Test: Zhivago

 

Saturday, September 12, 2026

Dr Zhivago Revisited: The Secret Lamarck/Lysenko Deal

 

The Balalaika Conspiracy:
Doctor Zhivago’s Last-Minute Concession to Lysenko

David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago begins with General Yevgraf Zhivago searching for a young woman named Tanya Komarova, whom he suspects is the lost daughter of his half-brother Yuri and Lara. The film then retreats into its enormous central flashback. Only in the final moments does it complete the frame: as Tanya walks away, Yevgraf notices that she carries a balalaika. Her companion tells him that she does not merely play it; “she’s an artist.” Yevgraf smiles. Yuri’s mother had also possessed an extraordinary gift for the instrument.

“Ah,” he says. “Then it’s a gift.”

Ordinarily, this is taken as a delicate final suggestion that Tanya really is Yuri’s daughter. That interpretation, however, overlooks the scene’s remarkable biological claim. Tanya has apparently inherited not merely musical aptitude, but proficiency with one particular Russian stringed instrument—an ability first acquired through practice by her paternal grandmother. This is not Mendelian genetics. It is Lamarckism with three strings.

We propose that the balalaika ending was imposed upon the film as a discreet tribute to Trofim Lysenko, the Soviet agronomist who rejected conventional genetics and maintained that acquired characteristics could be transmitted to later generations. 

• Wheat exposed to winter could beget winter-ready wheat. 
• A woman who mastered the balalaika could apparently beget a granddaughter who did the same.

Several features support the hypothesis.

First, the Tanya framework is structurally detachable. The great romantic narrative would remain intact without it. Its industrial setting, older Yevgraf and unfamiliar young couple belong to a visibly separate layer of the production. The balalaika itself arrives only in the final seconds, too late to influence the plot but precisely in time to dictate its ideological meaning. This is the signature of a late political insertion: narratively unnecessary, symbolically overdetermined and positioned where no audience can escape before receiving it.

Second, Yevgraf’s reasoning is otherwise inexplicable. A balalaika is not mitochondrial DNA. Thousands of Russians played one. Yet the general treats Tanya’s virtuosity as near-genealogical confirmation. The film asks the audience to accept a chain of inheritance running from Yuri’s mother, through Yuri—who exhibits no comparable instrumental ability—to Tanya. The trait has passed silently through one generation and then flowered in the next. It is difficult to imagine a more cinematic demonstration of an acquired characteristic awaiting favorable environmental conditions.

Third, the crucial word “gift” is suspiciously diplomatic. To Western audiences it means innate music talent. To a Lysenkoist censor it could signify specifically the genetic transmission of environmentally cultivated capacity. One line thus supports two mutually incompatible theories of heredity. It is less dialogue than a carefully negotiated communiqué.

The probable production history can be reconstructed. At some late stage, several vital reels got entangled in an otherwise obscure political embargo. Producer Carlo Ponti, needing their release, offered the balalaika scene as a bargaining counter: no overt praise of Soviet biology, certainly, but a final image showing that the disciplined achievements of one generation might reappear spontaneously in another. The officials received their ideological gesture; Ponti received his reels; Lean received an ending sufficiently poetic that nobody would examine its agronomy.

And fourth - There remains the most intriguing evidence. In the hydroelectric-dam sequences, a heavyset, balding man of approximately Lysenko’s age can—or can almost—be detected among the background workers. He never faces the camera squarely. Production records do not identify him. Enlargements are inconclusive. Yet his placement is suggestive: he stands within the vast machinery of Soviet modernization while Yuri’s supposedly inherited balalaika talent is being rediscovered nearby.

• Could Lysenko himself have been smuggled into the film as an extra, memorializing the bargain?

Chronology, geography and ordinary probability all argue strongly against it. On the other hand, these objections rely upon conventional evidence—the very epistemological regime Lysenko devoted his career to overcoming. Absence of documentation may therefore be counted, in appropriately Lysenkoist fashion, as evidence that the theory has adapted successfully to hostile archival conditions.

