1988

We can all use a laugh now and then, so keep your eyes and ears out for our own businessman turned comedian, Al Samuels: "After Dartmouth I lived up in Hanover for a few years, performing around the East Coast and starting a film company (where we made the claymation reenactment of the Kennedy assassination called Who Shot JFKLay?). In Hanover I worked and lived with Tom Summerall and a 22- pound cat named Jabba. For some reason, I got tired of the idyllic existence of New Hampshire (why, oh why?) and left for Stanford business school, where I got an M.B.A. (why, oh why?). After business school I decided to give up the corporate world for the big money world of comedy ($90 a week sometimes!) and returned to my hometown of Chicago to pursue my dreams. I toured all over the world with the Touring Company of Second City (a comedy theater in Chicago). I then spent two years with the Second City Mainstage, where I helped create the revues Thank Heaven It Wasn't 7/11 and No, Seriously, We'reAll Gonna Die. I left Second City last year to pursue my own performances—Baby Wants Candy (we improvise a new musical each night) and What You Need! (where I play a mini-motorcycle-riding, )breakdancing, board-breaking Bulgarian self-help guru). I also run a company called Spark Creative, which provides original comedy performances, workshops, events and films for companies, schools, etc. I also have a 4-pound dog named Spank that likes to get amorous with my stuffed hammerhead shark. Its better than cable."

A few other classmates have been in the news/public eye recently. Jay Kumar was pro- filed last October in the Newark, New Jersey, Star-Ledger. Jay founded and now operates Bass-Fan.com, which promotes bass fishing and tournaments throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Africa and Spain. He, wife Catherine and children Lily (11 months) and Connell (28 months) live in High Bridge, New Jersey. Before Bass-Fan.com, Jay took a job with a chain of weekly newspapers in New Jersey, then moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as an editor for nine years. "I started freelancing for bass fishing magazines and loved it. Bass was my favorite fish to fish for. I went around the country fishing. While I was driving around the country, I hatched this idea for a novel." Called Dark Woods, the book has been compared to A Perfect Storm and Into Thin Air, and called 'Jaws in the woods.' Set in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, it explores the legend of Bigfoot."

As written up in The Wire, a New Hampshire seacoast newspaper, Barbara Rita Jenny wants to "cause some change in how we look at things." Even further, she questions, "Do we look at things?" "Merging these questions with a fascination with the universal body, birth, cellular regeneration and technological amenities is the core of Jenny's conceptual exploration in digital imagery, a medium defying rigid definition and evading mainstream endorsements." Jenny was recently recognized as a 2005 Fellow by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts for her artistic excellence and commitment.

In addition to the '88s listed in a previous column, Adam Rabiner's Central Park wedding was attended by Robert Levine '86, Stephanie Song (Taylor) '87, Drew Desky '87, Harvey Fracht '89 and Susan McCormack '89.

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