[...] I got into Harvard on a film criticism scholarship. At the time, it was a big thing in the Ivy Leagues. A moneymaker for the university. We competed in criticism decathlons against the other Ivies to packed auditoriums. Film was of major cultural import in the seventies, that magical decade for American filmmaking. Now, of course, it has fallen by the wayside. Now everyone loves virology. Now my virologist nemesis is revered, doing important work in the development of a hookworm vaccine, a vaccine that will help hundreds of millions of people and hurt hundreds of millions of hookworms.