1988

Now that you've spent the last month wondering what the deal is with Rachel Dratch appearing as a Donna Reed lookalike, I will fill you in.

Rachel, duster in hand, marched around Chicago recently with 29 other Donna Reed facsimilies as part of a Nickelodeon network promo. It was Rachel's first paid TV spot (a handsome $50 was the reward), and she got a free pair of shoes and a free meal at a Chicago restaurant for her effort. She did not, however, get to keep the duster.

Still, Rachel has approached stardom more quickly than most of us, and thus she is the first award-winner in this column's new feature, "Tabloid Fixtures of Tomorrow. " Every month or so, I'll pick an '88 who's obviously headed for those catchy headlines you read in your supermarket checkout line, for whatever reason. Be forewarned. You could be the next winner.

The news of Rachel's quasi-stardom came from Sonja Kuftinec, who is studying at Second City in Chicago with Rachel, "paying hundreds of dollars to learn how to create biting social satire, political commentary and ..."well, here I have to edit Sonja a litde, since they also learn how to write jokes based on the male anatomy. Sonja also works at the Organic Theater Company, reading plays apparently written by mental health patients. Sonja sent me some excerpts, almost all of which I'm still trying to figure out.

Other news from that same letter: Erik Tieze spent the summer at Williamstown, Mass., "acting"; Chris Perry has worked in a workshop teaching teenagers to act in the works of Shakespeare; Brian Howrey, Sonja thinks, is studying music at UCLA, and is working on a musical piece for cello, viola, harp, percussion, soprano, and speaking voices, tentatively titled "Waltz" because it's all in 3/4 time."

Eric Schnack wrote and sent along a spiffy business card; he's working in Moline, Ill., as a marketing representative for IBM. Eric helps market IBM products to John Deere enterprises worldwide. He says his energies are focused on engineering and manufacturing endeavors, which makes him very happy.

Dave Carter completed his Master of Science degree at Thayer last spring and is now working at Harvard's Division of Applied Sciences as a "microfabrication technical associate." Dave helps researchers in applied physics create the structures that they need to do physics research. "I'll be doing the engineering so they can do the physics," Dave writes, and the whole program has something to do with superconductors, which I won't pretend to understand, but to which I bow with respect as I end this month's column.

53 South Main St., Apt. 2A, Concord, NH 03301