As I write this particular column (back in October) the sports world is definitely ablaze: the baseball deities have made St. Louis ecstatically happy, Dartmouth won an amazing football game at Homecoming and, in my own limited worldview, first-grade soccer games are even better when mud is involved. No one does sports, however, like Rob Simmelkjaer. Formerly an executive at ESPN, Rob recently became senior vice president at NBC Sports Ventures, where he will be helping to broaden the channel’s global interests. Congratulations!


Speaking of Dartmouth green football, I received a picture in my inbox of the most amazingly smiley kid holding a football with a great big green “D” on it—none other than Greg Hoffmeister’s 5-year-old son, Tate, beaming after fetching the ball after a Dartmouth extra point. Seriously, you can see just how thrilled he is. Greg writes that the picture comes from when he was up in Hanover in early October “to watch the Big Green take on Penn in the first-ever night game under the newly installed lights at Memorial Field. There was a great crowd on hand (even students!) even though it was raining. I ran into classmate and fellow Big Green teammate Clay Adams. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it up for Homecoming Weekend, but Rich Lytle who is a neurosurgeon in Asheville, North Carolina, will be there. He is going to spend the night with us in Needham, Massachusetts, before driving north.” Hope you guys had a blast!


Amy Tracy wrote in from Los Angeles and reports that “I’m working for a medical company called Cranial Technologies as a clinical representative. I’m married to an editor/director and have a 6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. I have run into several alumni at work and love to connect with friends and alumni through Facebook. We had the privilege of seeing President Kim when he came to L.A. a couple months ago. If you’re in the area, give me a holler!” Amy, don’t be surprised if you hear Beth Krakower hollering back—I caught up with her myself in early September at the Telluride Film Festival, right before she was about to move off to Los Angeles. 


I was sad to hear that Liza Veto was leaving the D.C. region over the summer, but her recent note speaks to the amazing opportunity that has brought her back north: “After 13 years of federal service with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mostly doing policy work, in August I relocated to Boston from D.C. Earlier this year I was selected as a Broad Foundation resident in urban education and am now serving in state government, at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. I am working with the leadership here to figure out what support systems—both academic and non-academic—students need in order to be successful, particularly in struggling schools, and how the state can help school districts put those supports in place. I’m looking forward to the challenge and am thrilled to (finally!) be back in New England.”


Send me your holiday news—and don’t forget to sign up for the upcoming reunion extravaganza this coming June! In the spirit of the season, I leave you with words from the most lounge-worthy holiday carol out there: “To the strange and the ordinariest, me to you—the merriest!”


—Jeffrey Middents, 505 Ethan Allen Ave., Takoma Park, MD 20912; dartmouth93@gmail.com