1981

It is June. June is to sit-coms as September is to the school year. SATs anyone? New friends are made, classes begin. There's this guy on my new show. Andrew Gotdieb. Gottlieb is a gambler. Gotdieb believes that a topic isn't worth discussing unless money hangs in the balance. The moment our boss leaves the room, Gottlieb whips out a deck of cards. I make a nice salary. By the end of the year, I predict Andrew Gotdieb will have most of it.

Real men like to wager. Good men pay up. Many years ago John Pasquesi and Tench Coxe 'BO made a wager. Whoever chose to marry first, the man left standing would throw an engagement party. Jerry Jeff Walker ("Mr. Bojangles") would be the entertainment. Both now make nice salaries, and the party took place. Tench 105t...0r won. Squeeze threw the party in San Francisco. 'Bls in attendance included Dr. Maribeth Hourihan Ryan, RebeccaRandall, Seth Woodward, Kim Young,Kathy Shepard, Su-Moon Park, TimItin, and a Russell Sage (Room 106?) Dead Head who prefers to keep his distance from this column. Andy, it was great to see you. Kathy is living in Marin and working for the company that makes Clif Bars, a tasty and nutritious athletic energy food. Rebecca lives in Manhattan and is a director of New Media for Viacom. She is a major player in Hollywood, so I see her and suck up to her often. She is, as the French say, fabulous. Seth lives in Dallas, works in oil and gas, is married to Jenna, and has a beautiful daughter named Haley. I saw a picture. Seth is chairman of "John Pasquesi for President '96." The booze was flowing.

Got a nice letter from Sean Bersell. Sean lives in D.C.and is the director of legislative and regulatory affairs for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. A job no doubt important and difficult, yet not without opportunities for graft.

His good friends and Gamma Delt brothers Tom Bell, Phil Jacobs, and Brian Mooney met this year for the "Bersell Cup" bowling tournament and reunion. Tom lives in Easton, Conn., with his wife, Janis, and sons Christopher and Steve. He's a Wall Streeter, and 1995 was good to him. Phil and his wife, Debbie, adopted a baby boy, Marc, from Russia. Phil is intent on turning Marc into a Mets fan. A high price to pay for U.S. citizenship and love. Brian just finished the course work for his doctorate in anthropology at Michigan and is moving back to New York with his companion, Mike Sauerman. Sean writes that he visited Allen Smith and his wife, Denise DuChainey, in Boston. Allen is a North Shore doctor and the proud father of three "rambunctious Caroline, Conner, and lan. Sean, adds that Chris Goff and his wife, Stephanie Hafford-Goff, just had their first child, Matthew. And that Dennis Ryan is a bankruptcy lawyer in Minneapolis. Dennis and his wife, Kelly, recently sailed the islands of the Lesser Antilles. Chapter 11 can be your friend. And lest I forget, Sean's wife, Heather Norris, is a lovely woman and an aspiring TV writer. She visited me on the set of my last failed show. If she'd like, she can visit me on the set of my new show, The Single Guy. Or if she can't make it out, she can dial us up Thursdays on NBC. We're new and improved, we're "must see." A time slot I think we'll keep. Gottlieb smells a bet.

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