1981

I'm back. You thought you were rid of me. I thought you were rid of me. It turns out there's still one month left in my contract. Next month I promise—I'll be sipping margaritas on some desolate island shore, and you'll have a new secretary.

For now, the news is good. It's been a solid three months since Reunion, and Chris Blaski has not managed to kill any more kittens. Both Eleanor and Nina II, so far as I can tell, remain alive and unfrozen.

Ann Swengel, coincidentally, also is alive and unfrozen. In April, she received a Lois Almond Small Grant for her research project, "Habitat Use by the Regal Fritillary and the Ottoe Skipper." Those are butterflies endangered ones, I think. Ann is editor of the Fourth of July Butterfly Count, and lives in Baraboo, Wis.

Joe Nicosia, coincidentally, is not studying butterflies. Instead, he trades cotton. In fact, Joe is chief operating officer and president of Memphis-based Allenberg Cotton Co., one of the world's leading cotton merchandisers. Joe started trading grain for Allenberg's parent, Louis Dreyfus Group, in 1982, then made his meteoric rise to the very pinnacle of the cotton trade.

Glenn Havlicek, coincidentally, wears all-cotton shirts to his stately office at Chemical Bank, where he was just made a managing director. Bob Dewey, also a cotton fan, wears his shirts at Heller Financial, where he is a new vice president for new business development in the leveraged funding group.

Jeff "Mr. Cotton" Walters works in Irving, Tex., for a company called M/A/R/C Inc., which runs customers satisfaction programs for AT&T, IBM, and the like. He was married on May 19, but refused to tell me to whom.

And Gary Collin, much like Chris Blaski, is a doctor. That's why you missed him at Reunion: He was on call all weekend, handling trauma victims at Misericordia Hospital in west Philadelphia (they don't wear cotton there). Gary's fourth paper, "Endometriosis of the Colon: Its Diagnosis and Management," appeared in the May issue of American Surgeon.

Why are all our classmates writing articles with impenetrable titles? Why is everyone wearing cotton? Why are frisky kittens surviving Chris Blaski's ministrations? Watch for the startling answers, from a new secretary, next month. She's Karen McKeel Calby, and you can send her information about yourself: 14 Woodland Drive, Darien, CT 06820.

57 Rutland Square Boston, MA 02118