1989

As mud season hits the Hanover plain, flood season has hit my mailbox and Dart News showers the postal pile. Spring has sprung a secretary's dream! A fresh new face emerges from the mail storm. Kim Kendrix gaye birth to Nathaniel Rian Clarke on December 12. In honor of this first '89 legacy, classmates everywhere can pass out the cigars—or maybe clay pipes. Congratulations, Kim! Now those "Big Green" booties on sale at the Co-op have taken on a new meaning.

Michael Eberstadt endures labor pains of a more dramatic sort as a hopeful playwright in New York City. When he's not tapping the keyboard or reading scripts for Playwright Horizons, he's out pounding the pavement with his latest three-act play in tow. In similar financial and literary straits is Charlie Williams, an intern at The Nation. Following a Bonfire-esque adventure involving an automotive breakdown at the Guy Lombardo exit in New Jersey and a drive through the Bronx with a controlled substance abuser, Charlie managed to settle in Short Hills, N.J.

With Charlie's help, John Pliska resurfaces in Dartmouth lore after a hiatus out west. Sporting shoulder-length locks and the same finely-honed wit, John attends the Columbia School of General Studies, where he pursues a degree in American Studies and anthropology. A change of academic pace is also in the works for Julie Livingston, who is finishing a post-grad pre-med program at Bryn Mawr. Julie was spotted at a non-med lecture with Sandy Guylay, who supplied elusive answers regarding her present line of work but smiled unknowingly upon mention of the CIA.

On the more public side of government sits Chris Baldwin. After serving as press secretary to Colorado Senator Armstrong, Chris now works in the same capacity for Ohio Senator McEwen. This nugget of Dart Gossip comes by way of Ned Ward, jaded First Boston guru and Tuck hopeful. Reasons the stock whiz, "Going to B-school will allow me to do something cool, like open my own store." Checkyour local mall for "Ned's Kool Kitsch" soon. Also on the way to an M.B.A. is SethRosenblatt, who will embark on business adventures at Harvard in the fall.

The jaws of bureaucracy threatened to close around Nina Beattie during an administrative stint at Planned Parenthood, N.Y.C. Now employed by the Robin Hood Foundation, Nina allocates funds to community service organizations. Nina, I, and several other '89s made merry at the N.Y.C. Dartmouth Club Holiday Party. Hovering around the hors d'oeuvres with me was Collette Ellis, trucking through her second year as a paralegal at Kane. Colette probed the innards of an egg roll as she denounced law school and declared a year's-end ultimatum: Life or Bust.

Adrian Block, fresh from a day at Citicorp, explained the intricacies of thrift analysis. He has since moved in with two '88s on the Upper East Side. Roommates Steve O'Connor and Ralph Santana clashed in their opinions of city life. Steve, employed by Prudential-Bache, hopes to transfer to the Midwest with his fiancee, Misty. Content with consulting ("mostly beverages") and the city, Ralph-Tico-Nick is now in search of yet another nickname.

Speaking of names, try calling MarnieCurry "Lorax." Post-graduation, Marnie set off to plant trees in Mozambique, but she and the sprigs encountered some snags along the way, including South African-supported guerillas and tree thieves. Outside the city of Maputo, Marnie worked in a barrio—an overcrowded shantytown with upwards of 10,000 residents—selling trees and teaching a weekly geography course to the workers at a nursery. 58,000 trees later, she reports, "When I left, a handful more Mozambicans had learned that the world was round." Marnie tranferred this calling to San Francisco, where she teaches seventh grade Core, a combined English and Social Studies course. Jon Kull '88 and the Golden Gate Park keep her company.

Cheers to K.K. Lam, whose kidney transplant was successful: "Eighteen months later, it's still hangin' in there!" After a term in graduate psychobiology at U.V.A., she is looking into teaching and other psych programs; animal research is not for her. At home in Chicago, K.K. requests that previous references to her romantic life be disregarded. Congrats, however, are in order for Jud Dutrisac, who is engaged to hometown flame Sharyl.

My apologies to April Foolsters—I couldn't afford the space to fabricate. Too many true stories are waiting in the wings. But prepare for the next postal drought.

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