Conclusion

The closing scene of Doctor Zhivago is consequently more than a sentimental recognition scene. It is a compressed parable of heredity, diplomacy and film finance. Tanya does not inherit Yuri’s poetry, Lara’s courage or even her grandmother’s general musicality. She inherits the balalaika.

The instrument is not simply a family keepsake. It is the acquired characteristic made audible.

Test: RePosting Mark Twain News Critic

 

Mark Twain as Movie Critic: Sound of Music, Love Actually

 

The Sound of Music

I had supposed that a convent existed to protect its inmates from the world. In this picture it serves chiefly to protect the world from a young woman named Maria, and presently abandons even that duty.

She is dispatched to a household containing seven children and a retired naval captain, an arrangement which would seem to require either a governess or an armistice.

The captain governs by whistle. Maria governs by song. The children, having examined both constitutions, elect the one which permits excursions.

Miss Andrews sings beautifully. Indeed, she sings so beautifully that one almost forgives the frequency with which she discovers an occasion to do so.

The baroness is the only person present who appears equipped to conduct an ordinary afternoon. Naturally, she must go.

Meanwhile Austria is being annexed, a development which introduces some welcome uncertainty into a plot whose matrimonial outcome has been visible from Switzerland.

At last the family escapes over the mountains. The youngest children manage this remarkably well, considering that their principal training has been in staircases.

It is a handsome and affecting entertainment. I left with renewed faith in children, mountains, and the wisdom of keeping a governess’s references on file.

Love Actually

This picture undertakes to prove that love is everywhere, and employs nearly the entire British acting profession to prevent the proposition from escaping examination.

There are so many courtships that I began assigning them numbers, a system defeated when several persons took an interest in the wrong number.

The prime minister falls in love with a member of his staff. In America this would require a committee; in England it requires a Christmas concert.

A gentleman courts his best friend’s wife by exhibiting written statements at her doorstep. He has evidently mistaken the absence of spoken testimony for innocence.

Another gentleman proposes marriage in Portuguese, a language he has recently acquired for the purpose. I admired his economy. Most husbands spend years learning how to be misunderstood.

Miss Thompson supplies the picture with its conscience. Her husband supplies it with the need for one.

The airport scenes suggest that the authorities will waive any regulation upon satisfactory evidence of a romantic emergency.

I laughed frequently and was moved against my better preparations. The machinery is shameless, but well tended.

I cannot certify that love is everywhere. In this picture, however, it has secured all the available parking.

CHAT GPT alternative essay on CMS Elective Exclusion

Main blog; Claude essay on elective exclusion case law

Here:  Alternative from Chat GPT

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CMS Exclusion Authority and the Lessons of Three Appellate Decisions

CMS’s expanded role in excluding providers from federal healthcare programs brings renewed attention to a longstanding question: how much discretion does the government have to remove a provider, and what must it demonstrate before doing so?

Three federal appellate decisions offer useful perspectives. One concerns laboratory referral arrangements, another the responsibility of pharmaceutical executives, and a third allegedly unnecessary medical procedures. Together, they distinguish the legal basis for exclusion, the justification for its duration, and the procedures available to challenge it.

A New Enforcement Role Under an Existing Statute

On October 14, 2026, HHS delegated to the CMS Administrator the Secretary’s permissive-exclusion authority under §1128(b) of the Social Security Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. §1320a-7(b). OIG retains its authority. The delegation expressly withholds authority to conduct hearings or issue regulations and requires compliance with applicable departmental procedures and rules. It changes who can exercise the authority without rewriting the statutory grounds for exclusion.

“Permissive” means that exclusion is authorized rather than automatically required once a qualifying circumstance exists. The circumstances vary considerably: some involve convictions, while others involve unnecessary services, substandard care, prohibited financial arrangements, or failures to provide required information. Consequently, permissive exclusion is not synonymous with exclusion without a conviction, although important provisions require none.

The following cases arose from HHS/OIG enforcement. Their relevance to CMS lies in their interpretation of the same statutory authority and the constraints surrounding its exercise.

