I haven't read the wikipedia entry yet, but if memory serves me correctly, he also had a big thing for picking the locks of other people's filing cabinets when he worked at Los Alamos! (I think it was Los Alamos anyways). He'd definitely be on my fantasy dinner party guest list :D

Richard Feynmann also wrote a very funny autobiography called 'Surely you're joking Mr Feynmann'. He was an unusual character even outside his physics career. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Surely-Youre-Joking-Mr-Feynman-Adventures/dp/009917331X[^]

A similar but different effect happens between the earth moon system. The gravity gradient between the earth and the moon causes a bulge in the oceans on the mooon-facing and non moon facing sides of the earth. However, the earths rotation causes friction against the bulge which means that the bulge leads on the moon side of the earth (it is ahead of the earth-moon line). The consequence of this is that the bulge in turn gives a gravitational kick to the moon that causes its orbit to gradually increase in height from the earth (it is moving gradually further away from it), conversely, the friction between the bulge and the earths surface is causing the earths rotational speed to gradually decrease (our days get longer).