1989

Mary Hegarty Nowlan is the new editor of Vermont Life, a quarterly magazine published by the state of Vermont. She succeeds a man who was honored by the state's governor and legislature for his two decades of service, so she is in very distinguished company. Mary has lived in Vermont since 1992, and she worked at Eating Well magazine from 1992 to 1998.

Author Geeta Anand, Wall Street Journal reporter by day, has gone Hollywood. You may remember my recent mention of her new book, The Cure, detailing a fathers efforts to raise millions of dollars to take on Pompe disease, which is devastating the lives of two of his children. A major motion picture based on the book and featuring Harrison Ford is now scheduled to start shooting in the fall. I recently had a chance to hear Geeta, an old friend and a Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist, speak in Maryland, courtesy of the Dartmouth Club of Washington. Her book is a real page-turner, keeping you riveted and wondering until the end whether the children are saved.

If your reading tastes are a bit more exotic, pick up a copy of Asian Borderlands: The Transformationof Qing China's Yunnan Frontier, written by our own Pat Giersch, an assistant professor of history at Wellesley College. The book details the impact of Chinese migration into the borderland communities, an "important key to understanding modern China," according to the press release by publisher Harvard University Press.

If you're heading to the movies, seek out Grade, described by the Washington Post as a "heart-on-its-sleeve soccer fable." The film, conceived and produced by Andrew Shue, is the story of a 15-year-old girl determined to get a spot on a boys soccer team in the wake of her brother's death. Andrew lost his oldest brother, Will '83, in an accident in 1988. And Elisabeth Shue, who plays Gracie's mother, provides some of the real-life inspiration for the movie, which co-stars Andrew. The film is directed by Elisabeth's husband, Davis Guggenheim, known for his Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Ed Barker has been busy biking, once again, to raise money for a cure for multiple sclerosis. This year's 150-mile ride wound through Pennsylvania and Ohio and finished at Lake Erie. Ed wrote:

"The sun shone, and the road was dry and fast. The birds sang, and the air was cool and sweet. The wind blew and wafted away the smell of possum pancakes. The Amish kids watched and waved on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The hills came and went, and the great lake welcomed us with a horizon

of blue. Sure, I used the granny gear more than last year. And we definitely took longer rest stops on the first day than in the past. But they were offering unlimited peanut butter-and jelly sandwiches and bananas. How could we hurry that?" Next year its onto Massachusetts and fellow riders are welcome."

Finally, since this is the year of 40, take a moment to e-mail me with the interesting, exotic, lovely or simply mundane ways that you're marking the occasion. It will, at the least, give me a way to fill our columns until we meet again in Hanover in 2009.

Best regards.

5912 Aberdeen Road, Bethesda,MD 20817; javellino@mac.com