Update 5-16-06

Hey,

A mess of stuff back and forth:

First, from Tom McPartland:  Sorry to hear about Joe Caruso's wife's death.  Here is the e-mail address I have to reach Joe:  igrannii@aol.com
   
    [Rich -- Thanks, Tom.]
   
    Next, from Peter Rosen:  You mentioned Kathy Berg in this recent letter, which brought back memories of her younger sister Lisa Berg.  Do you know where she is today?  I can't imagine what people will think as to why I would want to know Lisa's whereabouts.
   
    And a quick answer from Richard Sternhell:  I will say hello to Lisa for you.  We were all crazy about her.  She's a photographer living in New York and looks as terrific as she did when she was seventeen.  She's traveled the world for NBC and The New York Times, among other organizations, photographing high profile news events.  We have dinner every couple of months and, while my daughter's wedding is not a high profile event, I persuaded Lisa to do the photography for it.  Our daughter is getting married on Amelia Island on May 20th.  She and her fiance are both physicians in St. Louis, where we lived for about fifteen years.  And just to be fair, our son graduated from NYU Law School last Friday.
         Also, I did ask Kathy Berg about Doris Cohen, and she had no current information.
   
    From Peter again:  Wow.  That's great to hear about Lisa.  Also about Rich's daughter's wedding.  One of mine is getting married in July.
   
    [Rich -- Congratulations to Peter's daughter, of course.  And to Rich's son.]
   
    From Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  Claire Brush Reinhardt forwarded that same thoughtful e-mail to me, and I must say it really hit home.  Today, my son Mike had to have his thirteen-year-old, beloved, beautiful, black lab euthanized.  That dog changed all of our lives.  It was so full of emotions and love.
        On the positive side:  two Barbaras have been so helpful with the Alumni Association.  One is Barbara Blitfield Pech, and the other is Barbara Eisen Herman.  We communicate often, and great seeds are being planted.  I'm also in touch with so many wonderful alumni.  It makes all the time and work worthwhile.
   
    And from Barbara Blitfield Pech, the start of another good deed.  She forwarded the following from Arlene Ainbinder Lynn, '66:  Hi, Barbara.  We met at the South High's 50th anniversary party in March.  You were with Judy Weber.  I'm helping out with our class of '66 reunion, planned for October 2006.  I'm in contact with Jane Selwyn Colman, who lives in California.
    Can you give me Judy's e-mail address and mailing address if you have it?  Also, are you in touch with Marilyn Weiner?  Can you give me her e-mail address, too?  Thanks for your help.
   
    And Barbara wrote back:  Dear Arlene.  How nice to hear from you.  I'd be more than glad to help you with the names and any additional information.  I am copying your note to Marilyn Weiner, Ryki Zuckerman, and Eric Hilton from your class, as well as to Robert Fiveson and Fran Bellucci, who had siblings in your class.  I am also including our class of '65 reunion page which will post an all points bulletin for you, and Emily Kleinman Schreiber for contacts from the alumni association.  Judy Weber does not have an e-mail address, but is contactable by phone and is deeply interested in attending the class of '66 reunion.  Please don't hesitate to keep in touch for any additional contacts to make your 40th a blast.
   
    And Barbara wrote me:  Just a quick update, as you might feel you came in the middle with this forward.  As you can see, I got a note from Arlene Ainbinder Lynn having briefly connected with her at South 50th birthday party.  I could only think of a few members of our class kids who had siblings in  the class of '66, and I sent them a copy of her note and one to you to post.  Since the initial note, in less than 24 hours, I have gotten at least five more new contacts from their class, so they are off to a good start.
   
    [Rich -- And I wrote Barbara:  I'm assuming Arlene has joined Classmates.com and contacted everyone listed from her class.  That's how we made our initial contacts.  Something like forty of the sixty people listed got back to us when we wrote them.]
   
    And Barbara wrote back:  I will advise Arlene about that.  She got back to me last night, so I will suggest that networking is the next step.
   
    [Rich -- And I wrote Barbara:  I just checked.  Arlene is listed on Classmates.com, and there are ninety-six other members from her class.  If it was the same size as ours, that's about a third of the group.  So I'm hoping Arlene sent them all e-mails.  Meanwhile, if anyone else has information for Arlene, her e-mail address is:  ARL448@aol.com]
   
    And while we're talking about Barbara, a note from Linda Cohen Greenseid for her:
    Many thanks for the tip on enlarging the computer print size.  You have just made my life a little bit easier, and I am passing your information on to all my friends.  Being "of a certain age," we need all the help we can get.
   
    Though Robert Fiveson adds:  As regards the control key and mouse button making the screen print larger:  not everyone has a mouse with a center wheel, so I have found that the same effect can be had by holding all ten fingers down on either side of the keyboard and simultaneously moving your head closer to the screen.
   
    [Rich -- Finally, I had lunch with Peter Shapiro '62 last week.  Peter and his wife live maybe ten miles from me, and we've been talking about having lunch for a year.  We were set for a month ago, then something came up for him, then something came up for me, then his sister Joanne Shapiro Polner '59 mentioned that Peter's birthday was on the 11th, so I said I'd take him out for that, though he ended up paying because he may be older than I am, but he's still quicker.  So next year, I'm taking him out for my birthday.
        In any case, over a long lunch only slightly spent talking about South, Peter mentioned how great B.J. Peres Napolitano looked in South's 50th birthday photos.  When I passed this compliment on to B.J., she modestly claimed it was the camera.  But I told both of them, as I've mentioned here, it wasn't the camera that made me notice B.J.'s dancing at our 40th reunion.
        And that reminded me that I'd never asked Emily Kleinman Schreiber for pictures from South's 50th birthday party.  So I did, and she's promised to send me a CD full of them when she mails copies of the memory book.  I'll post some of the photos on the home page eventually.  And I know:  I still need to clean up the home page and delete fuzzy and duplicated photos from our 37th reunion.  But that's what slow days in summer are for.  I also noticed, when I looked at the home page recently for the first time in maybe six months, that some pictures are missing.  They were wiped out when the home page froze a year-or-two back, and I lost the first two-and-a-half years of our reunion updates.  Fortunately, Bernie Scheidt and Booker Gibson were able to restore two years of those, but I'm still missing updates from June 2001 through December 2001.  So if anyone really hasn't cleaned out his or her computer files for a long time, you might want to do me a favor and check to see what you've stashed away.  It would be especially nice to retrieve the updates following September 11, 2001.  Also, if anyone can scan and forward copies of the formal photos taken at our class' s 40th reunion, I'll try and post them.
        And that's about it.  Hope you had a good Mother's Day.  I was in Reno, on top of a mountain, with my 86-six-year-old mother-in-law.  The sky was clear, there were rabbits and quail, and cars on the highway four miles of dirt road away looked as small as they'd seem from an airplane.]