Roll the Dice ….

The more he drank, the friendlier he became. He liked the fact I recognized him and chuckled at a couple of things I said.

“We thought it was worth the risk,” ET said to me.

ET reminded me of Spielberg’s fun feature about a little guy who was trying to get home.

ET and I were flying to San Francisco.  The year was about 2002.  We were on a commercial airliner.

When I sat beside ET I noticed his tie, beach towel sized:

 

et

 

In addition it had a clasp with the initials ET.

I recognized him from TV.

For an hour he knocked back Scotch; I drank Cokes.

The more ET drank, the friendlier he became.  He liked that I had recognized him and chuckled at a couple of things I said.

As we landed at noon in San Francisco he said, “I can tell you want to ask me a question, what is is?”

“Dr. Teller, at the first test of the hydrogen bomb, didn’t someone ask you if you were worried that a chain reaction would vaporize the earth?”

“I wasn’t at the Pacific Proving Grounds.  I watched the results from a basement in Berkley on seismographic equipment.”

I had to find out more about our planet vaporizing.

Again, he guessed what I was thinking.

“In answer to your question … sure, we thought there was a chance that the earth would be vaporized.  But I felt it was worth the risk,” said the man, known as “The Father of the Hydrogen Bomb.”

A delightful traveling companion … even if he was stark raving mad.


Many think Peter Sellers played Dr. Teller in

Kubrick‘s Dr. Strangelove.

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