“Lies! Lies! All of It, Lies!” Fall 2006 JHS Class of 1972 Thirderly Issue No. 14 On-Line Newsletter

Welcome to this, the fourteenth newsletter of the Jericho High Official Propaganda Tool of Jericho High School’s Class of ’72 School class of 1972 and friends. In this issue: We’re Looking for a Few Good Men Reunion Update: Help Us Find 1 Your Missing Classmates And Women! Help Us Out!

Nooz About Yooz: Dan 2 Clurman, Debbie Smiley, INVITATIONS TO THE be helpful, like the Mitchel Forman, Mark Albin, reunion in 3-D will be go- whereabouts of any fam- Karen Goodlerner ing out around the first of ily members or friends

the year. We’re in the who might be in con History of the Milleridge Inn 3 process of putting to- tact with them, the First Person Singular: 5 gether our mailing lists type of business the Harvey Fialkov: The Sporting for the classes of 1971, the person is in Life 1972, and 1973. (we’re often able to

Six Degrees of Separation: 9 We currently have locate folks through Ilise Zimmerman, Bonnie Siber contact info for all mem- business associations), bers of ‘72, except for etc. The lists for all Q&A: Author Lesléa Newman 10 about twenty or so; have about two hun- three classes include the names of peo-

Takin’ Care of Bidness: 10 dred folks from ‘73; and about one hun- ple who have listed with classmates.com Ellen Rader dred from ‘71. Ideally, we’d like to be or reunion.com. The problem with both able to invite everyone from all three sites is that few folks ever pick up their Cartoons by Dan Clurman 11 classes to their 35th reunion, on Octo- classmates.com or reunion.com e-mail,

ber 6, 2007, at Milleridge Cottage. probably assuming it is spam. And Now, for the 12 Youngshturs: Your help in locating missing class Thanks in advance. To contact the Progeny of Cathy Kibel, Linda members would be greatly appreciated. reunion committee with any alumni- Appelbaum, more If you know the mailing address or e- related info, e-mail us care of web- mail address for anyone in the new ministers Phil or Larry. ■ The Poetry of Spiro Agnew 13 “Lost and Found” section of our website, Checking In With the Classes 15 please get in touch or have the person Looking for someone from JHS? of 1971 and 1973: Cathy get in touch directly. Any info at all would Visit the new “Lost and Found”! Morway, Joan Baiman, John Innelli Wheeeeeeh doggies, Granny! You Friendships: Ilene Pincus and 17 Monica Wood can get 20 percent off the price

In Memoriam: 20 of the reunion by RSVP-ing early! Ellen Lowenstein Ross

Faculty Lounge: Mr. George 24 It’s One Year Until the 35th Reunion in 3-D, on 10-6-07. Batjiaka To entice you into RSVP'ing early, we're offering you $25 off each Emails to the Editor 28 adult admission now through December 31, 2006, when invitations go out. That’s $100 — a 20 percent discount. For more info, go to our Your Back Pages: The World 29 Around You, 1960–61 website’s Senior Lounge.

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No

The Safe Baby is Debra Smiley Holtzman’s second book. Her first, The Panic- Proof Parent (McGraw-Hill) was published in 2000.

Do the clean-cut young folks above look familiar? They should. honored her as a “Woman and Harvey Kurtzman. Their images graced the Jericho School News newsletter that was Making a Difference.” Mar- Comic strips from the first mailed to your parents to let them know just what it was you were supposedly doing on weekdays. ried for twenty-five years, half of the twentieth cen- she lives in Hollywood, Flor- tury will be shown at the New Books by Yourself Guide to Home ida. Her kids, incidentally, Newark Museum, while the Jericho Authors Safety (Sentient Publica- made it through childhood Jewish Museum will feature tions), won the National safely. Son Adam is a fresh- comic books and graphic Dan Clurman and Parenting Publications man at Northwestern Uni- novels from the 1950s on- Debra Smiley (‘73) Gold Award and is versity; her daughter, ward. endorsed by the National Laura, is fifteen. For more info, check Dan Clurman, resident Safe Kids Campaign. Hey, Debra: How about out the website of the New- cartoonist of the Class of Debra, an attorney making your next book ark Museum (www.newark

1972 Thirderly Online with a master’s degree in about your secrets for look- museum.org), where Mark Newsletter, has a new book occupational safety and ing so young? America serves as deputy director of out, You Have to Draw the health, explains why she wants to know. More impor- marketing and public rela- Line Somewhere. Its 137 became involved in child tantly, we want to know. ■ tions. Cool show! ■ pages are full of the safety: “When my children And Speaking of Triple Threat Karen were small, I wanted to Cartoons ... Goodlerner (‘71) get a book on child safety, and I noticed that there Mark Albin and the Newark Karen Goodlerner Siegel, weren’t any that addres- Museum in Newark, New who lives in Atlanta, re- sed safety and health Jersey, continue to put on cently took part in her first concerns beyond child- extraordinarily creative pro- spring triathalon. That’s a proofing, so I decided to grams. Example: from Sep- 400-yard swim, 13-mile write a book myself.” tember 15 through January bike ride, and 5 kilometer wonderful cartoons that we Maybe you’ve seen 28, “Masters of American run. We’re gasping for get to giggle at in each her on NBC's Today Show Comics,” the first major mu- breath just writing about it. issue for free. Needless to or Dateline NBC, or read seum examination of this “I finished in a little her advice in the Washing- uniquely American art form. over one hour and thirty- say, a bargain at $15! For information on where to ton Post, Boston Globe, or The two-part exhibition, three minutes,” reports order it — as well as Dan’s Parenting magazine. In ad- being shown simultane- Karen, “which was eighth contributions to this issue dition, Debra is a safety ously at the Newark Mu- out of a field twenty-nine in — turn to page 11. expert on the Discovery seum and Manhattan’s my age group. I did this with Debra Smiley Holtzman, Health Channel. Reader’s Jewish Museum, looks at two friends of mine, and we from the class of ‘73, also Digest named her an such influential comics art- also finished first in raising recently published a book. “Everyday Hero,” while ists as Winsor McKay, the most money for ovarian The Safe Baby: A Do-It- Family Circle magazine Charles Schulz, R. Crumb, Continued on page 14

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History of Jericho, Part III of XVICC Milleridge Inn

You’ll Be Having Your 35th Reunion There Next Year; Learn a Little About the Joint

By Silo Pegbottom, Village Historian

Milleridge Inn circa 1966 xactly three hundred years before you graduated from E Jericho High School, in 1672, ing to travelers. Town lore has it that while wife Martha elicited the same a woman named Mary Willets built George Washington slept at the Mil- horrified reaction simply by removing herself a tiny two-room home with a leridge Inn, but this is supposedly her bonnet. central fireplace. This would later be inaccurate. He is said to have actu- The Milleridge became a restau- incorporated into what is now the ally laid his powdered wig at the rant in 1933. It’s a splendid place Milleridge Inn. Both rooms and the nearby Maine Maid Inn, which is for holding our 35-year reunion, in fireplace still stand virtually un- also still standing — even after the the Cottage, one of two separate touched, just to the left of the restau- class of ‘72 descended upon it for catering facilities later built on the rant’s main entrance. cocktails prior to its thirtieth reunion premises. But as a place of employ- In 1783 Mary Willets’s great- in 2002. However, the father of our ment — at least back when we were granddaughter, Jemima Seaman, country used to regularly turn up at in high school — um, not so splen- and her Quaker husband, Elias the M.I. to terrify young children by did. Hicks, began offering food and lodg- taking out his wooden choppers, Continued on page 4

Workin’ at the MI: Dress Code

“THERE WERE THREE DIFFERENT Milleridge Inn uniforms,” says Janet Rhoads Leslie. “This one was usu- ally worn by the waitresses; we had to wear it temporarily until we got a black-and-white striped one. I dis- tinctly remember smudges of choco- late frosting or cherry filling on black and white fabric. That one had the same apron, the lovely doilee hat you see here, and the plastic priest’s collar. The collar was the killer. It used to scrape against your neck; kept me out of the priesthood Yipes, stripes! Paula Doherty (‘73) for sure! The third uniform con- “… plastic collar … is … choking … modeling the red-and-white-striped sisted of hand-sewn long skirts with me! Get it … [gasp] off …”: Janet bus girl outfit. a white blouse.” Rhoads (‘71) in full regalia.

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Island landmark, about a year or two Milleridge Inn About Janet after Janet, when she was fifteen Continued from page 3 and sixteen. Her memories aren’t Janet, a private much better. speech-language “I used to work in the shops,” “I hated working there!” she pathologist (and recalls Janet Rhoads Leslie, from the says, laughing. “My grandmother member of the class of 1971. “Mainly in the bakery used to eat lunch their with all of her reunion commit- but also the general store and the friends, and when I got the job as a tee), lives in glass cottage. I got my friend bus girl, she thought this was the Mount Sinai, Long Island, with hus- Lorraine Triggiani a job there too; we coolest thing. She was so proud. band Don and her sixteen-year-old spent many a dark, lonely night back Meanwhile, I tried to tell her that daughter, Brittany, a budding ac- there when nobody would come in. these people were mean and horri- tress. For more about Janet, check “The owner, Mr. Murphy, was ble! The cooks would spit in the food. out her profile in issue No. 12. very cheap,” she says. (The Murphy And yet everyone who ate there family has owned and run the Mil- thought it was this nice, homey About Paula leridge since 1962.) “We got paid place. waitress salaries — $1.50 an hour — “Being a bus girl was exhausting Since graduating from Buffalo but no tips. Plus, we’d be sent home work. We had to carry these big, State College, where she survived just before our shift ran long enough heavy trays. It built character, my the famous blizzard of ‘77, Paula that he would have had to feed us. mother said. Good for ya! Toughened immediately headed south, living in “I’d been working there for a ya! We’d get so thirsty, but you prac- Manhasset, Atlanta, and Houston. while and felt, for some reason, that I tically had to beg for water. They She and her family settled in Cary, deserved a raise. I guess maybe I wouldn’t even let you have any bread North Carolina, seven years ago, had trained some people to differen- to eat. We had to steal it! and, she says, “I’m here to stay. It’s tiate between the 20-cent plain loaf “It was a rough crowd there; eve- a great place to live. It’s laid back, of bread and the 25-cent cinnamon- rybody out to make a buck. Even the although so many people from raisin bread in the bakery, or how to waitresses. We used to call them New York and New Jersey are mov- sell licorice whips in the general ‘rough girls.’ They’d all be cursing ing down here. Everybody at my store. and smoking. I worked there with a grocery store has a New York ac- “Anyway, I walked into ol’ Money friend of mine, and when her mother cent, so I feel right at home.” Bags’s upstairs office. Appropriately, would pick us up at the end of the Paula is an elementary-school he was sitting at his desk counting night, we’d be reeking of cigarette psychologist with the Wake County money and didn’t even have the smoke. She was concinved that we’d Public School System. “I also work courtesy to look up. I stood in my been smoking and get all upset. We privately for a pediatrician, evaluat- long skirt, which had a twelve-inch never smoked. But we’d been sitting ing kids with ADHD, and do testing slit in back so that I could walk. I in this hot little room with twenty through a private practice when I nervously stated my case. waitresses who did. have time.” With two sons, ages “Mr. Murphy made no response, “A lot of single older people fifteen and nineteen, “I’m busy,” and after an awkward silence, I would eat there, especially men. she understates. turned to leave. ‘Next time,’ he said, Maybe their wives had passed away, ‘put the slit in the front and make it a and they’d come in for an early din- little higher. Then I’ll see what I can ner. One time when I was new on the do about a raise.’ job, there was this old man, a regu- “Sixteen-year-old me was too na- lar, who was having dinner alone. ïve to get the full meaning of his “I looked over at his table and comment; otherwise, I could have noticed he wasn’t there anymore. been a rich woman!” Janet did even- He’d had a big lobster dinner, and it tually land a raise, though — of a didn’t look like he’d eaten much, but nickel. I figured, Well, he’s old, and maybe Paula Doherty Cox Paula Doherty Cox, from the he wasn’t that hungry. So I emptied with husband Tom class of ‘73, also worked at the Long Continued on page 26

