1988

Letters with only a faint whiff of the truth in them Brad Auer, who writes about "previously anonymous past denizens of Hanover." That's a lot of modifiers for one rather arcane predicate (denizens?), but nonetheless, it's a top-notch letter, and it bears full quoting: "Tom Sterling is back from a year-long stint as a traveling Bible salesman in Texas. He says that the money was not very good, but the spiritual rewards will last him a lifetime. Chris Kilburn is in Washington, D.C., working as an immigration consultant under the auspices of George Bush. Peter Rutledge opened a used car business with (an indecipherable 'B7) in Vermont.

"John Kirkley works for the tox network, apparendy to bring back reruns of "Gomer Pyle" to national television. He says that he saw DonKempf, who worked last summer on the revamped Michael Dukakis presidential campaign.

"Jim Smith now works as a full-time barber in Colorado, where he says he has trouble with all the 'wild hairs.' Mike Mann is in business school at Stanford with Bud Roth. I am presently enrolled in dentistry school in Boston. Yours, Brad Auer."

Confession: I believe some of Brad's letter— it came postmarked from Boston with a Somerville return address.

Speaking of George Bush (we were, earlier), ever see him on TV and swear that you also saw John Herrick? You're not having a flashback to the Psi U basement. John has been working as special assistant to the president for advance, a job in which he has made at least a fueling stop in every state save Arkansas, as well as visits to the former Soviet Union, China, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, and Madrid. As a member of the presidential advance team, John deals with the regular White House press corps and the local media on Bush's many jaunts. One of the myriad perks of John's job was receiving an autographed baseball from Nolan Ryan at this year's All-Star game, but John also had to suffer first-hand through Bush's heart problems, when most peoples' Quayle-fearing hearts skipped a few beats along with Poppy's.

Doug Weiss came mighty close to showing up on your TV during the Winter Olympics—he advanced through a couple of stages of tryouts for the Olympic hockey team but just missed getting an invitation to the final selection camp. Dougspentthe 1990-91 winter season playing for a team in Czechoslovakia, where he was the only American player; prior to that, he had played for the farm teams of the Boston Bruins and New York Islanders.

Another '88 who's been through a grueling set of tests is Mark Retik, who recently was named an associate of the Society of Actuaries. To become an associate, Mark had to pass a series of examinations that a friend who took them described to me as "boring, difficult, and lengthy—your basic nightmare." Mark, having survived, is now working as a consultant with Hewitt Associates in Rowayton, Conn.

Norway's own Johan Andresen left his job in Memphis to study for his M.B.A. at the Rotterdam School of Management in Holland. He says his old company wouldn't let him take the credit for the fact that its stock, which was $45 a share when he started, was up to $71 when he gave notice. If you're in Rotterdam, Johan encourages you to look him up.

1413 Autumn Lane, Knoxville, TN 37912"