Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

Tombrello–60
TOMBRELLO: But you see, there’s where you have to be willing to go out on a limb. He needed
some money, and I got him money from the Musk Foundation, because Talulah knew about him.
She was sitting in the class with Grayson and knew perfectly well this kid needed money and
told Elon, “Hey, talk to him. You might want to give him some money.” So as a teenager he got
funded. Oh, no. I don’t care if they do physics. Remember, one of my undergrads from some
years ago was Sandra Tsing Loh [BS 1983]. She was merely Sandra Loh then. This was before
Phys 11, but she wrote her senior thesis with me on the technique to make anti-reflective
surfaces. She could have been a pretty good physicist. That wasn’t her game plan. I wish she
wouldn’t do that science show.
ASPATURIAN: You don’t like The Loh-Down on Science”?
TOMBRELLO: It’s a waste of her. Now, I think you could organize a very good show with
somebody like her. She’s very clever. I love some of the stuff she does in book reviews for The
Atlantic. I love the one-woman shows. I often get invited with the family to some of the
openings of the show, like Mother on Fire, which I thought was delightful because it was so
perfect. It was what happened when [Sandra’s oldest daughter] Madeline got to be almost five
and Sandra was trying to figure out what to do next. And it was resonant with our society. You
go to the shows and the people in the audience have been dealing with it. [Speaks in a nasal
voice, imitating Loh’s monologues]: “Well, we’ve got private school; we’ve got magnet school;
we’ve got parochial school; we’ve got the public school. What do we do?” And then she has
this blackboard where she puts up what looks like a spreadsheet and rates these things.
She can be totally manic in these presentations, but the audience, you see, is in the palm
of her hand, because they’ve been there. They identify with the problem, and they find it funny
as hell but in some ways so real. You’re laughing because you’ve tried to fight that particular
battle. Her first one was Aliens in America, which is about her father. I’m always somehow
seated next to her father at these events. I guess because we’re both weird. I like him. He is
weird. I guess he thinks I’m weird too. It took me years to get Sandra the Distinguished Alumni
Award [2001] here. I met her sister at the ceremony. She says, “How would you characterize
my sister.” I said, “It’s as if Molly Ivins grew up in the Valley.” And she said, “Oh, that’s
perfect.” [Laughter] Another one of my favorites.
http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T