1981

Among big news weeks, last week was slightly larger than immense. Andropov dropped off, there were some guys cruising around the upper stratosphere with no attachment to terra firma, and Lebanon turned into a bizarre, ballistic pinball machine. I had the flu.

This confluence of events resulted in seclusion amid the cushions of my boudoir where I had the unsurpassable delight of reading mail from y'all. With a smattering of Stones and Tchaikovsky blasting from my Panasonic, I survived the ordeal. (And you couldn't be happier, could you?)

As usual, it was a fearful pleasure to hear of various knots being tied. Len Jardine is engaged to Katherine Autera, a fellow graduate of NYU's Business School, and they , will marry during the second week in April.

Debbie Wesselmann-Lopresti, as the hypenated nomenclature indicates, has already had her wedding. As per usual, the class secretary is always the last to know. Debbie wed Dan Lopresti '82 back in August, and she is currently doubling as a restaurant manager and student of creative writing at Princeton; the two endeavors are not mutually exclusive. Dan, meanwhile, is a doctoral candidate in computer sciences and engineering.

Debbie writes that Shelley Warren Wieler was one of the bridesmaids for the ceremony. Funny, but Shelley writes the same thing. She adds that her own life has taken an interesting turn, as she has left the world of banking to run operations for Sundance Yogurt Inc. Now that's" cultured. Shelley and spouse have bought a two-family abode in Maynard, Mass. — setting up house in a structure that was once a funeral home. (This is one of those realities that even my twisted lack of decorum could not improve upon.) From that vantage point, Shelley has been able to keep tabs on her erstwhile golden-throated cohort SuzyHopkins, who is now in Worcester as dean of admissions at an alternative school for kids between high school and college.

Lastly on the wedding circuit this month is Liz Keppler's marriage to Mark McCloy. The ceremony was held in Garden City, N.Y., at the end of December, and things proceeded as one might expect: "first beautiful, then wild," with a predictable entourage including Pam Donovan, Jake Gehret, Molly Sundberg, John Dodd, Toby Reiley, and SallyAnkeny.

By the way, it was Amy Beringer who provided all this nifty info, and rumors have it that some of you find Amy's fund-raising pleas a bit of an intrusion. Consider, if you will, the great joy with which she loses hours and hours per month so that we can all toss down beers sometime in the future. And if you're still offended by the financial requests, follow my prior advice: Send those tax-deductible greenbacks to the above address. Feel better?

Anyway, ouside of weddings, our classmates are indulging in a slew of disparate brouhaha these days.

Brent West is finishing up a series of threemonth stints with Congoleum that has sent him from Maine (Bath-Iron) and Secaucus, N.J. (Iron Lung) to Cleveland (land of lakes that can be walked upon and set afire) and Portsmouth, N.H. (a.k.a. God's country). All this in the name of floors a baby could eat off.

West's former agent, Chuckles Nordhoff, was not among my listings of those at Harvard B School a few months back, and I have been justifiably upbraided for the omission. For those of you who have similar censurious comments regarding the veracity of my public missives: Chew cork.

There are others, naturally, who are pursuing the golden fleece (note .sarcasm) these days. Jeff Healey is continuing his rigorous life-style in international banking, with his most recent Herculean tasks taking place in Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Haiti. Letters with deep tans and freckles I can do without, thanks. If you'll recall, I have the flu.

Barney Oldfield has also been frolicking in the Caribbean, tending bar in St. Croix (do I seem happy reporting this?) before returning to Columbus, Ohio, where he now claims to have "sole controlling interest of the largest inventory of Cabbage Patch dolls north of Nashville." You'd better have something in your back pocket if you're gonna withstand Columbus.

Laurel Richie has shifted from Chicago's Leo Burnett to New York's advertising giant, Ogilvie and Mather, while Tom Farmer continues in Vermont television, though he is "looking for a bigger market."

Down in Nwalins, Lwisyana, Dave Kahler is finishing up medical school in residence: "I just got off the obstetrician/gynecologist service, having logged 17 deliveries and assisted on a dozen cesarean sections. My one-handed surgeon's knot is practically automatic now . . . but something rubs me the wrong way about paying a lot of money to work this hard." A point well taken, and forcefully made, as long as one doesn't contemplate the lad's future financial portfolio.

On the nation's topside, Walter Relihan is pursuing a different brass ring. Walter is at Cornell's Restaurant and Hotel Administration School, where he will receive a master's of professional studies.

Down thisaway, in our nation's capital, Carol von Dohlen is loving city life, has joined the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra (which opened at the Kennedy Center's Ukranian Festival last year), and is working for a scientific research organization that administers training programs in genetic engineering, biotechnology, biochemistry, carcinogenic studies, three French hens, and two turtle doves. As Carol says: "Have cell will clone."

Gak.

Goodbye.

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