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First Person Singular my dad and my older brothers run that. It was a lot of fun (and the city Harvey Fialkov: The Sporting Life women were smoking!). Then at one point, we bought a card store, Twist of Lemon, on Broadway in Jericho. He’s a Newspaper Sportswriter, Married for Right next to the Pathmark that’s still there. Between my chatty mother, Twenty-two Years, and a Proud Father of Two. gift-buying sister-in-law, and me, we But Who’s Keeping Score? basically ran it into the ground! Actu- ally, Pathmark bullied us, doing things like underpricing Christmas y family moved from caster. Basically I wanted to be Marv cards during the holidays, just to kick Hicksville to Jericho in Albert — before he went kinky. I love our asses. M time for ninth grade. It Marv, to this day. When I was four- The deviled sea crab was deli- was tough for me at first; I didn’t teen, fifteen, I used to watch Knicks cious but George’s didn’t offer me know anyone. But eventually I used games, then “call” the game into a enough income with my brothers and my wacky sense of humor and ability tape recorder afterward, re-enacting their families gobbling up the cash, to imitate anyone to fit in. the action and describing the stars: leaving me leftovers. So in 1984 my I just wish I’d had the guts to go ‘twenty-four points for DeBusschere, uncle Hy (Herman Fialkov) — a legen- for what I wanted at an earlier age. eighteen for Bradley; Frazier had dary L.I. venture capitalist — offered Like, I would have been on the base- eight assists.” You’d think my par- to foot the bill for me to go to Boston ball team, because I was a damn ents would’ve figured it out, but I University for a masters degree in good athlete. I’ve won lots of tennis guess they just thought I was crazy. broadcast journalism, and that’s tournaments including the media I went to Nassau Community what I did. tourney in Key Biscayne five or six “High School,” then SUNY Albany, I turned thirty on August 26, got times with the legendary tennis but not for broadcasting. I got into married on September 3, then my writer/announcer Bud Collins calling accounting, and I hated it, so I ended wife, Maria, and I moved from New the lines. I’m still pretty good for an up in family businesses. My father York to Boston the next day. Some old dude! I wish I’d known that in had a restaurant in Manhattan called pretty dramatic — and traumatic — high school; I would have been on George’s Seafood. I basically helped Continued on page 6 that team too. I know I would’ve kicked Robert Banner and Kenny Harvey at the office, covering the deciding game of the 2003 World Series Kalb’s butts! I used to play basket- between the Yankees and the Marlins at Yankee Stadium. ball against Kenny and Ban in his backyard, as well as with Gary Roney and Howie Silber down at Merry Lane, and I held my own. I was affec- tionately called “Arab” in Mr. Plag- gemier's math class after scoring a soccer goal and colliding with a fel- low Jewish goalkeeper! But remember, I was five-foot- three in high school and five-foot-five when I got out. Now I’m five-nine, a giant of a man. I grew nearly six inches after high school. My wife and I went back for the twentieth reun- ion, and I remember one girl was looking up at me, going, “Harvey?!” Although I’m a sportswriter, I started off wanting to be a sports-

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Harvey Fialkov Library at Harvard and looked up the game to see how it In Your Face! Continued from page 5 ended. I saw that Stewart Granger hit the game-winning Some of Harvey’s memorable encounters with changes in the space of just shot, so I had the call all ready: assorted sports psychos: one week. “Hiyo silver! The Lone At first we lived in Cam- Granger rides again! Stewart Friend of the press and all- bridge, where your IQ goes up Granger hits a three-pointer around good guy Barry Bonds: automatically by osmosis be- from the parking lot!” I had the Barry was gruff with me at the cause you’re sandwiched be- whole place cracking up. I beginning. My first question, I tween MIT and Harvard. But sounded like Dick Vitale on don’t even remember what it since I’ve moved to sunny Flor- speed. was — this was in 1997 — but ida, I’ve burnt off several of I figured they were looking he gave me a look, like, You those points! for someone with personality. wanna repeat that? So I did. Sourpuss Billy Cunningham Maybe I made more sense the second time, be- Payin’ Dues and deathly dull Dick Stockton cause he sat down and spoke to me alone for were judges. Afterward, Marv fifteen minutes. He was having a horrible first Anyhow, there I was, a mania- Albert called me over for an half, and he said, “The reason we suck is be- cal Yankees fan living in Bean- interview. Marv, my idol! He cause of me, man. I’m letting this team down; town. I fell in love with Fenway called me “the colorful Harvey I’ve been horrible. But I’m gonna carry them the Park, but not the cursed Red Fialkov, from Cambridge, Mas- second half.” And that’s what he did. He carried Sox. While I was going to B.U. sachusetts” on his evening the Giants into the playoffs. grad school — it was an eight- broadcast. But I was beaten een-month program — I got a out by this smooth, slick- Tennis heartthrob Anna part-time radio gig at WMRE, talking trial attorney from Kournikova: My heart melted doing production and a little Philadelphia. while I was talking to her. I bit of on-air work. The door Stockton said, “I really like didn’t care what she was say- from the studio opened up Fialkov, but I don’t know if I ing, I was just staring. right into Fenway, so I got to could listen to him all the time; sneak into the Mets–Red Sox he’s so excited.” I wanted to Tennis madman John McEnroe: World Series in 1986. That say, “Dick, it was the last two “What do you mean the refs did- was really cool. minutes of an exciting game, n’t have it against me? While I was doing that, the and I want to get known. What You wanna step outside?” Continental Basketball Asso- am I gonna do, call it like you C’mon Mac, I love you, ciation was holding a color do and put people to sleep?” man! commentator competition, and TV Guide did a big story on I tried out for it. They played a that color-commentator com- New York Knicks giant center Pat- videotape from an old CBA petition and highlighted me a rick Ewing: “Hey, man, watch it!!!” game, and you had to call it in lot, as did Tom Brokaw on his That was after I stepped on his the studio as it was happen- national NBC evening news- protruding feet in the middle of the ing. I won the New England cast. From there, I got a job locker room ... competition over hundreds of with a station in Framingham, entrants. Massachusetts, called V-66. Five-time Yankees skipper Billy Then I went to New Jersey (WMRE had folded.) They were Martin: Billy Martin scared the and won that one and ad- a music-video station that took crap out of me. One day during vanced to the finals at the on a sports program and other spring training, I went into the Penta Hotel, across from Madi- stuff; just trying a new format. I clubhouse late to interview a son Square Garden. You were was on a show called Boston pitcher. Billy sees me and calling the same game, just Sports Beat with Gil Kerr, now starts barking, “Where the later on in the game. Using my vice president of broadcasting hell’ve you been?!” Billy Martin head, I went to the Widener Continued on page 7 yelling at me, oh man! ■

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Harvey Fialkov

Continued from page 6 and programming for the Professional Golfers’ Associa- tion. After six months, though, that station folded, in 1986. Remember Chernobyl? The head of the station calls us into an office and says, “Sorry, the station is clos- ing, and we’ve got to let you all go.” The reason? “We just didn’t get enough publicity, because of Chernobyl.” I thought, What? This guy’s blaming the poor ratings on Chernobyl?! The joke was, we all got nuked! Right about then, our son Jason was born, and I The Fialkov Factor in The needed a gig. I’d always been a good writer; wrote a little 2003 N.L. Pennant Race bit on sports for the Jer-Echo, I think. I was interning at a TV station in Derry, New Hampshire, doing on-air report- In September 2003, the Florida Marlins and the Phila- ing covering the Nashua Pirates, the Red Sox minor- delphia Phillies were battling for the National League league team. I did my own writing for that sportscast wild card spot. The Philadelphia players were on the (which featured Doug Brown, who has since worked for verge of mutiny against their fiery (read: unstable) ESPN radio). I was also announcing high-school football manager, Larry Bowa, when a Fialkov column nearly and basketball games for a cable-TV station in Boston. sent him over the edge. I just started calling newspapers and began freelancing “The Marlins’ manager, Jack McKeon, was an old for a lot of the small-town papers. I covered Boston Col- guy, a little bit senile, but great fun. He used to tell all lege and the Boston Celtics, which was pretty cool; I was these stories from fifty years ago, and he’d repeat interviewing Larry Bird and Kevin McHale on a regular them over and over again while blowing cigar smoke in basis and getting my first taste of interviewing and all your face until your eyes teared. that. All for about $35 a story. I paid my dues, bro! “Before the game, we always interviewed the man- My wife really wasn’t thrilled, though; she was alone ager in his office, and everyone else cleared out. I said all the time. She wanted to move to Florida, where her to McKeon, ‘Hey, Jack, they’re combusting in Philly. It parents had moved from Hicksville. She’s from Colombia looks like Larry Bowa is panicking.’ And he repeated and is one of ten. It’s a great family, very close-knit. that: ‘Yeah, Larry Bowa is panicking! I don’t do that. I They’re all spread out between Long Island, Florida, Cali- keep my boys calm. You can’t panic in the heat of the fornia, and Georgia. We just rented a house with half of playoff race.’ Blah blah blah. ‘em on a lake in Georgia and had a great time. One of her “So I went with that: Jack McKeon says Larry Bowa brothers is a stand-up comedian, Carl Guerra. Does the is panicking. Now, in the eighties McKeon had given cruise ships. Bowa his first managing job, with the San Diego Pa- Another brother puts on parties for children; he put dres, then he fired him, so these guys had a history. our kids to work for years. As a matter of fact, Maria and I Bowa responded to the quote by going crazy in the did costume characters. Do you know what it’s like to be Philly papers. Then it was all over Philly radio. wearing a Big Bird costume, and a woman places an in- “Jack denied having said that and began ripping fant in your hands? You can’t even see the kid — can’t me on the radio. I was quite the rage! But my editor even feel it, with the feathers, and all that stuff — and it’s had advised me to save the tape, which I did. When the about 100 degrees inside the costume. “Take this child Marlins came back from their road trip to Philadelphia, away from me! I’m gonna drop this kid!” I played it for McKeon in the corridor to the clubhouse. Anyway, we up and moved to Hollywood, Florida, And there it was: ‘Yeah, Larry Bowa is panicking!’ where we had Sarah. (I think it happened on my in-laws’ “Jack McKeon looked me in the eye and said, waterbed; I wanted to name her Agua.) At first I free- ‘Harvey, I apologize.’” The Marlins went on to win not lanced down here for the Miami Herald. Then I got a job only the wild card but the National League title, then covering the Miami Dolphins and other big-time stuff for the World Series, upsetting the New York Yankees in the Hollywood Sun-Tattler. The paper had been around six games. ■ Continued on page 8

