I haven’t actually seen the movie, just this one scene from White Heat in which James Cagney, on top of a burning building, shouts “I made it, Ma: Top of the World” before collapsing in a ball of flames. It was in some movie with “Brooklyn” in the title, in which some kid gets involved with drug dealers, so they kill his father. They were cutting school watching this movie on TV, and I was captivated by the Destruction as Freedom evinced in that gangster’s fall.

It’s still a beacon to me. Perhaps I should grow up, but then, maybe it is not that easy. I once took a test I heard on NPR that some businesses were giving to decide if potential workers were anti-social or not, and it said I was dangerous just because I thought I would rather live in a world without scientists than madmen.

Is that TMI?