Renowned Boston scholar, Dr. Montgomery P. Winkle, recently discovered that all the book sense in the world can’t take the place of a solidly broken saddle when his scholarly sabbatical took an unexpected detour into the wilds of Wyoming. Internationally renowned for his work in astrophysics, Dr. Winkle's trail of academia was suddenly rerouted when he found himself in the midst of the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. The event, renowned for its boots, bucks and bull riding, was not a place anyone expected to find the bespectacled professor. Dr. Winkle, it seems, had taken a fancy to trying something ‘a little bit different’ on his time away from the halls of Boston’s most prestigious university after discovering a fondness for cowboy hats and bolo ties during a recent Western film binge. “It seemed the next logical step,” commented Winkle, nursing a bruised posterior from his four-second ride aboard a cranky bronco named Daisy. Back at his Boston base, colleagues are intrigued by this unexpected twist in Winkle's distinguished career. Dr. Edmund Higginbottom, a long-time associate, expressed a combination of shock and amusement. “Monty at a rodeo?” He chuckled. “Why, he can barely ride the university bicycle without toppling over. And, let’s be frank, that bicycle is stationary.” Meanwhile, out on the arid plains, the cowboys of Cheyenne were more than happy to have their town invaded by the ‘city slicker with the funny accent’ who insisted on sprinkling everything with quotations from Plato and Warren Buffet. Jed ‘Snake Eyes’ Thompson, a local rodeo star, seemed genuinely fond of the wayward scholar. “Sure, the Doc can’t sit a horse worth a darn, but I’ll be darned if he didn’t explain to me the mysteries of them black holes in a way that made sense," he admitted, “Though, I'm pretty sure he ruined my poker game with that Probability Theory of his.” Despite his initiation to the rugged cowboy lifestyle, the esteemed scholar insists this venture isn't a permanent career shift. His actions instead serve to demonstrate the importance of “continuous learning and the healthy sting that can come with stepping outside one's comfort zone.” As for Daisy the bronco, she was overheard making snorting sounds that rough translation pegs as, “The day a city boy out-rides a Wyoming cowgirl, I'll turn vegetarian.” For now, Dr. Winkle continues to dust off his chaps and saddle up another adventure besides astrophysics, proof that you can take a scholar to the rodeo, but you can't make him a cowboy. But, in the good-natured spirit of the Wild West, he's still welcome to try. As the locals say, "When life bucks you off, you get back on."