At the beginning of his very flattering essay on myself in The Pump House Gang (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), Tom Wolfe has a drawing of me which at once suggests another title for his essay (“What if he’s right?’’), namely, “I'd Rather Be Wrong." At the end of his essay he confronts me with a waitress in a topless restaurant to whom I uttered the assurance: ‘The topless waitress is the thin edge of a trial balloon!" (I.e., the silicone bust.)