Update 12-19-06

Hi,

A series of notes and best wishes for Chanukah and Christmas.
   
    First, from Jerry Bittman:  Well, this might be the last e-mail you will be receiving from me.  I am scheduled to enter the University of Nebraska Medical Center tomorrow on Friday, December 15th.  The center is located in Omaha, and the doctors will be doing tests to see if I need a heart transplant.  I'll be in there a minimum of five days.  The first test is inserting a tube in my neck to check out my heart.
        Now the good news:  I'll have a nice private room, I'm allowed visitors 24/7, I'm permitted to use my cell phone, and besides a TV, the room has electricity and running water.  All prayers are accepted.  For those who do not have my cell phone and want to shoot the breeze for a while, my number is 914-610-1513.  I did put in two requests for my room:  a fan and a young nurse.
        Paul Zegler:  I know that I told you and Becky the other day that my admission date was January 3rd, but the doctors and I wanted to push it up.  I am so positive that I will pull through this that this morning I went out and purchased a 2007 calendar.
        P.S.  Andy Dolich, please remember this:  it is never too late.  When you eventually retire from sports management, you still have time to become a standup comic.
   
    Next, from Helen David:  My mind must have been running faster than my fingers when I wrote my memoir from the Alumni Association book.  Mr. Stem was most adamant to NOT have a woman in his department. Mr. Bergen, being the principal, had the last word, obviously.  To make room for me, he moved Earl Graham from the science department into Driver Education.  (Years later, when I told my husband that Mr. Graham was also called "Zev," he asked, "Don't you know that Zev Graham was the outstanding 'little' football player of the country?"  I believe that he had played for Fordham University.)  At the faculty year-end celebration in 1958, Mr. Stem was heard to say that Spanish women teachers (Mrs. Margolin) were okay, but science women teachers just didn't belong.  The word sequence was his.  When Mr. Saffrin became chairman, I really had a chance to bloom.  He was encouraging and allowed me to spread my wings and have a human voice.  I took on more of the Biology program and less of the general sciences.  Irving, did I ever tell you that?  Enjoy!
   
    [Rich:  I kind of suspected there was a NOT missing, and I know there are occasional typos in the Alumni Association book.  But I figured, if there really was a mistake, it would give another chance for Helen David to write in.  And that's always welcome.]
   
    From Lynn Nudleman Villagran:  It was nice to read the memories of South, especially Helen David's.  As a young girl and teenager at South, I never realized how close the faculty were to each.  Happy Holidays to all.
   
    From Peter Rosen, a note to Helen David:  Your memory of Saddle Rock Road is right on.  I grew up on that street and moved into our house in 1951.  I believe the land was owned by the Reisings, who had the farm.  I used to pick scallions and shoot marbles back there.  When the school was built, I lived on the grounds, either playing football, softball, baseball, basketball, tennis or just hanging out with friends and girlfriends.  Great memories.
   
    From Judy Hartstone:  Again, I've survived the latest storm in the Northwest territories, roughing it during a three-day power outage that affected more than a million people.  High winds sent fragrant evergreen boughs onto my roof and throughout the yard, but there was no damage, thankfully.  Again, we're spared the worst of the storm where I live.
   
    [Rich -- Judy also pointed out how important it is to keep a land line in places where cell phones can go dead in a storm.]
   
    From Robert Fiveson:  By the way, Dreamworks settled with me over their basing their recent movie The Island on my 1979 film Parts: The Clonus Horror.  My son's college education is covered.
   
    Paul Zegler sent copies of his latest headshots in which he looks both terrific and ready to dance.
   
    Barnet Kellman is “thrilled” by the merger of Time Warner and Comcast, and “delighted” that once again he gets to announce a change of email address.  My new address is:  bkkellman@ca.rr.com  Please be so kind to change your address books.  Thanks.
   
    And a surprise, from Grace Kruskol:  I know this is out of the blue, but Nat is my father-in-law.  My daughter, who is a college student, was surfing on AOL Hometown, and she typed in "Kruskol" to see what would come up.  Well, what came up was your account of the reunion at Valley Stream South, where I believe you told the story of Nat's heart attack.  Yes, he did have that heart attack (I was dating his son at the time), but he did not die of a second one.  He fully recovered, and he is retired and living in Georgia with his wife of fifty-one years. Just setting the record straight.  Regards to all.
   
    Some not as good news, from The New York Times:  Chris Hayward, an Emmy-winning television writer who helped develop the bumbling animated Canadian Mountie Dudley Do-Right and other offbeat characters for the Rocky and Bullwinkle TV show, has died. He was 81.  Hayward died of cancer November 20 at his Beverly Hills home, his wife, Linda, told the Los Angeles Times.  Hayward contributed satire, wordplay, and puns for Rocky and His Friends, a witty cartoon that built a large adult following. The show debuted on ABC in 1959 and was renamed The Bullwinkle Show when it moved to NBC in 1961.  Besides its titular flying squirrel and moose, the hit show featured segments including Mr. Peabody, a time-traveling dog with a boy companion, and Dudley, a klutzy hero always in pursuit of his nemesis Snidely Whiplash.  The first episode Hayward co-wrote for the two lead characters was ''Rue Britannia,'' according to The Moose That Roared' (2000), a history of the show.  In the episode, Bullwinkle has to stay in the Abominable Manor in England.  ''Shucks, I've been livin' in an abominable manner all my life!'' the moose says.  Jay Ward, whose studio produced the show, gave very little instruction to Hayward when it came to reinventing the Do-Right character, which had been around since the late 1940s  ''It's about a stupid Mountie.  Just have fun!'' Hayward recalled.  The character was voiced by Bill Scott, who also was the voice behind Bullwinkle.  With partner Allan Burns, Hayward later helped create The Munsters, and in 1968 the pair received an Emmy for their work on the CBS sitcom He & She.  Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, Hayward moved to Los Angeles at age 17. He took a night class in scriptwriting at a local high school and went into television in the 1950s. He worked on Crusader Rabbit, the first cartoon show created specifically for television, as well as Get Smart, My Mother the Car, and Barney Miller.  In addition to his wife, Hayward is survived by his children, Laurel, Victoria and Tony, from a previous marriage that ended in divorce.
   
    Finally, a little about the separation of church and dentistry:  I was having my teeth cleaned and the new hygienist was making the usual one-sided small talk.
        "Do you live around here?" she asked.
        "Uh-uh," was all I could say.
        "But you've come here for a long time."  She must have looked at my records.
        "Uh-huh."
        "Did you used to live around here?"
        "Uh-uh."
        "But you live in a house?"
        "Uh-huh."
        "Do you decorate it for Christmas?"
        "Uh-huh."
        "Are you Catholic?"
        At which point I shut up.  I mean, it's bad enough I now have to give my driver's license and Social Security numbers just to get my teeth cleaned.