1981

I return from Washington's summer swamp with a caveat. Beware the veracity of Dirk, ail ye who enter here. Translation: I'll be fibbing gangloads for the next 1,000 words.

Starting here: Alan Holton writes from the University of Vermont Medical School, where he and his wife, Susie, have recently "survived the trials and tribulations" so that they can now begin four years of residency at Burlington Obstetrics and Gynecology. Alan adds that Joan Barthold, originally a '79 but who graduated with our mongrel horde, will also begin residency in the same program. Jay Baxter, who likewise graduated with Alan, is headed for a surgery residency in Boston at the New England Deaconess Hospital.

Sharon Washington will be following in the footsteps of Meryl Streep and Paul Newman this fall when she starts treading the boards for the Yale Drama School's acting program. Sharon also mentions that Laurel Richie has just moved up another rung among the account executives at Ogilvy and Mather.

Steve Benenson has finished up at Cornell Law School and passed the New Jersey bar exam. Steve is practicing "products liability, commercial, and matrimonial law" with the firm of Riker, Danzig, Scherer, and Hyland in Morristown.

By the way, as a former resident of the town next door to Steve, I can confidently advise all of you that the boy is definitely looking for a little fun in his life these days. Aside from visiting the home of Cyrus Vance or hanging out with the high school kids at one of our lovely Bauhaus malls, Benenson's cultural life has probably been reduced to visiting the hometown bars of bands like The Ramones. Tea and/or sympathy should be sent his way pronto.

Now, you've probably noticed that we're a fair piece into these notes, and there's been no mention of any weddings. Have a seat.

Tracey Bennet succumbed to the pleas of John Beyer (an 'BO, of all things) earlier this summer. After a leisurely cruise up the Nile followed by some scuba diving in the Red Sea (I hear you cry), the two have set up housekeeping in Seattle. Tracey will be teaching history at Seattle Prep and also coaching cross-country and track.

Word also has it (a strange phrase, that) that the same month saw James Payne marry a fellow graduate of Ohio State Law School. James is now working for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Nate Smith sent in some info on his wedding of last fall, when he married Amy Worden '84. Attendees included Tom Booher, Todd Bachelder, and MitchBoss. Nate says he's now working in Stoughton, Mass., for a company that produces Financial Planning Systems (his capitalizations).

But that's not what interests this scrofulous scribe. No, what caught my eye was Nate's notation that he was passing on this tidbit lest he "await his own obituary" to see his name in the class notes.

Now this is precisely the sort of twaddle that I receive from you knuckle-draggers on a regular basis. The very idea! That an '81 would have to shuffle off his or her mortal coil before I'd drop their name. Not so: other rites de passages for this space include public nausea, demonstrable insanity, or wanton violation of the Freeroaming Horses and Burroughs Act of 1976.

So let's move on. Craig Seligman writes from southern California, where he says that he's doing "engineering work" for Hughes Aircraft. Right. That's like saying you're "doing some research work at the CIA." What C.S. really meant to say is that he'll be cruising into reunion in the cockpit of a spanking new B-1. So watch for him to pop up at the most interesting moments.

Howard McCarley has finally found time to drop us a line, (you'll notice how I'm beginning to assume the first person plural of USA TODAY: "COLON-RECTAL CANCER: ARE WE PRO OR CON?") Anyway, Howard says that he returns to the states only every six months or so . . . because he's working for Club Med, jetting between Guadalupe, Paris, and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. I'd pass on some of his comments on sun and surf and the realm of the senses, but I think it would get me in a bit of trouble.

So what else? Naomi Pollack has received her master's degree in architecture from the Harvard School of Design. But as to which road she is taking that show on, I have no clue.

Dave Focardi reports from Denver, where he wasn't when he saw Jim Wells and Tad Donnan in Seattle. Jim is going on for a doctorate in geology at Washington University, while Tad is selling fishing trips to Alaska. Or was Tad going on for a doctorate in fishing while Jim sells geologists to Alaska? I guess it doesn't matter.

Bill Brown's mother writes that her bouncing baby boy is well on his way to a master's in comparative literature at the University of Chicago. And therein are evinced the binds of academia: the kid

knows German, French, and Latin, yet he still can't figure out how to use a ballpoint pen to write me himself. Gosh, but that makes me madder than a tomcat in a bubblebath. I'm sumkinda hot under the collar! I'm more peeved than a hornet in a hairnet!!

Excuse me. I think I'd better wrap this up. I'm getting drool all over the terminal again. Send paper towels.

Several friends and classmates took advantage of the April wedding of Eben Jones '82 toBeth Peccum as an opportunity for some informal reuning. Pictured, left to right, are AndySanford '82, Jon Merriman '82, Jack Blunt '82, Steve Schuh '82, Robert Goldbloom '81,Ralph McDevitt '82, and Tim Phillips '81.

1640 19th Street, NW Washington, DC 2009