Update 9-27-05    

Hi,

Various notes on various topics:

First, from Lynn Nudelman Villagran:  Booker, I forgive you for giving me the "D" in music appreciation.  I don't remember what I did to earn it, but it must have been interesting.

From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  My mom always said, "Your own is your own."  I believe she was referring to family, in a positive way.  I am glad her generation had and enjoyed such closeness.  When I said this earlier today, I said it with all the love and best thoughts that one would have for family, although not one of the dear people I was thanking were indeed "blood."  Nonetheless, they hold a special closeness and dear place in my heart.  Thank you also to the amazing number of dear friends and teachers who have been so generous with their donations of my sponsorship in The Susan G. Komen 5K Race For The Cure on October 15th in Miami.  Your kindness will always be remembered, and your friendship cherished.  May the best of health bless you and your families.  '65 Pink Hugs

From Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  I hope people didn't go to the San Genero Festival on Sunday, the 25th, because it was Sunday, the 18th.  I went.  Al Raitano was wonderful as usual.  By the way, if you don't know who Al Raitano is, here's the scoop:  at South, he was always entertaining us, and he's still doing it out in Arizona.  He croons like Frank Sinatra, and he won "America's Most Talented Senior Contest" a couple of years back.
    Also, I visited a beach party that was held at Jones Beach by another school's Alumni Association, and it was awesome.  The party is held every summer on the Sunday after Labor Day, and classes that are having reunions that year plan to have them during that same weekend.  They also send out three newsletters per year and have over $40,000 in their treasury.  That enables them to give generous scholarships and gifts to their alma mater.
    At Bernie O'Brien's suggestion, I want to help do the same for our alumni.  But I can't do it alone.  If anyone is interested in helping, please call me at:  516-781-2860, or e-mail me at:  cre8em@aol.com.  We need an attorney and an accountant to take care of the necessary paperwork, plus anyone else who's willing to give a little time and effort.  Thanks.  Meanwhile, have a sunny day.

[Rich -- The alumni association certainly sounds like something worth supporting, and I like the idea of sending even more scholarship money to South.  I told Emily I'd give her all the help I could, but I may be on the wrong coast to do much direct good.  Meanwhile, I'll make sure word of her progress is passed on to all.
    Also, I suspected the San Genero Festival was on the 18th.  That's why I included the link.  I knew that no one in our well-educated class would ever go into Manhattan without checking the information first.]

From my friends Kathy and Steve Ragusea in Key West:  We're safely home and taking down storm shutters again.  Opinion is that Rita did even less damage than Katrina.  The first storm was predicted to worsen to a category five over Key West, then it suddenly sped up and didn't intensify until it neared the Gulf coast.  People quickly evacuated Key West this time because we couldn't depend on the weather forecasters being wrong twice.

From my friends Cathy and Daryl Wedwick in Baton Rouge:  It's been an interesting time since noon yesterday, but, once again, we emerged from a hurricane relatively unscathed.  It's now after six PM Saturday, and we're still getting breezes from the south, some of which bear brief showers.  But in general, the gusts have significantly diminished from the 40 mile an hour winds we had last night.  We had some more twigs and leaves spread themselves on the lawn and about five inches of rain.  Someone said that the city contractors with their big shredder machines had only 30% of Katrina's leftover brush still to pick up.  The brush is also chopped in three locations in the parish and will be available for people to use as free mulch when shredding operations are complete.
    We also went through Rita's fringes without significant loss of power or cable TV.  One utility spokesperson interviewed mentioned that Katrina had taken down all trees which were likely to blow over onto electrical lines, so there was only a small chance that Rita would find any more.  Both utilities blinked steadily enough here for our clocks to reset constantly to 12:00, and for our dog to learn to bark every time the lights suddenly went out.  Still, both the humans and the pet at this address are thankful to have survived another storm that could have hit us far worse.

Finally, forwarded by Barnet Kellman, and written by Joshua Gates -- actor, photographer, victim -- a story from Hollywood, which always has its finger on the world's pulse and is carefully tuned to its sensitivities.

