Class Note 1985
We’ve all asked, “How many (blanks) does it take to screw in a light bulb?” Well, let me ask, “How many 1985s does it take to write a column?” Answer below.
Directly from Chris Collimore (unsolicited, yet appreciated): “Years ago I had a girlfriend with long hair, down to her waist. One day she cut it short (without warning me). I was not happy. I tried to figure out a way to get my long-haired girlfriend back (do I buy her a wig or do I…) and the idea for the ‘hairshirt’ popped into my head. The hairshirt is a T-shirt with a photo of long hair printed on the back. A girl can make it look like she has much longer hair. After about 10 years my desire to make some money from the idea overcame my aversion to going into the girls’ T-shirt business and I now have a website called hairshirt.com, where people can see the shirts and order them online. I offer many different styles and colors of hair to be printed on the back. So buying a hairshirt for your daughter, girlfriend, sister, wife shows you care because you have taken the time to match the hair printed on the shirt to the hair of the recipient. My main activity is being a full-time grad student at UCLA. I am pursuing a Ph.D. in atmospheric science. It is going great and I am having a blast. I hope hairshirt.com will take off so I don’t have to keep eating ramen noodles everyday.”
Directly from Ron denBroeder (in response to a request for classmate news): “Compelled to respond because Tim Reynolds was my freshman roommate—Topliff 103! Living in Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania, a Philly suburb (near John MacManus)—any other Philly ’85s around? Drop me a line on Facebook. There is supposed to be a Philadelphia alumni club but I haven’t observed much activity, even though this is the second-largest Dartmouth applicant region after N.Y.C. Lately I’m pursuing my various entrepreneurial activities at Clarity Concepts Inc., including innovation consulting, corporate training and sales consulting. Plus adjunct faculty at Temple, teaching a course in leadership. Great fun, bright kids. Spending my spare time biking around Pennsylvania and the Jersey Shore boardwalk and skiing in Tahoe, California, whenever possible with my wife, Jane Downey (corporate insurance consultant), and my three kids Lena (14), Adri (13) and Mackie (4). Other ’85s I’ve seen lately: Anne Goodwin Sides, living in Santa Fe, New Mexico and working on a book on the Lusitania; Carolina Kuczynski Reid, living in Connecticut and also working on a book; Tsan Merritt-Poree Abrahamson, practicing law in San Francisco; and Mark Halliday, a streaming-video expert living in Arlington, Massachusetts, who just restored a 1974 Jensen. I also recommend enlisting as an interviewer in the fall—not very time consuming and a great way to contribute to your alma mater while meeting some bright and interesting young people along the way.” (Kudos to Ron for mentioning three Michigan folks and providing an awesome picture of those cars he mentions.)
Directly from Kevin Randall (evidently in response to “please send news only in the form of hyperlinks”): www.fastcompany.com/1751785/face-the-nation-how-sensory-logic-sees-secre... (not sure if facial decoding is a new Botox procedure or a fraternity sink night ritual, but it sounds intimidating) and www.forbes.com/sites/kerenblankfeld/2011/04/28/donald-trump-on-his-brand... (note Kevin’s comments on brand value—presumably the Trump brand and not the Randall brand).
Answer: Three to send in news and one to cut and paste. Sort of like an easy button!
—John MacManus, 188 Ringwood Road, Rosemont, PA 19010; (610) 525-4541; slampong@aol.com; Leslie A. Davis Dahl, 83 Pecksland Road, Greenwich, CT 06831; (203) 552-0070; dahlleslie @yahoo.com
