The Return of Brian

UnderWoman is not wowed by celebrities or cowed by military juntas.

But she is AWED by her rock-star neurologist, Dr. Lewis Knowland, who in addition to treating her myasthenia gravis, has run the Columbia University Neurological Institute for 40 of its 100 years, was editor of Neurology magazine for 20, and edits Merritt’s Textbook of Neurology, the teaching bible in most med schools.

Within moments of their arrival, even the “It” animals of the Do-It Family entourage have places of honor in Dr. Knowland’s inner sanctum, with its vast library, curiosity cabinets, medical treasures and oddities, and adjoining exam rooms.

“Ms. Do-It,” he says deferentially, while Brian is having his vitals checked, “You have indeed found Dr. Brian Liebman. He had gone on a solo game-hunting expedition to North Salem nearly a year back...and never came back.

"We tried every means of finding him in our power. But lacking any credible clues, he was presumed….”

“Presumed missing?” asks Brian, brightly, re-entering the room.
The two men embrace, take their places in plush red leather chairs.

The full story, albeit missing some key links, begins to unfold:

Dr. Liebman was a successful but somewhat reclusive neuroanatomist, working first with fruit flies in the labs of Richard Axel, Nobel laureate for his breakthroughs in the fields of olfaction/smell; and later in the labs of Nobel laureate Eric Kandel, with whom he mastered molecular models of memory and altered genes so as to induce and treat schizophrenia in mice.

He had always been considered both brilliant and a little bit off:

He could intuit and solve mathematical equations and scientific mysteries like nobody’s business. But then he would do something totally dense and obtuse, even endangering....

So it went with his determination to go on a solo hunting trip "upstate," when he had hardly ever been away from big cities or outside of academic institutions.

His hypo-manic studies of the olfactory systems of whitetail deer, coupled with excessive paraphernalia purchases from Gander Mountain, could be classified as....

BINGO! A light goes on for UnderWoman!

She should have known better! Seen sooner!

But at least it's beginning to dawn on her now....