Afterthought on Jarvik

I've been rethinking. They say Robert Jarvik's contract to do Lipitor commercials was two years, and the pay: $1.35 million. Consider, please: that's about $650K a year, for quite a few quite complex film camera shoots, on location in many parts of the country -- he was in attendance at that lake, though he didn't row. Plus all the rest of the accompanying folderol involved in being a celebrity spokesman.

It must have been a fairly intense part-time job. For a guy who's running his own company, that's quite a commitment. He must have imagined the exposure would be worth millions more to him in the development of his company, on the worldwide money markets. So, for all this, he put his medical-health reputation -- which even he must have known was not close to that of, say Michael DeBakey -- on the line. However he must have looked at it, he stood to win big, and couldn't lose. Sadly, I suspect he still thinks so.