Hanlester: A Laboratory Violation Did Not Necessarily Justify Exclusion

Hanlester Network v. Shalala, 51 F.3d 1390 (9th Cir. 1995)

Hanlester organized laboratory joint ventures in which physicians could purchase partnership interests. SmithKline BioScience Laboratories managed the laboratories and performed most of their testing. The government alleged that financial benefits offered to physician investors improperly induced referrals and that the relationship with SmithKline also involved unlawful remuneration.

HHS pursued permissive exclusions under §1128(b)(7), which reaches specified prohibited conduct, including kickback violations. The Ninth Circuit upheld certain entities’ liability for their marketing agent’s conduct but reversed the exclusions. It emphasized exclusion’s purpose of protecting programs and patients from future harmful conduct. On the particular record, the entities’ liability was vicarious, and the court concluded that the relevant untrustworthiness ended when the agent left.

The distinction is consequential: a finding of misconduct and a justification for exclusion are separate questions. The decision does not establish that dismissing an employee always prevents exclusion; its reasoning depended on the evidence and attribution of responsibility.

A qualification concerns the case’s separate interpretation of kickback intent. Congress subsequently eliminated the requirement for actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it. That older portion of Hanlester should not be presented as current law.

Friedman: Exclusion Was Authorized, but Twelve Years Required a Better Explanation

Friedman v. Sebelius, 686 F.3d 813 (D.C. Cir. 2012)

Purdue Frederick employees had promoted OxyContin as less addictive and less susceptible to abuse than other pain medications. Three senior executives pleaded guilty to misdemeanor misbranding under the responsible corporate officer doctrine. Their pleas admitted responsibility and authority to prevent or correct the misrepresentations; the doctrine did not require personal knowledge of the underlying fraudulent conduct.

HHS ultimately imposed twelve-year exclusions. The executives challenged both the statutory basis and the duration.

The D.C. Circuit held that §1128(b)(1) authorized exclusion because the misdemeanor convictions related to fraud. However, it remanded because HHS had not adequately explained the unusually lengthy exclusions in light of prior agency decisions. The court did not declare twelve years categorically impermissible; it required a reasoned explanation.

For policymakers, the case demonstrates that a lawful basis for exclusion does not settle its appropriate length. An agency changing enforcement intensity must explain its decisions and address relevant precedent. Unlike Hanlester, this case depended on criminal convictions, although the convictions did not require proof that the executives personally intended fraud.

Thorbus: Challenging Exclusion Does Not Necessarily Stop It

Thorbus v. Bowen, 848 F.2d 901 (8th Cir. 1988)

Dr. Ruben Thorbus practiced in rural Minnesota, where approximately 60% of his clinic patients received Medicare or Medicaid. Medical reviews identified allegedly excessive diagnostic endoscopic procedures and deficiencies in care. After giving him an opportunity to present evidence and argument, HHS imposed a five-year exclusion.

The cited authorities included §1128(b)(6)(B), covering substantially unnecessary or substandard services, and a separate quality-of-care provision. Thorbus requested an administrative hearing but also sought a federal court injunction to prevent exclusion while administrative proceedings continued.

The Eighth Circuit upheld the refusal to grant an injunction. It found no established constitutional violation and concluded that the asserted financial and reputational harm did not justify relief when balanced against potential harm to patients.

The decision illustrates the practical importance of timing: an available appeal does not necessarily postpone an exclusion. Its holding concerned interim relief and procedural adequacy, however, rather than a final judicial resolution of every disputed medical service.

Implications for CMS Policy

These decisions identify three questions that should remain distinct as CMS exercises its authority:

• Is there a statutory basis for exclusion? The government must establish the elements of the particular provision invoked.

• Is the exclusion decision adequately justified? The protective rationale, supporting evidence, and duration can be subject to judicial scrutiny.

• When can the provider obtain review or interim protection? Procedures differ by statutory ground. Section 1128(b)(7), for example, generally provides for a hearing before exclusion takes effect, subject to a health-or-safety exception.

