1989

Dear Classmates: In deference to the sodden, dog days of summer, I'm going to take a cue from the movie "Slacker," a film which can only be described asto a cinematic cannabinoid. The "action" follows a smoke-trail of hazy association, with characters passing the story to one another as lazily as passing the glass bulb which my brother hid in the garage and pretended was a chemistry experiment.

I'll volunteer myself as the "slacker" of the title, a distinction earned by my column's absence in the spring, prompting '89s to ask, "Who is our lame secretary?" Your lame secretary Carrie Luft is a founding member and director of The Playwrights' Collective, a producing theater company created and run by playwrights. Since 1991 we have premiered 17 new plays, fully incorporated as a not-for-profit company, and accepted an invitation to be a resident company at HERE, a new theater complex in SoHo. New Yorkers, I heartily invite you to our shows! A firm advocate of the 25-hour day, I also work fulltime at Columbia Artists (CAMI), the world's largest classicalmusic management firm, as a "nag to the stars."

Pan upstairs at CAMI to find Rachael Fite, management assistant to performers such as Marvin Hamlisch (the way he was) and classical guitarist Christopher Parkening. Rachael, who lives in New Jersey, also does promotional work for '87 Josh Rich's band In Blue. Sibling Chris Rich manages In Blue. Chris and I worked on music for our Freshman Cabaret (the way we were), which featured Nicole Conte, among 'shmenly others, in skits by John Pliska. Plisk is finishing up a program in American Civilization at Columbia, and fellow Masterbuilder cast member Fiona Bayly is seeking Nicole's address. Organizing races for the New York Road Runners Club keeps Fiona on the move as she rubs shoulders (or should I say shins) with pace-setters such as Grete Waitz.

Making excellent time on a parallel track is Sarah Konrad, who moved to Bozeman, Mont., last fall to cross-country ski competitively. As of March she had won six local races and ranked near the top in the Sharp's Great American Ski Chase, North America's premier series of longdistance cross-country ski races a circuit of nine Nordic marathons. A geology major, Sarah raced just one season at Dartmouth and decided to ski competitively only a year ago. Endurance and strength characterize all of Sarah's pursuits, which include leading seakayaking trips in Alaska and NOLS trips in Wyoming and Chile. Sarah finished first in her age group at the Minnesota-Finnlandia race in February. She schussed past the academic haunts of Lisa Collins, a doctoral candidate in American studies at the University of Minnesota and recipient of the prestigious Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship, named in honor of the first black female to hold a Cabinet post. Before returning to school, Lisa spent a year in the admissions office at Dartmouth and taught English for two years in Lisbon.

We switch to Kevin Fitzgerald and Lise LeCaud, who passed Portugal on their way to the Cote d'Azur (France) for their June wedding. Tanned and honored guests included Steve Savage, Andrew Erlichson, John Mitcham, Lori Henry, and Esteban Oyenque. Dr. Kevin recently graduated from Baylor Med School and will serve his residency at Duke in Durham, N.C., where Lise will continue herwork with Orion Consulting. Dr. Steve will be a resident at Mount Sinai, and Dr. Lori will continue her radiology residency at Cornell Hospital, both in New York. According to Esteban, Kevin and Steve bronzed their "joes" on the beaches of the Riviera, while Andrew remained glued to e-mail, vital to his Stanford Ph.D. studies (subject unidentified). Stationed in San Francisco when not trying to find the perfect Basque tour guide, John works for the Oracle, and Esteban protects the air we breathe as an attorney for the EPA.

Bad air must have been affecting the brainwaves of Cliff Bernstein, or maybe it was too much sushi, writes Julie Livingston. Julie assured me that neither she nor Sandy Guylay has been posing on beaches for Japanese credit companies, as I claimed in my last tabloider, column, on a tip from Cliff Julie swears that she has been slogging away at Harvard Med this past year. Sandy will join the Harvard hoopla this fall at the law school. Although good-humored about the mistaken identity, Julie failed to make the connection between nymphs on the beach and sound financial advice. I, too, am at a loss. Cliff? Readers?

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