Update 9-6-11

Hi,

To start, Jerry Bittman sent this link to a video interview with Bernie O'Brien.  It's called Remembering Timothy Michael O'Brien of Old Brookville, and in it, "Timothy Michael O'Brien, 40, is remembered by his father Bernard as a great athlete and the child all his other children aspired to emulate."
    newsday . com / 911-anniversary / remembering-timothy-michael-o-brien-1.2899940

[Rich -- Remember to take out the spaces.  If it's easier, go to Facebook, where Donna Chirico Mungo and I both posted the link.  Jerry was concerned that no one in the class would see the interview in time, but the link seems to be staying active.  If you get the Newsday message saying you have to register to see content, you should be able to click past that.]

And Stu Kandel commented:  Mr. O'Brien is always a class act and is still an inspiration to us all.

Speaking of Facebook, some other class notes posted there:

From Robert Fiveson:  I traded my cast for this Robocop thing.  Two more weeks of no walking and wearing this boat anchor.  I'm ready for hemlock shot directly into my medulla.
    I've been here with my freaking -- literally stinking -- foot in the air now for a month.  If I need anything I have to hop and balance.  Almost anything is impossible when you are on crutches, but my wife Monica is my angel -- making sure I am OK, making me food, worrying needlessly, being overly protective.  I am blessed -- not only that this medical inconvenience is temporary -- but that I have a true angel in my life.  Just wanted to share my thankfulness.

From Paulinda Schimmel:  One week more of fundraising to go!  We need your help!  Fun family entertainment in addition to supporting ovarian cancer research.  theovariancancercircle . org

From Jay Tuerk:  Thanks to everyone who took the time to wish me a happy birthday.  It made my day.  I'm off to the first game of my son Nicholas' senior high school football season.  Priceless.

And from Barbara Blitfield Pech:  I have been to a lot of places, but I've never been in Cahoots.  Apparently, you can't go there alone.  You have to be in Cahoots with someone.  I've also never been in Cognito.  I hear no one recognizes you there. I  have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips, thanks to my friends and family.  I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not much on physical activity.

Other notes, from the more traditional, e-mail route.

First, from Booker Gibson:  My wife and I had planned a motor trip in our Miata sports car up to Montreal, Canada, for the entire Labor Day weekend.  Hurricane Irene really ruined all of that.  A "huge" tree fell in our back yard, just missing our house.  And looking ahead on the maps, it looked just as bad in Montreal, with just as many trees down as on Long Island and the AAA warning us of dangerous driving.  If any of you know where Suffern, New York is -- just  north  of  New York City -- all traffic was cut at that  point.  So we didn't even start our trip, but, instead, left our cars in the garage, and we were lucky enough to have a landscaping team here yesterday, who cut down the "monster" and carried it all away.

From Marc Jonas:  Here in Pennsylvania, which, word is, may be soon eligible for statehood, power came back yesterday, after saying adios Saturday night.  Lots of rain and wind here, but nothing like what our friends elsewhere suffered.  Rarer than gold were D cell batteries.  They were gone by noon on Friday. Who woulda thought?
    Nothing like cold water to start the work day.  At the same time, however, it made me realize the value and attractiveness of life without electronic media and the warmth of an oil lamp.  Remember hurricane lamps, aptly named?  Didn't faze the three rescue dogs, one of which is still trying to figure out what a lake is, after a stay in the Adirondacks.  Now, there's a touch of magnificence.

From Jean Cohen Oklan:  Thanks for thinking of us up here in Northern Vermont.  We had a few road closures and detours, but nothing compared to Southern Vermont.  I feel for the folks who are actually stranded in their towns, not able to get in or out.  I did stay home from work the night Irene was to hit our area, in case a tree came down on our house or windows broke, but we lucked out.
    My son, who had to evacuate Area A in Brooklyn, stayed with us for a couple days and had trouble getting back into the city due to thousands of others needing to return at the same time.  In fact, this past autumn we had sustained eighty mile-per-hour winds and woke up to uprooted trees throughout our area.  That was the worst event I've seen in my forty-two years living up here, and it was the largest squall I've ever seen.
    We are fine.  As my nana would have said, "Puh, puh!"  I'm not sure what that means, but it's some type of superstitious "puh-ing."  Maybe Barbara Blitfield Pech knows.

From Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  Irene might not have been terrible, but I've been without power, phone, and hot water since Sunday.  And, unfortunately, my husband Lenny is back in the hospital.

From Zelda White Nichols:  Once again, I have to hope that all of you were safe during Hurricane Irene.  We have two beach rental houses south of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and we went down last Saturday to check on them.  They were safe and sound.  No hurricane in that area.  The storm came in at North Carolina’s Outer Banks.  Ironically, we had more wind at our house in Lexington, North Carolina, which is four hours inland.  Irene seemed to do more damage inland this time.
    And I, too, was remembering when we had to be sent home from school as kids, but I can’t remember which hurricane it was.

From Linda Cohen Greenseid to Zelda White Nichols:  I have never heard of someone who seems to have lived in more places than you.  Are you in the witness protection program, or is your husband in the service, or are you looking for paradise?  Clue me in, and -- if you have found paradise -- please let me know that, too.
    P.S.  Let's hear it for Brooklyn.  I went to P.S. 202, and strangely, so did my second -- and current -- husband.  My family moved to Lynbrook in 1956, and I started fourth grade at William L. Buck.  Does anyone know what the L. stands for?

Finally, Andy Dolich just published a piece online and linked it to Facebook.  Here's the start of it.  The rest can be found by following out the link at the end.
    On Tuesday, Aug. 9, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved the framework of a $1.5 billion dollar deal for a downtown football stadium to be privately financed and built by the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG). A competing stadium proposal was approved last year by the City of Industry which is 22 miles from downtown L.A. The man behind this competing deal is billionaire real estate developer and sportsman, Ed Roski. 
    AEG is a global sports and entertainment behemoth. They run more than 100 arenas and stadiums worldwide including the Staples Center in L.A., The Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., Sprint Center in Kansas City, The Rose Garden in Portland and the Home Depot Center in Carson. They have new buildings in London, Berlin and Shanghai. They own the L.A. Kings, Houston Dynamo and L.A. Galaxy of Major League Soccer and a piece of the L.A. Lakers
    The AEG football stadium would be located next to Staples Center and the popular L.A. Live Entertainment Center. L.A. Live is just that -- not  figment of a designer’s imagination or a bunch of pitchman’s pretty pictures. This sports entertainment center is a money machine highlighted by a 4 million square foot, $ 2.5 billion downtown redevelopment miracle featuring the Nokia Theatre, L.A. Live Club, Ritz Carlton and Marriott hotels, a Cineplex, restaurants, retail and ESPN studios. The AEG project calls for the football stadium to be completed in 2016, one year after the proposed opening of the 49ers Santa Clara stadium.
There has been much debate about how and when the NFL will return to Los Angeles since its departure 16 years ago. AEG has given the league a stadium plan that is fully developed and and meets the two team standard set by the NFL. They have checked off the points necessary to move ahead...
    csnbayarea . com / pages / bizball    Take out the spaces, of course.

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Rich