For laboratory policy, another distinction is essential. Excessive charges under §1128(b)(6)(A) and unnecessary services under §1128(b)(6)(B) are different grounds. The former addresses charges substantially above the provider’s usual charges, subject to statutory qualifications. The latter concerns patient need and professional standards. Thorbus therefore does not establish how the excessive-charge provision applies to laboratory prices. Nor does Hanlester, which involved referral arrangements rather than fee-schedule levels.

The significance of CMS’s delegation is institutional: the agency administering payment programs now has a broader route to pursue exclusion itself. The appellate cases underscore that this enforcement capacity remains tied to specific statutory grounds, evidentiary records, and reasoned decisions. Public concern about fraud may explain a stronger enforcement priority; each exclusion must still be justified under the law governing that action.

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Evaluating the Value of Four-Transcript Analyses for Biz Deals

 Recently we looked at "four investor call" analyses for Bioreference/Labcorp, Invitae/Bankruptcy, and Myriad/Labcorp.  Quo vadis?

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The value of “Four Transcripts” is that it lets us test a company’s explanation against its own subsequent results. One call offers a carefully prepared account of the present and a forecast of the future. Four calls let us ask whether the forecast arrived, whether the explanation changed, and whether the original business objective still made sense.

Across BioReference, Invitae, and Myriad Prenatal, that approach produced three different findings. Their common destination—Labcorp—should not obscure how differently they arrived there.

Three cases, three different problems

Case	Management’s central proposition	What the sequence revealed	Principal lesson
BioReference	A smaller, more focused laboratory could achieve sustainable profitability	Operating improvements were real, but recurring profitability remained unproven; a transaction-related benefit complicated the apparent earnings improvement	Improving a business does not establish that its current parent is its best owner
Invitae	Restructuring and refinancing could provide enough time to reach a sustainable business model	Margins improved and cash burn fell, yet financing needs and the capital structure remained decisive	An operating turnaround can progress while the corporation’s ability to finance it deteriorates
Myriad Prenatal	Customer recovery, dedicated selling, and FirstGene could restore growth	Recovery disappointed, explanations broadened, and prenatal increasingly competed with oncology for resources	A promising business can lose its place in a company’s investment priorities without becoming technologically obsolete

These are interpretations of the three supplied studies, rather than a new independent audit of every underlying transcript and filing.

BioReference: the revealing feature was persistence. Its public strategy remained remarkably consistent: reduce costs, concentrate the business, improve the testing mix, and grow 4Kscore. The useful observation was how long the anticipated profitability remained ahead of the company.

The report’s most concrete analytical finding was the distinction between reported and recurring operating performance. A reported quarterly operating profit included a divestiture-related benefit large enough to reverse the apparent conclusion about the continuing operation. That is something an enthusiastic call summary could easily miss.

The sale did not prove that the turnaround was fictitious. Restructuring could improve both the prospects for continued ownership and the price obtainable from a buyer. The calls demonstrated an operational improvement program; they did not disclose when selling became the preferred corporate strategy.

The BioReference study provides that distinction: BioReference_Terminal_Year_OPKO_Case_Study_Updated_PAMA(2).pdf

Invitae: the revealing feature was the coexistence of improvement and danger. This is the strongest answer to the claim that earnings calls are merely hype. Some of the positive operating developments were substantive. Gross margins improved, spending fell, and near-term debt maturities were addressed. Those achievements nevertheless failed to establish that the company could finance itself through to sustainability.

The decisive change was the transition from a turnaround supported by expected financing flexibility to a formal going-concern warning and a capital-structure review. The report carefully distinguishes that management assessment from a supposed longstanding auditor warning.

The important analytical question was therefore not whether management could identify genuine progress. It could. The question was whether that progress solved the company’s binding financial constraint.

The Invitae study captures that separation: INVITAE Lst Four Calls.pdf

Myriad Prenatal: the revealing feature was the evolution of the explanation. The early account centered on an ordering-system disruption and recovering displaced customer volume. Later calls placed increasing weight on dedicated sales resources, competition, reimbursement, and FirstGene. Finally, portfolio review became explicit.

