Update 9-5-06

Hi,

Happy day after Labor Day.  Hope some of you are past working if you want to be.  And some news:
   
    From Amy Miller:  The newsletter is now my "My Weekly Reader."  Remember that from elementary school?
   
    From Jerry Bittman, to Robert Fiveson:  Thank you for calling me an undercover genius.  However, I can introduce you to some women I've met in my life who will debate you on that.
   
    And from Mr. Fiveson, on a different subject:  It cannot be only me who remembers a teacher named Rocco Mango.  He taught shop.  His claim to fame was that he had positioned his locker in such a way that when he opened the door it acted as a screen, blocking from view anything that went on behind it.  Some of you may recall what went on.  If you crossed this guy, he would throw you into the locker and pummel you.  He worked you like a heavy bag or a slab of beef.  Even really good kids who never did anything (like me) got thrown into that abyss of pain and justice.  I didn't realize it at the time, but as teachers and technique went, Mango was like seeing a  Dodo bird live and in the field.
        And then there was a certain teacher who was long of leg and short of hem.  I must have stared at her for the equivalent of several eternities.  It's a wonder, from my willpower and teen psycho/sexual energy alone, that her clothes didn't just explode into flame and magically peel off her body.  It didn't help when she wrote the following in my yearbook: "Bob, if I was a little younger and you were a little older -- oh boy!"
        All true.  Years of therapy later, I'm very close to almost OK.
   
    A more mundane note, a correction from Ryki Zuckerman:  Actually the poem you ran last week is not in my book.
   
    [Rich -- But others like it are.  As you can see for yourselves if you ask Ryki.]
   
    A weather report from Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Actually, Miami is in the 60's half the year.  It's a well-kept secret.  And sometimes the winter evenings get cool enough for hot cocoa.  Meanwhile, in the face of the recent hurricane and the threat of blackouts, well in advance, I personally "saved" all the ice cream in my freezer.
   
    Another weather report, from Judy Hartstone:  Yesterday was summer.  Today is winter. Typical Seattle weather
   
    [Rich -- And one from me:  Yesterday was 109.  Today was borderline cooler.  And that appealing scent of incense in the air is actually a distant forest fire.]
   
    Again from Barbara:  I'm all for a 60th birthday blast, though I, too, will only turn 59 this November.  Still, I'm very comfortable hanging out with the big kids.  As Lynn and I are the first to suggest it, I would like to get the party ball rolling and brainstorm some ideas, locations, and assorted details.  Who wants to help us?
   
    [Rich -- As I wrote to Barbara and Lynn:  A party sounds great, but we need to remember what Paul DeMartino and Dennis Shapiro learned from the 40th reunion:  Don't set up a formal dinner and charge for it.  That limits attendance.  Just pick a place that people want to visit, decide on a convenient date and a hotel, and once everyone gets there, spontaneously plan the weekend meals and activities.
        Also, a while ago, Lynn and I briefly discussed a West Coast reunion in Cambria,  California.  That's on the beach halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  I still like Cambria, despite the recent quake there.  But I suspect, if we really want to attract the most people, we've got to stick to Long Island.  Though we could take a poll to see how many people would come west, and we could count all the South folks on the West Coast to see if that group alone was worth courting.  And, of course, some people will fly anywhere.  Though, just now, some people won't fly at all.
        Also, a reminder that if you really want to attend a reunion, the classes of '61 through '63's party is on October 28th.  For details, write to Claire Brush Reinhardt at: Reino@optonline.net.]
   
    An Internet suggestion forwarded by several people:  On Monday, September 11, 2006, an American flag should be displayed outside every home, apartment, office, and store in the United States.  People should make it their duty to remember the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 tragedy.  We should fly our flags to honor those who lost their lives on that day, their families and friends who continue to endure the pain, and those who are fighting at home and abroad to preserve our freedom.
   

    Finally, a great letter from Stu Borman, titled How a Confidence Game Led Me to My Career:
        After graduating from South High School in Valley Stream, New York, I spent a semester working at Newsday in Garden City and then enrolled at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.  After a brief time there as a serious student, I began majoring primarily in pot and LSD.
        I dropped out and went to Los Angeles for a while in the early 1970s, where I learned to be a short-order cook. After returning home, I cooked in restaurants on Long Island (including Linck's Log Cabin) and in New York City. I then got a job as a clerk in a men's clothing firm, Metro Pants Company.
        At Metro, a fellow employee, Maxine Bender, took an interest in me and told me that she could earn tremendously high rates of interest for me if I would invest some money with her. I invested some money with Maxine, possibly as much as $10,000.  After a while, I was earning so much interest from the compounding effect of Maxine's fund that I quit my job, thinking I was independently wealthy.
        It was an interesting experience to have, because I actually believed I was wealthy, although I was really living on unemployment insurance checks.  This experience of feeling rich provided a brief and unique window of time during which I was able to think clearly about what I actually wanted to do with my life.
        One night,  saw a doctor on TV and decided I would go back to college and apply to medical school.  I enrolled at Hunter College of the City University of New York, majoring in chemistry, and I began to excel.  I was able to concentrate very intently on my studies because I was by then pretty well off financially from Maxine's fund.
        After having spent about a semester at Hunter, I lost $2,000 to Maxine, who turned out to be a confidence woman.  She got a lot more money from other employees and from friends a co-worker had brought into the scheme.
        By the time I found out I was involved in a confidence game, I was tops in my class at Hunter College and was really enjoying chemistry.  So I moved back to my parents' house in Green Acres and continued to attend Hunter.  Along the way, I got diverted from applying to medical school, which I've always regretted, but I completed my bachelor's degree, graduating summa cum laude.
        I went to grad. school in chemistry for a year but dropped out.  I didn't understand research at the time and found I had no interest in it.  The main thing I had liked about chemistry was the book-learnin' aspect.
        After a brief time working in the chemical industry, in 1979 I got a job as a science writer at the American Chemical Society in Washington, DC.  On the job, I learned how to type with two hands and how to be a journalist.  I now cover research in drug discovery, biochemistry, molecular biology, carbohydrate chemistry, and other areas for the American Chemical Society's weekly news magazine.  I love the job because it's very intellectually stimulating and provides many wonderful opportunities to interact with people.  A recent highlight was the privilege of interviewing San Diego Padres owner (and scientific philanthropist) John Moores in the owner's box during a Padres-Nationals game at Petco Park.
        I realize this would be a much better story if I had gone to medical school and become a brain surgeon.  Nevertheless, I do owe my entire career as a science journalist to Maxine Bender and her confidence game.  I've Googled Maxine so I could thank her for taking an interest in me and stealing my money, but I couldn't find her.  I suspect she's deceased, as she was quite overweight when I met her and already in poor health.