The Body Type Cafe

"Good morning, Lab 2a..."

"Margaret?"

"Speaking."

"Boy, do I have some exciting news for you."

"Oh, Rich. Hi. What's going on? You never call me at work."

"You're right, but this is special. I just left the station manager's meeting. They want to talk about you hosting a weekly science feature on the 'Modern Life' show."

"Richard, where would they get an idea like that?”

"No time to talk right now. How about dinner tonight at the Body Type Cafe? I'll tell you all about it. Around 7:30?"

"That's very short notice."

"Earth to Margaret. You're talking with the Richster now. I know what your social calendar has looked like for the last decade!"

"Not funny! Okay. Make it closer to 8."

"Great. See ya."

Margaret felt an unfamiliar excitement. The kind she remembered as a kid—Christmas morning or going to a carnival. Uncomfortable with the feeling, she went to work on blocking it. "A television hostess. That will be the day," she thought to herself. "An entertainer! No way. But how fun that would be. Well, I have real work to do now." Margaret turned back to the papers on her desk, but the mischief was done. She felt distracted, and her brain seemed to fog over as all the words in front of her blended into meaningless symbols. The excitement returned and she felt helpless to stop it. "A television hostess, me? Is this possible?" Margaret looked up and caught a reflection of herself, smiling, in the Doctorate Diploma which hung near her desk. "I'm going to be useless until I know what's going on," she thought as she fumbled through her rolodex for Rich's phone number at the station.



"This is Rich."

"Okay, Richster. I hate to say this, but I can't wait until eight. How about lunch?”

"Actually, I have lunch scheduled with the program director, but that may just work. I'm going to put you on hold. Just a second."

Margaret's reaction to this idea was taking her by surprise. No matter what mature adult-like thing she told herself about the situation, it was quickly replaced with a romantic image of TV cameras and fending off adoring fans. She could hardly sit still while Rich was gone for only a few moments, which felt like forever.

"Okay, lunch at Body Type. One o'clock. Jim, my manager will be with me, so you can get it straight from the horse's mouth."

"Thank you, Richard. I'll see you then."

_____

"Nice to finally meet you, Doctor," Jim said as he jumped up to greet Margaret. "I've heard a lot of good things about you. It seems you're quite a star in scientific circles.”

"Exaggerations, I assure you! And please, call me Margaret," she responded softly and with a polite smile. She shot a glance at her younger brother, who was grinning widely.

"Was I kidding?" Rich asked his manager. "Is she not gorgeous? An unbeatable combination, brains and beauty."

"Yes, Rich. This time I agree with you."

Margaret enjoyed the attention, but she was uncomfortable talking about her physical appearance and preferred keeping the conversation focused on her academic qualities. Besides, she was anxious to find out how she might be able to promote her life's work on a weekly TV show. "Thank you for your kind comments gentlemen, but shall we take our seats and discuss the business at hand?''

"By all means," replied Rich. We have the table by the atrium waiting for us.”

After everyone was seated, Jim started, "So, Margaret, how much has Rich told you about our project?"

"Only that you were considering creating a science segment for a weekly show," she replied.

"Are you familiar with the Modern Life show?" Jim continued.

"Sorry, I'm afraid not. I don't watch much TV."

"I can understand that. There isn't much on TV that could hold your attention. I mean, that's intelligent and useful." Jim paused, waiting for a response that didn't come. Margaret sat silently waiting for more information before she would react. "Anyway, we want to change that. Our Modern Life show is the most popular locally produced show. We've won several awards, and we want to syndicate to a national, maybe even international, market. We believe a segment which relates how local scientific research affects the everyday lives of people here and around the country would be informative and entertaining." Jim paused and looked into Margaret's expressionless face and thought to himself, "Rich was right, his sister is one tough audience."

Jim continued describing his vision for the program, but he couldn't know that Margaret's straight face hid an innate skepticism that was starting to intrude on her listening. "Man these guys certainly have grandiose plans," she thought. "I wonder if they have the resources to do any of this. I hope this isn't going to be a waste of my time."

"And we thought a person with your international reputation and, frankly, your good looks, would make an excellent host for the show." The instant Jim mentioned looks, Margaret's attention was pulled back to the discussion as she matter of factly responded, "As you can see, I am quite thin. In fact, I often have trouble keeping weight on."

"Oh, not a problem with Television. The camera always puts a good ten to fifteen pounds on you," Jim responded, happy for some reaction from his guest.

"And I'm also a little top heavy, if you know what I mean," Margaret continued, glancing down at her chest.

Jim's face flushed a little with the scientist's frank observation, and he said, "I don't mean to sound crude, but again, for TV that's not really a problem."

"I suppose you are right," Margaret agreed.

"Jim, you're not going to sell my sister on showing off her looks. After all, she's a Brain type. You'd be better off making a case for how excellent the content of the program will be," Rich interjected.

"You're right, Rich. You see Margaret, even though we feel you would present well and be popular with our young male audience, we also think that you bring the right combination of knowledge, insight and reputation to make this a legitimate and meaningful science program for all our viewer categories."

"What he's saying is, the science better be good or people won't buy it."

"Right! That's basically what I meant."

Margaret sat silently and considered what had been said. She was beginning to feel more comfortable with the idea. Having her name associated with sensational or inaccurate scientific presentation was just not acceptable, since she had a terrific fear of making mistakes or appearing stupid in public. Although her main strength was analytical, Margaret had always been quite sensitive, and her intuition was telling her that Jim and the station management had a legitimate, quality program in mind. Her feeling was that they would be willing to support it with the time and money necessary to do it right. Besides, her brother would never pull her into something that he thought wasn't in her best interest.

Margaret looked directly at the two men seated across from her and smiled. "I'm intrigued with your idea, and I think it could work. It's unconventional, and I like that. It seems like there would be a lot of room for creative expression, and I like that also. This kind of information is certainly needed by our society, and I'm sure it would help the scientific community and the public alike."

Jim's face visibly relaxed as he returned Margaret's smile, "I'm glad you like the concept. And I'm glad to see you smile. For a minute there, I thought you might be a little too serious for prime time."

"I told you she can come across as being a little cold. But she's really quite sweet at heart. You might even say, endearing," Rich added with a grin.

"Have you any estimates of the time necessary for my involvement in the project?" Margaret queried.

"We have some preliminary figures, but at this point they would be meaningless. We wanted to gauge your level of interest first before we moved into the costing phase. Does that mean you would like to help us put this together? I can't guarantee it will fly, but all indications suggest it will. Especially with your support."

"Well, Rich, what do you think? Should I take time out of my teaching and research activities and hook up with a bunch of creative, marketing types to do some TV?"

"I think it's just what the doctor ordered, sis. You've been talking about finding an outlet for your artistic side. Most people start with a drawing class or something, but I think inventing a TV show will be a good start," Rich answered with a chuckle.

Margaret turned to Jim and said, "Let's go for it. Anchors Away! Hey, you get it? That's a television pun. Anchors?"

Jim smiled politely as Rich started looking around for the waitress.