It’s official — my novel, Better Homes and
Husbands has been purchased by NBC for development as a television series.
I’m writing to each of you to share my good news and also to express my
appreciation to you. In some way, each one of you helped and supported me as I
was writing and then promoting my first book. Maybe you came to a reading or
helped arrrange one in your city, wrote me a blurb or review, bought the book
early, had me to your book group, recommended my book to a friend or gave it as
a gift. Some of you taught me, gave book parties, came to readings over and
over, helped me refine my writing when it was in process, told me not to quit
when writing seemed like a really, really bad idea. It wasn’t a short journey to
this point.

 

The story of the deal: Meryl Poster, former head of production
at Miramax, picked up my paperback in a New York bookstore to read over
Christmas vacation. She loved it, and in her new role as development consultant
at NBC-Universal, decided to purchase the rights for a television series. In
January, she tracked down my number and called me at home.

 

I wish I could write you each individually, but I
am lucky to have a lot of wonderful people in my life. If it were not for
each one of you, that book never would have been written, never made it to
paperback, never been there for my producer to pick up and read. So thank
you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!

 

We’re in winter-bonding mode these days. Too cold to go out, we’re spending winter evenings in our newly arranged* pint-sized living room watching television. The green leather couch is the most coveted spot, obviously. Next is the big red ultra-suede red chair. After that it’s the cool vintage chrome chair we bought at a stoop sale 15 years ago for $2.50. We had vintage style cushions made for it at "Economy Foam" on East Houston Street (black vinyl with red piping).

A very wholesome family scene I might add.

This is the family that banished television in 2000. Hepcat couldn’t take it anymore — the noise, the distraction, the destruction of the juvenile mind. So he cut the cord. Literally and put one set in the basement. We had another television that we used for video rentals, which didn’t have an antenna or cable. So without cable, the TV was basically useless as a television.

Since Christmas, the television is BACK. I’m not sure why. Teen Spirit wanted to watch "House." Then OSFO and I started watching "The O.C." on Thursay nights. Saturday morning cartoons meant Hepcat and I could sleep late again and…

The next thing you know, we’re watching "American Idol" on Tuesday AND Wednesday. We balance that with regular viewings of "Bleak House" on Masterpiece Theater on Sunday nights with Gillian Armstrong (of the X-Files). It’s an incredible adaption of the great Dickens’s masterpiece, by the way.

It’s interesting to be part of the culture again via the television. We were real losers in the "water cooler" conversation department for a few years there. The fact that we didn’t have offices to go to is another matter. We didn’t see  "Sex and the City," "The Sopranos," "American Idol," and more. We’d attach the hidden antenna on for presidential debates, conventions, and the Oscars. But we also missed a lot.

Since last week we’ve been glued to the winter Olympics. Hepcat loves the downhill racers, OSFO is into the skaters and we all enjoy the speed skaters.

So mid-February, our living room is the place to be. Last night, after the Olympics, we turned to the atrocious and lusciously 1970’s Barbara Streisand version of "A Star is Born." That said, I must put in a good word for Kris Kristopherson’s performance. Teen Spirit, IM-ing with his laptop in his lap on the red chair, thought the film was pretty awful.

After Barbara’s wreck of "A Star is Born" channel 13 showed the original, original version written by Dorothy Parker with Janet Gaynor (made before the Judy Garland version). It was wonderful. But I was too exhausted to make it past the part where the Esther character meets Norman Maine…

It was 1:15 and I was very, very sleepy from a night in front of the television.

*The newly arranged living room: We walled off one third of the room for Hepcat’s desk, his computer, photography, and digital printing equipment. Now he has an at-home office (and an office in Manhattan) and his stuff is out of sight. The living room is smaller by one third and much, much cozier and cleaner.

The Brooklyn Papers is offering FREE HOME DELIVERY IN BROOKLYN OF THE PARK SLOPE PAPER.

That means you don’t have to go to Key Food, the Ninth Street Y, Cousin Johns, Ozzies, or any of the other places where you can find The Park Slope Paper in order to read my weekly SMARTMOM column.

