1962

Let's get one thing straight right away. We made a mistake in the September-October 2005 Class Notes column. And we are sorry. Everyone, includingyours truly, knows that Spokane (near the retirement home of William Mahaney) is in the eastern part of Washington, not in "western Washington," as we wrote.There was a chance to catch the error in the galley proof that the Class Notes editor sent me but, alas, it slipped by me and my team of fact-checkers. Does that make two strikes on me? Am I about to go down on strikes? If I strike out who will step up to the plate to be class secretary? After all as you read this column it is only 20 months until our 45th class reunion. That will mark the end of my second five-year term as your secretary

The class listserv was very quiet during the late spring and early summer but it began to tune up awhile ago. It seems there is a Famous University located in eastern Massachusetts (geography fact-check:okay) that has been in the news this year. What did its president say at that panel discussion about women? Was it wrong to wonder out loud? Did he apologize enough? Is he an anti-female bigot? Should he be canned by the board of overseers? Lots of folks on the listserv had an opinion. The discussion was stimulating and from my point of view timely.

It seems that there was a series of manure thefts in Rockport, Massachusetts, over many months and the thief was caught red-handed, in a manner of speaking. Further, the assistant district attorney revealed that the perp was the Ernest E. Monrad Professor of Economics at Famous University. The reporters from local newspapers were delighted and they had a field day with the story. Pretty soon the story had spread to the Boston papers and then the national press.Those who might have a simmering Ivy League inferiority complex should hear about this, I thought, so I passed on the delightful news to the listserv.

Class poet John Smith replied with a wonderful reverie about his childhood experience with manure in England. He explained that as ayoung lad he developed the idea that he could collect horse manure for free, distribute it to eager customers and profit handsomely. He developed a business plan that became a model for economics students even to this day.

The judge who heard the Rockportcase reminisced from the bench on his fond childhood memories about the smell of manure and—during his olfactory reverie—let the good professor off so long as he paid $600 for the cost of the purloined manure. The assistant district attorney left the courthouse shaking his head, wondering what they were teaching at Famous University. The professor complained that the manure was overpriced. Ivy League-insecure Dartmouthians, get a grip!

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