1983

872 Massachusetts Avenue #307 Cambridge, MA 02139

There is a lot of news to cover this month, but first, an observation regarding news media priorities:

Headline (page one) in The Boston Globe: "Springsteen Tickets Sell Out in Two Hours."

Tiny little headline (way down in the lower right corner): "Candidates Debate in New Hampshire."

The news out of Chatham, Mass., lately has not been good. First, the ocean broke through Nauset Beach, which used to protect the Cape Cod town. Massive erosion followed. Storms wiped out an entire house on the shore. And now Whit Smith has departed. Everyone who was a 'shman in Russell Sage remembers Whit as one of the few people capable of rising above the may- hem of that dormitory. At any rate, Whit has left the Cape Cod Chronicle to begin a new job as writer-in-residence at Eaton Vance Corp. in Boston. During his tenure at the Chronicle Whit covered the town of Harwich, wrote feature articles, and authored a bi-weekly column entitled, aptly, "Whit's End."

Okay, okay. I know Bob Goldman's become a mainstay in this column, which isn't supposed to happen. But the leader of our Fifth Reunion has done it again, this time making headlines in The New York Times. There, even more amazingly, was a picture of Bob, gracefully embracing wife Barbara. The caption read "Trust and a Fortune Cookie: Blind Date Is Back in Fashion" and the accompanying story went on to detail Bob and Barbara's first encounter, which was indeed on a blind date. As Barbara remembers it, "Expectations were pretty low for me." And Bob recalls his feeling of desperation. "I had been through 21 blind dates, all of which ended with me paying a big credit card bill and never seeing the woman again." But, a scant 14 months later, Bob handed Barbara a fortune cookie with a ring tucked inside. If you read the article, I bet your immediate reaction was to weep openly.

Championships, where they copped a silver medal. The team topped off the season by capturing another silver medal at the Canadian Henley Regatta. Leanne had some spare time there, so she went out and won a silver in the singles event. Terrific job!

Dale Boylston, patroling the south, has joined the Atlanta office of KPMG Peat Marwick as a senior consultant in the management consulting department. Dale was previously at Booz Allen & Hamilton as a research associate.

Good News Department: Dave and MaryBeth Crane are parents! I have a reliable source which tells me that Matthew was born on January 29, weighing in at 7 lbs., 5 oz. Mother and son are doing very well. Father, however, is not. "The little bugger hasn't learned the difference between night and day," grumbles Dave, who now somnambulates at Meredith & Grew in Boston.

Is the conservative star falling? President Reagan will leave behind a direct generation of conservatives who have direct experience in government. But few are interested in government service as a career. DineshD'Souza, who works as a senior analyst for a White House domestic policy adviser, explained it this way to The New York Times: "I don't want to become an inveterate Washingtonian or a professional bureaucratic type." Interestingly, Dinesh was described as being one of the most prominent members of the "Dartmouth mafia" in Washington, a group of young, highlycharged conservatives from Hanover which includes Ben Hart 'Bl and Laura Ingraham 'B5. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, named Dinesh managing editor of its journal. And, Dinesh has worked extensively on sensitive issues such as abortion and school prayer for the White House. Suddenly, I feel very mundane.

Alan Letarte married Karen Brown '84 in Hanover on December 19! They are living in Madison, Wis.! I have no idea why. And Carey Wilson, now with the Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League, had collected 45 points as of February 15.

Reunion Reminder: It's less than two months away. Be there!

june 17-19,1988