ALT In support of his view of Zariski as a geometer for whom modern algebra could provide, at best, only a "temporary accommodation, Weil recalled a well-known anecdote about a conversation at a party between Zariski and Claude Chevalley, a French algebraist who had moved to Princeton from France just before the war. The two men were discussing algebra versus geometry in algebraic geometry when at long last, exasperated, Zariski exclaimed. "But when someone says "an algebraic curve, surely you see something!" "Yes, of course," Chevalley quietly replied. "I see this: f(x.y) = 0."