1975

Greetings from North Haven, Maine, where summer has finally arrived.

With snow well into April, many of us were convinced it might never get here. But steady winds and long days have changed all that, and at last, we can relish in that particularly New England pleasure we call "summer."

The College has been in transition as well. The class of 2007 has just graduated and the class of 2011 will soon be matriculating—and what a class that will be. The College reports that it received its largest-ever number of applications and accepted its lowest-ever percentage of applicants. A total of 14,176 applications were received for the class of 2011—20 percent more than the number of applicants for this year's graduating class and women outnumbered men in the applicant pool, with a total of 7,131 women, or 50.4 percent of the applicant pool.

The mailbag is light this month, but I can report a live sighting of my good friend and our classmate Tom Wood in Winnetka, Illinois, not far from where Tom lives. Nancy and I had flown out to play in theNational Senior Husband and Wife Mixed Paddle Championship and got the great news that we had won by default since they could only muster three husband-and-wife senior teams to play (not sure what the message in that is). The second piece of news was that they entered us in the National Mixed Open Tournament, where we promptly got toasted by teams much younger—and better. But to our surprise, amidst those more competent teams was our own Tom Wood, who made it into the quarterfinals in style.Tom looks great, is a long-standing partner at Goldman Sachs and his paddle play remains quite solid.

And after pleading with David Lampert for something to say about him, I received the following: "I was recently named emperor of a small principality in East-Central Asia after a 24-hour bloodless coup. My subjects total 31, on a good day, and 34 on a bad day. The castle is leaky and drafty and suffering after 1,000 years, of neglect but we have done a good job of making it a home nevertheless. We have trade agreements with neighboring Warzbekistan, which provide firewood, pigs and fertilizer, in exchange for our private banking services. All in all, it is a very satisfactory arrangement. I miss Hanover and my classmates very much. You are all welcome here at any time." I leave it up to you to determine the accuracy of Davids message, but will say that other sources report that David is president of Swix USA and lives in Manchester with his wife, Torril, and their two sons. With that, we'll sign off for now. If you find yourself anywhere near the Maine coast this summer, do give us a call. You can't miss the Dartmouth flag by the point.

5 Boardman Ave., Manchester, MA01944; (617) 737-1100, ext. 302; jbildner@literaryventuresfund.org