Bob McTeer

Adapted from a letter to the Chairman on Sept. 30, 1998

I barely made my flight home yesterday, but I did make it. After finishing my Wall Street Journal, I told my seatmate to help himself. He said, “No thanks, I have to finish this book about dogs. Our dog is old and my wife wants to have it put down. I don’t want to, but I don’t know. I thought reading this book might help me decide.” The book’s title was Dogs Never Lie About Love. I didn’t catch the author’s name.

After about an hour the dog owner turned to me and asked if I’d heard what the Federal Reserve had done that day. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 2:45 p.m. I told him what we did and introduced myself. I also told him it was public by now. He introduced himself as an ob-gyn at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. He went back to his dog book and I reviewed the Dallas Fed’s 1999 budget. It’s tight, you know.

I told him I had a CD by Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women that had a song called “Ob-gyn Why Me Blues.” I offered to tape it for him if he wished. He did. Neither of us had a card, but I gave him my number.

As we were landing, I asked my new friend if I could have a vote on the dog. He said I could. I said, “Let it live.” He said that made it two to one.

I wasn’t able to save the world financial system yesterday, but I did save a dog. If my friend was destined to sit by one of the 12 Fed presidents yesterday, I figure his dog had about one chance in 12 of surviving the week. He lucked out.