1985

hot hot hot 100 degrees in the city and i at the top of this glass box on park ave croak out this parched missal to my classmates who were themselves too too hot or too too busy these may june julys to raise their collective heads from their work and families and whatall to say here i am yes i exist yes my life is unique yes yes speak of me to those scattered men and women once of hanover now of the wide wide world

nothing nothing nothing in the mail leaves the correspondent to rake up inadvertent news in the new york times weddings and engagements section heres one gleaming tendril of news a wedding connecting in Connecticut ward greenberg and marlene van dyk making it legal after their courtship in the law program at u of michigan where ward was the noted note editor of the law review but goodbye mich and conn and flyflyfly to frankfiirt unpacking the new china and the three woks and the many shiny but useless wedding items and ward will work as an associate at cleary gottlieb steen and hamilton and they will be very happy

flipping flipping flipping now through the class listing names alphabetical names of spouses names of kids names of schools and law firms and companies heres something curious what do they do at these companies he wonders like ken graham working at a place called american extreme or john dawes at coherent thought or keith goggin at boltronics or martha woolman at hybritech or bill worden at intertec or michael Stevens at cytec or paul richards at softec perhaps in a reversal of the usual order of things reading their names here will cause them to write and clarify the nature of these poetechnical jobs which i hope make you veryveryhappy or at least veryveryrich

ringing ringing ringing its the phone its mark in lalaland with news of david hall getting married in august to meredith mcdonald his kellogg classmate and they will live in north chicago and he will drivedrivedrive the long commute each day to trammel crow company and he plans to turn around the real estate market singlehandedly good luck we say and we hope you will be veryverypatient

buzzing buzzing buzzing at my door the mailman with a package to sign for and what's this amid the junk mail a note and a postcard lets see the notes from rome is it the pope no its dave searby acting treasury attache at the american embassy and he's wandering around the piazza calisto and the piazza saint maria and he finds a place that serves a green drink made from cheap local beer and a certain blue mint liquor and he drinks and drinks and he is veryveryveryveryhappy

tooling tooling tooling in madison Wisconsin says the postcard from jackiefrancis as she embarks on a phd in afro- American studies and akua (hilary) perry is there too writing her thesis on african languages and literature and they will work veryveryhard and jackie tells of karyn marsh who has apparently quit her job and moved to hollywood to chase her dream of movie stardom and she will be veryverypoor for awhile probably but also i think veryveryhappy

changing changing changing literary gears this james joyce thing has run tootootoo long and so perhaps to eliot who knew really knew how to finish his stuff this is the way the column ends this is the way the column ends this is the way the column ends not with a bang but with

198 President Street, Brookyn, NY 11215

dave searby wanders around the piazza calisto and the piazza sainte maria and he finds a place that serves a green drink made from local beer and a blue mint liquor and he drinks and drinks and is veryveryhappy -RICK JOYCE '85