Seeing Clearly November 22, 2022November 23, 2022 There’s nothing even remotely sexy about cataracts so I told friends I was going in for “old guy LASIK.” I was nervous — well, it’s eye surgery! — but going back for the second eye Wednesday having learned the ropes (“now let’s walk over to the laser room”), I found myself almost wishing I had more than two. I was getting so good at it! And it’s such a piece of cake. A miracle, really. Turns out, I had been seeing the world more or less like this. The week between eyes, my bathroom tile was yellowish if I shut my right eye; bright white if I shut my left. Three days after eye #2, this former myope saw three Broadway shows glasses-free, which I pause here briefly to review: SOME LIKE IT HOT — Huge fun!!! A BEAUTIFUL NOISE — Fantastic!!! KIMBERLY AKIMBO — Quirky, winning, funny, and totally different. (The week before, between right eye and left, I saw 1776, squinting in the front row. I loved the original and was going to skip this super-woke update — Ben Franklin played by a black woman? Jefferson, by a woman eight months pregnant? hadn’t Hamilton already claimed that space? — but a friend said it was really good so I took a chance — and it was. Not Hamilton good, but really good. On the writing of the Declaration.) So . . . cataracts. I’ll never forget one of my dad’s clients coming to New York for this 60 years ago. Back then, they used saws and a hammer. Einar Buhl, a Danish executive with Patek Phillippe, stayed in a room at the New York Athletic Club bandaged blind for what I remember as three months, though it couldn’t have been that long (could it?), before he was allowed to go home. One more reason to remember that the good old days weren’t that good . . . and something else to give thanks for this week. Which brings me, finally, to this TED talk — one of the best ever — wherein eye surgeon Jeffrey Levenson describes his own cataract surgery, and how he came to join hundreds of other doctors in performing them, free, throughout the Third World. Through groups like SEE International you can restore sight to the blind for around $35 a pop. BONUS: Promoting awful Republican opponents worked. Speaking of whom: Two powerful 30-second spots from American Bridge. Three more a friend made. Feel free to share! And this, too: