鲁宾.戈德堡及鲁布.戈德堡机械.doc

魯宾·戈德堡（1883~1970），美国漫画家，画了许多用及其复杂的方法从事简单小事的漫画，赢得了许多读者。比如把鸡蛋放进小碟子这种事，在戈德堡笔下可能是这样的：一个人从厨房桌子上拿起晨报，于是牵动了一条打开鸟笼的线，鸟被放出来，顺着鸟食走向一个平台。鸟从平台摔到一灌水上，水灌翻倒，拉动扳机，使手枪开火。猴子被枪声吓得把头撞在系有剃刀的杯子上，剃刀切入鸡蛋，打开鸡壳，使鸡蛋落入小碟子中。

Reuben Lucius "Rube" Goldberg (1883-1970), no relation to movie star Whoopi Goldberg, was a cartoonist and a Pulitzer Prize winner whose work was published in newspapers and magazines from coast to coast. Born and raised in San Francisco, Rube loved drawing as a small child, tracing illustrations from books and magazines. His father discouraged Rube's artistic interests and insisted that he go to college and learn something practical. Goldberg went to the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned an engineering degree. He worked as an engineer in the Water & Sewers Department in San Francisco, where he learned that if you're ambitious, you can't work for government. He was upset by the "lethargy of the city employees" and the requirement of loyalty to corrupt politicians. As Ed Norton of The Honeymooners might have said, "I resemble that remark."
鲁宾·戈德堡(1883-1970), 与影星乌比 戈德堡没有关系，他是一位为全国各地的书报插画而获得普利策奖的漫画家。生于旧金山的鲁宾自幼酷爱绘画，临摹过许多书籍杂志的插图。他父亲不满于鲁宾在艺术方面的兴趣，希望他上大学学些实际有用的东西。戈德堡去了加洲大学伯克利分校在那儿取得了工程学士学位。毕业后在旧金山水务署工作，在那儿他明白了如果你有野心，就不该在政府部门办公。他为公务员的昏庸无能和忠于腐败政客的规定感到烦恼。正如爱德华 诺顿在电影蜜月期里的台词“说得好！”那样。

Goldberg preferred drawing anyway, and a few months later got a job in the sports department of a San Francisco newspaper for $8 per week. He kept submitting drawings, especially athletes competing in sporting events, and eventually his works were published. His employers came to realize that his pictures were increasing sales of newspapers.
戈德堡什么都爱画，几个月后就在旧金山报业的体育部找到一周8美元的工作。他不停地提交画稿，尤其是针对体育赛事中的运动员，稿件最后都能发表。他的老板这才认识到他的画可以增加发行量。

Goldberg moved to New York and became a regular cartoonist for the New York Evening Mail and the New York Sun, creating characters like Boob McNutt, Lala Palooza and Mike & Ike. His cartoons became nationally syndicated, and by 1922, he was making $100,000 per year. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for a political cartoon warning of the dangers of atomic weapons. Over his 60 year career, he was an often quoted radio and TV personality.
戈德堡办到纽约成了职业漫画家为纽约夜间邮报和纽约太阳报创作了许多作品，包括笨蛋麦克鲁特、Lala Palooza 和 Mike & Ike。他的作品流行全国，1922年他的年收入达100000美元。1948年因警告原子武器威胁的政治漫画而获普利策奖。他在60年的职业生涯中多次被媒体引用

His wacky "inventions" poked fun at the "Machine Age" of the early Twentieth Century by using an extremely complex array of gears, wheels, arms, handles, cups and rods put in motion by balls, canaries, pails, boots, paddles and live animals to perform simple tasks like squeezing an orange for joice, dodging a bill collector or teeing up a golf ball without bending over.

His satire was evident in showing the disparity between the affluent who could afford the real appliances and the poor who would have to use the Rube Goldberg machine to achieve the same result. He spent hours on each drawing, paying great attention to detail. To quote Mr. Goldberg, the machines were a "symbol of man's capacity for exerting maximum effort to achieve minimal results." One could use the same terms to describe the efforts of the U.S. Congress. Certainly the U.S. Tax Code has often been described as Rube Goldberg legislation.

The engineering fraternities at Purdue University hold an annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest which has grown to become the university's largest media event, surpassing even the sporting events. The winners of that contest have appeared on the Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman.
鲁布·戈德堡机械（Rube Goldberg machine）是一种设计精密而复杂的机械，以迂回曲折的方法去完成一些其实是非常简单的工作，例如倒一杯茶，或打一只蛋等等。设计者必须计算精确，令机械的每个部件都能够准确发挥功用，因为任何一个环节出错，都极有可能令原定的任务不能达成。由于鲁布·戈德堡机械运作繁复而费时，而且以简陋的零件组合而成，所以整个过程往往会给人荒谬、滑稽的感觉。