There was something about Turing that made his friends and family want
to compose rhymes. His proud father openly admitted that he hadn't the
vaguest idea what his son's mathematical inquiries were about, but it
was all good anyway. "I don't know what the 'ell 'e meant / But that is
what 'e said 'e meant," John wrote to Alan, who took delight in reading
the couplet to friends.
His fellow students sang songs about him at the dinner table: "The maths brain lies often awake in his bed / Doing logs to ten places and trig in his head."
His gym class colleagues even sang his praises as a linesman: "Turing's fond of the football field / For geometric problems the touch-lines yield."
Turing's favorite physical activity, however, was running, especially the long-distance variety. "He would amaze his colleagues by running to scientific meetings," Hodges writes, "beating the travelers by public transport." He even came close to a shot at the 1948 Olympic Games, a bid cut short by an injury
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