After Feynman finishes his work in Lost Alamos, he takes a professorship at Cornell, that he gains through his association with Hans Bethe in the Manhattan project. In his new life as a professor, he self-consciously wants to present himself as a "distinguished gentleman."
When he arrives in Ithaca he decides to take a taxi instead of walking or taking the bus, because he feels it makes him appear more distinguished. He asks to be taken to a hotel, but soon learns there are no vacant rooms in town, and he is forced to spend his first night as a "distinguished professor" at Cornell on a couch in.....
