Topologist Insists Coffee Mug And Donut Are Same Object, Gets Banned From Pottery Class

A topology professor has been asked to leave a community pottery class after persistently informing fellow students that their coffee mugs and donuts are, from a topological perspective, identical objects. Dr. Felix Genus, 47, enrolled in the Wednesday evening ceramics course at the Riverside Community Center to "work with my hands and engage with the physical world." Within two sessions, he had alienated every student by commenting on the genus of their projects. "Sandra was making a lovely vase," recalled instructor Diane Clay. "Felix told her it was topologically equivalent to a sphere and therefore 'trivial.' Sandra cried. The vase was for her mother." The situation escalated during week three when a student attempted to create a mug. Genus reportedly stood behind her for several minutes before observing that the mug, having exactly one handle and therefore one hole, was homeomorphic to a torus, which is to say, a donut. "He then spent fifteen minutes trying to continuously deform her mug into a donut using his hands," Clay reported. "He destroyed the mug. He said he was 'demonstrating an equivalence.' She said he was 'ruining her Tuesday.'" Genus maintains that his observations were both accurate and educational. "I was bringing mathematical literacy to the community," he said. "People deserve to know that the objects they create exist in equivalence classes. A bowl is a disk. A mug is a torus. A colander is — well, a colander is quite interesting, actually." The community center has offered Genus a refund for the remaining seven sessions. He has declined, arguing that the refund policy treats his enrollment and his non-enrollment as distinguishable states, which, he notes, "depends entirely on your choice of topology."