White Cap - The Pill

Here's your faithful author in his white cap. It is cold though the world continues to hot up: the BBC reports that for the first-time anyone can remember there is no snow in Moscow. The bears aren't hibernating and the Russians, who pride their sub-freezing climate, are worried - even Leader-For-Life Putin addresses the temperatures during yesterday's press conference: "only God can bring the cold" winks Putie, implying that even he cannot change the climate. More worrying, The Independent tells us the "Arctic melt passes the point of no return" faster than predicted and warming the world's seas. Really, with Iraq, suicide bombings, financial melt-downs, Bernard Medoff, Mombai... it does feel like things are, er, out of hand. No wonder an Iraqi journo threw a shoe at Bush calling him a dog- a very grave insult coming from an Arab. Frankly the fellow has the right idea: we all await the boot in el President's backside on his way out the door. Me, I go about my routine: wife, kids, exercise, work.

I am reminded that five years ago I met Dr Gregory Pincus at a party in Bayswater. We were invited by Sonnet's friend Vicortia who was visiting London to research the use of furniture and the use of interiors by the Bloomsbury Group which was the artistic and litterary circle of the day including Virgina Wolf and many others. Victoria was way cool and sadly we have lost touch with her. Any case, Pincus we all know is famous for his 1954 invention Enovid, which would eventually pass FDA approval to be sold as the world's first contraceptive pill. What was unusual about Pincus was that he exists at all - I mean, one does not expect to meet somebody who helped engineer the sexual revolution and all that (+ a product you know your sister, mom and friends all have used at some point egad). Pincus then was very matter of fact and up front about it all: when asked what he does, he replies "Nothing, really, but I did once invent the pill." Salut!