"The
fact that others see it as anything more than that is a
reflection of their agenda, not mine."
That said, Stallman does admit to being a ham. "Are you
kidding?" he says at one point. "I love being the
center of attention." To facilitate that process,
Stallman says he once enrolled in Toastmasters, an
organization that helps members bolster their
public-speaking skills and one Stallman recommends
highly to others. He possesses a stage presence that
would be the envy of most theatrical performers and
feels a link to vaudevillians of years past. A few days
after the Maui High Performance Computing Center
speech, I allude to the 1999 LinuxWorld performace and
ask Stallman if he has a Groucho Marx complex-i.e., the
unwillingness to belong to any club that would have him
as a member. Stallman's response is immediate: "No, but
I admire Groucho Marx in a lot of ways and certainly
have been in some things I say inspired by him. But
then I've also been inspired in some ways by Harpo."
The Groucho Marx influence is certainly evident in
Stallman's lifelong fondness for punning.
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