Hollywood Power Outage Sends City Into Chaos
No electricity for 26 minutes. 'This is our Tsunami.'

LOS ANGELES, CA, September 12, 2005 - Horror and disbelief swept through the greater Hollywood area this afternoon as a minor power-outage turned the city into a virtual war zone and local residents struggled to deal with the devastating aftermath.  The outage struck at 1:35 PM, during L.A.'s busy afternoon coffee and Pilates rush hour. Traffic lights fell dark, local gyms and sushi restaurants were without power for nearly 30 minutes and many businesses were illuminated only by the light of the sun and its blistering 78 degree heat. "It was horrible," said out of work actor and voice-over artist Rick Shea. "I was in a Jamba Juice on Melrose when it hit, and the blenders simply shut down.  A woman lunged for my Berry Lime Sublime an after that, well, it got pretty ugly."
    In the ensuing panic, local radio stations broadcasted conflicting reports as to exactly which local businesses would be offering relief supplies. Almost 100 people flocked to the Starbucks at Santa Monica and La Brea only to find helpless baristas, no hot coffee and a totally meager selection of baked goods.  "My mother is 83 years old and we heard on the radio that this Starbucks was going to be up and running.  If she doesn't get a venti Arabian Mocha Sanani, I don't know what's going to happen to her, I really don't," said Lucinda Merino of Los Feliz.
    To make matters worse, those few people who did manage to get coffee were further thwarted by a total lack of artificial sweeteners on site.  "Sugar in the Raw?  Are you frigging kidding me?" sobbed avid salsa dancer, Enrique Santoro.  "I'm on the South Beach Diet and my insulin levels are going to go crazy if I use this.  Why isn't the rest of the country doing something?"
    Deteriorating conditions will force authorities to evacuate the thousands of people at local Quiznos, movie theaters, and upscale shopping centers, including the The Beverly Center, where a policeman told CNN unrest was escalating.  The officer expressed concern that the situation could worsen overnight after patrons defaced multiple "So You Think You Can Dance" posters, looted a Baby Gap, and demanded free makeovers en masse at a MAC cosmetics store during the afternoon.
    At least 2,000 refugees, a majority of them beautiful, will travel in a bus convoy to Beverly Hills starting this evening and will be sheltered at the 8-year-old Spago on North Canon where soft omelettes with confit bacon and Hudson Valley foie gras was being airlifted in by The National Guard.  Honorary Mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant told a group of embedded reporters at a Koo Koo Roo Chicken restaurant on Larchmont that, "The scope and scale of this disaster is almost too much to comprehend.  Local carwashes are at a stand-still, the tram tour at Universal Studios has been on hold for almost an hour now, and I've been waiting for a rotisserie leg and thigh with a side of green beans for upwards of 15 minutes.  This truly is our Tsunami."  Grant went on to say, "We want to accommodate those people suffering in the Beverly Center as quickly as possible for the simple reason they have been through a horrible ordeal."
    "We need water.  We need edamame.  We need low-carb bread," said Martha Owens, 49 who was one of the thousands trapped in the Beverly Center when the escalators stopped moving.  "They need to start sending somebody through here."
    Along miles of coastline, the power simply surged, causing writers to lose upwards of a page of original screenplay material, causing Direct TV service to work only intermittently, and forcing local residents to walk outside and look helplessly at the Pacific from their ocean view decks.  "I can hardly begin to put this experience into words," said longtime Two and a Half Men writer John Edlestein.  "I was just getting into my rhythm and making some real headway on a scene where Charlie Sheen parties with a busload of female volleyball players when my Power Book crapped out.  I have nothing.  Simply, nothing."
    Delivering his weekly radio address live from the White House, President Bush announced he was deploying more than 7,000 additional active-duty troops to the region.  He comforted victims and praised relief workers.  "But despite their best efforts, the magnitude of responding to a crisis over a disaster area this sunny and trendy has created tremendous problems," he said.  "The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in the Hollywood Hills, and that is unacceptable."