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Harvey Fialkov Meanwhile, the main baseball writer covering the Marlins couldn’t make the game because his wife was about to Continued from page 7 give birth. Suddenly, I’m the only writer from the paper in New York. I had to do the complete setup for the game for forty, fifty years. It folded! So within five years, I put a and basically wrote the whole section and saved the Sun- radio station, a TV station, and a newspaper out of busi- Sentinel’s butt that day. The front page is laminated and ness. I was on a roll. framed in my home office. I continued to pay my dues, freelancing for the Asso- For a lifelong diehard Yankees fan, to be on the field ciated Press, the South Florida Business Journal, the and in the clubhouse before the game with Derek Jeter South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and Sports Illustrated for having a catch behind me, I was in heaven. I’d come a Kids. I was the number-one freelancer in Southern Flor- long with way from talking Yankees with Phil Bashe, Andy ida and got to cover the Iskoe, and Jordan Kap- Panthers during their magi- chan in home room. cal run to the Stanley Cup But I fell in love with finals. I got a gig at the Stu- this Marlins team. art News, covering high- Now, as a reporter, school sports and the Mets you’re supposed to be in spring training. I was objective. You can’t kind of a big fish in a little root in the press box, pond. I did that for about a or you’ll get kicked out. year, commuting some- I’ve had to hold that in thing like ninety miles back over the years. As the and forth to Plantation, series was about to where we ended up mov- start, I didn’t know ing from Hollywood. Thank who I was going to root God my friend Andy Cohen, for. Until the first pitch. who owns Dolphin Digest I realized, OhmyGod, and many football publica- I’m rooting for the Mar- tions, hired me, so I could lins! My Harvey and wife Maria, married twenty-two years get out of that Stuart thing. brothers wanted to disown me; to this day, they won’t let me live it down. But A Crisis of Conscience for a Native New Yorker there I was, rooting for the Marlins against my beloved Yankees. Both my brothers still live on Long Island, and All along, the job I wanted was a full-time sportswriting my mom, God bless her, is still going strong at age eighty- position with the Sun-Sentinel. Finally, about eight years six. She was diagnosed with cancer about eight years ago ago, I joined the staff, but as a copy editor. My first year and was told she had six months to live. She lives in on the desk, I won the prestigious headline of the year Plainview, volunteers as a candy striper at the hospital award. Dolphins kicker Olindo Mare won a game with a there, and remains independent. last-second kick on Christmas Eve, so my blaring head- Right now I’m traveling with the Dolphins. I think line was “MARE CHRISTMAS!” I soon became a full-time they’re going to be a contender this year, with QB Dante writer, covering the Miami Heat, Marlins, and pro tennis. Culpepper and tailback Ronnie Brown. I work mostly from I covered both Florida Marlins World Championship my home office, which is full of all my memorabilia, in- teams, in 1997 and 2003. The ‘97 team was a bunch of cluding signed boxing gloves by Muhammad Ali, and sou- jerks — Kevin Brown, Bobby Bonilla; and even their man- venirs from the ballparks and stadiums from around the ager, Jim Leyland, was a curmudgeon. But the 2003 country. We’ve got a beautiful house here with a giant team was a lovable group. To cover the World Series that backyard surrounded by canals. I love Plantation; you’re year against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium was my big- in the center of everything, close to the beaches, stadi- gest thrill. On the eve of game six, with the Marlins up ums, airport, Fort Lauderdale, and downtown Miami. The three games to two, Pat Riley suddenly quit as coach of hurricanes are scary sometimes. Wilma took out a giant the Heat. Our columnist stayed home for that story. redwood tree and did some roof damage. But we lost Continued on page 9

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Harvey Fialkov Continued from page 8 6666666666666 The Poetry of Spiro Agnew Scary Premise: Wherever You Go, You Might Bump Into Someone From Jericho — They’re Everywhere!

This Issue: The Next Generation

Ilise Zimmerman, who lives in Harworth, New Jersey, writes: “My daughter Stephanie is living in Washington, DC, for the summer and is rooming with a friend of hers from Cornell University named Nicole Weinstock. Last evening I was talking to both girls about growing up. We were all amazed to discover that Nicole is the daughter of Bonnie Siber Weinstock, Jericho H.S. class of 1971.” Bonnie, an attorney, lives on Long Island. “And today I learned that Jeff Putterman's son Josh Daughter Sarah, 18, and 20-year-old son Jason is also a friend of Steph's at Cornell. Those Jayhawks certainly fly in small circles!” ■ power only once last year. We have hurricane parties at Too complicated for you? Follow this diagram ... friends’ houses! We really haven’t gotten nailed too badly yet. Still, this year I finally caved in and bought an electric generator.

Get Paid to Attend Sporting Events? Is That the Life?!

They pay me to watch sports? Are you kidding me? I love my job. I still get a little bit awestruck, like when I’m sit- Jeff Ilise Bonnie ting next to Marv Albert in the press room. I’ve talked to (Bonnie also figures in another Six Degrees of Walt Frazier, whom I idolized as a kid. I’m having dinner Separation coincidence. See page 16’s article on with Rick Barry, who starred for the New York Nets. Chris Joan Baiman Rosenberg.) Evert has become like a friend of mine. Covering Dan Marino’s induction into the Football Hall of Fame was a thrill. Bud Collins and I are tight; I grew up listening to Bud, who’s also a great sportswriter. He’s watched my lacrosse player, as well as a great baseball player. kids grow up. Don Shula's on my cell phone. Unlike me at Jericho High, Jason is a chick magnet! I It’s been a fun ride. I tell my kids, Find something was too, except I repelled them! Lovely Sarah just started her senior year at Nova High School, a magnet you love and then go for it. Don’t give up. Be persistent. And pay your dues. A lot of people don’t want to pay school. She’s a true leader and starting second base- their dues. I wouldn’t want someone else to pay his dues man on the girls’ softball team, as well as two-time as long as I did, but a lot of people give up on their yearbook editor. She’s also an unbelievable artist; she dreams — or don’t even chase their dreams and then wants to do something related to graphics arts. Both of regret it later. Not me. them are perennial top students in honors classes, and I’ve got two amazing, gorgeous children. Really, no I expect Sarah (5-plus GPA) to get a free academic ride b-s. Lucky, they take after my wife! Jason, who goes to to UF like Jason did. the University of Florida, was a high school golfer and Continued on page 14

JHS Class of 1972 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Fall 2006 Page 10

Q&A: Author Takin’ Care of Bidness! Lesléa Newman

This prolific Jericho Hall of Famer from the class of 1973 has written more books than you’ve probably read in your lifetime —

including comic books. Jerichonians At Work Lesléa Newman is the author of tuned to teenagers and their feel- more than fifty books covering a ings, whereas many if not most Ellen Rader Smith broad range of subjects, including adults seem to lose that sensitivity 1989’s children’s picture book as they grow older. Why do you think ERS/Ergo & Rehab Services Heather Has Two Mommies. Her in- that is? Montville, NJ tention was simply to write a book (973) 334-7499 for kids growing up with gay parents, It's my job as a writer to inhabit char- [email protected] to give them some positive role mod- acters, much like an actor, so their Website: ellenradersmith.com els. So it was with some surprise that voices come through me. One of my she found herself branded one of signature stories, “A Letter to Harvey I am a licensed the most dangerous writers living in Milk,” is told in the voice of a sev- occupational America today (!) by elements of the enty-seven-year-old male Holocaust therapist, certi- religious right and denounced on the survivor. Another story, “Mothers of fied vocational Senate floor by North Carolina’s Invention,” is told from the point of evaluator, and Jesse Helms. Of course, some would view of a woman who goes to great certified profes- say that is the ultimate compliment lengths to get pregnant. (I am not a sional ergono- for any writer. Heather has sold more parent.) mist. than 35,000 copies and is regarded My novel Hachiko Waits is based I’ve owned as a classic. on the true story of an Akita dog who my business for almost twenty Lesléa, who did not come out as spent ten years at a train station years. ERS offers two primary ser- a lesbian until she was in her twen- hoping for his master's return and vices: expert witness services to ties, lives in western Massachusetts takes place in Japan, a country I the legal community and ergonom- with her spouse of eighteen years, have never visited. It’s just part of my ics consulting services directed at Mary Vazquez. The two were legally job, and I hope I am skilled enough the control and prevention of mus- married on their sixteenth anniver- to do my characters justice. culoskeletal injuries. sary and share a home with their two Expert legal services relate to cats, Princess Sheba Darling and How old were you when your talent providing evaluations that assess Precious Sammy Dearest. as a writer first became apparent? and document a person’s current functional capacities and limita- • I started writing at a very young age tions, with respect to personal care, — eight or so — and before that I al- homemaking, childcare, work/ I was reading the excerpt on your ways loved to read. Two of my teach- vocational status, and ability to pur- website from your 2005 young-adult ers in Jericho, Ms. Barbara Murphy sue recreational endeavors. I pro- novel Jailbait, about a lonely fifteen- and Ms. Estelle Stern, were very en- vide these services throughout the year-old girl who falls for an older couraging. tristate area for personal injury, man. You seem extraordinarily at- Continued on page 26 Continued on page 27

JHS Class of 1972 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Fall 2006 Page 11 T O O N S C A R T O O N S C A R T O O T O O N S C A R T O O N S C A R T By Dan Clurman

About Dan: “I have been a coach and edu- cator for the last twenty years, deliver- ing training and classes in non-profits, uni- versities, and corpora- tions. “I assist professionals, business people, couples, and students to more skill- fully navigate life transi- tions, as well as improve their communication and presentations. I also have a small practice as a Fel- denkrais® practitioner, a movement-based form of education. “I've cowritten a few books, Money Disagree- ments: How to Talk About Them and Conversations With Critical Thinkers, as well as a book of poems and drawings, Floating Upstream.” These toons are part of Dan’s just-published book You've Got to Draw the Line Somewhere, available for $15 at http://www.dantoons.com. Daniel Goleman, best- selling author of Emotional Intelligence, has this to say about You’ve Got to Draw the Line Some- where: “impish but pointed, edgy and astute, wise, and just plain funny.”

