But he should be more than up to it; after years of operating to his own beat outside the scientific mainstream, he's acquired a thickish skin.
His work acquired increasing mainstream literary acclaim, but he didn't feel part of any tradition.
As a result, Austria's mainstream, respectable right has acquired a rare, if perhaps short-lived, ascendancy.
He acquired some mainstream recognition with the help of a memoir, "Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew" (1990), and a documentary, "The Wrecking Crew!" (2008).
A younger generation of Hungarian artists -- like the witty conceptualists Tamas Komoroczky and Antal Lakner, who were hits at this summer's Venice Biennale -- is producing fresh works that, for the first time in a half-century, speak the language of the international mainstream and can be acquired at reasonable prices.
The difference between a cult and a religion may only be a couple of thousand years, but while the origins of mainstream Christian faiths have acquired the blurred patina of age, the Mormon scriptures are jarringly recent and, in many cases, patently wrong.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in technology companies that are acquired by mainstream non-tech businesses.
Progressive thought entered the mainstream social consciousness and acquired a greater visibility and deeper validity.
Many mainstream tobacco companies have acquired e-cigarette vendors.
The Cardboard team is also looking at tools people might want to use when virtual reality becomes more mainstream, as Google has also acquired Tilt Brush, a VR painting application.
