Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

Tombrello–253
TOMBRELLO: No. I think what will win her away is an offer from some school of the University
of Chicago type, where a president really matters. I think that would be something she would
have to think about. Right now she’s having too much fun looking for the Higgs particle and
SUSY [super symmetry] particles and the rest of that. But I think in five years she’ll be running
something. That’s been a big change: Watching women not only getting into science and
becoming extremely successful at it but moving, in some cases, from doing science to running
things. Of course, when you look at the statistics, you see that women now are the majority of
college students and probably close to the majority of graduate students. It won’t be long.
Going back to [George Bernard] Shaw—Superman has now appeared. [Laughter]
ASPATURIAN: That’s an interesting way to look at it.
TOMBRELLO: Well, Shaw had it right: Man and Superman.
ASPATURIAN: One of my favorite playwrights. You like Shaw?
TOMBRELLO: I do. My little running joke with Talulah Riley Musk came from when I told her I
was Henry Higgins, and she said she was Eliza Doolittle, and that comes out of Shaw’s play
Pygmalion.
ASPATURIAN: Not to mention that musical My Fair Lady.
TOMBRELLO: Oh, well. That’s the part we hum together. At some point, I was asking Talulah to
do something, and she said, “I’m not going to bring you your shoes.”
ASPATURIAN: “Eliza, bring me my slippers.” [Actual line is “Eliza, where the devil are my
slippers?”—ed.]
TOMBRELLO: “Bring me my slippers.” That’s what she said. “I’m not going to bring you your
slippers.” Are we through?
ASPATURIAN: Not quite. You mentioned the Bohemian Grove several times.
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