Compiled March 17, 2023
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! Or as a NYC bartender friend of mine calls it “Amateur Hour”. When pressed on the appellation, he responded, “its one of three days the suburban yahoos come in to get drunk.” The others: New Year’s Eve and the night before Thanksgiving when the “college boys” come home. Suburban yahoos? College boys? Clearly this gentleman needs a quick remedial course in DEI or we’ll all have to find “safe” spaces to hide. Well, maybe he should just be forgiven. After all, he’s lost his own safe place behind the bar at “21” which has been shuttered since bought by a subsidiary of LVMH just prior to the pandemic. The place survived prohibition and numerous police raids but it couldn’t survive Monsieur Arnault. Ah…c’est dommage!
I seem to write these columns so closely together that finding news is a bit hard. In fact, I just received the most recent issue of the YAM before getting an email that I was late in submitting my column for the next one which you are now reading. I did manage to field an inquiry from Deke Welles but not cleanly. Deke wrote to inquire as to the precise dates of our 50th reunion. He said they were not on the internet, and they aren’t. Quelle surprise! I took it as a good sign, however, that at least one person cared.
In fact, its more than one. The usual suspects from prior reunions (Shari Aziz, Harvey Kent and Stu Rohrer) have been busy forming a steering committee in observance of the primary rule of reunion planning: delegate! And grateful thanks are due to Carolyn Grillo and Bob Martin, who have graciously agreed to come up with content. One or, perhaps, both of them suggested that a theme might be “who do you want to be when you’re hundred?” Since I found certain assumptions in the question itself that I found difficult to accept, I have simply chosen to respond that if and when I make it to 100, I will wish I was thirty-five. I also think I have talked both Joe Orfant and, maybe, Steve Blum into getting involved in some form while Jeff Johnson (about to go into an ersatz form of retirement) has volunteered to reprise his role as organizer of songs from our era. Moreover, he suggests a theme consistent with the aforementioned planning for 100 but perhaps more directly associated with the next five years on just what “retirement” means to us “late baby boomers.” Get ready for a call, Jeff!!
I just started laughing. As I am writing an email popped up from no less than Sherrod Brown. For one brief shining moment, I thought it might be personal and relate to Yale, but its about his campaign. And its candor is admirable. He admits to being in an uphill battle to retain his seat in the Senate and respectfully requests support. I just thought I’d pass it along to those of you who might wish to see it. I don’t think he’d mind and I hope you wont either:
I’m facing my toughest race yet – in a state Donald Trump won by 8 points. Last year’s Ohio Senate race was one of the most costly and competitive in the nation, and NBC News reports that this one could be “even nastier and more expensive.”
I think I’ll go pour a green beer.