Au contraire.
About that watch, my father e-mails:
Au contraire.
It was purchased in 1956-7 from the PX on our base near Gotemba at the base of Mount Fuji, selected from an array of Rolexes, the bulk of which suggested hardware rather than jewelry. It possessed a clean elegance the Oysters lacked.
As for motives, I was never afflicted with self doubt as to how to be a proper officer or what was proper attire. My class of maybe 150 fellow newly commissioned Marine officers at Quantico voted me the officer most likely to be a future Commandant of the Marine Corps. I let them down and became a medical doctor instead. What a waste.
Megan McArdle has a recent post about Zelboraf and the cost and effacy of cancer treatments. My wife and I have started watching Breaking Bad. Talking about our father with my sister, we both burst out “He just doesn’t care about money.” and we meant it in the best way possible.
My father does care about his children. The Marine Corps’ loss was our gain.
