1975

Greetings from Paris, where Nancy and I are visiting Lizzie, who is spending her term abroad here and who happens to be turning 21 tomorrow. Aside from the current valuation of the euro to the U.S. dollar, which now makes Paris the undisputed most-expensive city in the world, walking this majestic Ville de France" again reminds us all why Paris is so special.

And for those of you wondering how Dartmouth's foreign study programs abroad are doing since we graduated 32 years ago, I can attest firsthand that they are doing extremely well. And besides, who could complain about spending three months in Paris with great friends, food and incredible resources to learn from—and with euros that magically move from your parents' bank account to yours.

Yes, education may be wasted on the young, but they sure seem to be enjoying it.

Now on to the mailbag.

From John Reed comes news in the form of a holiday update in appropriate green ink on white background John was at Dartmouth in December visiting his daughter Alison Reed '07, who is enjoying her last year on the Hanover Plain. From Houston, Texas, he reports that his other two daughters are also doing well. Elisabeth is a freshman at the Naval Academy and Haley is in the sixth grade and "loves Latin and the choir." Johns son Chase is a second-grader who is playing center on the Baylor Bears tackle football team. John cites their impressive stats: "average age, 8;years playing experience, O; average weight on the offensive line, 68 without uniforms on, 75 with." Now that's an impressive set of numbers. At first when I read their average age I thought he was talking about the Cowboys.

And I just received a really important message from Rickey Jamerson about his recent bout with prostate cancer. "It was about 90 days after my 30th reunion that I found myself sleeping 12 to 16 hours a day. But the cancer was not detected until July of 2006, when my PSA went from 1 in November of 2005 to 17 in July of 2006. If you get aches in both hamstrings, beware. I urge all Dartmouth alum who are at least 40 to do the PSA test on a yearly basis. But I am cancer free for now." Thanks, Rickey, for that important and timely reminder. Ditto with colon cancer testing.

And on a sadder note, I received news that J. Alan Groves died on Februarys after a yearlong battle with cancer. Al was a professor of Old Testament at the Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and was a noted scholar, specializing in the application of computing and related technology to the study and teaching of the Hebrew Bible and language. According to the school, Al was a favorite professor loved for "his humility, compassion and availability and constantly put others first, even after his cancer diagnosis." Our hearts go out to Al's wife and family.

Nancy sends her best. Hard to believe we were all together years ago. Time is the elusive commodity, that's for sure.

5 Boardman Ave., Manchester,MA 01944;(617) 737-1100, ext. 302; jbildner@literaryventuresfund.org