JHS Class of 1972 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Fall 2006 Page 12

Jess Appelbaum “… And Now, for the young- Shters …”

What are some class of 1972 progeny up to? Find out right here … on our page

◄ In June, Jess Appelbaum, Linda Appellbaum’s 14-year-old daughter, was one of twenty-five gymnasts from Aurora, Colorado’s Illusions gymnatics team to performe at the Danish Festival of Sports and Culture in Hadersley, Denmark. Her team also traveled to England, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium. Here’s Jess posing atop the British Airways London Eye.

◄ Justin Bashe, 14, son of Philip and Patty Bashe, dances with his grandmother Rachelle at a recent wedding. Can you tell that he’s wearing his first real suit?

Justin Bashe Danielle ( Kibel ) Shriger

◄ Cathy Kibel Shriger’s 8- year-old daughter, Danielle, just returned to California from a year in Israel. “She reads, writes, and speaks Is- raeli with absolutely no hint of an American accent,” says Cathy. “She took up gymnas-

tics before she left for Israel and just won her first gold medal there.” In other news, Cathy’s 29-year-old son, Derek, had a daughter (inset), Jodan Elise Williams, on Au- gust 29, 2005. That makes Cathy a safta, she specifies, not a grandmother. “I am too young to be called that,” she laughs. We absolutely agree.

JHS Class of 1972 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Fall 2006 Page 13 The Poetry of Spiro Agnew * Surely one of the most eloquent voices of the 1970s belonged to Spiro Agnew, our pit bull of a vice president. Whether waxing nostalgic about his pet cat Mr. Napalm or demonstrating his flare for alliteration, the vitriolic veep wove a unique tapestry of words and images. So sit back, turn off the Indigo Girls CD, pour yourself a warm cup of chamomile with honey, snuggle up in your favorite shawl, and be prepared to let the former Maryland governor’s liquid language caress you like … a big, liquid caressing thing.

When Dew Drops Settle on Yonder Meadow If you tell me hippies and yippies are going to be able to do the job of helping America, I'll tell you this: They can’t run a bus, they can't serve in a government office, they can't run a lathe in a factory. All they can do is lay down in the park and sleep or kick policemen.

The “N “Word In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.

eFFete Fetish The student now goes to college to proclaim rather than to learn. A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.

Haiku No. 43 I've been into many ghettos, and, I have to say: If you've seen one city slum, to some extent, you’ve seen them all.

* In reality, the ol’ blowhard’s Tapioca Mind Pellets (Ode to Timothy Leary) words were written for him by I find it hard to believe White House wordsmith that the way to run the world William Safire. But it was Agnew’s bellicose delivery has been revealed that really put ‘em over. to a minority of pushy youngsters and middle-aged malcontents. Continued on page 14

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Nooz About Yooz Harvey Fialkov

Continued from page 2 Continued from page 9

cancer research, taking in close to My beautiful Maria is an elementary $5,000 in contributions. school teacher who had both kids in her The Poetry of “It was an overwhelmingly wonderful class. I can’t say enough about her. Not Spiro Agnew experience,” raves Karen, “and I will ab- only has she worked all these years, but solutely do it again next year, with even she’s the best mother on the planet. Continued from page 13 better results. My next fitness goal is to That’s why our kids are great students, do a century 100-mile bike ride. I might well rounded, surrounded by cool “My Cuddly Li’l Cat be fifty-three, but I feel like I’m sweet friends. She deserves most of the credit. sixteen!” Obviously. ■ We just celebrated our twenty-second Mr. Napalm” anniversary. (Experimental piece) It’s funny: We went to Hicksville Jun- Ultraliberalism today ior High together but didn’t know each translates into other; then I moved to Jericho. But we a whimpering still had a lot of the same friends. In fact, years ago I went with her to a reunion i s o l a t i o n i s m she organized for kids from Hicksville, in foreign policy, and I had as much fun as she did. I still a mulish obstructionism hang with Danny Friedlander, but I wish I in domestic policy, had stayed in touch with some of my and a pusillanimous other Jericho pals like Ban, Dik, Kenny, Lee, etc. p u s s y f o o t i n g In high school, I was the lovable on the critical issue class clown. Just ask Mr. Beekman, who of law and order. I nearly drove to tears once after crack- ing up the class. Or even the easygoing Mr. Boroson, who I once imitated, earn- “Rebozo the Clown” ing another trip to the principal’s office. To penetrate Or Mr. Lynch, who I nailed with a paper the cacophony airplane and received a one-way trip into of seditious drivel the wastebasket! Unfortunately, I was scared of girls emanating from the on a one-on-one basis, so although I had best-publicized clowns crushes on every hottie in class — Deb- in our society bie A., Debbie N., Debbie M. (guess I had and their fans a thing for Debbies, so now I just eat the little cakes), Penny, Jane, somebody stop in the Fourth Estate, New Mitchel Forman (‘73) CD me! — I rarely dated. we need a cry of alarm, During and after college, though, I Jazz keyboardist not a whisper. made up for lost time. I was a dog until I Mitchel Forman (‘73), met Maria at Wicker’s, that bar in Hicks- who you read about in ville at the corner of Old Country Road “The Deeper Truth issue No. 13, re- and route 106. I think it’s still there. leased his latest CD, (Cosmic Soul Maria was down on the dance floor, lean- Perspectives, on Au- Excursion)” ing up against a beam. I said to her, “If I gust 10. To order a ask you to dance, will the ceiling fall An intellectual is a man copy, and for more information, go to down?” She giggled, and we danced, and who doesn't know how to Mitchel’s website at the rest is kind of history. ■ park a bike. ■ www.mitchelforman.com. ■

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Checking In With the Classes of “I procrastinated getting a full-time job for a year, 1971 and 1973 because, to be honest, I was Since we’ll all be getting together again at next year’s joint 35-year reunion, so afraid that nobody would we thought we’d reacquaint everyone by profiling several members of the want me. It’s been a real classes of 1971 and 1973 in each issue. We all have our own definitions of success. It could be our families, our boost to my ego to know that careers, or winning the award for Most Back Hair at the county fair. Just still I can go back to work, in a being here after fifty-plus years is an accomplishment in itself. Everyone’s life field I knew nothing about, is uniquely interesting. If you’d like to share your story in a future issue, and become successful.” please get in touch; we’d love to hear from you and about you.

Cathy Morway as much. Cathy started playing golf, job as administrator for the entire Bloomberg and she says, laughing, “I got so ob- state. She loves it. sessed with it, my husband became (‘73) afraid for me. He said, ‘I think you A Place With Passion have more time on your hands than For some folks, you know what to do with.’ And he “Every day is a different day,” she turning fifty is a was right! But I procrastinated get- says. In fact, her responsibilities can time when they ting a full-time job for a year, be- change by the minute. As administra- start to cut back on work — not al- cause, to be honest, I was so afraid tor, she reports directly to the board ways voluntarily, unfortunately. For that nobody would want me. president; acts as a liaison between Cathy Morway Bloomberg, who lives “When I left the business world,” the national office, the board and in Cheshire, Connecticut, the big five- she continues, “the only person that committees, and the four hundred oh marked her return to the work- had a computer on their desk was folks who volunteer for the organiza- place full-time after twenty years. To the main secretary. What little I tion; and takes phone calls from the say that she was nervous is an un- knew, I’d learned from my kids. So public. derstatement. And understandable. right before I started applying places, “It could be a woman who’s just After graduating from Cortland I took a course in Excel. That gave been diagnosed with breast cancer,” State College in 1977, Cathy spent me a little bit of confidence. Then I Continued on page 16 eight years working in the cosmetics started working as an administrative Cathy and fragrance industry at such high- assistant for a book publisher, Taun- and Neil profile Manhattan companies as ton Press. on their Elizabeth Arden, Oscar de la Renta, “The job kept me on the com- wedding and Charles of the Ritz. Then in puter eight hours a day, and I got day in ‘79 1985, she gave birth to her first really bored. Plus, I was taking care and child, son Ken, followed three years of eleven people in a department, twenty- later by twins Leigh and Kay. and I was like their mommy. That five years While her children were growing wasn’t for me; I had enough kids at later. up, Cathy worked part-time at a local home!” apple orchard for seven years. “I did In February 2005, a friend of- the marketing, advertising, and sales fered her the position of assistant to promotions,” she says. “Plus I the affiliate administrator of the Con- started a children’s program, where I necticut branch of the Susan G. Ko- gave tours to bus loads of school men Breast Cancer Foundation, the kids. I used to be a camp counselor, Dallas-based national breast-cancer so this was right up my alley. It was a organization founded nearly twenty- lot of fun.” five years ago. It proved to be a per- Once her daughters got their fect fit. Then, earlier this year, the drivers licenses, they weren’t home friend left, with Cathy assuming her

