1977
Catch this. I was holding a problem session late one Sunday evening last winter for my class on Engineering Systems. Got to shooting the breeze awhile about the weekend: "What did you do over the weekend?"
"Oh, we went to a frat party."
Images of beach parties and togas: "Was it a toga party?"
"No."
"What kind of party was it?"
"Oh, it was a seventies party." Pause. Longer pause. Triple pause. Quick arithmetic: 1971 minus twenty is 1951; 1991 minus twenty is 1971. Ah.
"Was it a costume party?"
"Sort of."
"What do you wear to a seventies party?" Pause. "Well, blue-jeans, warm-up jackets ... You know what you have on." The pauses roar. I look down. I'm wearing an Adidas warm-up jacket which I bought in 1973. Hmm. Well. If they party to the seventies like we parried to the fifties, then we must have done something right.
Reunions: President Drew Kintzinger calls for volunteers to help organize and run our 15th, a brief year away. Volunteers also sought for class officer positions, especially the all-important class secretary (or secretaries). That's a hint!
Jackie Ackerman wrote a cute note: "Please put the enclosed announcement in the next column. My husband (Don Barrett) and I have just had our first child, and we are really thrilled!" With pleasure: Torrey Elise Barrett, born 20 March 1991. (I wonder what a nineties party will look like? Torrey, find out and get back to us.)
Mike Mosher has left Apple Computer to start his own computer graphics firm in Mountain View, Calif. Mike writes a newsletter called pixhumana, "dedicated to the proposition that onscreen graphics and electronic interfaces can best be served by input from diverse forms of narrative visual design, including comics and community murals." He recently gave a presentation at the Small Computer in the Arts Network conference, and sent an intriguing postcard with a color graphic of his entided "LUNCH LADIES (Cafeteria Staff)." This is good, Mike, can you send me the postscript file? Mike says, "I'm hoping someday I can come to Thayer to talk on interface design from an artist's perspective." So, how may we help this happen?
Michael Hanson became the banking commissioner of Massachusetts recently. He's an expert on bank regulation, a principal of the Paradigm Group (a bank consulting firm), and an attorney with Warner & Stackpole. Louis Frisina was appointed senior vice president of marketing and sales for Instrumentation Laboratory (IL) of Lexington, Mass., in December. He's been active as a consultant to biomedical companies here and abroad, and has served most recendy as worldwide VP of pharmaceutical marketing and sales for the Ares-Serono Group. IL markets systems directed toward clinical blood gas and chemistry diagnosis. Ken Glickman encores in this column, following a local (well, OK, at Mt. Holyoke) performance of his comedy "How Deafinitely True!" in March. Appearing as Prof. Glick, garbed in white lab coat for the rigors of Deafology 101, he guides the audience on a crash course, posing such questions as "What is deaf culture?", with answers like, "A wonderful way to live that is unheard of." The show is voice-interpreted for those in the audience not handy with sign language. Next stop, the Hop? Richard Sarner has opened his own law practice in Stamford, Conn., emphasizing litigation, creditors' rights, bankruptcy, estate planning, and real estate in Connecticut and New York. He declined, humbly, to comment on his old three-hour commute to the Big Apple, other than to say he would not miss it.
P.O. Box 861, Norwich, Vermont 05055
