Kicking us off, I recently heard from Jonny Waldman: “Hey, zeroes: That litany of post-college adventures and crappy media jobs was worth it, as my first book, Rust (Simon & Schuster), has been widely acclaimed, most recently in The New York Times “Sunday Book Review.” Forgive the horn-tooting, but Booklist called it ‘brilliantly written,’ Henry Petroski in The Wall Street Journal called it ‘masterful,’ The Atlantic called it ‘the opposite of a slog’ and many others have called it lively or fascinating or engrossing. While science-writing-queen Mary Roach compared me to John McPhee and Susan Orlean, The Boston Globe called my prose ‘stylish’ and The Financial Times left it at calling me ‘sassy.’ Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s all selected the book as a new favorite of some sort—so you should see it all over the place if you haven’t already heard me on a dozen different NPR stations. Just as significantly, while writing the book I logged 150,000 vertical feet on my road bike, and to get ready for publication day I won my age group skiing a Nordic marathon in the highest town in the country. Of course it all began on 40-foot sailboat that Matt Holmes and Jon Haradon and I bought in Mexico. Also, I had octuplets and they’re all adorable and brilliant. Take that, overachievers! More here: www.jonnywaldman.com.


Max Gross and his wife, Jane, welcomed son Harry Leopold Gross into the world on January 3 weighing in at 5 pounds, 10 ounces. “Both mom and baby are doing splendid. And he’s already got a Dartmouth cheering section: Noah Phillips, Alex McCormick and Carissa Alden came to the bris, as did Lili Beneda ’01 with her husband and baby daughter. (Incidentally, Lili met her husband Dan at our wedding). We live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and I recently left The New York Post to become the editor of the Commercial Observer. (If you know The New York Observer, the Commercial Observer is its sister publication covering commercial real estate.)” Congratulations!


Lastly, if any of you follow March Madness as I do, you couldn’t miss Courtney Banghart making her mark this season as she became the winningest coach in Princeton women’s basketball history! In her eighth season as head coach Courtney led the team to an undefeated 30-0 regular season, won their sixth Ivy League title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. Courtney was named the 2015 Naismith National Coach of the Year, chosen from a group of finalists that included Geno Auriemma (University of Connecticut), Sue Semrau (Florida State University) and Dawn Staley (University of South Carolina). Courtney was also named the Ivy League’s inaugural Coach of the Year, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association National Coach of the Year and ECAC Coach of the Year. She was also named one of Fortune magazine’s 50 Greatest Leaders. While I tend to bleed green, Courtney makes it easy to cheer for the Lady Tigers! Congrats, Courtney!


—Kelly Heaps, 3666 Willowlea Court, Unit B, Cincinnati, OH 45208; heaps.k@pg.com