Update 11-15-11

Hi,

And sometimes there's just sad news.  Last Tuesday, these four notes arrived, practically in order:

From Steve Zuckerman, forwarded by Barbara Blitfield Pech:  I received word the other day that Jim Lorey passed away last week.  He had a heart attack at his home in Medford, Long Island.  You might remember him from South High.  I was friends with him from first grade at Forest Road School, all the way through high school.  After graduation, he and my other fraternity brother, Dan Tannen, both joined the Air Force, and then we loss touch.  I heard from Jim again thanks to the class of '65 site.  Jimmy e-mailed me, and we corresponded for a time. 
    After he retired, he spent all his days on his beloved boat, fishing in the Long Island Sound.  He had been in an accident and hurt his back very badly and had to endure several operations.  The very last time I saw him was just before I moved to Puerto Rico in 1985.  He and Mike Floyd and I talked about the old days over a few beers.

From Dan Tannen:  Just wanted to let everyone know that James Lorey passed away last week of a heart attack in his home.  Jimmy was survived by his wife and two children and grandchildren.  I knew Jimmy from the age of 13, and this a great loss.

From Arlene Ainbinder Lynn:  Sad news to report, Emily Kleinman Schreiber's husband Lenny passed away today.  The funeral is scheduled for Sunday, November 13th, at Gutterman's on Long Beach Road in Rockville Centre.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Emily and her sons at this time.

From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Emily was so staunch and hopeful to the very end.

[Rich -- I sent my best to Emily directly.  Her address, which has been listed here before, is: Cre8em @ aol . com   I'm sure she'd be happy to hear from people.
    I also sent my best to Jim's family by way of Steve and Dan.  Jim's e-mail address is listed on the class of '65 site -- the link, as usual, is at the bottom of this page -- but I'm not sure anyone's reading his mail.  Steve and Dan's addresses are also on the class site.  You may try to contact Jim's family through them.
    Growing up, Jim's house was around the corner from mine, and we were probably in some classes together at Forest, but we really didn't know each other.  I mainly remember the story Marc Fishman wrote here about Jim's hero/pilot father, but I never knew about that as a kid.  And there's something Jim wrote me a few years ago, when I made light of Memorial Day once in a newsletter.  Since then, thanks to him, I've been far more respectful of veterans' holidays.]

There's other mail, but it will, again, wait.  Meanwhile, to think of something else -- or as Monty Python once put it, "And now for something completely different" -- here's an article partly about Barnet Kellman, from Sunday's New York Times:
    Now Funny People Can Get Respect (and Course Credit at U.S.C.) by Michael Cieply
    Beverly Hills, California — Crammed into a booth at the Nate ’n Al Delicatessen — the professionally funny call it “the commissary” — Barnet Kellman, David Isaacs and Jack Epps Jr., from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, were trying to explain over a plate of pickles why those who create screen comedy deserve academic respect.
    “These are serious people, you don’t treat them — ” began Mr. Kellman. “As a joke,” finished Mr. Epps.
    “Excuse me, you don’t belong with that group,” a nearby wiseguy piped up at one point.
    “Why not?” asked Mr. Epps.
    “You have hair.”
    Beginning next year, a new initiative at U.S.C. will offer university courses for those who would write, direct, edit and produce funnier stuff than the guy in the next booth.  Organized by Mr. Kellman, Mr. Isaacs and Mr. Epps, the curriculum will not amount to a full-blown college major. But its founders describe it as perhaps the most extensive effort by an American university to examine and foster the manufacture of humor.
    The initiative will be introduced at the three-day “Comedy@SCA” festival, which begins on Friday evening with a discussion between Steve Carell and the film director Peter Segal (“Get Smart”). That session and others with the likes of Ivan Reitman (“No Strings Attached”), Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”) and James Bobin (“The Muppets”) are already full, though the event was promoted only among the university’s students and alumni.
    In August, faculty members and visiting Hollywood professionals will join students in exploring what Mr. Kellman — who, among other things, directed dozens of “Murphy Brown” episodes — describes as eternal questions: “Is comedy ineffable? Is there no way to communicate it to others?”
    Mr. Isaacs, who has been a writer, producer or consultant on shows like “Cheers” and “Mad Men,” said he was inclined to “teach others the way I learned it, that comedy comes out of the characters.”
    Mr. Epps, the one with hair, has contributed to a long string of films, including “The Secret of My Success” and “Top Gun.” The first to occupy U.S.C.’s Victoria and Jack Oakie Endowed Chair in Comedy, he said the new initiative would offer courses for graduate students and undergraduates, including those who are not enrolled in the cinematic arts school.
    Mr. Kellman said he would eventually like to see the initiative overcome academic “snobbery” to examine comedy in the context of medicine, the neurosciences or anthropology. “It seems to me, a research university has an obligation to raise these questions,” he said.
    And to elevate that patter from the other booth.

The South '65 e-mail addresses: reunionclass65 . blogspot . com

The South '65 photo site: picasaweb . google . com / SouthHS65

As usual, please delete the spaces.


Rich