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162 Exciting timesI entered the University of Sydney as an undergraduate in early 1970,studying for a science degree and convinced I would become a theoreticalphysicist, but I hadn’t bargained for all the lab work I would have to do beforeI reached that goal. Moreover, the mathematics in my physics classes was notrigorous enough for me. Asymptotic mathematical formulae abounded, butthey were never proved “properly.” I quickly came to the conclusion that itwould be better for all concerned, including those around me (I once floodedthe physics lab), if I devoted my energies to mathematics.However, for my second year I needed three subjects. I was delighted tobe able to study pure mathematics and applied mathematics in separate programs,not just one as had been the case in first year. But I had to find a thirdsubject, one that didn’t require any lab work. I saw in the student handbookthat there was a subject called mathematical statistics, which in those days,at the University of Sydney, started as a major in second year — so I hadn’tmissed anything in my first year. And it had “mathematical” in its title, soIfeltitwouldprobablysuit.Indeed it did, particularly the course on probability from Feller’s wonderfulVolume I (Feller, 1968). In second and third years the mathematical statisticscourse was streamed into “pass” and “honors” levels, and for the latter I hadto take extra lectures, which were invariably at a high mathematical level andwhich I found fascinating. I even enjoyed the classes that led to Ramsey’stheorem, although I could not any longer reproduce the proof!I took a course on measure theory in the third year pure mathematicscurriculum, and it prepared me very well for a fourth year undergraduatemathematical statistics course in probability theory, based on Chung’s graduatetext (Chung, 1968). That course ran for a full year, three lectures a week,and I loved both it and Chung’s book.I appreciate that the book is not for everyone. Indeed, more than a fewgraduate students have confided to me how difficult they have found it to getinto that text. But for me it had just the right mix of intuition, explanation,and leave-it-up-to-the-reader omissions to keep my attention. Chung’s stylecaptivated me, and I’m pleased to see that I’m still not alone. (I’ve just readthe five reviews of the third edition on Amazon, and I’m delighted to say thateach of them gives the book five stars.)Another attraction of the course was that I could give every third lecturemyself. It turned out I was the only student in the course, although a veryamiable logician, Gordon Monro from the Department of Pure Mathematics,also attended. The two of us, and our assigned lecturer Malcolm Quine, sharedthe teaching among us. It was a wonderful experience. It gave me a lifelonglove of probability, and also of much of the theory that underpins statistics.Now let’s fast forward to late 1976, when I returned to Australia fromthe UK after completing my doctorate in probability. I had a short-term contractjob at the University of Melbourne, with no opportunity in 1976 foranything more permanent. In particular, I was having significant difficultyfinding a longer-term position in probability. So I applied for any job that