Characterization
Larry is quite awkward in social situations; his students have described him as "boring and intellectually inaccessible." Some of his irregular views have made Charlie wonder, "What flavor of crazy Kool-Aid do they make you drink before you join the physics department?" When Larry suggested a neural imbalance may be the cause of his lack of dreaming in "Hot Shot", Charlie thought the notion would explain a lot about his friend. Usually, Larry seems relaxed, but, at times, he can be a bit neurotic, or "Fleinhardt." An absent-minded professor, he has forgotten whether he was entering or leaving the CalSci library. The "Doc" even had his own Eureka moment in "All's Fair", wherein he applied fluid mechanics to the analysis of footprint slabs he submerged in a jacuzzi only to determine, from the relative displacement of water by each indentation, that the suspect to a murder had a short right leg — a discovery that discounted a particular individual from guilt — and ran to the streets dripping wet in a robe, screaming that it was Archimedes all over again, only to forget where he put his clothes the next minute. Larry is disorganized like Charlie and claims that there is symmetry to his chaos. On a similar note, his antics have led him to eat purely white food at times to maintain supersymmetry, a focus in his research. Apparently, as mentioned in "Backscatter", Fleinhardt is awful when it comes to geography — he called to ask if the string theory convention he was already at was in St. Louis or Cleveland, when it was actually in Minneapolis. A perpetual preoccupation with celestial phenomena often has him spouting cosmic metaphors. His character is not unlike that of former acquaintance Richard Feynman, who is noted for being both a genius and an eccentric.
Larry frequently wears casual patterned shirts and drove a 1944 Volvo until he acquired a black 1931 Ford Model A that he cherishes. Fleinhardt owned a personally restored 1877 Victorian home which he sold in "Bones of Contention". The character evinces a distaste for number theory and cell phones, but enjoys hiking. Also akin to Feynman, he percusses, but never for pleasure — he drums away problems. Both he and Charlie are members of the North American Sundial Society, and they have worked together on various contests for the physics department, including a paper airplane contest. Larry has a Zen rock garden and has constructed his own Heron's fountain. He likes to "ponder the koi pond" in front of Charlie's home, with each fish named by Eppes.
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