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Cathy Morway Passion, she goes on to say, At first sight. Neil and I were engaged runs throughout the organization. four months later and married a year Continued from page 15 “It’s a great group of people.” Most after we met.” The couple recently of them, naturally, are women. “A celebrated their twenty-seventh anni- she explains, “or someone looking sisterhood” is how she describes it. versary. for a patient-support group in their “There’s none of the cattiness you Leigh and Kay just went off to part of the state, or someone calling might find in a different kind of work- Boston University and University of for a free mammogram.” The Komen place. We’re all there for the same Connecticut, respectively. And with Foundation funds free screening reason. Neil presently working in Atlanta mammograms, since breast cancer “Once volunteers get involved,” while Cathy is in the process of sell- is at its most treatable when de- she continues, “they get so into it. ing the family home, she’s able to tected in an early stage. We like to say that they become put in the necessary nights and Most of the organization’s ‘Komenized.’” Cathy includes herself weekends, something that she could- budget goes toward funding patient among the converted, citing her n’t have done before. services throughout the state, while wardrobe as proof. “I never wore “Right now the only one that’s 25 percent is earmarked for re- pink in my life, but now half my ward- dependent on me is our 120-pound search. Over the last five years, the robe is pink!” Pink, of course, is the yellow Labrador, Jake,” says Cathy, national organization has returned color of the ribbon to promote laughing. “This is a time in my life almost tenfold what the Connecticut breast-cancer awareness. when I can do this, and I’m happy affiliate has sent it for research, and All in all, she says, it’s been the with the way that things have worked has awarded research grant of $2.5 ideal transition. “I’d had a good out.” ■ million to Yale University and the Uni- eight-year run in the cosmetics and versity of Connecticut. fragrance business,” she reflects. Joan Baiman Cathy has also been pressed into “Then I became a mother, and it just service as an affiliate spokesperson, consumes you. You forget that at Rosenberg which suits her just fine. “My back- another time in your life, you had (‘71) ground is speech and hearing, so I another identify, as a worker, a boss, had to take public speaking,” she a this, a that. It’s been a real boost How’s this for hav- says. “I’ve always been confident to my ego to know that I can go back ing a unique per- speaking in public. Besides, it’s very to work, in a field I knew nothing spective on Jericho: easy to talk about something in pub- about, and become successful. Joan Baiman Rosenberg graduated lic when you’re passionate about it “Whether I could have done it at from JHS in 1971, moved back there and you believe the same time I was bringing up our with her own family ten years later, in it.” Her kids, like so many women do, that I then became a guidance counselor mother, cur- don’t know. Fortunately, I didn’t have at the high school in 1983. And all rently in Florida, to; I thank my husband, Neil, for three of her children attended school and father, now that.” in the same district where she’d retired to Ari- Cathy and Neil met in 1978. “My grown up. zona, are both college roommate was in Washing- Wait — it gets better. In 2005, cancer survi- ton, DC, for the summer,” Cathy ex- after twenty-two years in the guid- vors. plains, “and asked if ance department and four years as I wanted to catch a president of the teachers union, Joan ride with her boy- was promoted to assistant principal, friend’s college making her the first former student Cathy’s friend who was driv- in the history of Jericho to join the kids: left ing down to DC from administration. Yep, it’s finally hap- to right, Brooklyn for the pened, folks: The inmates have Ken, Kay, weekend. I had been taken over the asylum. and dating someone else Joan never imagined herself as Leigh. at that time, but it JHS assistant principal, not even was love Continued on page 19

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A Continuing Series What It’s All About: Friendship

Ilene Pincus and Monica Wood Izzo ~ Friends for 43 years ~

By Ilene Pincus

MONICA AND I MET IN MR. HYDE’S FOURTH-GRADE class. I remember Bobbi Solomon and I giggling when Monica came in late (she was a "bus child"), and the only chair/desk left available was one of the huge ones. Poor little Monica's feet were dangling; they didn't even touch the floor. We ran away again when we were around fifteen, on New Year's Eve. We pooled our money, went to Sandy's for hot chocolates, then to Oddvark (the head shop on Broadway, just west of Mid-Island Plaza), where we bought a hash pipe. Then we got cold, so we called our parents and went back home. Monica got punished for like a month. I got to have a New Year's Eve party that night. Monica, whose nicknames over the years have in- cluded Gog, Monique, Deke, Monty, and Spaghetti (to my Meatball!), was the one who started "our crowd,” which was composed of over sixty kids. Most were from Jeri- Continued on page 18

“Summer 1964: The first known photo of me and Monica, behind her house on Fern Drive West.”

I lived on Maytime Court in East Birchwood, and Monica lived in "Jericho Park,” the "new" development that was built after a bunch of Boy Scouts having a campout accidentally burned down the woods that used to be beyond our backyard. We became best friends in- stantly, did everything together, including summer camp at Marydale, if I remember correctly. It was a CYO camp, or a Catholic camp or something; I remember a big statue of the Virgin Mary on the campgrounds! We often laugh about the time we "ran away from home" at about age ten or so to the stables that were on Jericho Turnpike. We were cleaning out a chicken coop and decided we were going to live there. We were “Summer 1968: “This is Monica sitting in the water- chased off the property by the owners’ son. Gee, after fall just over the fish pond in my backyard, before the we did all that work cleaning out their chicken coop!! big party that started our crowd.”

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Ilene + Monica We were part of each others' “April 2006: Me and Monica when I Continued from page 17 families. I remember ... moved down to Florida.” … when her brother Andy was born, and I saw that ucky black thing in his bellybutton for the first time. When I was in college, A.J. used to write me letters in crayon, which I’d hang in my dorm room. … My sister, Gay, gave Monica horseback rides in our living room. … Monica's sister Roberta used to love to sit on my lap. … Monica’s other sister, Paula, lived with my family for a couple of “Here’s the two of us sometime in the weeks before moving in with her hus- earth knows me better than Monica, 1980s.” band-to-be, Marc Sheiner. and no one knows Monica better Our lives have been intertwined than me. We've been there with cho, but a handful were from West- since fourth grade, and now I've each other through our trials and bury and Hicksville. It was the sum- moved from Long Island to Florida tribulations, deaths and divorces, mer of '68, and I was having a big and bought a condo in New Port heartaches and rejoicing, births of party in our backyard. It was gor- Richey, just one door down from babies, promotions, falling in and geous, with three patios, a trail Monica. A ninety-year-old lady, Jo, out of love. I couldn't love her sons, through the wooded hill, a waterfall lives between us; she loves us both. Billy (twenty-five) and Ben (twenty-two) coming down into the fish pond, all We go running back and forth to more if they were my own. Both are landscaped with lighting -- just beau- each other's condos in our night- very cool heartthrobs, driving all the tiful. Monica had become friendly gowns, borrowing cups of coffee and Tarpon Springs girls crazy. with a few older guys, like Gary Ma- pieces of homemade cherry pie. Our friendship is one of the lin, Fred Schlussel, and Don There's nothing better than an things in the world that I am most Schrager from the class of 1971, old-old-old friendship. No one on thankful for. ■ and she brought them all, and all of their friends, to my party. Our crowd “The boys are back in town — for a 50th birthday party in October 2003 was born that night! at Testarossa: Roy Fiorino (’ 71), Guy Fils (’ 73), Don Schrager (’ 71), We all stayed friends throughout Gary Malin (’ 71) and Kraig Libstag (’ 71), just a few of the attendees. high school and college, and many of It was a fabulous party!” us remain close to this day. In 2003 I organized a fiftieth birthday party for the guys in our crowd, most of whom were a year older than the girls. It was at the restaurant Testarossa on Jericho Turnpike, and people flew in from all over the country. It was great to see everyone again! There were people there who hadn't made it to the official reunion. From Jericho, I went to Ashland College in Ohio, a very expensive pri- vate school. Monica followed me out there, paid her tuition herself, only lasted a semester or two, but it was Have a friendship you’d like to celebrate? Tell us about it! fun to share the Ohio experience.

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Joan Baiman (‘71) we’re going to be up to 1,200. We interested in causes. If it impacts have to develop ways of working with them directly, they might rally around Continued from page 16 the kids that will allow us to still give an issue for a day or two – like when them individualized attention, be- there’s talk about possibly reinstat- when the job was offered to her last cause it gets tougher and tougher ing the draft. But when it’s no longer October. But becoming a guidance the bigger you get.” a threat, it’s as though it doesn’t counselor, that’s a different story. The changes in guidance reflect matter anymore. “During my three years of high the changes in Jericho and society at “There used to be a lot more commu- school,” she reflects, “I probably saw large. “The school society and the nity spirit,” she continues. “For in- my guidance counselor all of two kids’ experiences have changed so stance, we were big on dances, times. And I can remember being in drastically in the thirty-five years which the teachers would chaper- tenth grade and thinking, There’s got since I graduated,” Joan observes. one, in the cafeteria or the gym. to be more to this job than what they “Back in the sixties and seven- Those things don’t go on here now.” do here! I decided that’s what I was ties, as a group, we were much more Asked why, she pauses for a mo- going to do, and I never veered from socially conscious than the kids are ment. it.” now. Vietnam, obviously, was a big “I think that in many families, After earning her bachelor’s de- thing. To these kids, it’s history. We there are two working parents, so the gree in psychology at Boston Univer- lived it. Kids would march out of kids are left to their own devices a sity and a master’s degree in coun- school en masse and head to Mid- lot more. There’s also a big focus on seling at Columbia University, Joan Island Plaza for a day of protests. activities outside of school: tennis spent six years as a drug and alcohol “I think that today people are a instruction, or horseback riding, or counselor at Francis Lewis High lot more self-involved and a lot less Continued on page 20 School in Queens. As much as she enjoyed it, “I was putting too much of myself into it,” she says, “and it be- came too exhausting.” At the end of the 1983 school year, she remarked to her husband, Randy, “If I don’t get a job someplace else, I don’t know if I can go back in the fall.”

Seeing Jericho From the Other Side

She didn’t have to. That September Joan began working in the Jericho guidance department, which was, and still is, headed by Ms. Lois Smith. Students at Jericho receive much more support than they did back in our day. The current guid- ance staff of seven includes a social worker and substance-abuse coun- selor who provides prevention, inter- vention, and referral services to stu- dents faced with low self-esteem, family problems, peer conflicts, eat- ing disorders, and substance-abuse issues. “It’s an interesting place to be,” she says. “We’re growing in size. Seven, “This shot was taken right after a Yankees game, one of our family eight years ago, we had all of 525 passions”: Joan (bottom, center) surrounded by Carly (l.) and Jamie (r.); students in the high school. This year in back, husband Randy and son Marc.

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Joan Baiman (‘71) he’s going to be working. In Memoriam: ‘Well,’ they’ll ask, ‘what is he Continued from page 19 getting out of it?’ Ellen Lowenstein Ross

“And I’ll say, ‘He has a

sense of accomplishment, plus ice-skating, or whatever it hap- he’s working on his social pens to be. We have a lot of skills and his independence independent home tutoring skills.’ For some people, going on in the district, even though, it’s not ‘good enough.’ for our high-achieving kids, so “But I’ve always been that they can do better and achieve way,” says Joan. “I’ll point out more. to these people that my oldest “And get into the college of two didn’t do all of those their parents’ choice,” she things. Yet they both got into adds wryly. Ivy League schools, have done “It’s sad. Many kids are Ellen Lowenstein Ross from the class of 1973 very well for themselves, and, not allowed to be kids now. I passed away on August 12, 2006. One of her most importantly, had a child- mean, I remember, even in lifelong best friends, Beth Fischer Gemmill, hood.” Jamie, twenty-five, elementary school, coming shares some memories of Ellen, who lived with works and lives in Manhattan, home from school, changing her family in the same house in which she’d while her twenty-year-old into my play clothes (because grown up, on Merry Lane in East Birchwood: daughter, Carly, just started at we had a dress code back “Most of us met Ellen in third grade, when Brooklyn Law School. then — not anymore!), and tell- she moved to Jericho. She went to George A. As Joan points out, the hy- ing my mother, ‘I’m going to Jackson Elementary School. After graduating percompetitiveness among ride my bike over to so-and- from JHS, Ellen went to the University of Stony high-school students is by no so’s house.’ And my mother Brook and received a masters degree in home means unique to Jericho. “It’s would say, ‘Okay, just be home health care. happening all over the coun- by six for dinner.’ You don’t “Ellen was married to Howard Ross and try,” she says, “because more see that today. Everything is so had two daughters: Samantha, who is a and more kids are applying to totally planned out, minute by sophomore at SUNY Binghamton; and college, but the colleges aren’t minute, hour by hour, for many Vanessa, a junior at Jericho High School. Ellen increasing the size of their of our kids. contracted Lyme disease approximately fifteen freshman classes. So you have “As a counselor, I used to years ago and battled it ever since.” a growing number of students be asked all the time, ‘What We’d like to extend our deepest sympa- competing for fewer positions. should my kid do for the sum- thies to Ellen’s family and many friends. ■ Everybody is looking to get a mer?’ Now, my son, Marc, is ‘leg up,’ and the kids are defi- sixteen, and this summer he went to sleepaway camp. nitely feeling the pressure.” That’s what he wanted to do. “The reaction from other Joan Becomes Assistant parents is often ‘How come Principal you’re not sending him to a college program for the sum- Ten years ago, Joan earned a mer?’ ‘Why isn’t he doing professional diploma in ad- some community service down ministration at C. W. Post, al- in Costa Rica, or something though, she says with a laugh, else that’s going to look good she never intended to use it. on his college resume?’ That “But my husband always said type of thing. to me, ‘If you’re going to earn “My feeling is, you know credits and move across the Ellen (center) with Marilyn Pike and what? Let them be kids! For salary scale, you might as well Laura Sheftman Strafer at the class the next forty, forty-five years, Continued on page 21 of ‘73’s thirtieth reunion.

