One of the things our reunion committee is considering for our 50th is a display of books published by classmates since graduation. It is already an imposing list, but it grows longer. Harlow Unger's biography of Lafayette was published this September, and he is in the midst of a book tour through the eastern United States, including stops at (where else) Lafayette College and Fayetteville, North Carolina. The book has received good comment.

Another addition is Perry Curtis's book, Jack the Ripper and the London Press, published last winter by the Yale University Press. It was well reviewed in the April issue of this magazine. Perry is a cultural historian at Brown.

Those of you fortunate enough to afford eggs from The Country Hen are always enlightened by enclosed observations from its proprietor, George Bass. It's George's contention that eggs are good for you and he has family history to prove it, including his own cholesterol reduction while eating two eggs a day. Eggs, yes; cakes, cookies, ice cream, no, he claims. We'll have to hear what Bill Castelli, our heart man, says.

Bob Agman and his wife Joan get a travel award. Last April saw them doing Spain and Portugal, then a breather at the Washington mini-reunion, and then back on the road again in July to all parts of Ireland. They're full of good information on all these countries, so if you're planning a trip to any of them, speak to Bob.

Theron (Ush) Usher reports from Guilford, Connecticut, that his family surprised him with a 70th birthday party last April at the Inn at Chester (formerly owned by David Joslow). Roommates Len Doolan and Bob Light were there with their wives, as well as the widow of another roommate, Don Wann. Ush and his wife Carol took a walking trip in France this May and went to England in July to meet their first grandchild, Sara Stephanie Borowska Usher. (Both parents are Yale grads.)

Not long ago I was having lunch with Peter Leighton and we were joined later by Joe Carris, who asked if he was too late for the organ recital (heart, prostate, liver, et al). The subject was all too topical, but we managed to avoid it. Joe is taking (successfully, it appears) a mind-over-matter approach to a sciatica problem. He'll let us know whether that works.

Gerry Conway and wife Marty visited the Mer Haskels and Jack Markels in Vermont last July. Gerry wrote that besides a good time together, Mer gave him a much-needed golf lesson and, Gerry says, demonstrated remarkable optimism about the future of Gerry's game. Mer also showed an uncanny ability to track down Gerry's wayward shots.

I'm very sad to report the death of Jim Thomson last August in Boston. Jim was chairman of the News our senior year and, after several years working for the Kennedy and Johnson administrations (where he was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War), was the curator of the Nieman Foundation, a fellowship program for journalists at Harvard. He retired as a professor from Boston University in 1997. A memorial service was held for him in September at Memorial Church in the Harvard Yard (which makes him somewhat unique -- born in Princeton, educated at Yale, memorialized at Harvard).

A reminder that there will be a gathering of classmates at Coxe Cage both before and after the Princeton game in mid-November. Also, after the Harvard game in Cambridge we have been invited by Harvard's class of 1953 to join them for dinner. If he hasn't done so already, Bill Nightingale will let us know about both with his dues letter. And don't forget the annual class dinner in New York. This year it will be held on Friday, February 7.