laughing about that today.

In one hallway conversation, Dr. Reid noticed that I was wearing a band-aid on one hand. His comment was, "If you're not wearing a band-aid, your life isn't exciting enough!" To this day, when I put on a band-aid, I often remember that and smile.