Update 2-11-03


Hi,

A week of forwards.  But first some social news:

From Robin Seader Cottmeyer:  Please extend an invitation to those living in, or planning to visit, the Washington, DC area, to take a side trip to Annapolis, Maryland.  It's absolutely beautiful in the spring -- or anytime, in my opinion -- and less than an hour from DC.  I'd love to play tour guide!  Meanwhile, much love to all.  Keep singing. 

From Greg Kaplan:  Linda and I are relocating to Massachusetts to be near our children, Lisa and Dan.  Lisa and her husband Rich have given us two grandsons, Ben and Jack, who we choose to live near (we found a house 7 minutes from them!)  Our son Dan just got engaged to Amy and will be married on October 25th in Lenox, Massachusetts.  Our new e-mail address, beginning February 15th, will be:  Kaplan1289@charter.net   Our new address is:  42 Fowler Road, Northbridge, Massachusetts  01534.  Our new phone number is 508-234-1289.  Please keep in touch!

From Paul DeMartino:  Hi, from snowy New York -- we're expecting 6 -10 inches today.  The big news is that last night Dennis Shapiro, Robin Feit, and I got together with Carmine DeSanto for drinks.  We had fun catching up on the past, trading stories and memories.  We had a nice time and plan to do it again.  Carmine said he will likely attend future functions as well.  Monday, I'm off to Dallas for a seminar for the week, and my wife Pina will be joining me.  We're seeing Ellen Epstein Silver and husband Alan and have been invited for dinner at their house in Allen, Texas.  That's a Dallas 'burb.  Otherwise, I'm just hoping this winter goes away soon.

A correction, which is to say confession, from Barbara Blitfield Pech:  I must give credit where credit is due -- the Dean Martin "Amore" parody was forwarded to me by Barbara Zingman Braunstein, not once, but twice in the same number of days.  Ah, nothing like those ever-popular senior moments, to relive and relive and relive...

Two further reflections, the first international, the second more local:

From Zelda Nichols White:  Isn't it grand that we can all have our beliefs, even if they aren't all the same.  We can protest or not -- we have that choice.  We can speak out for what we believe without fear of persecution or death.  That is what I would fight for.  I work with a girl who's a musician and an Iranian (not the same as being from Iraq, I realize).  She will never go back to Iran as they are not allowed to play music.  She cannot listen to it, and she cannot perform.  To me, the issue at stake is freedom -- that is the priority.  Live each day to the fullest, as you never  know what tomorrow will bring.  I am sure all of us grieve for the families of those who were lost on September 11th.

From Robert Fiveson:  As regards the shuttle disaster -- What is it Thoreau wrote, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," or Eliot, "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper."  We can get killed driving to the market, or die slowly and silently, with tubes in our bodies as uncaring strangers walk by in the hallways.  The astronauts were traveling at 18 times the speed of sound, 200,000 feet above the Earth, in 3000 degree heat.  I hope I get to die while on the greatest adventure of my life -- and instantly.  I honor, as well as envy, them.

Far closer to home, The Hunt for Ed Bonlarron continues:
      To begin with, when I was recently testing WhoWhere.com, I found three cities listed for Ed -- the search engine won't give you street addresses for free, though you can sometimes find them by cross-referencing with Switchboard.com.  In any case, I forwarded the information to Ed Albrecht who'd been looking for Ed Bonlarron, warning that WhoWhere.com also listed four addresses for me, one in Massachusetts, where I haven't lived for 15 years, and another in Cleveland, which I left in 1990.
      Ed Albrecht wrote back:  "I believe at one time Ed was in Port Jefferson.  He was with the police force for a short time, then I believe he was doing electrical work.  That's about what I know.  Thanks for the info."
      Coincidentally, Fran Bellucci just wrote by way of Nancy Garfield, "My last contact with Ed Bonlarron's parents was in the mid-70s -- after 1974 when my parents died.  The Bonlarrons lived in the apartment upstairs, and she, or they, might be there still, as it was their plan for Julia to live there even after they could not.  Anyway, the address is 72 Argyle Street, Valley Stream."
      Going back to Switchboard, unfortunately, I found no phone listings for Julia Bonlarron in Valley Stream, or for any Bonlarrons in all of New York.  And the third city listed on WhoWhere, San Juan Capistrano, also offers no phone listings for Bonlarrons.  Now if someone is truly wants to find Ed, and wants to start paying ten bucks a shot to check public records, that service is also available through WhoWhere.com.

Finally, the forwards:

First, again from Robin Seader Cottmeyer:  "There was supposedly an article last week, published in a Pakistani newspaper, mentioning a reward offered to anyone who killed an American, any American.  Reportedly, an Australian dentist rebutted with the following, to let everyone know what an American is:
      An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek.  An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, Arab, Afghan or Pakistani.  An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as Native Americans.  An American is Christian, or Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim.  In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan, and, only in America, are they free to worship as they choose.  An American is also free to have no religion, and, for that, he will answer only to God, not to a government or armed thugs claiming to speak for one.  An American comes from the most prosperous land in history, and the root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence -- it recognizes the right that every person has to the pursuit of happiness.  An American is generous -- Americans have helped just about every nation in the world in their times of need.  When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet Army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to let the people win back their country.  As of September 11th, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.  America welcome the best -- the best products, books, music, food, athletes -- but it also welcomes the least.  The national symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty, welcomes, "Your tired, your poor, your huddled masses... the wretched refuse of your teeming shore... the homeless, tempest-tost..."  These, in fact, are the people who built America, and some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11th, earning a better life for their families.  I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, including those that aided the terrorists.  So you can try to kill an American.  Hitler tried.  So did General Tojo and Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the last 250 years. But, in doing so, you'd just be killing yourself.  Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place.  They're the embodiment of the human spirit, of freedom.  Everyone who holds to that spirit, anywhere, is an American."

Next, from Tom Calise:  "Neighbors, friends and family -- there's a chance our country may be going to war very soon.  Now think about this.  In scripture, the number three represents the Holy Trinity.  Well, how about calling for a day of prayer for our country.  When you may ask?  On March 3, 2003.  That would be 03-03-03.  Wouldn't it be great if all the people in the world would stop what they are doing and pray on the same day?  We could make 03-03-03 a day of Hope.  I mean, Faith is the doorway that all miracles come through, but prayer is the key that unlocks the door.  Together, we can survive -- or avoid -- this war that seems inevitable.  Let's take action together.  Let's stop all activities together.  At 03:03 on the afternoon of March 3rd.  That would be 03:03 / 03-03-03, a date which won't happen again for another thousand years.  We won't be around then, so how about Peace, now?  Spread the word.

Last, from Judy Hartstone:  I don't usually pass on Internet jokes, but this one is perfect:
      Everyone has been guilty of looking at others our own age and thinking, "Surely, I can't look that old."  Recently, while waiting for my first appointment in the reception room of a new dentist, I noticed his certificate on the wall.  Suddenly, I remembered a tall, handsome boy with the same name who'd been in my high school class some 40 years earlier.  Upon seeing this dentist, however, I quickly discarded the thought:  he was a balding, gray-haired man, with a deeply lined face -- way too old to have been my classmate.  Still, after he'd examined my teeth, I asked if he'd attended the local high school.
      "Why, yes," he replied.
      "When did you graduate?" I questioned.
      "In 1960."
      "Then you were in my class!" I exclaimed.
      He looked at me very closely, then asked, "What did you teach?"

The home page:   http://hometown.aol.com/falcons1965a


Rich