All you have to do is e-mail circulation@brooklynpapers.com and give them the following info:

YES, I WANT MY PARK SLOPE PAPER

Name:
Address:
What part of Brooklyn do you live in?
Do you live in an apartment or a private home?
How many units?
email:
Phone number:

That’s all you have to do to get a free home-delivered copy of The Park Slope Paper. They have a web site and you can download a PDF of every issue (but that’s a pain).  They may even have an archive.

I am urging them to get a web site so that it’s easy to read on-line.

FYI: The Park Slope Paper is the Bay Ridge Paper in Bay Ridge, The Brooklyn Heights’ Paper in the Heights, etc. etc. SMARTMOM IS IN ALL EDITIONS DISTRIBUTED THROUGHOUT THE BOROUGH OF KINGS.

The owner of the dog electrocuted by a so-called underground "hot spot" is reviewing his legal options. More news from NY1.

Con Ed admits it was notified by the department of transportation seven years ago to turn off the power to a street lamp that was being removed from the location where the dog was shocked, but the order was never carried out.

The power company says the location was inspected less than a month ago and no stray voltage was found. Con Ed says it believes melting snow and salt from last week’s storm helped electrify the concrete on the sidewalk in front of a Con Ed substation where Danny Kapilian’s dog Barkis was electrocuted in Park Slope on Wednesday. The dog collapsed while walking along Third Street.

On Thursday night

For those post-Valentine’s Day blahs, consider getting a massage at Frajean. They’re offering  a special in February and March: A ONE-HOUR EUROPEAN MASSAGE FOR $50.

And while you’re there, think about making a dramatic change in your hair color and cut. I did.  With the help of Stephen Lewis, stylist-extradonaire, I’ve been experimenting with my hair color over the last few months.  And it’s not just about covering the gray. It about re-invention AND differentiation from my identical twin.

(It’s taken some people five years to figure out that my twin lives in the nabe, too. People just thought I was bi-polar, unfriendly, or fickle because I only said hello 50% of the time.  So so tired of it.)

So, now I’m the blonde one. And it’s all about HIGHLIGHTS.

First I went a little blonde. Then I went a little blonder. Then too blonde – that was the other day. This morning, Stephen ran after me on Seventh Avenue between Union and Berkeley. He wanted to tone it down a bit. "It’ll only take 15 minutes, he said."  And it did only take 15 minutes or so. Plus the blow dry.

Now my hair is a little blonde with brownish highlights, some ash in the front. It’s pretty. I’m happy. He’s happy.

Frajean is well priced for a full repetoire of hair and spa services. Stephen specializes in cut, highlights, color, and special hair treatments. He uses great products and, well, he’s a good guy.

Frajean also offers:  haircuts, wax, manicure, pedicure, make up, fruit acid exfoliation, aroma therapy massage, deep cleansing facial, Brazillian bikini wax — all that fun stuff.

They are also offering: DIVA SPA BIRTHDAY PARTIES FOR GIRLS. I know it’s not for everyone. But OSFO loves the idea of a Spa Party. Frajean will close the shop for 2-hours for ten little girls. You bring the cake, they’ll give the girls a spa good time. Call Frajean for reservations.

Frajean Salon
69 Seventh Avenue
Park Slope, Brooklyn 11217
718-622-4448
Open every day except Mondays
10 a.m. until 7 p.m. (Fridays until 8 p.m., Sundays until 6 p.m.)

Hepcat was making cackling noises over these ebay ads for view camera lenses. Why he’s looking to spend money on view camera lenses I don’t know. But that’s his business.

An incredible lens that sets the standard for WA lenses in the 4×5
format, what can be said about this lens that hasn’t been said before?
Well I’ll tell you a few things…this lens actually talks you through
great pictures..if you have trouble composing just set the shutter on
‘T’ for talk’ and swing the camera around..when the lens sees a great
picture it’ll say stop very quietly…. You have to listen closely
though!

