The Wire (with whimsy)

You have to love Alexander Calder. He's the guy who invented the mobile, OK? What more, what greater contribution, could you possibly ask for? They hang in space, delicately balanced, moving, changing with the slightest breath of air. They seem to mirror the heavens, where the planets and stars hang in majestic motion, but they're small, human scaled, fun, approachable, utterly cheerful and seemingly not meant to be taken seriously. Why am I on about Calder all of a sudden? Well, there's an exhibit in New York's Whitney museum, for one thing, through February 15. But it's never wrong to talk about Calder. He was a genius who dealt in whimsy, in cheer, in lilting good humor, in charm. It's a fine thing to be a medical researcher, you know, like Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin and saved untold numbers of lives. A fine thing, indeed, but it's also very fine to make the lives saved thereby worth living a little more, and that's what people like Calder do.