Robert J. Oppenheimer and Jean Tatlock’s stormy relationship disintegrated. At a party in Pasadena, he met a married woman: Kitty Harrison. Oppie was famous for his parties, and for his martinis on the rocks (chilled glasses with a rim dipped in lime and honey), for his eggs à la Oppie (with Mexican chilies and red wine), for his Chesterfields smoked literally one after the other, for his influence over women at parties, for his wide-brimmed hat and his characteristic walk with one foot placed at an improbable angle. As a professor, he was known for answering questions before they were finished, for having no patience for stupid people or even physicists of “ordinary” intelligence, and for being very cruel in his comments. Over time, he developed his own teaching style in which he encouraged his students to interact with each other and challenged them to work on unsolved physics problems, thus always giving them the impression of being on the cutting edge of knowledge.