Your challenge to the software explanation improved the analysis. Repetition by management is evidence that an explanation mattered to its public narrative. It is not an independent measurement of how much that factor contributed to the outcome.

The stronger finding was that the recovery thesis became less convincing while the opportunity cost of continuing to fund prenatal became more important. The sale could make sense even if FirstGene was scientifically sound and commercially promising.

The Myriad study makes that distinction explicit: 20261020 Myriad to Labcorp Prenatal.pdf

“The calls are just BS and hype”—a useful warning, but an inadequate method

Earnings calls are managed communications. Executives choose which metrics to emphasize, which comparisons to make, and how to describe setbacks. A favorable statement can be accurate while leaving the reader with an incomplete understanding.

That is precisely why reading a sequence can be productive.

Consider three hypothetical statements:

• “Our gross margin improved.”
• “Our restructuring is ahead of plan.”
• “We expect growth to resume in the second half.”

The first may describe a measurable achievement. The second requires a definition of the plan and its baseline. The third is a forecast that can be checked later. Treating all three as either trustworthy information or empty promotion discards the distinctions that make analysis possible.

The most informative question is often: What does this favorable fact actually establish?

Higher gross margin does not establish adequate cash generation. Lower cash burn does not establish sufficient financing. A successful product launch does not establish physician adoption, reimbursement, or attractive returns. An improving subsidiary does not establish that retaining it is the parent’s best use of capital.

The three cases become interesting when we stop asking whether management was “positive” and examine the distance between its evidence and its conclusion.

Why four calls add more than four separate summaries

A sequence creates several tests that a single transcript cannot provide.

First, it creates a record of commitments. A forecast made in one quarter becomes a question for the next. Did the milestone occur? Was its deadline changed? Was the metric redefined? Did management explain the difference?

Second, it reveals how the explanation develops. A temporary disruption may become a customer-retention problem, then a commercial-execution problem, then a portfolio decision. That progression might reflect better understanding, changing conditions, selective presentation, or some combination. It deserves investigation without an automatic accusation of dishonesty.

Third, it makes persistent language informative. BioReference illustrates this particularly well. There need not be a dramatic rhetorical reversal. Repeatedly approaching the same objective without clearly reaching it can itself become the finding.

Fourth, it reveals which questions become harder to answer. Analyst Q&A is valuable when someone asks for a reconciliation: Why has recovery not occurred? How much financing is actually accessible? Does improved reported profit represent the continuing business? Analysts are not infallible, but their questions can expose the assumptions that prepared remarks leave implicit.

Fifth, it helps distinguish a business’s performance from its owner’s choices. The relevant unit of analysis can shift from a test, to a laboratory, to a corporate portfolio, to the claims of creditors and shareholders. Invitae makes the danger of collapsing those levels especially clear.

The deepest commonality: progress was not enough

Each company could point to improvements. Each still faced a different unresolved question:

• BioReference: Would the retained operation generate durable earnings sufficient to justify continued ownership?
• Invitae: Could the company finance the remaining journey to sustainability?
• Myriad: Did prenatal offer a better use of incremental resources than the alternatives within the portfolio?

This suggests a useful discipline for any future four-call study: identify the constraint that matters most, then ask whether the reported progress actually relaxes it.

A company can spend considerable time discussing an improving metric that is relevant but insufficient. That need not be deception. Management may sincerely believe its achievements will eventually solve the larger problem. The analyst’s job is to examine the missing connection.

Labcorp gives the three cases a second analytical dimension

The buyer’s presence allows us to distinguish the value of operating assets from the success of the corporate structure that previously held them.

A laboratory can possess valuable assays, customer relationships, personnel, and data while struggling to generate satisfactory returns under a particular owner. A larger operator may anticipate using those assets differently or supporting them at lower incremental cost.

But the three outcomes should not be flattened into a single consolidation story. A negotiated divestiture and a bankruptcy sale occur under different constraints. The seller’s time, financing alternatives, and bargaining position matter. Purchase prices also cover different assets and liabilities.

Nor does Labcorp’s willingness to buy prove that its integration thesis will succeed. These cases document why ownership changed. A subsequent study would be needed to evaluate whether the new ownership delivered the expected economics.