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Joan Baiman (‘71) push to really consider doing it.” So elementary school"), resides in did the support of her immediate Princeton Park. She can be out to Continued from page 20 boss, Lois Smith. dinner with her husband or shopping Joan went through the interview at Waldbaum’s and find herself col- do it to add up to something.’” Just process and was named assistant lared by a parent with a question, weeks into the 2005–2006 school principal last October. “I told the ad- even though she’s off-duty. year, a brand new assistant principal ministration and the teachers right "You get used to it after a while," announced that he’d decided to re- away, ‘If you think I’m going to be a she shrugs. "Although my husband turn to his former district in Suffolk hard-nosed disciplinarian, that’s not gets a little aggravated at times. County. me. That’s not my style. I’m more of We’ll be sitting in a restaurant, and When the administration asked a negotiator. ‘Let’s sit down and see somebody will come up to me and Joan to toss her hat into the ring, her what our options are.’ Is it a different say, ‘I hate to bother you, but ...’ And immediate response was “absolutely he’s ready to say, ‘Then don’t!’ But not,” she says. “I didn’t want to leave the same thing went on when I was a counselor, too. my forty guidance students in the “It’s sad. Many kids are lurch. Plus, I was president of the “Most of my friends in the district teacher’s union,” having succeeded not allowed to be kids know not to try getting any informa- longtime head Mr. Emil Voigt (“the now. Everything is so tion out of me, because it’s not going icon,” she calls him) in 2001. totally planned out, to happen. And my kids have always “First, though, I asked my son,” minute by minute, hour said that they’re the last to know now a junior, “how he would feel about stuff that’s going on in the about my becoming assistant princi- by hour.” building. It’s never dinner talk, it’s pal. If he wasn’t okay with it, I would never something that goes on in con- not have taken the position. All three bent? Yes, it is. Definitely.” Not many versation in the car. of my kids went through the school school administrators come from a “I’ve always tried very hard to with me being there, and all had to- guidance-counselor background. separate that out: being a member tally different reactions to it. "To be honest, I thought that of the community, a parent, and an “My oldest wanted to have noth- might be a disadvantage, because I employee. There are times when ing to do with me in school. When have never been a classroom people say to me, ‘Which hat are you teachers would ask her if she was teacher per se; I went directly from wearing right now?’ Sometimes it’s related to Joan Rosenberg, the guid- grad school into counseling. And as difficult to separate them; some- ance counselor, she would tell them assistant principal I have to do in- times it’s very clear which one I’m no, that Rosenberg is a common last classroom observations and write up wearing.” name. My middle one managed to evaluations. But we seem to be able When Joan came back to Jericho find me whenever she needed to work around that." in 1983, many of her favorite teach- money or a ride. Marc has no issues ers were still on the faculty. Now only with my being there, even though "I Hate to Bother You, But ..." Lois Smith and Mr. Ernest Savaglio teachers give him a lot of ribbing. are still there. “I remember around “But being a counselor was one You can add yet another facet to 2000, a number of teachers retired, thing; there’s not a lot of discipline Joan’s multidimensional perspective like Bob Hoffman, Estelle Stern, and that goes along with that. As assis- on Jericho. It’s rare for school admin- Barbara Murphy. It was sad to me, tant principal, some of his friends istrators to live in the same district because they represented the history would be under my jurisdiction. I said where they work. Joan, who grew up of Jericho. Ms. Murphy said to me, to him, ‘You’re going to be hearing in East Birchwood ("my parents still ‘Joan, you’re the history now.’” some nasty, negative things. They’re live there on Mellow Lane, right “I said, ‘That’s a little frighten- going to say that your mother’s a real around the corner from the Jackson ing!’” ■ witch and a real tyrant, and you’re going to say, “Try living with her!”’ Everybody has an interesting story to tell. Even you. He’s a pretty self-assured kid, though, and didn’t have any problem Interested in sharing it in our next issue? It’s like free therapy! with it. That kind of gave me an extra Get in touch with Phil.

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John Innelli (‘73) information,’ but that would reveal Vegas to join him in the fraudulent my bias!) It’s always incumbent on business. The two of them fabricate While attending the me to build a strong enough case to flight logs and financial records to University of Penn- show that some of the puzzle’s make the company look incredibly sylvania, John In- pieces haven’t been turned over, successful — so successful that nelli seriously con- then to persuade the court to get a they’re able to orchestrate public sidered pursuing a hold of those pieces. It’s challenging. offerings of $1 million, then $5 mil- doctorate in economics, “in no small And when the day is done, and lion. Which they promptly burn right part due to Bob Hoffman,” his you’ve been able to put all the pieces through. Are on the verge of pulling twelfth-grade economics teacher. together and right a wrong, it’s very off a $50 million IPO with junk-bond “But my father kept saying to me, gratifying.” king and future jailbird Michael ‘How are you going to earn a living One of John’s favorite cases Milken of Drexel-Burnham-Lambert with that?’” he recalls, laughing. would make a great film, he says. when one of their pilots gets wind of “Being pragmatic, I decided to go to Indeed it would. The plot is too con- the scheme and rats them out to the law school instead,” at Washington voluted to recount here in its en- FBI. and Lee University, in Lexington, Vir- tirety, so we’ll present it as if making ginia. However, John has come to a pitch to a Hollywood producer. (Are The tale’s other highlights — or incorporate his economics interest you listening, Bob Simon?) Here lowlights — include: into his law practice, which he goes: started in 1995. (1) a gun runner named Rodri- “I specialize in securities, fraud Millionaire’s ne’er-do-well son, a guez, who is under investigation for litigation, antitrust litigation and com- flying enthusiast who owns several dealing arms to the Contras; plex commercial litigation,” he ex- airplanes, meets up with a con artist (2) General Paul Tibbets, pilot of plains. “Anything that has to do with named Rubin at his country club in the Enola Gay, which dropped the a business where an investor be- Minneapolis. Con artist convinces first atomic bomb on Japan during lieves that in some way financial millionaire’s son that he is a pilot World War II; fraud is taking place or the rules of and former American Airlines exec (3) the obligatory location for any the marketplace are being distorted, who could develop a lucrative busi- story involving fraud; namely, the to his detriment.” ness chartering out the planes as Cayman Islands. What does he like best about well as giving flight instruction. this area of the law? Invites his grifter girlfriend, Janet We envision a cast including “I guess it’s a toss-up between (“who had a rap sheet as long as Hugh Grant as the ne’er-do-well mil- arguing in court — I’ve always liked to both arms,” says John), out from Las lionaire’s son, Adrian Brody as Rubin, have a captive audience — and ana- Heather Graham as Janet, and Steve lyzing transactions.” The latter John John and wife Holly at the class of Buscemi as the blackmailing pilot. compares to detective work. “It’s try- 1973’s thirtieth reunion. Every film nowadays has to include ing to determine whether or not a Steve Buscemi. It’s a law. fraud has taken place. Remember “As we kept uncovering more the mantra of Senator Howard Baker and more information,” says John, during the Watergate hearings: laughing, “it just got more and more ‘What did the president know, and fascinating.” when did he know it?’ That’s really what I do in any fraud case. You take A Philly Fanatic the players involved in a transaction, and you search to see what they After law school, John decided to re- knew and when they knew it. It’s a turn to the City of Brotherly Love. He, puzzle that you have to piece to- wife Holly, and their children, Kate gether. and James, live in Rose Valley, Penn- “Meanwhile, the defendant’s sylvania, a Philly suburb. “I can go side tries to provide as little informa- from my home to my office down tion as it can. (I’d say ‘tries to hide Continued on page 23