In addition at regular intervals it will give out the winning lottery
numbers needed to take you away from your depressing and desperate
situation in life. Finally you will be able to afford the dental
surgery to fix your teeth, have hair implants….that are not on your
back/in your ears! Maybe a little liposuction and a personal trainer to
help you get in shape, your own tanning booth to take that pasty white
look away. At that point the extensive training will have to be
undergone so you sound like a pro when you go into a Starbucks and
order your morning coffee…if you don’t want your butler to make it
that is.

You’ll no longer be kept behind the velvet rope, you’ll be the one that
has it opened for you, at last you have arrived, dating starlets,
attending galas and you are livin in LA baby! I already went through
all this and have to say that its all due to this lens which as the
rules of good fortune would have it I am now obligated to pass on to
someone less fortunate than myself. Have fun bidding, destiny awaits!!!!

READ MORE HERE or HERE

To simplify matters, I’ve decided to use the same code-names on OTBKB that I use for my husband, son, and daughter  in my Brooklyn Papers column (SMARTMOM) and in my Third Street blog.

Here are some of the cast of characters:

Hepcat: My husband
Teen Spirit: My 14-year-old son.
OSFO: AKA The Oh So Feisty One, my 8-year-old daughter.
Smartmom: me
Diaper Diva: my sister
Ducky: my neice
Bro-in-law: Brother-in-law
Manhattan Granny: My mother
Groovy Grandpa: My father
MiMa Cat: My stepmother

They really got me on this one. Two of my favorite things: Beat Poetry and Steve Buscemi. ("He is the perfect celebrity," said I to The New York Observer).

I am so so there: Monday, February 20th at the Issue Project Room (Carroll Street between Bond and Nevins.)

Like wow big daddy. A minimum donation of $20. gets you through the door. But you can always put a little more in the donation box if you want to support Park Slope’s center for  experimental music, poetry, and performance.

An evening of readings honoring Beat Poets of the Past, with actor
Steve Buscemi and poets Anne Waldman and Bob Holman.

Acclaimed actor, writer and director Steve Buscemi recently won the
Independent Spirit Award, the New York Film Critics Award and was
nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in Ghost World directed by Terry Zwigoff.

Anne Waldman, poet, editor, performer, professor, curator, cultural
activist, carries in her genetics the lineages of the New American
Poetry, and is a considered an inheritor of the Beat (Allen Ginsberg
called her his "spiritual wife") and New York School.

Bob Holman , recently dubbed a member of the "Poetry Pantheon" by th New York Times Magazine and featured in a Henry Louis Gates, Jr. profile in The New Yorker, Bob Holman has previously been crowned, "Ringmaster of the Spoken Word"

8:00 p.m., $20 minimum donation. This event is a benefit for ISSUE PROJECT ROOM

The public school kids are off all next week. I ran this piece last year and I still feel exactly the same way. This year, Dawta has the week off. Sun, now that he’s in private school, only has two days off. Luckily we’re not going anywhere since they have different vacation schedules.

I
am bracing for next week’s school vacation. On the one hand, I love the
break from the routines of school. Dawta can sleep late and that’s a
good thing. They need the rest but we won’t will have to pull our
difficult-to-wake teen out of bed in the morning and push him out the
door. Honestly, everyone, including parents, could use a respite from
the relentless pressure of homework, school admissions, and the daily
grind.

Vacations are, theoretically, a great time to expose your children to the wonders of the
metropolis. The fantasy city vacation includes trips to Central Park to
see The Gates, the museums, Broadway shows, sights of interest, and
places they’ve never been to before (see Vacation Brainstorm below).
Congrats if (and that’s a big IF) you can get the kids on-board for such ambitious and
edifying excursions.

On the minus side, the mid-winter break is a sudden break from MY
routine and that’s tough. I like my routines and I need them. When the
kids finally get to school in the morning I sing a quiet, "Halleluah!"
Not because I don’t love being with them. It just that morning
drop-off  means I can devote myself to my work and some of the other
things in life that matter to me.