The method needs safeguards against hindsight

The phrase “last four transcripts” is inherently retrospective. We selected these windows because we already knew something consequential happened afterward. That creates a temptation to make every earlier remark sound prophetic.

A fair study should ask two separate questions:

1. What could a careful reader reasonably have concluded at that time?
2. What does the later outcome help us understand about the earlier record?

The first supports contemporaneous judgment. The second supports historical explanation. They should not be presented as interchangeable.

Our three cases demonstrate explanatory usefulness; they do not establish predictive accuracy. To test prediction, we would also need companies with similar warnings or disappointing quarters that recovered, remained independent, or never sold. Otherwise, we cannot estimate false alarms.

Four calls are also a practical boundary, not a scientifically validated optimum. They provide repeated checkpoints, but acquisition history, financing terms, or reimbursement changes may require looking further back.

The strongest version is “four transcripts plus corroboration.” The calls organize the inquiry. Filings test liquidity and accounting claims. Transaction documents clarify what was sold. Product and payer evidence test commercial assumptions. Bankruptcy records can reveal constraints absent from earlier presentations.

That is also where AI is useful: aligning statements across quarters, finding changed forecasts, separating recurring from transaction-related figures, and organizing competing explanations. Its particular risk is producing an overly smooth story. The discipline is to preserve unresolved questions and label inference as inference.

The worthwhile lesson is that public corporate language can be analyzed without either believing it wholesale or dismissing it wholesale. These three studies found genuine progress, incomplete recoveries, shifting priorities, and materially different financial constraints. Reading the calls together made those distinctions visible—and made the eventual transactions more understandable without pretending they had been inevitable.

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For Myriad you also hunted down an SEC document.

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Yes—the October 20 Form 8-K and its attached asset purchase agreement, signed October 19. Those added information beyond the press release:

• Myriad retains pre-closing accounts receivable, so selling the business does not eliminate its responsibility for collecting those balances.
• The transaction includes employee offers, a patent license, and transition services.
• The agreement specifies closing conditions, potential extensions, and a $10.5 million termination fee in certain regulatory circumstances. www.sec.gov

That improves our description of the method: the four transcripts provide the narrative spine; the SEC documents test and deepen the interpretation. The calls show how management explained the business over time. The agreement shows what the parties actually committed to transfer, retain, and undertake.

We also found the historical SEC acquisition disclosure that distinguished Counsyl’s $375 million announcement price from $405.9 million in subsequently reported consideration—another useful detail that a press-release-only review would miss. www.sec.gov

Maverick Blue Line - East Boston

 

Rise and Fall of Wang Laboratories (Boston)

Was the decline of WANG comparable ot BLACKBERRY?

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Yes! Wang Laboratories was one of the great Boston-area technology success stories of the 1970s and 1980s—and its collapse is remarkably reminiscent of BlackBerry's.

In fact, Wang is a classic example of a company that dominated a major technology market, became enormously successful, and then failed to adapt when the entire market changed underneath it.

The rise and fall of Wang Laboratories

7

Founded in 1951 by Chinese-born engineer An Wang, Wang Laboratories eventually became a Massachusetts technology giant headquartered in Lowell, about 25 miles northwest of Boston.

Its specialty was dedicated word-processing systems, particularly the Wang OIS (Office Information System). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, these were sophisticated, expensive office machines that could store, edit, and print documents long before ordinary office workers had personal computers.

Wang became especially popular with law firms, government agencies, corporations, and other organizations producing mountains of documents.

At its peak, Wang employed roughly 30,000 people and generated more than $3 billion in annual revenue.

How quickly did it collapse?

1984

Highly profitable: $210 million profit on $2.1 billion revenue.

1988

Revenue peaks around $3 billion, but the underlying business is deteriorating.

1989

Loses $424 million. An Wang removes his son Frederick as president.

1992

Files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with employment sharply reduced.

1999

The reorganized software and services business is acquired by Getronics.

Sources:

Los Angeles Times

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Why the BlackBerry analogy works

The similarity is almost uncanny.

