Update 4-24-07

Hi,

Thanks for your thoughts about Virginia Tech.  Maybe the saddest thing is that it seems the shootings could have happened anywhere.
   
    A quick update on the Tampio/Gibson scholarships:  They're just over halfway funded for this year.  We have $250 for the one honoring Vince, and $258 for the one honoring Booker.  Why doesn't that track with what I reported last week -- Tampio, $158; Gibson, $250?  Because I added the wrong incoming checks to the wrong balances.  How can I be sure I'm right this time?  Because I did the work on paper.  Twice.
        Again, please make the checks out to:  Rich Eisbrouch, and send them to me at:  23030 Dolorosa Street, Woodland Hills, California  91367.  In the bottom left corner of the check, please indicate which award you're supporting, or if you want your contribution split between the awards.  Thanks.
   
    Another correction:  The comments that Ryki Zuckerman sent in last week by Verlyn Klinkenborg about Kurt Vonnegut were originally published in The New York Times, not The Buffalo News.
   
    A reminder that the next Alumni Association meeting is on this Thursday, April 26th, 2007.  At South.  In the library.  With the candlestick.
   
    From Amy Miller:  Here's a photo of something we passed over all the time in our childhoods.  When I was in Eastern Europe last fall, I started photographing these kinds of covers only to discover a few months later that there are photography books of covers, and that quilters have stitched their likenesses in fabric.
        (Amy attached a photo of a sewer cover, emblazoned Green Acres, 1951.)
   
    From Stu Borman:  Judy Hartstone's comments last week about dating Les Glasser brought back a few memories for me.  I don't see why Judy thinks "dating" is a quaint term.  It still happens.
        Judy's comment made me think back to high school make-out parties, which I recall having started when I was around thirteen years old.  I'd like to tell you the name of the first girl I made out with, but I'm embarrassed to say that I forget exactly who it was.  If you're in the class of '65 and don't mind outing yourself, please feel free.  I reserve the right of deniability.
        My main girlfriend in high school was Roseanne Andre.  She was probably in the class of '66.  I liked younger women. I still do, although now they tend to be half my age.  But I'm also still attracted to women my own age or even a little older.
        Roseanne broke up with me because she said my wrists were too thin.  They still are.  In fact, I think they've gotten thinner since then.
        Roseanne was the last girl who was honest enough to actually tell me why she was breaking up with me.  I appreciate her forthrightness.  It was very helpful to know that my wrists were too thin, and I've kept this in mind all my life.  In her own way, Roseanne was telling me that she didn't want a person with thin wrists to be the father of her children, and, hey, I can respect that.  I have three sons now, and I don't think any of their wrists are particularly thick.
        I just looked in the 1965 Legend to try to find the girl I first made out with.  Maybe Mark Perlman remembers who it was.
        In the Legend -- which is beginning to seem like an increasingly appropriate name for our yearbook -- I couldn't help but notice Judy Schulman's photo on page 60.  How come Judy's photo is brighter than everyone else's?  Did she pay the photographer for extra illumination, or something?  Judy, if you're listening somewhere -- you look terrific in that photo and you probably still do.
        In high school, Judy used to wear very short skirts.  My desk was in front of hers and in an adjacent row, and I used to turn around a lot to look at Judy.  She once accused me of turning around a lot to look at her legs, and I probably denied it at the time.  But, Judy, you were spot on with that accusation.
   
    From Robert Fiverson about Stu's note last week about getting banned from Cooky's:  I don't know if it was that particular time, but I do remember that Jay and I were banned from ever entering Cooky's again for some reason.  That was also true of the new movie theater that opened on Sunrise Highway.  On opening night, we were the fifth and sixth people through the doors to see Cleopatra, and we were thrown out for life before the film ended.  In our defense, it was a long film.
        Jay and I were also banned from the Green Acres Shopping Center for something to do with Jay sticking a peanut in the guard's pipe and us watching, in spasms of laughter, as he smoked the peanut.  And we were banned from the drive-in movie theater, the bowling alley -- which served us beer at the age of sixteen with our fake IDs -- and a raft of other places.  Jay and I have decided to spend the money for an operation that will now surgically rejoin us at the hip.  I am attempting to sell the idea to Discovery Health Channel.
   
    [Rich -- A note I wrote to Robert:  The opening night film of the new theater on Sunrise Highway was the twentieth anniversary revival of Gone With The Wind in 1959.  It was still long.  You and Jay still could have been thrown out.  Jeff Levin and I were two of the last people let into the theater, and we saw the movie from the first row.  Cleopatra wasn't made until 1963.]
   
    And Robert replied:  You are correct, sir.  It was Gone With The Wind.
   
    From Mark Perlman:  Looking in the Valley Stream Yellow Book, dated 1965-66, I see that the restaurant is listed as Cookys Restaurant -- that is if the phone book is to be believed.  By the way, the phone number was LO 1-0900.
   
    [Rich -- And we're all too polite to ask Mark why he still has a 1965 Valley Stream Yellow Book.]
   
    From Marc Jonas:  The spelling is Cooky's is my recollection.  Here's one person's confirmation, thanks to the Internet:  Does anyone remember Cooky's Steak Pub restaurants in Brooklyn (Kings Plaza), Queens (Queens Center) and the one at Green Acres shopping plaza?
        And how about the seven-layer and checkerboard cakes from Wall's, not to mention the Charlotte Russe?  There's still nothing like Fox' U-Bet, which recovered from a critically harsh assessment by Consumers Union, so many years ago.  And Hammer soda and real seltzer bottles, which were stored on the basement stairs.  Both were delivered to our doors in Green Acres, along with fresh fruits and vegetables, courtesy of Al the fruit man.  And baked goods from Dugan's, along with the odd truck by Divco.  And the big deli sandwiches at the Woodro.
        Also, shopping at the Cricket Shop in Cedarhurst, for those who wished to go to the dark side -- the Ivy League.  Cuffs.  Ugh.