I am a private self and a public self, a family self and a single
self. All these selves manage to co-mingle rather nicely most of the
time. But vacations sometimes throw me for a loop. That’s when I need
to be all my selves at once. It’s a challenge to find time for
scintillating vacation activities, work, errands, and other
responsibilities. ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

It can be pretty schizzy and can lead to a quiet longing for my
normal routine: A counting the days until the kids get back to school
and we can all get back to what we were doing before the vacation.

Symphonic Poem: The Art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Opens next week and will be on view from February 24 to August 13, 2006

The exhibition presents nearly 100 works by the celebrated African American artist, who recently received a MacArthur Foundation Fellows grant. Robinson’s colorful, mixed-media pieces are centered on cultural identity and informed by her travels to Africa and memories of the Columbus, Ohio, neighborhood where she was raised.

Of course I know where that house is. Everytime Dawta walks by she says it’s her favorite house and she wants to live there. WHY? BECAUSE SHE LOVES PINK ANYTHING.

But I didn’t want to divulge the location – that would be rude. But it seems that Curbed found out the answer to their question anyway. No help from me. So where is it? Go to Curbed to find out.

Much of that block is in the Park Slope Historic District, thus
leading some to think the pink was grandfathered in while others
remember it as the cause of a "vicious legal dispute in the 1980s" over
repainting it. One person comments on the "very sloppy paint job,"
while another says: "If Rubbermaid built brownstones, it would
look like this." We’d ask "Joyce’s son," but while he could likely tell
us the house number, he didn’t seem to know why the pink when asked
recently. Got any more theories?

This morning walking up Lincoln Place I saw a sad little plant, kind of a spidery looking thing with tangled vines on the snowcovered sidewalk. It was sitting on a water-blotted piece of paper that said in bright green magic marker:

I am a great plant
take me home and
take care of me.

I didn’t

Remember Prints Charming, that framing shop that was on Seventh Avenue near
Lincoln Place. Olive Vine went in there about a year now. So what happened to Prints
Charming. He reappeared in an e-mail. Note to the PRINCE: HANG IN THERE. 

I assume that is your name since that is what came up.  This is the
first time I have read your blog, and I found it most interesting, well
written and fun.  A friend of mine who reads you regularly told me your address, and she also mentioned that you had mentioned me in your blog. 

I am Jo Irwin, the owner of Prints Charming, the framing and print shop which used to operate out of a storefront on Seventh Avenue.  I wanted to let you know that I did not go out of business as I guess you assumed, but instead moved around the corner to 150 Sterling Place into the ground floor of my brownstone there.  I operate during the week and also by appointment. 

The phone number has remained the same. I would love it if you stopped by at some time if you are around.  I don't know where you live, so I don't know if it is convenient for you.  My hours are similar to the old ones - T-Sat 12-7pm, Sun 11-5 and Mon 12 - 7pm.  I'm afraid the escalation of rents made it totally unfeasible for me to continue business on Seventh Ave., and being on a side street is making it pretty difficult for me to continue business here, so it seems one can't win!  Still, I'm hanging in so far.

A Brooklyn Life is shaping up to be a most lovely blog. I enjoyed her "Crossing the BQE" series – pictures of interesting graffiti underfoot. And I loved this glittery art she saw in the Columbia Street Art Lot.

Welcome back from Mexico. Hope you get the SAND out of your SHOES.

Brownstoner has the goods on the house that Academy Award nominees
Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams have purchased in Boerum Hill.
According to the article, the Brokeback Mountain stars paid $3.5
million (AUS $4.7 million) for the four-floor house "two blocks south
of Smith Street." READ MORE AT BROWNSTONER or go to the source for the goods:
Heath’s Home is Away [Daily Telegraph (AUS)]

Ratner’s Shadow: Karl Nussbaum, Part 2 by WNYC reporter and Park Sloper, Andrea Bernstein, ran this week on WNYC. See if you can get a podcast:

Until
recently, 475 Dean Street was full of artists and musicians. It is now
empty and will be knocked down if developer Forest City Ratner gets
approval to build a basketball arena and high rise towers. Filmmaker
Karl Nussbaum was one of the residents in this six story former garment
factory. More at WNYC.org

From New York 1:

A Manhattan judge ruled in favor of
Forest City Ratner, allowing the developer to demolish 5 buildings that
stand in the footprints of the proposed Nets Arena in Brooklyn.

