The fourth edition of my textbook "Neuro-Ophthalmology: Clinical Signs and Symptoms,'' and the "Visual Fields'' book came out in the mid-1990s. They were in print in time for the American Academy of Ophthalmology conference. I had a new editor, and she invited Sally and I to dinner. She asked me how I liked the new edition. I said it was nice, but I guess I did not show any enthusiasm. After your third textbook, you can't get too enthusiastic. She asked me if I was not pleased. I said I won’t be retiring on the income.
She immediately assured me that I was getting the going rate. I was being my usual self and said some guy one or two years behind me in school recently had gotten $5 million for his book. She looked astonished. I’m sure the royalties for all the authors at her firm don’t amount to that. I then told her that author's name was Norman Schwarzkopf. He was the general in charge of the First Gulf War. My editor realized that she had been had. I was being a pain as usual.
During the '90s, we had many trips, including some to the Olympic Games. I will discuss these adventures in the chapters on Trips and the Olympic Games.
Our friends the Gaffneys lived in Los Angeles. They invited us to the Rose Bowl. We flew to the coast and arrived just about noon local time. The Gaffneys asked if we were tired, and we said no. One of their friends was head of Paramount TV and her name was Lucy. She was a great host and a tough business woman.
We went over to Paramount for a big party on one of the soundstages. It seems she was launching another late-night talk show with one of our African-American friends and this was the first taping. It seems the prospective host had not yet signed his contract.
We happened to be next to Lucy as she explained to him about signing the contract. She was always more than gracious to us over the years. Let’s say that she read him the riot act, and he signed on the dotted line.
The next day, we got up at 4 a.m. to get to the Rose Bowl Parade. It was across town. You also had to be across Orange Boulevard before 7 a.m. We were a little late and the cop approached us. I happened to be wearing a golf cap given to me by Meg that said Secret Service. She was dating a guy on the Presidential detail when she was in D.C. The cop looked at me and my cap, said no problem and saluted me. I wasn’t trying to impress him, but I certainly did not look like part of the Presidential detail. However, we were able to cross the boulevard and park the car.
The parade was from 8 to 10. The Rose Bowl game didn't start until 4 p.m. We looked up our friends who were with ABC and they were hosting a big party that afternoon at the Rose Bowl. We walked down the hill and joined the party. Our friend had a huge tent. It was so big, he needed two bands.
By the time we got to the game, we were exhausted. After the game, we had to walk a mile, back up that steep hill, to get our car. We decided to party for a while before we attempted that. When we finally started to go, as luck would have it, there was a taxi. The cabbie said he would take us for $50. We didn’t bat an eyelash. It was the end of a great day.
Blue Angels
Later that decade, Kelly got married. Tommy’s two girls were coming up as part of the wedding. I was elected to take them to the theater a couple of days before. I received at that same time an invitation from a friend to take a day trip to Pensacola, Florida, to see the final fly-by of the Blue Angels. We even had an Admiral’s plane to take us down and back.
I got out of the theater that day and went to Florida. It was great. On the way down, we had a lecture and gun pictures of the 1981 Israeli raid on Saddam Hussein’s atomic energy plant. The man who spoke to us was the leader. He told us that getting to and from the target was a real fuel problem. The Israelis flew their planes over the Gulf of Aqaba, where King Hussein of Jordan was able to see this from his yacht.
The king saw the Star of David on the Israeli plans and figured they were headed for Baghdad. He called his head military man and told him to warn the Iraqis. They thought he was drunk and did not follow through with the information. The Israeli planes hit the plant at lunch hour and totally destroyed it. Sixteen planes went over in less than 30 seconds.
Earning My MBA
About 1998, I decided to take my MBA at Yale since they had a special arrangement for those of us on the faculty. This was another occasion that I forgot why I was in the swamp.
During the course, we had a professor who was teaching us management techniques. We were given 50 cases and were supposed to tell him how to act on a scale of 1 to 5. One of the cases was a case at West Point that I knew very well. It was a case where the Superintendent was very wrong. He was castigated in the Wall Street Journal and booed at the Founders dinner in New York that I had attended. The Professor felt that the superintendent was right. I took him on. Sally said I was stupid and forgot the swamp philosophy. It turned out OK and I graduated.Many years before, I suggested to Tommy to get his MBA after med school or after training. As usual, he said no, though he did it many years later.
Thayer Award Ceremony
We took many trips to West Point. One of my invitations was for the annual Thayer Award ceremony. It was being given to Colin Powell as I mentioned earlier.
One of the changes in the mess hall since I was a Cadet was that instead of room for two regiments, there was now room for four. When they moved the front of the building forward, they left the front of the building with the stain glass window in place inside and re-created a new one in the front of the new building. The new look was very impressive.
Over the years, I have been invited to about six of them and enjoyed each one. I was not there for the most famous one in 1962. That was the ''Duty, Honor, Country'' speech by General George MacArthur.