September 28, 2023 Book Club Lunch at La Salita
I love that every day seems different in some unique way. Today was no exception.
I awakened at 4:00 and caught up in the news.
Then worked until 9:30 when I showered and dressed and walked outside and met Charlie in the driveway at 10:45.
We picked up Peter at 10:55 and drove to La Salita Restaurant on Juan Tabo for the Book Club lunch.
La Salita has changed its service model from table service to counter service with a rover to provide table needs like bringing food orders from the kitchen and requested sopapillas, napkins, and knives. I,ordered three beef enchiladas with a side of refried beans and a side of whole beans with an apple cider.
After we sat down we opened a paper sleeve to find a napkin and fork. I was immediately put off by the whole system, although I understood that it was probably a response forced on the restaurant by Covid. What it meant was that Charlie, Peter and I were served our food before many of the other 6 other members arrived.
When my food arrived I discovered that the platter contained only two enchiladas, but the server said: “I know you ordered three and I have ordered you another enchilada.”
Soon the third enchilada arrived and I added it to my plate and ate everything because I had not eaten any breakfast. I was stuffed but happy.
Keith was the last to be served and he made an interesting stuffed sopapilla by stuffing his food and lettuce and tomato garnish into a sopapilla.
After lunch we drove to Tom’s house in Four Hills for the meeting.
The book was Robert Oppenheimer: American Prometheus by Sherwin, the biography of Robert Oppenheimer that was made into the recent movie.
Surprisingly, everyone loved the book and gave it a grade of A. Perhaps that was not so surprising because in our group we have several people who worked on bomb related endeavors at Sandia. Mike, who had worked at Sandia and was a 1963 Naval Academy graduate, attended and explained that Sandia Lab was Division D of the Manhattan Project where many of the engineers worked to construct the bomb casing and performed other engineering tasks because it was accessible by railroad.
Tom, our host, was a West Point graduate in physics who taught math at the Air force Academy. Keith of the stuffed sopapilla, our resident poet, was a doctoral student of Edwin Teller and a Sandia physics staffer read us Oppenheimer’s favorite Pablo Neruda poem..
Keith also told us that, irrespective of the professional and scientific disputes between Teller and Oppenheimer, that Teller was very supportive of his graduate students and that Teller had mentored Keith to help get his Doctorate degree.
When the discussion began focusing on Teller’s hydrogen fusion bomb and heavy water, Keith also told a joke. He he was one of the persons designated at the Lab to explain Atomic energy to civilian groups and at one meeting when he was explaining the conversion of hydrogen into its isotope that created the bomb, a gentleman in the audience commented to Keith, who was then a colonel in the Air Force,
“Sonny, I can tell you how to energize water without all those contraptions, just mix it with some Jack Daniels.”
The discussion went on like that until 3:30 when Tom suggested we take a break for dessert and then return to announce our grades. We all went to the kitchen and were served a berry crumble made by Tom’s wife and lovely small individual pumpkin cheesecakes made by Tom’s daughter with Kirkland vanilla ice cream that Tom professed to be the best. It was creamier with less vanilla flavor than Bluebell, more of a French custard style.
The cheesecakes were surprisingly good, with a caramelized bottom instead of a crust.
I drank a nice Beaujolais.
After we returned the discussion continued and there was unanimous consensus that the book deserved a grade of A.
Mike responded to my question, “Why did the title refer to Prometheus?”
“Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from the Gods and gave it to humans and Zeus punished him by chaining him to a mountain where an eagle came every day and clawed him and ripped a piece of his liver out to torture him for eternity.”
That myth conformed to how Oppenheimer was out of government service by being placed under constant surveillance after the war by the FBI and how his arch-rival Louis Strauss and the FBI engineered the loss of Oppenheimer’s security clearance and position as Science advisor to the Atomic Energy Commission at the height of the McCarthy era in 1953 by insinuations that he had Communist leanings when he taught at Berkeley in the 30’s and early 40’s.
Everyone felt touched in some special way by this brilliant biography of Robert Oppenheimer.
I was the last to leave and asked Tom to explain the three swords leaning against an armoire. He said one was his Army issued cadet sword from West Point, one was an Air Force cadet sword given to him by his math students at the Air Force Academy, and the third that I recognized as similar to that of Robert E. Lee’s was a replica of Robert E. Lee’s sword with an engraving that was given to Tom as the top math student at West Point.
This quiet man is just one example of the brilliance that animates our book club.
Charlie then maneuvered us home through the madness and congestion and a major accident on I-40 at 4:30.
When I returned home I found Suzette sleeping. I watched the news and then went to bed at 6:30 and slept until 9:30 . I then watched the rest of the news until 11:30 and then slept until 5:30 a.m.
Because of the huge lunch and no breakfast, I did not eat dinner, I still must be on the Spanish Comida del Dia food schedule, except today it was reduced to a meal at noon and a snack of dessert at 3:00.
Bon Appetit
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