Although community groups tried to stop him, the judge says Ratner
has the right to tear down 5 buildings near the Atlantic Railyards.
Ratner says they’re unsafe while plaintiff’s argued an independent
evaluation should be required.

The buildings sit on land owned by Ratner. Asbestos removal is
underway and with this victory, Ratner hopes to start demolition as
early as next week.

"It’s a relief to think that we’re very close to demolishing these
structures, which are a hazard to the people who work and live in the
adjoining buildings," said Jeffrey Braun, an attorney for Ratner.

There was a victory for the dozen community groups that banded
together against Ratner. They were able to get a lawyer removed from
the case.

David Paget, an attorney for the Empire State Development
Corporation, which is overseeing the environmental impact of the
project, once worked for Ratner. The judge agreed with the plaintiffs
calling it a conflict of interest.

"Well, obviously, we are very pleased that the court decided to
preserve, or try to improve the integrity of the process, by declaring
that you can’t have the same lawyer representing the applicant and the
agency that’s reviewing it. It was the right decision," said Jeffrey
Baker, the plaintiff’s attorney.

The Empire State Development Corporation has 45 days to find a new lawyer. All sides are considering appeals.

Valentine’s Day and no flowers. No nothing. Bupkis. But I’m used to it. Husband hates, what he calls, the Hallmark holiday. Plus, he’s still sick, and he’s stressed out about one thing or the other.

Daughter made sugar cookies with blue and green sprinkles (?) for her classmates. She loves holidays, especially the ones that involve presents and candy. I gave her and  babysitterandsomuchmore a box of chocolates.

Overall a very blah day. Out on the street, it was anything but. I never saw more people walking with flowers: long white boxes, Korean market bouquets, , single roses in plastic, flowers from Zuzu’s. I even saw John Tuturro walking up Garfield with a large bouquet of flowers. Not that’s a Park Slope celebrity, beloved by all, who keeps a very low profile.

At 7 p.m. there were still men shopping in The Clay Pot. Tutta Pasta was packed. They had a tacky looking glitter heart on the bar. The cool sushi place had candles and a vase with a single rose at each table. At PS 321, there were heart shaped cookies on the counter in the administration office.

My daughter made beautiful valentines, wrote adorable messages, spread the love. Exhausted after piano lessons and American Idol, she fell asleep on the big red chair on the living room. She’ll sleep through anything now.

Brownstoner has re-designed its site and it looks really spiffy. Mr. Brownstoner will be making a live, in the flesh, appearance at the Design Within Reach in Brooklyn Heights. See below:

We’re going to be giving a little slideshow and talk about last
year’s renovation of our brownstone at Design Within Reach in Brooklyn
Heights on Thursday evening. The talk’s at 8 o’clock but come earlier
for drinks and nibbles if you like.
Directions to Heights Store [DWR.com]

Linguist Deborah Tannen, author of "You Just Don’t Understand," has a new book out that looks at conversation between mothers and daughter called, "You’re Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation."

Q. Many of the women you’ve interviewed for your
new book complain of mothers who criticize their appearance. Are they
right to be annoyed?

A. "Right" and "wrong"
aren’t words a linguist uses. My job is to analyze conversations and
discover why communications fail. The biggest complaint I hear from
daughters is: "My mother’s always criticizing me." And the mother
counters, "I can’t open my mouth; my daughter takes everything as
criticism."

But sometimes caring and criticism are found in the
same words. When mothers talk about their daughters’ appearance, they
are often doing it because they feel obligated to tell their daughter
something that no one else will.

The mother feels she’s caring. The daughter feels criticized. They are both right.