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John Innelli (‘73) made it very difficult for us to have a true two-party system. Usually one Continued from page 22 An ominous voice warned, party dominates to such an extent “You ought to tell your wife that there’s not a level playing field. town in just twenty-five minutes,” he “Also,” he adds, “the political world is and your daughter to be says. “It’s a great place to raise a far more vicious than anything you very careful where they go.” family, and the cost of housing is a encounter in high school.” John and mere fraction of what it is in the New his family experienced this firsthand York Metropolitan area. Plus, my wife during his campaign to unseat in- only imagine what kind of impact is originally from the area. All of that cumbent Curt Weldon. that had on Holly’s enthusiasm for resulted in my moving to Philadel- “Delaware County is controlled the campaign.” phia instead of going back to New by a Republican machine,” he says One funny story from the morn- York.” seriously. “One thing you learn about ing after the election: “My daughter But, he hastens to add, “I still municipal politics is that it’s all about had gone campaigning with me, and consider myself a New Yorker. I root money and how millions of dollars she has some very fond memories of for the New York sports teams I grew get spread around to people with it all. Being two years old, she’d gone up rooting for. And I love going back special interests, like those who to bed before the returns were in.” there to visit my sisters and my want contracts. People use their Weldon, with a two-to-one Republi- brother, who all live in the Metropoli- muscle to protect their interests. A can advantage, had won re-election. tan area. My father, in fact, still lives challenge to any political machine is “That morning Kate came bounding in the same house that we grew up met with a very fierce response. I into our bedroom, crawled into bed, in, in Princeton Park, right behind the mean, Karl Rove is not unique. There and shook me awake. I opened one Jericho Jewish Center.” The JJC’s are a lot of operatives like him eye. rabbi, Stanley Steinhart, lived next throughout the country.” “’Well, Daddy?’ door. During the 1990 race, John fo- “’”Well Daddy” what?’ “Whenever they needed a min- cused public attention on Weldon’s “’Did you win the race?’ ion,” says John, “the joke used to be, questionable conduct regarding his “And I said, ‘No, Kate, I’m sorry. ‘Go ring the Innellis’ doorbell and chairing a quasi-governmental unit Daddy didn’t win the race.’ And she have John and Frank (my dad) come that received tens of millions of dol- pounded her fist on the bed and over.’ lars in federal funds. At the time, a said, ‘Darn it, why couldn’t you have “I have tremendous memories of grand jury had been convened to run faster?!’” Jericho,” he continues. “Really had a investigate misuse, with indictments Upon request from the Clinton wonderful time growing up there.” being handed down against two of White House, John ran against While in junior high school, John got his closest advisors. Weldon again in 1996, although his first taste of politics by getting “One afternoon,” John recalls, “I more for the purpose of serving as a elected student council president, a received a phone call at home. My party spokesperson. Despite his bap- feat repeated during his senior year wife and daughter, who was two at tism by fire sixteen years ago, he re- in high school. In 1990 he ran as the the time, were out shopping.” mains interested in possibly seeking Democratic candidate for U.S. Con- The mysterious voice on the public office in the future, especially gress in Pennsylvania's overwhelm- other end warned ominously, “You with Kate off at college and James ingly Republican Seventh Congres- ought to tell your wife and your not too far behind. sional District. Any parallels between daughter to be very careful where “Politics is very, very taxing on seeking elected office in high school they go.” He named the store where the family,” John reflects. “The de- and in the real world? they were shopping and read off mand for your time, the intrusive- “Other than having a strong ego their car’s license-plate number. ness. Still, matters of state are very and a desire to undertake difficult “They might want to lock the doors, important.” In 2004 he served on tasks, no,” he says. “In running for because you never know what the John Kerry’s finance committee, office in high school, you don’t need police will find in your car …” helping to assemble the Massachu- a lot of money. In the American politi- “Stuff like that happens,” John setts senator’s campaign operations cal system today, especially at the says flatly, “although it doesn’t get in Pennsylvania. local level, that’s all that matters. It’s much attention in the press. You can Continued on page 26

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as much as we liked Woodsville, there Wanna learn what some of your former teachers are up to? was nothing for us in a small town. So Then drop in, pull up a chair, set a spell, but most of all — we all came to Long Island; a cousin NO TALKING ! — at the ... who lived in Lynbrook touted his town and said we should move there. What did we know? Fa c u l t y I’d always been fascinated by Fa c u l t y teaching because of teachers that I’d had in high school who had really Lounge turned me on to it. And so that’s what I wanted. And while in college, I took a lot of Spanish, became very interested in it, and wound up teaching it. I got my masters degree at St. John’s Uni- versity. In 1959, Long Island schools were hiring teachers like crazy. You had all the war babies and everybody moving from the city to the suburbs. I signed up with a large educational employ- ment agency. Someone there sug- This Issue: gested I interview at Jericho, saying, “You know, that might be a good deal Mr. George Batjiaka going there, because you’re going to get right in on the ground floor of this district that’s going to take off, more You Remember Him As than likely, and it’s going to grow, and Assistant Principal. But He you can be part of that.” Good advice!

Started His Career Teaching Jericho Back in the Day Spanish — And Still Does! I went from one small community to another. When I started teaching ’ve had a good life. The things that I Spanish in Jericho, it was still kind of did worked out wonderfully, like de- rural. Jericho Turnpike was two lanes, I ciding to teach in Jericho in 1959. one eastbound, one westbound, full of It was my first job since leaving beautiful trees. Where the shopping Woodsville, New Hampshire, the little center is now, there were, oh, a couple town where I was born. I spent my first of stores, and that was it. West Birch- twenty-two years there. My high school wood didn’t exist yet. had just 100 students in grades nine There was no high school, either; through twelve. There were twenty-five classes were held for grades ninth kids in my graduating class. But it was through eleven in the Robert Seaman great; everybody was a big fish in a little Elementary School while the school pond. was being built. The senior were sent In a town of two thousand or so peo- to Carle Place. We didn’t have our own ple, you got to know everybody, and it graduating class until 1961. As the was a very friendly place. I attended district continued to grow, they added Dartmouth College, which was only to the high school. about forty miles away in Hanover. What’s interesting is that the I had an older brother and two teachers who started at Jericho were younger brothers. My mother saw that Continued on page 25

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Mr. George Batjiaka But I’m a guy who likes to work at things I enjoy. I’ve had a few careers It Was Da Bomb! Continued from page 24 since. First I was a paralegal. Then I worked for my son’s travel agency for One part of his job that Mr. Batji- all in their twenties; it was a very six or seven years. (I have three aka didn’t particularly enjoy was young faculty. I was twenty-four. We sons, aged forty-six, forty-five, and responding to the frequent bomb grew together and we grew with the thirty-seven.) That was probably the scares during the early 1970s. “I system. It was a very interesting evo- best job I ever had, because I trav- have to tell you, the bomb scares lution to where it is today. I always eled extensively. Cheaply, too, I were the biggest pain in the butt felt that Jericho was a top-notch aca- might add! But after 9/11, the travel imaginable,” he says. “You’d have demic school, which it still is. If any- industry took a big hit, and he closed to empty out the whole school and thing, it got even better. the business. go through all of the lockers, and it In 1966 Jericho started a house Since then I’ve returned to teach- was very disruptive to the whole plan in the high school and junior ing Spanish; specifically, tutoring educational process. I can remem- high. They approached me and homebound students. If a student is ber some days having two or three asked if I’d be interested in becom- out of school for any reason, he’s bomb scares. ing housemaster of House B in the entitled to tutoring, even if he’s been “We didn’t truly believe that high school. I thought, Why not? I suspended. I really enjoy the lan- someone had planted a bomb in enjoyed being an administrator very guage and working with teenagers. I the building; it was probably just much. In Jericho, you’re not just dis- tutor in three or four communities some kid who was angry at the sys- pensing discipline, you’re involved in near Oceanside, which is where I’ve tem. But we had to go along as if it the student council and many other lived since 1960. It’s funny: My three were real. David Nydick, the super- things. Plus, you still got to teach two sons all went through the Oceanside intendent said no ifs, ands, or buts; classes. school system; now two of my grand- the building had to be evacuated, After two years, they abandoned sons live here and are going to the and he was right.” ■ the house plan, and we went from same elementary school — School 3 being housemasters to assistant — that my kids attended. has good stories and good feelings principals. I worked with Paul Flan- about Jericho. zer, Pete Lawrence, Paul Hall. (It was Fond Memories Which is nice, to be able to look a laugh a day with Paul Hall; a very back on your career and say, “Boy, funny guy.) I went from classroom teacher to you know what? I really enjoyed It was a great place to work. housemaster to assistant principal. that.” We all say that we’d go back It must have been; I was there for Now, usually, you don’t stay an assis- and do it again, in a day.” ■ thirty-four years, retiring in 1993. tant principal; you pursue the next level, principal, somewhere else if you have to. But you know what? A Mr. Batjiaka at last April’s Jericho lot of us stayed on with what we Alumni Hall of Fame ceremony. were doing because we enjoyed working in Jericho so much. It was such a great place to work that no- body left! We have an active retired teach- ers association in Jericho. I happen to be the organization’s secretary. We have lunch and meetings three, four times a year. And they’re all well attended. You get to see many of the people that you worked with for a long period of time, like Ed Corallo, Andrew Chaglasian, Karen Schwartz, Dick Drab, Joel Brodsky. Everybody

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John Innelli (‘73) “My father was an advance intel- ligence scout for General George Pat- Continued from page 23 ton's 3rd Army and one of the first

Americans to enter into the Dachau James Kate, whom John describes as concentration camp. What he saw just the "apple of my eye," is a freshman and experienced there shaped his turned 15. at American University’s Foreign Ser- outlook on life. During the first forty vice. “She has a lot of the same in- years of my life, he never once men- terests as her dad,” he says with a tioned the fact that he had helped laugh, “although she’s very much her liberate a concentration camp. But a own person. She’s interested in in- day didn't go by without his teaching ternational affairs, and she found — through his actions — tolerance Washington, DC, very attractive.” and compassion for all human be- As for James, who just turned ings. He and my mother went out of fifteen, “I think he’s likely to end up a their way to take my sisters, Michele Kate turns scientist. He’s a great athlete and (class of '76) and Hope (‘78), my 19 in swims competitively.” Both kids, he brother, Frank (‘82), and me to reli- November. notes, are extremely socially con- gious services of all faiths. scious and civic minded. “My mother and her family ex- That social consciousness and perienced ethnic profiling. Her par- corresponding interest in politics is ents, who were from a prominent deeply ingrained in the Innelli family. Continued on page 27

Q&A: Lesléa I never gave it much thought. I at the University of Southern Maine. just knew I wanted to write and was Before that I taught private writing Newman eager to see my photo on a book workshops for about twenty years. jacket some day. What I have found Continued from out is the more successful I become, I’m really interested to hear about page 10 the less time I have to write, because your experience apprenticing for Al- of demands on my time, so it is al- len Ginsberg. How did that come ways a struggle. When I was growing about? I sent the poems in, and they were up, writers were not public figures chosen by the poetry editor at the the way we are now, going on book When I went to Naropa Institute, I time, Hilary Cosell, daughter of How- tours, lecture tours, and so on. But I applied to be Allen's teaching ap- ard Cosell. I went up to the office, in still write almost every day — other- prentice and was chosen. He was midtown Manhattan to meet her, wise I am not happy. very warm, funny, demanding, and and she was very kind to me. She kind. My job was to answer his mail, dumped a shopping bag of pages You earned a B.S. in education at and he got tons; as much as Hilary onto her desk and said, “This is what the University of Vermont. Did you Cosell at Seventeen magazine. Allen arrives in the mail every day. Your see yourself teaching writing while paid equal attention to every letter, poetry stood out like a diamond.” continuing to write? and he received mail from important There were several poems; one editors, politicians, and young boys was about meeting my father in the Again, I didn't give it much thought. I who didn't know where else to turn. city under the Accutron clock right just took my first “official” teaching He had me answer them all. outside Madison Square Garden. job, at the Stonecoast MFA program He gave me good feedback on my poems and asked me my opinion You say on your website that you of his. He also let me stay in his always knew you wanted to be a For much more about Lesléa, apartment in Manhattan for several writer. What was your concept at the visit her website: months when I needed a place to time of what the writing life would be www.lesleanewman.com live. If you want to know more, there like? Continued on page 27

