It was a bank holiday, and Mr Tompkins, the little clerk of a big city bank, slept late and had a leisurely breakfast. Trying to plan his day, he first thought about going to some afternoon movie and, opening the morning paper, turned to the entertainment page. But none of the films looked attractive to him. He detested all this Hollywood stuff, with infinite romances between popular stars.

If only there were at least one film with some real adventure, with something unusual and maybe even fantastic about it. But there was none. Unexpectedly, his eye fell on a little notice in the corner of the page. The local university was announcing a series of lectures on the problems of modern physics, and this afternoon’s lecture was to be about EINSTEIN’S Theory of Relativity. Well, that might be something! He had often heard the statement that only a dozen people in the world really understood Einstein’s theory. Maybe he could become the thirteenth! Surely he would go to the lecture; it might be just what he needed.

— George Gamow Opening lines for Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland [PDF], which popularized Einstein's theory, including demonstrating the Twin Paradox of Relativity Theory