Wang: Why would a corporation abandon an excellent $10,000–$20,000 dedicated word-processing system for a relatively primitive IBM PC?

BlackBerry: Why would a business executive abandon a superb physical keyboard and secure corporate email for an iPhone without a keyboard?

In both cases, the incumbent had a very good answer about why its existing product was superior—while missing the much larger advantages of the new platform.

There is one important complication: by the 1980s, Wang also had a substantial minicomputer business. Its failure was not simply the disappearance of dedicated word processors, but the erosion of its entire proprietary computing ecosystem.

And there is a fascinating Boston connection. Wang's decline was part of the collapse of the Route 128 computer industry, including Digital Equipment Corporation, Data General, and Prime Computer. Boston had once been a formidable competitor to Silicon Valley in computing hardware.

The Washington Post

+1

One surviving reminder is Boston's famous Wang Theatre, named for An Wang, who helped finance its restoration.

The historical irony: Wang helped invent the modern electronic office, but the personal computer revolution made Wang's own version of that office obsolete.

 

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An Wang himself did not simply disappear from the scene. He remained involved with Wang Laboratories almost until his death.

He died March 24, 1990, at age 70, of esophageal cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The Washington Post

+1

His story has a rather poignant ending:

• 1984: His company was still enormously profitable.

• 1986: His son Frederick became president, while An Wang remained CEO.

• 1989: With the company losing hundreds of millions, An Wang removed his own son from the presidency.

• 1990: Wang died, still chairman and CEO.

• 1992: The company filed for bankruptcy.

So Wang lived long enough to witness the unraveling of his life's work, but not its final bankruptcy.

He was also a remarkable inventor, earning a Harvard PhD in applied physics and making an important early contribution to magnetic-core computer memory.

And his philanthropic legacy outlived the company, particularly Boston's Wang Theatre and the Wang Ambulatory Care Center at MGH.

HOLLIS for Archival Discovery

+1

The striking historical detail is that the company went bankrupt just 29 months after its founder died.

Mark Twain as Movie Critic: Sound of Music, Love Actually

 

The Sound of Music

I had supposed that a convent existed to protect its inmates from the world. In this picture it serves chiefly to protect the world from a young woman named Maria, and presently abandons even that duty.

She is dispatched to a household containing seven children and a retired naval captain, an arrangement which would seem to require either a governess or an armistice.

The captain governs by whistle. Maria governs by song. The children, having examined both constitutions, elect the one which permits excursions.

Miss Andrews sings beautifully. Indeed, she sings so beautifully that one almost forgives the frequency with which she discovers an occasion to do so.

The baroness is the only person present who appears equipped to conduct an ordinary afternoon. Naturally, she must go.

Meanwhile Austria is being annexed, a development which introduces some welcome uncertainty into a plot whose matrimonial outcome has been visible from Switzerland.

At last the family escapes over the mountains. The youngest children manage this remarkably well, considering that their principal training has been in staircases.

It is a handsome and affecting entertainment. I left with renewed faith in children, mountains, and the wisdom of keeping a governess’s references on file.

Love Actually

This picture undertakes to prove that love is everywhere, and employs nearly the entire British acting profession to prevent the proposition from escaping examination.

There are so many courtships that I began assigning them numbers, a system defeated when several persons took an interest in the wrong number.

The prime minister falls in love with a member of his staff. In America this would require a committee; in England it requires a Christmas concert.

A gentleman courts his best friend’s wife by exhibiting written statements at her doorstep. He has evidently mistaken the absence of spoken testimony for innocence.

Another gentleman proposes marriage in Portuguese, a language he has recently acquired for the purpose. I admired his economy. Most husbands spend years learning how to be misunderstood.

Miss Thompson supplies the picture with its conscience. Her husband supplies it with the need for one.

The airport scenes suggest that the authorities will waive any regulation upon satisfactory evidence of a romantic emergency.

I laughed frequently and was moved against my better preparations. The machinery is shameless, but well tended.

I cannot certify that love is everywhere. In this picture, however, it has secured all the available parking.