Friday, April 15, 2005

Reunions

50 turns out to be a good age for attending reunions. Those of us with wrinkles and graying hair look happier than the ones with the face-lifts and dye jobs. Our memories are still sharp enough to recognize faces, come up with names, and recall choice anecdotes. Grudges, if there were any, seem to have had a much shorter shelf life. So, at the first get-together tonight it was all handshakes, hugs, and enthusiastic reminiscences. Apparently some 70 members of our class are expected to show up for the dinner party at a classmate's West End Avenue home tomorrow night.

This evening's cocktail party in the Low Library rotunda followed the annual alumni association's awards ceremony. The first award, to an earnest, prize-winning social issues reporter from the New York Daily News, was bestowed by her husband, an editor from the New York Times. The second, to the Associated Press foreign correspondent who has covered Rome and the Vatican for some 20 years, was awarded by a retired foreign correspondent who reminded us that once upon a time the American news networks had maintained substantive foreign bureaus. The third award went to one of the creators of the TV documentary, a man who retired mid-career to become an acclaimed journalism instructor at the University of Southern California. The final award went to my classmate Tom Rosensteil, who is credited for leading the movement to bring journalism into the 21st century through the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Check out Tom's book, Warp Speed: America in the Age of Mixed Media.

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