What
I try to do is point out each side to each other. So, the mother needs
to acknowledge the criticism part, and the daughter needs to
acknowledge the caring part. It’s tough because each sees only one.

Q. Is there a unifying theme to your 20 academic and popular books?

A.
There’s certainly a thread. My writing is about connecting ways of
talking to human relationships. My purpose is to show that linguistics
has something to offer in understanding and improving relationships.

There
are many situations where problems arise between people because
conversational styles vary with ethnic, regional, age, class and gender
differences.

What can seem offensive to one group isn’t to
another. I’ve long believed that if you understand how conversational
styles work, you can make adjustments in conversations to get what you
want in your relationships.

Q. Can you give an example of communication problems based on what you’ve seen of mother-daughter conversations?

A.
During an interview, a journalist told me she had called her grown
daughter the night before and began, "I miss you." Her daughter
replied: "Why do you miss me? I just talked to you last week!" The
daughter felt criticized for not calling more often.

After our
interview, the mother tried something she had never done before. She
sent her daughter an e-mail in which she praised and reassured her.

The
next day her daughter phoned to continue the conversation. So you see,
by understanding how language works within relationships, you can
change patterns you’re not happy with.

Q. Why are mother-daughter conversations laden with so many pitfalls?

A. It’s what one mother I interviewed said: "My conversations with my daughter are the best and the worst."

In
the mother-daughter relationship, there’s a lot of talk. For women,
conversation is the glue that holds relationships together. Mothers and
daughters talk to each other far more than mothers and sons, or fathers
and daughters. And their talk is different…

READ MORE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

A friend sent me this picture of his neighbor who managed to get his bagels at The Bagel Hole (that’s way up on 12th Street, isn’t it) in the middle of the Blizzard of 2006. He coulda gone to La Bagel Delight, which would have been much closer to his home. But noooooooooo, he had to go all the way to The Bagel Hole.

Go figure. Park Slopers are a hearty lot when it comes to their bagels.

I just checked the Department of Education web site and found out that there will be school for public school kids tomorrow.

ALERT: NYC public schools will be open on Monday, February 13th. Buses will run on regular schedules, but delays should be expected. Parents should exercise judgment in terms of a child’s ability to board the bus and the length of the trip if there are delays. All field trips are cancelled. Afterschool programs and the 37.5 minutes of extended time will operate on normal schedules. (posted 2/12/06, 7 PM)

This week, BAM presents a spectacular production of "Hercules" an opera with music by George Frideric Handel.

"HERCULES"
Les Arts Florissants
An Aix-en-Provence Festival production
Conducted by William Christie
Directed by Luc Bondy

Feb 14, 16 & 18 at 7:30pm
Feb 19 at 3pm
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Tickets for Feb 14 & 16: $35, 75, 110, 135
Tickets for Feb 18 & 19: $45, 85, 125, 150
In English with English titles

He may have been the world

The snow didn’t keep people from getting their Sunday morning bagels at La Bagel Delight. This photograph, featured on the BBC home page, shows just how resilient we Park Slopers are.

A picture is worth 1000 words (see above) but here’s the snow report from the Daily News. Supposedly, the Mayor will be announcing school closings after 4 p.m. today.

A massive amount of snow blanketed the city on Sunday, with lightning and gusting snow joined in a rare display above the city’s streets in what meteorologists said was the second biggest storm to hit the Big Apple since records started being kept in 1869.

By 10 a.m., 22.8 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park, second only to the 26.4 inches that fell in December 1947.

The snow started around 6 pm; it was wet, mushy, seemingly incapable of being a blizzard (Those weatherpeople always exaggerate about these things.) But over the hours, it began to stick, it began to accumulate. Now the branches of the trees look magical with white snow. (They say it’s going to be 20 inches.)

At Madarts in the South Slope, where my friends Roxanna and Elizabeth had pieces in a show of work based on figure drawing, there was an art opening.

There was a huge crowd there. Huge for anytime. But especially for a snowy Brooklyn night. Met some nice people. Had a glass of wine in a plastic cup.

