Update 5-20-08

All right,

A nice series of letters, beginning with one from one of our former teachers:

From Hiram Rosov:  I always look forward to your class newsletter's recap of events of  my '65 graduate students.  I was especially interested in learning about the daughter of one of my favorite students, Linda Tobin Kettering.  The newsletter really does a magnificent job of keeping all of us abreast of important news of the class of 1965 and others.
        At 79, I still try to stay active, writing, and creating my Judaic sculptures.  During the past five years, I have participated in national competitions of the Miami Jewish Museum and won awards for my Passover seder plate, charity box, challah tray, and a wine cup.  I was also commissioned by my synagogue to decorate the 25' x 10' cabinet that houses our ten torahs.  I designed and created twelve 15" x 24" bronze sculptured designs representing the tribes of Israel.
        I would be interested to learn what my South High colleagues are doing these days.  If they read my brief blurb, maybe they will send in a brief news item about themselves.
   
    [Rich -- Speaking of South, the 2008 Booker Gibson and Vince Tampio scholarship checks were sent to Liz King Giordano last Friday, only two days after I promised.  Something to do with palm trees growing through old drain pipes and a visit from the plumber that kept me from the post office.]
   
    A quick correction, from Amy Lieberman:  Well, now, in next week's update, I guess you'll have to take back my notice from last week's.  Two things:  First, the Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica pier was sold on eBay and is now gone from that location, supposedly to be replaced with some newer version.  Who the hell wanted a newer version?  Also, Billy and I realized that Monday, May 26, is Memorial Day, so we decided to let it be the family holiday that it is and get together with ours.  Because of that, we've canceled Billy's performance that night in Sherman Oaks.  But thank you so much for always getting the word out there.
   
    A note and a link from Paul Zegler:  Hope you enjoy this blast from the past as much as I did.  It's from a 1977 "People's Command Performance" special hosted by Bernadette Peters and George Burns.  A little side note:  backstage during the taping, Red Skelton kept calling me "The Pillsbury Doughboy," and he couldn't keep his hands off of me.  Oooo, real creepy.  Anyway, I miss you all.  Hope this skit brings a smile to your faces.
        "Danny's On The Turnpike" -- Ace Trucking Company -- "People's Command Performance" 1977.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6n_V9_M7mg&feature=email
   
    A question and comment that came in:  Was that story from The New York Times pertinent to our class because of the writer, the people mentioned, or just the subject matter?  I had cut it out of the paper because it is the most sensible approach to medical care for the elderly that I've seen in a long time.
   
    [Rich:  The story was personal propaganda.  It happens to be an approach I strongly believe in but which seems to meet resistance among my friends.  When I saw the Times article and noticed how frequently it was being e-mailed, I was encouraged and wanted to pass word on further.  Since it was a slow week for school letters, we had space.]
   
    From Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  Thanks for putting in the information about the NAMI Walk.  It's this morning, and I'm ready to go.  As of this moment, I've raised almost $1500 -- my goal -- and I'm feeling really good about that.
        Your article from the Times last week touched home.  I started responding to it, in connection with my aunt's sad experience with chemotherapy, but what I was writing was getting too depressing, so I hit delete.
        Hey, my big birthday was on the 14th, and, as usual, it made me very conscious of age and aging.  Is it possible that I'm on the big M?  I shake my head in disbelief when I think of that.  All this South High School stuff -- planning reunions and such -- makes me acutely aware of the March of Time.
        On the other hand, being back at South for our monthly Alumni Association meetings helps me and the others feel like kids again.  Having Booker Gibson there to recall what we were like back in the '50s is like a Blast Back to the Past.  We'd love to welcome back more of the alumni.
        Please remind everyone that South's Homecoming will take place on October 18th, and we're hoping to honor South's first class -- the Class of '58.  We'd love to see other classes also represented that day, so please mark your calendars.
        That's all for now.  Thanks.
   
    [Rich -- I'm not quite sure what the "Big M" is, and I'm a little afraid to ask.  But Happy Birthday, Emily and belated Happy Mother's Day to everyone else.  I may have failed to mention the holiday here, though I did remember to send my mom flowers.
        On another subject:  We got three e-mail invites I didn't entirely trust to open.  Not the usual promos for Viagra or come-ons from women with names that weren't names when we were kids.  These were:  an invitation to "Check Our My Facebook Profile" from June Forbes Tatelman, a request to "Become Bill Linkner's Hi5 Friend," and a similar request from Steven Cahn.  Much as I'm sure we'd all like to hear from these people and " Share Their Memories and Personal Photos," I suspect that something's running loose in someone's computer address book, and I hope it's not because of this newsletter.  As I've mentioned before, I really get very little spam at this address, but that may be because I'm keeping this computer on dial-up for as long as possible, in the hope that it will be too slow to notice.]
   
    Speaking of which, from Evelyn Roedel Read:  You should be alert during the next few days.  Do not open any message with an attachment entitled POSTCARD, regardless of who sent it to you.  It is a virus which opens a postcard image which burns the whole hard disc of your computer.  This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his or her contact list.  This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts.  It is better to receive this message twenty-five times than to receive the virus and open it.  According to Urban Legend (snopes.com) this warning is unfortunately true.
   
    Finally, from Claire Brush Reinhardt:  The attached article appears in the June 2008 issue of Real Simple magazine.  It's about the hike that my son, daughter-in-law, and her family took up a very high mountain in New Hampshire as a tribute to her dad.  We are very proud of them all.  The article is written by my daughter-in-law Meghan's older sister, Kara.
   
    [Rich -- And here I intended to run the text of the article.  But Claire sent an Adobe version that couldn't be converted to text without my retyping the whole thing, and when I went to the magazine's web site, I found that the article can't be read online, so it can't be copied and pasted.  I guess they really want you to buy their magazine.]