Update 4-25-06

Hi,

Spring and spring-like weather keeping us all outside.  But some notes.

Pictures of Paul Zegler and Ellen Epstein Silver, extracted by Ellen's husband Alan from their cell phone, should soon be on the home page under Photos.  But the picture of Paul and me is still stuck in his phone.
   
    From Zelda White Nichols:  Just thought I would write in to say hi after a long absence. The last few months have been very busy, and the last few weeks absolutely hectic. In just forty-eight hours, I will be opening Southern Spirit Gallery in Denton, North Carolina.  This is a fine craft and art gallery featuring the work of Southern craftspeople and artists.  If there is anyone living in the South who does high quality work and is looking for a new gallery to sell in, give me a call at 336-859-9797.
        In the middle of the most hectic week to date, I had to take a few days off for an emergency visit to my ninety-one-year-old mom in Florida as she had to have a pacemaker installed this week.  I bring this up because one of her nurses made an interesting comment.  The cardiac care unit doesn't bat an eye any more when they get patients in their nineties and early hundreds. People are living longer lives now, and it is very common for people to reach older ages.  Who knows, perhaps in ten or twenty years, people will live to be centurion teenagers.
   
    [Rich -- Good luck, Zelda, from all of us.]
   
    A note from Emily Kleinman Schreiber, which accompanied the latest alumni minutes:  Hello!  Spring is finally here -- April showers, tulips, blooming trees, and lots of pollen.  This e-mail is going to everyone who became a member of South's Alumni Association on, before, or after March 11th.  Once again, I want to thank you all for joining.  Your support is needed and absolutely appreciated.
        Please also inform me of upcoming reunions so I can help to spread the word to your classmates.  Also, if you're willing to be the reunion contact person for your class on Classmates.com, please let me know, so I can take my name off some of the lists at their site.
       Have a good night, and keep in touch.  P.S.  Memory Journals will be mailed in May.
   
    [Rich -- I think, by default, I'm still listed as the class of '65 contact on Classmates.com though I haven't been a paying member since maybe 2002.  But if anyone else in our class is paying and wants to be the contact person, please go right ahead.]
   
    A note from Claire Brush Reinhardt, which accompanied the back-up copy of the latest alumni minutes:  There are a few more meetings before the end of the school year.  Hope all of you who joined got your copies of the Memory Journal from the March 11th celebration.  It was a wonderful day.  Just on a personal note, the DVD that is referred to in these minutes on the history of South High School is very worthwhile, and I'm sure if any of you are interested in purchasing it, you may still do so.  It is so worth the $10.00.  Copies are still available and can be ordered from Ross Lipsky, a math teacher at South.  You can contact him at the school, and he will mail out the DVD for an additional fee.  I'm not sure what it is, but it is only for postage.  We hope to work out the details of the "1-2-3" reunion over the summer and will keep you all informed.  Be well.
   
    [Rich -- I'm guessing the "1-2-3" reunion is for the classes of 1961, '62, and '63.  But I'm sure other people may attend.  And Ross Lipsky's e-mail address is: Ross@Lipsky.com  Those of you at our 40th reunion know him as the "nice young man" who was taping alumni interviews.]
   
