1989

Okay, I concede defeat. Wave the white flag of this column in surrender: as much as I have rallied against media pigeonholing, and have to deflate the flabby generalizations emitted by a Barbara Walters Special, a distinct "twentysomething" generation does exist, and we're all part of it. The fox network says so.

Close-up on Andy Shue, history major and soccer star gone Hollywood in "Melrose Place," at the time of this writing the hottest new show on the tube. (That must be why die guys rarely wear shirts, right? The heat?) Andy portrays Billy, an aspiring writer/cabbie, and a tanned, toned embodiment of the wellintentioned inertia of "our" generation.

A twenty something gun salute to Mr. Shue, especially for sporting that Dartmouth soccer tee in the premiere episode. So Tune In, Tone Up, and Drop By your nearest newsstand for the latest issue of Teen Beat.

There may be a little Billy in all of us, but I'm inclined to think that Marty Mooney comes closer to home. Working as an editor at Chelsea House Publishers, Marty became a victim of George Butch's economy" when slapped with a lay-off in October '91."I miss Oprah, Bugs, and friends," he quips now from his post as editor of the Alumni Magazine at the Hill School in Pottsdown, Pa. He teaches and coaches there as well.

Also heeding the classroom's call is Mehrzad Araghi Clemente, who acquired the new last name in June '91. She teaches writing at Northbridge High School in Worcester, Mass., where she has also since become an aunt, lost her wisdom teeth, bought a mountain bike, and witnessed LauraBordewieck's heroic hurdle through the Boston Marathon.

Laura won't let economic shin splints bother her, either this summer she's cooling down at Microsoft in Seattle, following the first leg of Harvard Business School. HBS hasn't sent Seth Rosenblatt running, but it has tightened his hamstrings: word has it that Seth has traded in the tank tops and Aerosmith for suits and Vivaldi. Fellow radio rat Carolyne Allen, on the flip side, recently attended a hip-hop conference for her job at Diamond Time, a Soho record company.

I think "hip-hop" and I think AaronStraight. Aaron, put down those UCSF molecular biology notes and write to BarbaraKrauthamer, who is about to move to St. Louis and thus lose contact with the rest of humankind. Barb misses her dear friend, and probably misses you too, Random Reader, so write to her c/o the Dept. of History, Campus Box 1062, 1 Brookings Dr., Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899.

A doctoral candidate in history, Barbara is one of 11 Chancellor Fellows, and the Chancellor is none other than William Danforth, uncle of D.D. Danforth Burlin. Belated congratulations to D.D., who wed Johannes Burlin last March; bride and groom are continuing studies at Georgetown Law.

Caught between his mid-twenties and the equator, Ross O'Brien "spends his days trying to pass off beer as food on expense accounts" as he works as a contract consultant and free-lance "information hound" in Singapore. "I sit in a sweat-soaked batik shirt most nights," he writes, "working on my Chinese and Malay so I can follow my soap operas." If he earns enough money, Ross may spin a globe and head off to Sumatra.

Or to Melrose Place, where he'll laughingly toss Aaron Spelling and Barbara Walters into that perfectly cerulean pool.

Carrie Luft, 264 W. 22nd Street #4D, New York, NY 10011

I'm working on my Chinese and Malay so I can follow my soap operas. Ross O'Brien '89