G minus TWO plus EMILIO

This verbatim transcription of a talk given on the occasion of Emilio Picasso's retirement from CERN in 1992 describes how he came to the organization following an improbable encounter with the author in a Bristol pub and his contribution to the first muon storage ring. It traces the series of false arguments leading to the discovery of the 'magic energy' used in the second muon storage ring, reviews his leadership style, and includes some physics results.