The split from Pauling, and the death of Laurelee, sent Robinson hurtling further out into the fringe, where he found a small but ardent caucus of contrarians: scientists, like him, who had abandoned — or been ejected from — the normie, left-leaning research community and who made common cause in puncturing prevailing views on smoking, DDT, radiation, depletion of the ozone hole and changes to the climate.

Usually, I had no problem approaching girls, but this one was different. I went home and berated myself for being such a chicken.

The cloying fondness she displayed was what, in the end, drove me away.

Crumb, as a cartoonist, also summons ideas of Schediaphilia