> In 1973, he recalled, he persuaded Shannon to give the first annual Shannon lecture at the International Information Theory Symposium, but Shannon almost backed out at the last minute. “I never saw a guy with so much stage fright,” Berlekamp said. “In this crowd, he was viewed as a godlike figure, and I guess he was worried he wouldn’t live up to his reputation.”
> In 1985 he made an unexpected appearance at the International Information Theory Symposium in Brighton, England. The meeting was proceeding smoothly, if uneventfully, when news raced through the halls and lecture rooms that the snowy-haired man with the shy grin who was wandering in and out of the sessions was none other than Claude Shannon. Some of those at the conference had not even known he was still alive.
> At the banquet, the meeting’s organizers somehow persuaded Shannon to address the audience. He spoke for a few minutes and then—fearing that he was boring his audience, he recalled later—pulled three balls out of his pockets and began juggling. The audience cheered and lined up for autographs.