Somewhere in there he says that he eventually had offers from CalTech & Columbia and he chose CalTech for several reasons, one of which was that he perceived it to be "cleaner." My impression was that he viewed NYC as physically dirty. He also says this about MIT (where he went to grad school). He wanted to go to Princeton, but was rejected. He ended up having to 'settle' for MIT, but again he says his preconceived notion of MIT was that it was a 'grubby' school.
Gell-Mann sounds like a very smart but also eccentric friend of mine, who I'm almost certain is on the spectrum. He has a similar view towards cleanliness and exhibits many of the same traits, such as Murray's interaction with the limo driver. Gell-Man seems to fit this profile.
Although I hate when people try to armchair psychoanalyze public figures they've never met so I'll stop there.
There is a multi-part interview of Gell-Mann on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFxKFx-0lsQD...).
Somewhere in there he says that he eventually had offers from CalTech & Columbia and he chose CalTech for several reasons, one of which was that he perceived it to be "cleaner." My impression was that he viewed NYC as physically dirty. He also says this about MIT (where he went to grad school). He wanted to go to Princeton, but was rejected. He ended up having to 'settle' for MIT, but again he says his preconceived notion of MIT was that it was a 'grubby' school.