1982

In a scene rivaling the fanfare accompanying the arrival of the doctor in the remote Alaskan town in Northern Exposure, I received several newspaper articles announcing the recent arrival of Dr. Russel Gombosi and his family to Blossburg, Pa. It appears that the Blossburg area community rolled out the red carpet on the weekend of June 24 for Russel, his wife, Juliann, and daughters Elizabeth and Emily. The Gombosis' arrival was acknowledged over several days by a community picnic, three luncheons, a private reception with his new medical employer, two private dinners, and the presentation to the family of the key to Blossburg by its mayor. After the nonstop festivities Russel was reportedly contemplating switching his specialty from internal medicine and pediatrics to gastroenterology. Russel obtained his M.D. from Penn State, completed a residency at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., became boardcertified in internal medicine and pediatrics, and serves as a major with a medical group in the U.S. Air Force. Russel stated that he was interested in a family practice treating people of all ages, and his family chose Blossburg to fulfill his dream of becoming a country doctor. Will the house call become vogue in the Blossburg community?

Monte Ivey, Stephen Dweck, and James Percelay, through their company Two Bros & a White Guy, have co-authored a new book titled Snaps which has been published recently by The William Morrow Company. The book's foreword is written by Quincy Jones, and it is a compilation of quick wit and caustic, biting humor, reportedly within the context of the African American experience. A snap is a competitive exchange of verbal insults in which two people try to oneup each other. As reported in the Washington Post, A snap would be exemplified by the following exchange:

Monte: "Your mother is so dumb, they had to burn down the school to get her out of the third grade."

Stephen: "Oh yeah, well, your mother is so fat, she went to the salad bar and pulled up a seat."

Although there are 45,000 copies of the book in print, Snaps isn't drawing universal rave book reviews from the African American community, one critic being the reverend of the Baptist church that Monte attends. Monte states, however, with 99-percent certainty, that the Reverend has played Snaps and most of the congregation has as well. Monte and Stephen are planning a sequel, Double Snaps, for next year and are working on a comic strip called "The Dark Snapper," among other things. If Monte and Stephen are ever in need of comic material, some of the pictures of their classmates in the 1982 Dartmouth Freshman Book could make them millionaires. Perhaps that is why Stephen didn't submit his picture for publication.

Scott Simmons tied the knot June 6 with Stephanie Mott in a London wedding that was so grand in scale it would have shamed Sister Maria's wedding ceremony in TheSound of Music. According to Scott's letter: "Marrying a Phi Delt was still a tough sell. We were both grateful not to have met a decade earlier, when, shoes stuck to a mung basement floor, beer goggles on, singing 'Louie, Louie,' dancing with a mop...my smooth opening line would be probably, 'Are you going to drink that beer?'" Why do you think it took you 12 years to get married Scott? The Simmonses honeymooned in Turkey and are residing in New York City, where Scott works on Wall Street.

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