Update 4-14-09

Hi,

To begin with, some business:  First, this year's Booker Gibson and Vince Tampio scholarships are paid for.  Thank you all.  We collected $850 from 24 people in 7 days.  Added to the $243 we already had, that brought us to $1093, which will leave $68 in the Booker Gibson fund and $25 in the Vince Tampio fund after the awards are given in June.  I'll take careful care of that $93 till next year.
   
    Second, both Hy Rosov and Eric Hilton wrote asking why there was no mention of Chuck Messner's death in last week's newsletter.  I quickly wrote Hy and Eric to say that was because there were several letters in the newsletter the week before which focused on Chuck Messner.  That update particularly included a note each from Hy and Eric.  But it turned out that Hy and Eric never got the 3-31-09 newsletter.
        I followed this out and discovered it was because of the new flickr links even though I'd deactivated them.  Somehow, they still triggered Hy and Eric's spam filters.  They also triggered Zelda White Nichols' filter, but she noticed that the newsletter hadn't turned up on Tuesday morning and asked me if anything was wrong.  I said, "No, but thanks for asking," and sent her a duplicate of the update.  I later did this for Hy and Eric, as I will for anyone who lets me know that their weekly newsletter hasn't arrived.
        What's wrong relates to a piece I heard on public radio last week, which is actually something that's very right:  American spam filters are now blocking something like 90% of the electronic junk mail we don't want.  The only problem is they sometimes also stop mail we do want.  This is especially true of bulk mail sent with links.
        That's why I deactivate the links and usually drop the http prefixes.  I should have dropped the www as well.  Though last week, I left the http in front of the new picasa link, and that newsletter got through -- at least, I didn't hear from anyone that it didn't.  And spam filters are selective:  they'll stop a newsletter to one person on a server and let someone on the same server get the mail  If anyone can explain this to me, that would be terrific.  Meanwhile, I'll continue to deactivate links and remove prefixes.  The next step is to write things cryptically -- as in aol (dot) com -- and to let people retranslate.  Hope you all still have your decoder rings.
   
    Third, these questions came in:  Do I send you all my class photos?  Do I send them to Stu Borman?  Do I send them to the new Picasa photo site?  Or do I post the photos myself?  What would the best procedure be?
   
    [Rich -- Good questions.  Please send the photos as attachments directly to Stu.  His e-mail address is:  sborman@gmail.com.  In code, that would be sborman (at) gmail (dot) com.  See how boring this could be?  But please send your photos.  People are waiting to see them.  And send any information identifying the folks in the photos, so that we don't all have to guess.  Though that's sometimes fun.]
   
    Fourth, some letters that were delayed because we had so many letters last week.  Length also triggers spam filters, which is why I keep these newsletters fairly short.
   
    From Judy Brill:  In response to Mary Sipp Green's inquiry about Mr. Jochnowitz -- I had him for art (remember when art classes were part of the regular curriculum) and it's one of the classes that has stood out.  I believe I was in the seventh grade (class of '68) and he had us do a project wherein we produced a cartoon film set the David Rose's "The Stripper," which became a hit in 1962.  If I recall correctly, he had groups of us work on different sections of actual film.  We painted a dot, starting out covered in many colors, and, to the music, the dot "stripped" off the colors until it was bare.  He had us do this to music he played (vinyl, of course) and the album that stands out is "Herbie Mann at the Village Gate."  I fell in love with the album, and bought it, and still have it -- the vinyl and the CD I burned from it.
        His niece, Marlene Jochnowitz, was also in my class.  I don't know the status of either of them.
   
    Related, from Ryki Zuckerman:  I had Mr. Jochnowitz as a teacher while at South.  He was great.  I was friends with him and his family for a brief time after graduation, visiting with them at their home while I was in college.  Joe won a Fulbright or some similar grant in the late 60s, early 70s, and he and his family lived in India for a year or two.  I remember that his (then very young) daughter's bologna sandwich slipped from her little hands, and the bologna splat against the ground.  Joe picked it up, wiped it off, and handed it back to her, saying they had seen such severe conditions in India that a little dirt on the meat was nothing in comparison.  (Of course, it might have been the five-second rule at work also.)
        I remember also that we had decided to meet at the Empire State Building in ten years hence from graduation (so it was to be in 1976), by which time I was busy with work in another part of the state and had forgotten, and, no doubt, so did he.
        Hope someone else has some other news about him, and a happy update.
   
    About another teacher, Ryki also adds:  In the past few weeks, I have seen  Lucia Di Lammermoor and Madama Butterfly at a local movie theater, but live, via high definition simulcasts from the Metropolitan Opera.  While it is true that my late father loved and listened to classical music, I still have to say, "Thanks, Mr. Gibson."
   
    [Spell Check would like to change Lammermoor to Flameproof.]
   
    Finally, from Barbara Blitfield Pech:  I was able to get onto Stu Borman's new class photo site and have not stopped thinking about "home" in beautiful black and white.  Mary Ferranti's photos just hit an unexpected soft spot and took me reeling back forty plus years to the Memorial Day parades on Rockaway Avenue. I marched in many of those parades as a Brownie and a Girl Scout, but at the time I was too young to know the glories of later years spent at Teddy's and Mitchell's after football games at Fireman's Field or afternoon shopping sprees with friends from temple or Central High.  We'd meet each other halfway between our parts of town.  Again, thanks for the memories.
   
    And that's about all the space this week, except for some possibly troublesome links:
   
    The South '65 e-mail addresses:  reunionclass65.blogspot.com
   
   
    Rich