from Andrea:

"...Here are some photos of my grandfather. He was the child who grew up in that home in Brentwood and then moved out to the outskirts of los angeles, interested in ideas and hating any kind of opulence. He went on to Berkley where he studied chemical engineering. During the war he was drafted and rather than ending up in boot camp was told to get on a train, and then another train, and then transfer to a third train without knowing his destintation or purpose. He ended up in Los Alamos, working top level security on the manhattan project. He was in charge of clean up solutions, meant to devise back up solutions in the case that anything went wrong with the a-bomb. I've wanted to do a book for awhile now on him, the most beautiful detail is that he later went on to be come obsessed with the cultivation of orchids. His mother went blind later in life and was taught how to grow orchids as a means to keeping her busy as their upkeep is based on touch. He, in helping and caring for her learned and applied his obsessive meticulous brain to cross pollinating and growing tons of different strains. He at any one time had hundreds growing."

again, thanks to Andrea for entrusting me with this.