1976

It is a great pleasure to announce that "by a decision of the president of the French Republic," K.C. Cohen has become our first Chevalier of the National Order of Merit. This honor was bestowed, according to L'Ambassadeur aux Etats-Unies Francois Bujon de l'Estang, as a sign of the "high esteem" the French government and people have for K.C., whose transatlantic adventures in biotic engineering are famous from "San Diego to Lyon." The ambassador's letter was on paper so thick that it could barely be folded into an envelope. Chevalier Cohen beat Tony Magro into the pantheon of French heroes. Tony's election to the Academie Francaise has yet to be publicly announced watch this space!

Steve Askey gets the far-flung correspondent of the month award. Steve has relocated from southern Louisiana to Pekanbaru, Indonesia, where he is Schlumberger's Sumatra oil field services marketing manager. Steve hears from Frank Tezak and Kevin Keyes via email, and is planning on attending the next reunion. "Chuck Hostnik says he will finally attend a reunion if I make it all the way from Indonesia. We're gonna hold him to it. Anyone crazy enough to pass through Pekanbaru (or anywhere close), give me a call!" You can let Steve know you're on the way to Mandalay by dropping a note to: askey@jakarta.oilfield. slb.com.

The mailbox has been flooded with press reports concerning Jack Brennan's steady hand at the helm of the Vanguard Group. By all accounts, Jack and Gus Sauter are doing a superb job managing many dozens of billions of dollars of O.P.M., including my sons' college accounts and my firm's 401(k) plan. The latest from Forbes was entitled "The Gospel According to Vanguard." Maybe Jack has higher offices in mind?

The Alurrmi Magazine has a new editor, whose arrival was preceded by a great deal of noise among the class secretaries. My hope is that the change will bring a few discarded New Yorker fact-checkers on scene. Those of us in this role are so desperate to fill die column that anything masquerading as fact, purporting to be a rumor of fact, or remotely approaching the outer boundaries of the credible gets published.

Over time I have learned not to trust roommates' reports about each other, although there is often a germ of fact hidden among the "news," and I try to be accurate in these columns. But, errors creep in. Mstakes are made. Spelling is atrocious. It is time to make amends. Here, with apologies, are some belated corrections.

Maris Viedemanis' law firm is not notorious, has never been notorious and will never become notorious. It is prominent, not notorious. Tim Beasley remembers the bride's name. Dave Davenport has not lived in Tucumcari or Tonapah, though he did live in New Orleans. Dave Spalding's name is not spelled like the auditorium, Ken Norman's name is not spelled like an English motorcycle, and Mike Mosher's name is not spelled like an office safe. K.C. Cohen really is a Chevalier of National Merit. John Chiarella was not kicked off the Whithread Race in Cape Town because of bad cooking, but in the Maldives because of a customs violation. Peter Feakins does not sell bicycles in Brazil. Jon Fine had nothing to do with Paula Selis knocking the Chihuly off the table. Any inference to the contrary is deeply regretted. And last, Andre D'Hermecourt has not...well, we'll leave that for another month.

That's it for this month! Send news, real or imagined, and any other corrections to:

957 Gold Belt Ave., Juneau, AK 99801; (907) 586-3777 (fax); rdm@akska.net

John Cliiarella was not kicked off the Whitbread Race in Cape [own because of had cooking. DICK MONKNAN '76

David Shribman '76 gathers together Dartmouth's history, p. 38