A request last July for confirmation of current e-mail addresses generated a lot of good responses, though one classmate, Jim Wilson, felt that it's risky to post a web page containing full e-mail addresses like the ones on our class web page. "Very easy for bots to scoop up and use for unsolicited mail, i.e. spam." ["bots" are automated programs that seek and record the kind of information you request from search engines such as www.google.com] This potential problem has been discussed at a recent meeting of class webmasters and the consensus was that this hasn't (not yet, at least) been a problem. I'd be interested in hearing from other classmates if they think our e-mail address page should have password protection.

Fred Levin had a wonderful time last year visiting India and Nepal, where Fred also did some teaching (psychiatry, cognitive neuroscience). "We also just missed being hijacked out of Tribhuvan airport in Katmandu! The highlight of our trip was flying in a small jet to within 25 miles of the summit of Everest, at 30,000 feet. Unbelievable." John Larsen has just finished medical editing by e-mail of a book, "Essentials of Obstetric Care," that is part of a USAID effort to decrease maternal and infant mortality in Egypt. Also medically inclined is physician Pete Wright, of Vanderbilt University, who wrote that he's getting a little discouraged with all the words of retirement as he finds himself extraordinarily busy and productive and invested in his career. I looked at the Vanderbilt web pages about Pete and found that he's Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, doing research on preventing childhood illnesses in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

Closely related to the subject of pediatrics, Don Mutterperl wrote to announce the arrival of his and Nancy's first grandchild, Jake, whose digital likeness can even be found in cyberspace (go to our class page and add /Jake.jpg to the address). Continuing the family theme, Dan Dimancescu recently partnered with a US firm to acquire a large company in Romania where he is also reclaiming family properties expropriated by the communists 50 years ago. Last summer he and his son Nicholas (15) hiked through the Carpathian Mountains on trails he traveled in 1968 with Dick Durrance, Chris Knight, and Bill Wilson, a trip that was featured in the National Geographic Magazine. In addition to his business work, he's writing a seventh book on management practices and took a year off in 96-97 to be an adjunct associate professor at Boston University's business school.

Publicity in the Miami Herald about the investigation and dismantling of a "massive mortgage scam" by a person with the same name prompted Mark Roseman to write the paper to clarify that he wasn't the nefarious other Mark who, unfortunately for our Mark, lives and works in the same town (Broward FL), with similar kinds of clients in his bankruptcy and elder law practice.