    The highlights of the minutes from the March 30th alumni association meeting, as usual respectfully submitted by Roberta Brill Birnel.
        There were twenty people in attendance at this meeting: Roberta Brill Birnel, John Cunnane, Paul DeMartino, Booker Gibson, Karen Grimm, Eileen Howell, Linda Tobin Kettering, Irwin Kotcher, Ross Lipsky, Claire Brush Reinhardt, Ray Richford, Emily Kleinman Schreiber, Mike Scully, Dennis Shapiro, Laura Waxman Ulric, Ken Ulric, Arthur Yngstrom, and Pat Yngstrom.  Two new attendees were Arlene Lynn, and Joseph Anfora.
        Emily Schreiber gave a giant thanks to all who attended the big celebration -- more than 350 people. Other special thank yous were given to the following:
        Laura Ulric for organizing the morning reception (coffee urns and sweets), and for creating the sign-in boards.
        Those who created the retired teachers boards.  All that cutting and pasting was worth the looks on the faces of those taking the time to look at them.
        Members of the staff who helped:  Ross Lipsky, Liz King-Giordano, Madeline Silverman, Nell Landman, the art teacher, and the Honor Society advisor.
        Elaina Garces for dropping various items at Emily’s house.
        Irwin Kotcher for taking care of the mugs and for taking so many photos.
        Dennis Shapiro, Paul DeMartino, Robin Baker, Claire Reinhardt, Irwin Kotcher, and others for manning the table.
        Emily has received many happy and appreciative e-mails from alumni who attended and had a wonderful time.  Memory Journals that were not picked up, by members who did not attend the rededication, were put into envelopes to be mailed.
        It was noted that the Valley Stream Historical Society has some copies of yearbooks for sale.  The years are:  1969, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.  The price is $15, if picked up, or $25, if mailed.
        Dennis Shapiro presented the treasurer's report.  We now have $4150.13 in our treasury and 251 members. We gained $1600 on March 11th by signing up new members and from the sale of Alumni mugs.
        The need for insurance by the Association was discussed.
        Two new committees were formed. The By-laws Committee (Dennis Shapiro, Paul DeMartino, Pat Yngstrom, and Arty Yngstrom) will meet at a future time.  The Scholarship Committee (Ken and Laura Ulric, Eileen Howell, Arty Yngstrom, Mike Scully, Claire Reinhardt, Irwin Kotcher, and Roberta Birnel) will also meet to discuss setting up a fund for future scholarships.  There are two scholarship funds in the names of Booker Gibson and Vincent Tampio now being managed by the Class of 1965, and it was suggested that the Alumni Association take over their management.  Collecting the pledges made on behalf of these scholarships was a consideration, however, and Dennis Shapiro said we would need to know who made the pledges so that we could manage the accounts.  We also talked about future scholarships, the criteria, whether to have pledges for a one-time gift or over a period of years and/or fund raisers to raise the necessary money.  Irwin Kotcher suggested that we continue to build up our treasury before making a commitment.  Management of such a fund could also be assumed by a “Trusted Agency Fund,” which means the money would be kept by the school district but the Alumni Association would keep control of expenditures.
        Ross Lipsky said that a DVD of the festivities of March 11th is being processed.  It will be available for purchase.  The DVD of South High’s history that was sold on March 11th is still available at a cost of $10.
        Members were reminded that our next meetings are as follows:  Thursday, May 4th, and Thursday, June 1st, both at 7:15 PM in the South High School library.  We will hold meetings during the summer, but, as yet, do not know if South’s library will be available.  We may need to look for an alternate site.
   
    Finally, filler and filler disclaimer.  The first a humorous piece circulating on the Internet called Working With Idiots Can Kill You -- Stress caused by dim-witted co-workers may give you a fatal heart attack.  It was written by Kate McClare for the Weekly World News and originally published in 2002.
        Idiots in the office are just as hazardous to your health as cigarettes, caffeine, or greasy food, an eye-opening new study reveals. In fact, those dopes can kill you.  Stress is one of the top causes of heart attacks -- and working with stupid people on a daily basis is one of the deadliest forms of stress, according to researchers at Sweden's Lindbergh University Medical Center.  The author of the study, Dr. Dagmar Andersson, says her team studied 500 heart attack patients and were puzzled to find that 62 percent had relatively few of the physical risk factors commonly blamed for heart attacks.  "Then we questioned them about lifestyle habits, and almost all of these low-risk patients told us they worked with people so stupid they can barely find their way from the parking lot to their office.  And their heart attack came less than 12 hours after having a major confrontation with one of these oafs."
        Dr. Andersson went on to say, "One woman had to be rushed to the hospital after her assistant shredded important company tax documents instead of copying them.  A man told us he collapsed right at his desk because the woman at the next cubicle kept asking him for correction fluid -- for her computer monitor."
        "You can cut back on smoking or improve your diet," Dr. Andersson says, "but most people have very poor coping skills when it comes to stupidity -- they feel there's nothing they can do about it, so they just internalize their frustration until they finally explode."
        Stupid co-workers can also double or triple someone's work load, she explains. "Many of our subjects feel sorry for the drooling idiots they work with, so they try to cover for them by fixing their mistakes. One poor woman spent a week rebuilding client records because a clerk put them all in the 'recycle bin' of her computer and then emptied it -- she thought it meant the records would be recycled and used again."

    And the disclaimer, from Urban Legend:  All one need know about this article is that it originated with the Weekly World News, an entertainment tabloid with its tongue firmly embedded in its cheek to a depth not measurable by any instrument known to man. Unfortunately, Yahoo, a primary news source for many people on the Internet, reprints some Weekly World News articles in their Entertainment News section under a heading of "Entertainment News & Gossip," a title that doesn't convey a strong "bogus" warning to readers who don't notice the original source is the Weekly World News or don't know what the Weekly World News is.  So, after Yahoo! picked up this November 2002 article about doctors finding a direct link between heart attacks and "working with stupid people," it was forwarded and circulated by people who knew only that it came from a "real news source." For the record, there is no Lindbergh University Medical Center in Sweden.