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The three tidbits below represent the totality of news received in the last couple of months and highlight but a few of the varied interests and exploits of our classmates. As I turn over the pen to Scott for the next several issues, I'll take yet another opportunity to implore you all to share your news too.

Books2 Mention magazine reports chat Wallace Ford has another new book. What You Sow is called a "smart read" about a "group of business savvy individuals who are all connected to Morningstar Financial Services and members of the elite club called The Pride." (The Pride, you might recall, was the title of his first book a few years back.) From Wally himself: "I encourage aspiring writers to focus on translating the desire to write into the actual experience of writing...and to continue to write some more.. .and most importantly to write about what you know." Just do it!

Co-secretary Scott Holland traveled to Thailand for six weeks last winter. He survived hour trip (door-to-door) via Chicago and Narita; he reports that 14 hours in United economy is a real long time.This trip marked his 20th consecutive year of visiting Thailand. He returned, as he has been doing since 1990, to Koh Samui, a small island in the Gulf of Thailand, and once again survived helmet-free motorbiking on the wrong side of the road. He was glad to find all his favorite restaurants still there (although one in Bangkok "disappeared" between dinnertime and a planned lunch the next day!) and enjoyed lots of curries, spicy salads and fresh seafood. He was pleased to report not being tricked into eating chicken feet again. Highlight of the trip was seeing Marijuana, a Thai country music singer, perform live in a club. He advises: "If you travel through Bangkok's new airport, be sure to wear your track shoes."

Finally, maybe some of you were fortunate enough to have seen one of Jim Nachtwey's recent exhibitions at the United Nations ("World Free of TB") and at 401 Projects in the West Village ("The Sacrifice"), the latter focusing on the warwounded in Iraq. Both were lauded in a recent New York Times article, which opined: 'Along with bravery and perseverance, Mr. Nachtwey's pictorial virtue makes him a model war photographer. He doesn't mix up his priorities. His goal is to bear witness, because somebody must, and his pictures, devised to infuriate and move people to action, are finally about us, and our concern or lack of it, at least as much as they are about him and his obvious talents." I've seen his work in exhibition and in his book Inferno and couldn't agree more.

Back to you, Scott...

6 Pump House, Springhouse, PA19477; j.oplinger@yahoo.com, P.O. Box607, Grantham, NH 03753; hollansx@earthlink.net