Roxanna, Ed, and I walked home down Fifth Avenue in the snow. Stopped in at Perch, child-friendly cafe-by-day, cocktail lounge by night. The bartender, Chris B, suggested some incredible scotch, I forget the name.

Buzzed. We walked home in the snow. Barely felt the cold. The trees looked incredible. Walking up Third Street in the snow, the wind was gathering speed.

Son watching Mash on television. Daughter asleep. Husband sick with the the same cold I’ve had all week.

He’s been wearing the black polka dotted bathrobe he never wears. He must really be sick.

They played great music at the bar.

I received this e-mail from Aaron Zimmerman, founder of the New York Writer’s Coalition, one of the largest community writing organizations in the country. They’re planning a huge city-wide event on June the 3rd, 2006. He is also a fellow of the Petra Foundation, a foundation run by my cousin Meg Fidler. The Petra Foundation was established in 1988 to sustain the trajectory of Petra T

There’s another planning meeting for the 30th high school reunion of the progressive Upper West Side high school that no longer exists on Monday.

The e-mails have started up again. I detect a pattern. Soon after the meetings, there are always a flurry of them. Then they die out for a few weeks. And in the week before a meeting: flurry, flurry, flurry.

Our wonderfully eccentric and interesting principal turned up and sent out an e-mail to the group. It sounds like he may be coming to the reunion.  He lives in Tuscon, Az., and just retired as headmaster of a school out there.  I was very fond of him for the long, fascinating stories he used to tell about his moutain climbing expeditions and travels to exotic places. He took a group of us on a backpacking trek to  Shenandoah National Park and I think it was one of the most incredible experiences I had in high school. We stayed in the woods for three or four days, ate freeze-dried food, hiked difficult trails, and saw some of the most spectacular scenary I’ve ever seen.

It looks like the director of the school will be attending the next planning meeting. I remember her best for leading the Women’s Consciousness Raising Group, that met on Thursday nights during 11th and 12th grade  in her apartment (this was 1974-5). I know we staged an International Woman’s Day event and had many talks about why the boys seemed to dominate classroom discussion.

So the pyramid scheme seems to be working. The reunion group keeps growing as more people tell people, etc.

Haven’t heard a thing from PROM QUEEN – we’re guessing she doesn’t want to go back to high school. MAGAZINE PUBLISHER is bringing Japanese sake to the event. GRACIOUS HOST is once again providing "exotic food."

An email went out that another classmate is having a housewarming party this weekend and wants to invite all of us. I almost sent out an email that said: Hey let’s all crash this party, forget about the reunion, and call it a day.  But I didn’t.

There is a "the plot thickens" aspect to the reunion. A real narrative arc. Classmates are surfacing; long lost friends reunited; old grudges uncovered; forgotten moments recalled; thirty years ago is seeming more and more real. Everyone seems to hold a different piece of the memory puzzle — it’s like we’re re-constructing that time again bit by bit.

And it remains to be seen what this event will be. Where will we have it? What will we serve?  What will the program be? Who will come?

Questions remains. The planning continues.

The Muk Report has rounded up all the comments he got on his Park Slope
t-shirts and offers them to us with comments. See below. But there are lots more.

You can read the full post and all of the comments here, but below are some of my favorites.  Man, some of you people really know how to get your hate on.  I love it.

Can we rag on the Co-Op more? For me it’s the center of the
self-righteous in Park Slope. All these socialist wannabes in their
expensive clothes standing around looking self-impressed. How many
people does it take ring up some environmentally friendly biodegradable
peanut-free toilet paper anyway? You’ve got about a dozen knuckleheads
sitting behind some table tallying up God knows what and talking about
their latest yoga class." – Billy

"i think we have the same
phenomena here in berkeley ca. not as many volvos. you can see the
outbacks being valet-parked on weekends while the owners are inside
tasting $7 gourmet organic marshmallows and being rung up by the cutest, tattooed little vegan goth babes in those little green aprons." – liza

[Ed. note to self: Renew BurningAngel subscription.]

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