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Milleridge Inn Ellen Rader John Innelli Continued from page 4 Continued from page 10 Continued from page 26 the plate into this big bin of dirty, medical malpractice, auto, WC, So- Albanian family, fled Albania at the yucky dishes with food and every- cial Security, and long-term-disability outbreak of World War I as the Otto- thing. I went on clearing other tables, matters. I enjoy applying my knowl- man Empire began to crumble. They when the waitress came over to me. edge to specific case situations — became American citizens and ac- “‘Where’s that man’s dinner?’ stating only what I feel is within my cepted member of the community. she hissed. I said, ‘I figured he was expertise and which I could easily They prospered here, and, not forget- done, so I threw it in that bin.’ defend in court (the least favorite ting how poor and destitute Albania “She got all upset. ‘You idiot! He part of my work, but, fortunately, it was, sent humanitarian aid periodi- just went to the bathroom! He might doesn’t happen that often). cally over the years before World be there for a while.’ She took the Ergonomic War II. lobster out of the bin, put fresh let- services are “At the end of the war, some tuce garnish around it, and just provided to twenty-nine years after my grandpar- propped it up. minimize mus- ents had become American citizens, “That poor guy, when he finally culoskeletal Albania fell under communist con- went back to that table and resumed injury risks in trol. Solely on the basis of their eth- eating, I thought I was going to throw industrial and nicity, J. Edgar Hoover, head of the up. But he ate the entire thing.” office work- FBI, placed the family home in Bay- The following story has a real I places — for side under surveillance, and the IRS Love Lucy quality to it. small- and engaged in regular audits of my “On New Year’s Eve 1971, I was large-size busi- Ergo I am. Ellen is grandfather's business. working the coat room with my friend nesses, and a certified profes- “After a while, people in my Vicki Monaco,” Paula recalls. “We’d home offices. sional ergonomist, mother's neighborhood came to un- never done that before. It had one of I’ve also been OT, CVE derstand the family was under sur- those revolving coat racks, like you involved as an veillance and a stigma attached to see at a dry cleaner’s. It was raining expert in assessing work-related in- my mother and her sisters, who all that night, so everybody had an um- jury causality for various cumulative- were in high school at the time. A brella, which you were supposed to trauma injuries, particularly for per- proud woman, my mother never hang on these special hooks. Instead sons who sustained injuries while really shook the feeling of somehow we laid them across the top of the working on the railroad. being different. She always conveyed rack. I’m the sole proprietor of ERS, to her children that we should never “It was a prix fixe dinner, so eve- and I enjoy being in charge and hav- do anything to make another person rybody left at the same time. When ing the flexibility of scheduling from feel ashamed of their heritage. we switched on the coat rack, the my home office. This also allows me “Anyone who spent time in our umbrellas would bend or snap as to do carpools as needed from 4:00 home knows how warm and embrac- they came around. It was horrible! to 6:00 in the afternoon for my soon- ing she was to everyone. And she Everybody went home with a dam- to-be Bat Mitzvah’d daughter, Molly, encouraged political debate at the aged umbrella that night. Vicki and I and my sixteen-year-old football dinner table regularly, in a way that were definitely like Lucy and Ethel. star, Josh, and then write my reports promoted critical thinking and re- “I worked there for a year or at night. spect for differing points of view. two,” says Paula. “Then I went over I never planned to be my own “Kate and James have been ex- to the mall and worked at Lerner’s, boss; it was just a process that de- posed to my parents' experiences. the clothing store. I liked that a veloped early on and has worked out And Holly is a role model for inde- whole lot better.” very well! ■ pendence of mind, individuality, and At least one good thing came out social awareness,” he adds proudly. of the experience: “Now, whenever Tell us about your job or busi- John and Holly, a corporate commu- my kids complain about their jobs, I ness in the next issue! Get in nications writer, married in 1985, always reply, ‘Oh, yeah? I was a bus touch, and we’ll tell you how. but the couple were together for ten girl at the Milleridge Inn.’” ■ Continued on page 28

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Q&A: Lesléa Newman safe to come out there. Now she was in college, and she wanted me to Fan E-Mail and know how much it meant to her to Threatening Continued from page 27 have an out lesbian visit her school. So it doesn't seem like much has Letters is an essay on my website about my changed. friendship with him. I did not find Jericho a kind place. If one was “different” in any “Comments? On your website, you write about way, one was made to feel inferior, how an encounter with a lesbian disliked, etc. I remember being Feedback? mom outside a bookstore inspired teased about the size and shape of Fan mail Heather Has Two Mommies. Some- my body by my classmates. I know from some times a book, or music, or any art others were disrespected in similar flounder?” form takes on a life of its own, one ways. The school was full of cliques; I that the creator never could have always felt like an outsider. Errata: Rudy-Giber in ‘68! imagined. What was it like for you to learn that Heather was attacked on You were voted class wit. Were you The article about the Doom [issue the floor of Congress, and so forth? always considered funny? Does your No. 13] was a great reminder that sense of humor find its way into your expressing my gratitude for your put- The reaction to my book floored me. work a lot? ting my Jericho Junior High School A friend and I first published it on our student-council slate over the top is own because no publisher wanted it. I was very flattered to be voted class long overdue. I never thought it would get the at- wit and, yes, I use humor a lot in my Of course, it was Jay Starr who tention that it did and still does. I writing. I don't know how anyone gets put the slate together and ran the fluctuate between being amused, through life without a sense of campaign with almost Carville-esque frustrated, sad, and incredulous. humor. ■ strategic acumen. Whatever, but, after more than thirty-five years in a Did you come out while in high Purple Haze, it is high time I thanked school? And if not, was Jericho a the Doom for its Sunshine of Your place where you felt that you could John Innelli Love for our campaign. have? Continued from page 27 So much for the love, though. Steve Lehrer was a great guy, and it I did not come out until after college, years before that, having met at the was fantastic to see him at the thirti- but I don't remember Jericho High University of Pennsylvania. John ex- eth reunion. However, he was not my School as a place that was gay- plains: running mate that year, as reported. friendly when I was growing up. Or “The campus was in the process That person was another great guy, even now. of switching from just dormitories to David Giber, who actually challenged I say this because in 1999 I was in- college houses, and I got into one of Larry Goldstein in a "primary" elec- ducted into the Jericho High School the first college houses. The male- tion for the VP slot and won. Not that Hall of Fame. During my speech in female ratio at Penn was three guys I couldn't reasonably be confused for front of the entire school, I asked for every woman, but in Stouffer a major political heavyweight back in what it was like for gay students at House the ratio was one-to-one. the day, but David clearly brought the high school today. After a long There were so many applicants, we some serious credibility to the ticket. pause, a student in the auditorium had to have an admissions process, So, my appreciation for Steven called out, “We don't have any gay and I happened to be on the admis- notwithstanding, David was The students here!” sions committee. Man, and it would be terribly unto- Of course I knew that couldn't “On her application, under ‘Sex,’ ward of me not to correct you while possibly be true, but I didn't push the where you were supposed to check belatedly thanking the Doom for its issue further. A year later I got an male or female, Holly wrote ‘Yes!’ So support and great music. Keep the email from a young woman who told I decided to interview her. news coming. me she had been a senior when I “And as they say, the rest is his- Jim Rudy visited the school and felt very un- tory.” ■ [email protected]

JHS Class of 1972 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Fall 2006 Page 29

Your Back Pages “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” — Bob Dylan You wish!

The World Around You• First Grade, 1960─61

♦ In October, John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon face off in the first televised presidential debate. According to a poll, radio listeners name Nixon the winner, but on the tube, it’s JFK all the way. The Massachusetts senator edges “Oh ye Nixon by a margin of only ve much?” ah? Who w “Hey, sha I s as that wo aw you with man 113,057 votes out of nearly 70 last night, Romeo?” million cast to become the thirty-fifth president, although the electoral vote isn’t nearly as close: 303 to 219 in favor of the Democrat. ♦ There are 74 million automobiles on U.S. roads, up from 33 million in 1941. ♦ In April, the Bay of Pigs invasion ends in a fiasco for the United States and for the CIA-trained Cuban exiles. Dictator Fidel Castro’s forces repel the invaders with heavy losses. ♦ The Peace Corps is established. ♦ On April 12, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the First man in space: first man in space, completing one orbit around the Yuri Gagarin lifts earth in his Vostok I spacecraft. On May 5, U.S. off. astronaut Alan Sherpard makes a suborbital flight, but the Soviet Union grabs a clear lead in the Space Race. ♦ Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow has this to say about the state of U.S. television programming: “a vast wasteland — a procession of game shows, violence, audience- participation shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, more violence, cartoons … and, endlessly, commercials, many of them screaming, cajoling, and offending.” Sure this isn’t 2006? Continued on next page

JHS Class of 1972 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Fall 2006 Page 30

Your Back Pages The World Around You • First Grade, 1960─61

Continued from previous page

On the Radio: Rick Nelson, “Travelin’ Man” • Elvis Presley, “It’s Now or Never” • Chubby Checker, “The Twist,” “Pony Time” • Ray Charles, “Georgia on My Mind” • Shirelles, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” • Marcels, “Blue Moon” • Ernie K. Doe, “Mother-in-Law” • Del Shannon, “Runaway”

On the BIG SCREEN: The Miracle Worker • Dr. No • The Longest Day • Days of Wine and Roses • The Manchurian Candidate • What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? • The Birds • Cleopatra

On the tube: “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” • “Gunsmoke” • “Wagon Train” • “The Real McCoys” • “Candid Camera” • “Rawhide” • “The Untouchables” • “The Price Is America’s favorite family, the Right” • “Dennis the Menace” • “The Danny Thomas Show” • dynamic Nelsons: “Mornin’, Pop,” “My Three Sons” • “77 Sunset Strip” • “The Flintstones” “Mornin’, Rick,” “Mornin’, Mom,” “Mornin’, Dave …” In Sports: ♦ After missing the Fall Classic in 1959 for only the second time since 1949, Casey Stengel’s Yankees begin a streak of five straight World Series appearance. Despite bludgeoning the Pittsburgh Pirates by scores of 16–3, 10–0, and 12–0, the Bronx Bombers lose 10–9 in the bottom of the ninth inning of game seven when Bill Mazeroski belts a leadoff home run off Ralph Terry, who tells reporters, “I don't know what the pitch was; all I know is it was the wrong one.” ♦ Vince Lombardi takes his first Green Bay Packers team to the NFL championship game but loses to the Philadelphia Eagles 17– 13. The new eight-team American Football League begins play. The Houston Oilers capture the first AFL flag by defeating the San Pandemonium in Pittsburgh Diego Chargers 24–16. ♦ The Boston Celtics put away the St. Louis Hawks in five games for the NBA championship. ♦ In the NHL, the Montreal Canadiens win the first of four straight Stanley Cups by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs.