1983

Believe it or not, yours truly is attempting to write this column via WordPerfect, a baffling computer-type product that's supposed to make everyone's life easier. Class Notes editor Bob Nutt '49 finally came right out and said that my reliance on typewriters and manual eraser cartridges was no longer a "humorous anachronism." Having delivered this missive, Bob then chose to retire from his post. I have sulked ever since.

Well, this is neat. I've done many things in this space over the past four years, but this is the first time that I am able to report that we have a real author in our class. In fact, we have a poet amongst us, and her name is Jean Korelitz. Last July, Dufour Editions published The Properties of Breath, which is Jean's first book of poems. Before the book came out, though, Jean had her work published in many British and Irish magazines. Jean won the Walt Whitman Award several years back. She is now married to poet Paul Muldoon and thinks her creative thoughts in New York City.

Tim Golden now writes for the New York Times. You can generally find Tim's by-line in the Metropolitan section, and it isn't hard to deduce that he's had some pretty wild assignments. By my count, Tim has covered murder, taxi driver strikes, drug dealing, neighborhood racial problems, the homeless, and innumerable (usually horrible) accidents. In other words, Tim essentially risks his life everyday to write copy. Sometimes when I read his columns, I am reminded that famous authors like James Thurber, E.B. White, and Russell Baker all had stints on the "metro" desk covering much of the same news. There is that famous story about Thurber's editor, who was constantly telling him to "tighten up" his verbose writing style. One night, Thurber was really under pressure, trying to make deadline with a story about a local fire which killed a man. He kept submitting leads for the story, all of which were rejected by his editor for being too wordy. Finally, Thurber broke through! Readers of the newspaper the following morning were treated to the following "tight" lead paragraphs: "Dead."

"That was what the man was who police found in the house that burned down at. .

I suspect that Tim may be facing many of the same pressures. He is a gifted writer in his own right, and well worth following. On a sad note, I am sorry to report that Gordon Leigh White passed away last January. We send our condolences to his mother, Marylyn J. White.

Hey, folks, it's time for my annual entreaty for you all to take five minutes and send me a fax. News about you is annoyingly scarce. You can't all be watching "thirty something" re-runs like me!

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