1980

John McCain and Barack Obama seem like fine fellows but c'mon, wouldn't our country be better off under the stewardship of a Dartmouth classmate? Durring my four years in Hanover I detected raw political ambition simmering in the hearts of many and witnessed flagrant political maneu vering in the actions of a few. Jeff Citrin, Bill Hellman and Ross Jaffe have each achieved some degree of financial security by skillfully investing other peoples money; can we persuade one of them to revive his childhood dream of working on behalf of the lowly tax payer? There's no reason to hesitate, Jeff. Earl Grossman no longer has the compromising photos.

Does a person define the name or does a name define the person? For classmates born with presidential surnames the jury is still out. While it's clear that Page Polk Lipe aggressively pursued namesake President James Knox Polk's policy of manifest destiny by facilitating the expansion of her family's boundary to include Caria Buckman Lipe, there's no evidence that Mike Bush was confronting global terrorism when he pre mptively changed his laptop's password two weeks prior to the deadline imposed by the IT staff at- Merrill Lynch.

I recently took a trip to Boston to enjoy a day of golf and a night at Fenway with Mark Alperin, Joe Henley '79 and Terry Gould '79. When we arrived at the course Mark men- tioned that we might run into fellow club member Curt Flight, whose supreme mas- tery of the balance between work and play enables his regular weekday presence at the clubhouse. Sure enough, Curt pulled into the parking lot shortly after we did. I was eager to see Curt: For the past few months I'd been thinking about him several times a day, each time I queued up the animated movie Madagascar for my 2-year-old and heard the song "Born Free" over the opening credits. At lunch Curt claimed that he didn't remember ever commandeering a piano to perform at a dive bar in Boston late one night in the prekaraoke days of our college years. But Curt did confirm that he still knew how to play and sing "Born Free."

There is news to report from Scottsdale, Arizona, where Andy Beran and Tricia Nast Beran have spent the past three years grow- ing their sign business. In August Andy and Tricia received the proverbial "offer they couldn't refuse" and sold their business. With both daughters in school, these empty nesters are now faced with the daunting prospect of spending their days traveling, relaxing and doing whatever they please. They intend to continue with this new lifestyle until it becomes completely unmanageable.

By the time this column is published, most of us will be looking at our 50th birth days in the rearview mirror. Now that it's over, fess up: It wasn't that bad, was it? in Arbor Place, Bryn Mawr, PA19010; (610) 581-8889; ffesnak(a)yahoo.com;1111 Park Ave., #2A, New York, NY 10128; pelmlin@frk.com