1990

November. One of my favorite months. The air is so crisp, the grass has begun to crunch underfoot and the light at around 4 p.m. turns the white walls of Dartmouth Row the perfect shade of shimmering rose. Whenever I look at old pictures of Dartmouth in the autumn, I can't get over how beautiful it looked and how well I've forgotten how cold I actually was!

For this column, I've leaned on my friends to provide me news of other classmates, but I look forward to hearing from new voices. In fact, if demand gets high enough, I'll break down and say yes to the pesky MCI telemarketer that keeps calling me: Yes, I, too, will join a circle of friends and family.

Speaking of which, our collective circle keeps growing as more and more of our classmates become engaged and marry. Recently Lindsay Latimore announced her engagement to Victor Crosby. Both live in Seattle, where Lindsay is a software editor for Microsoft. In the past few months Lisa Laumann, a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia, married Nick Billings '91. DebBlunt, a physical therapist in Durham, N.C., married Hal Collard. The marriage of Christine Mongone, a drama teacher at the Longden Elementary School in Los Angeles, to a fellow musician, composer Damon Michael Kelliher, was announced in The New York Times over the summer.

Converging from two coasts for a true American adventure, Chris Hogan and Steve Cosson made a pilgrimage to the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. Surprised, or perhaps thrilled by the irony, they found the museum nestled in a strip mall, among the likes of Payless Shoes and CVS. The pair stayed at the beautiful Tropicana, and gambled only enough to earn their fill of free drinks served at the casinos. Steve made it his mission to sample the ambrosia (a neon-colored, canned-fruit concoction with whipped cream and maraschino cherries) at every buffet they visited. Mmmm. The winner? The MGM Grand won for Best Ambrosia I Ever Tasted. Chris and Steve also visited the Siegfried and Roy statues (but not the magicians themselves) and they saw the Sahara's famous Boylesque Drag Show. Their thirst for all that glitters finally sated, they each returned to their respective coasts. Chris to Boston, where he develops youth apprenticeship programs for the non-profit Jobs for the Future. And Steve to San Francisco, where he is the director of development for the Headland Center for the Arts in Marin County, Calif. Chris sends word that Rachel Atkins is finishing up her master of fine arts degree in children's theater at NYU.

Julie Alperin completed her master's in public policy administration from Columbia University this past June. She snagged a job as a policy analyst with the New York City controller's office, where her main project is to examine how budget cuts have affected classroom services like teaching and lunch programs for the past five years. "Basically, I'm trying to reform the entire public-school system," she said, in total deadpan. Julie sends word that JeffPetrou has moved to Brooklyn and is currently doing some freelance writing. Some of you may have read his interview in Premiere magazine of Claire Danes, the star of the canceled TV show, My So-CalledLife. And Tracy Leavele is currently enrolled at the University of Arizona at Tempe, earning a Ph.D. in history.

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Chris Hogan and Steve Cosson made a pilgrimage to the Liberace Museum—they found it in a strip mall in Las Vegas. JEANHEE KIM '90