1961

Don't forget our fall minireunion, Dartmouth Night weekend, October 25-27. Mini-Reunion Chair Dave Prewitt has reserved 15 rooms at the new Susse Chalet Inn in White River Junction for us, and these rooms will be held for the class until October 11.

Other key events: cookout at 11:30 a.m. before the game on the patio at the Fayerweathers; cocktails and steak/chicken barbecue "at Tom Dent Cabin beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday night; class meeting at 10:00 a.m. Saturday. Call Dave at 215/6498364 evenings or 215/569-0300 weekdays for more information.

Dave, by the way, has formed Dave Prewitt and Associates, a new Philadelphia law firm. He's at 1700 Market St., Suite 3131.

Bob Naegele is back in the news in a big way. He's chairman of the board of Rollerblade, the latest big fad, and perhaps a long-term sport. According to the June 24 issue of Business Week, Bob bought Rollerblade from the inventor of the wheelsin-line skate, a hockey player named Scott Olson, who originally designed the skate for off-season hockey players to stay in shape (similar to the roller skis that fill the highways around Hanover). The link is obvious—ifyou remember that Bob was a hockey player, too, while he was at Dartmouth.

In April Bob sold half of Rollerblade to Italy's Nordica, the world's leading ski boot maker. Nordica in turn is a division of Edizione Holding, which is controlled by the Benetton family. The Business Week article noted that even before the partial purchase, Rollerblade was on its way to the big time. The new corporate partners simply give it a lot more marketing options.

Ed Toothaker is still seeking a hearing from Dartmouth on his thesis that Shakespeare was more than simply a great writer, but a philosopher as well—one who used what we know as formal logic in his Sonnet 121. He says the way Shakespeare organizes his thoughts in that sonnet is the same as in several plays. He says Shakespeare was demonstrating a depth of understanding of the Greek philosophers better than anyone since the time of the Greeks.

Ed has been having difficulty getting a hearing anywhere because Shakespeare is treated as a subject within the turf of English departments, and logic is over in philosophy, and those two academic areas rarely talk to each other. And besides, Ed's not a formal "academic."

He forwarded a stack of materials documenting his efforts to get a thesis hearing at Dartmouth and other colleges. At Dartmouth, in addition to a fair hearing, he is seeking the inclusion of a course in Shakespeare and a course in the Greeks as critical elements of a mandatory core curriculum.

Other classmates have taken up Ed's causesee the class newsletter—including RickReed. Rick is talking about a petition drive. Between this column and Wide Wide World, we'll keep you up to date.

Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston Salem, NC 27157-1015