“Eh, what’s up, Doc?” was first delivered in 1940 by Bugs Bunny, while nonchalantly chewing on a carrot in the cartoon, A Wild Hare. That line has outlived Bugs Bunny and, up until the dawn of the Internet Age, it was commonly used worldwide as a witty alternative to the straightforward query, “What’s going on?” Always wanting to stay cutting edge and up-to-date, I will lead this column with the more apropos query: “WhatsApp?” and hope this will elicit some responses. But please send your news without making me download that app! 


Believe it or not, some news made its way to us the (now) old-fashioned way—via email! The year 2014 looks to be quite a prolific publishing year for our class. In between his teaching load as a professor at Middlebury Matthew Dickerson just published his 10th novel titled The Rood and the Torc. It is a work of medieval historical heroic romance described by reviewers as “an exemplary piece of writing, one that conjures with grace and poetic skill the twilight of the Merovingian Dynasty. Dickerson writes well, and this memorable tale in his hands is expertly drawn.” Matthew will have a work of creative narrative nonfiction published this fall titled Downstream: Reflections on Brook Trout, Fly Fishing, and the Waters of Appalachia, followed by a new three-volume fantasy novel, of which volume one (titled The Gifted) is also due out this fall.


On the opposite end from the fiction genre, C. Jon Delogu’s nonfiction Tocqueville and Democracy in the Internet Age was also just published in January. In this work Jon ponders if democracy is still possible today and under what conditions, paying particular attention to the critical conversation around Tocqueville and democracy since the end of the Cold War during the Internet Age. Jon has been a teacher-researcher at French public universities since 1992, while also having taught at many notable U.S. institutions, including Dartmouth.


Classmate sightings of late include Gaby Guise who spotted Lisa Reilly Nadler on campus in early February. Although Lisa may have been tempted to climb the Carnival of Thrones, she was there in support of her son Andrew ’17, who is a member of the Nordic ski team. Emily Saltzman spent a weekend in Atlanta in mid-February in celebration of her nephew’s bar mitzvah and had a quick run-in (literally) with Valerie Hartman, who yours truly was also lucky enough to briefly connect with for a day after several travel mishaps during an Old Man Winter week of snowstorms and canceled flights. Eleni Daskalakis Henkel was honored with the Greenwich YWCA 2014 Brava Award in recognition of her outstanding professional achievements as founder and CEO of Henkel Search Partners while also volunteering her time and considerable talents to help others. Brava, Eleni! 


And a grateful shout-out to David McIlwain and Margaret Marder, whose tireless efforts during the past few years have restored our class’ tax-exempt status. We are now in a position to support several interesting class projects embracing several undergraduate initiatives on and off-campus. Stay tuned for further details. And the countdown to our 30th has begun—anyone interested in participating in the planning, contact either Valerie Hartman (vhartman711@gmail.com) or Joe Riley (jriley851@gmail.com). Joe is seeking a reunion co-chair and rumor has it that Todd Cranford is mulling this over.


It is with sympathy that I share the news of the January 10 passing of James Joseph West in Eugene, Oregon. James is survived by his wife, Jane, and their four children.


Continuing in our up-to-date news-seeking mode, #sendnews.


All the best to all of you!


—Leslie A. Davis Dahl, 83 Pecksland Road, Greenwich, CT 06831; (203) 552-0070; dahlleslie@yahoo.com; John MacManus, 188 Ringwood Road, Rosemont, PA 19010; (610) 525-4541; slampong@aol.com