April 9, 2018.
VOL. XVIX NO. 6

YALE '62 SPRING '18 EDITION

Diamonds, Trials and Trump



Clearer than Crystal

One of the rarest components of diamond jewelry is the “portrait” diamond, a slice of diamond that is flat on both sides, with just the edges of the top surface cut into facets. Such stones were used instead of crystal by those who could afford them to protect the portraits set in this necklace. It’s owned, perhaps not surprisingly, by Benjamin Zucker. It currently is in a sumptuous exhibition of 70 objects at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore titled “Fabergé and the Russian Craft Tradition: An Empire’s Legacy.” (The watercolor portraits are of the doomed children of Tsar Nicholas II.) When portrait diamonds are used... click here to learn more and see a photo of the children.

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Passed-Along Poems

In the latest Alumni Magazine class notes, I invited all of you to share favorite short poetry with classmates via this site. The invitation stands. Please join in. It can be anything from lines that linger from freshman English to something that struck you just last week. To start us off, Lee Bolman could not have sent a more wonderful response:

Last stanza of A. E. Housman's Reveillé:

Clay lies still, but blood's a rover;
Breath's a ware that will not keep.
Up, lad: when the journey's over
There'll be time enough to sleep.

From Antonio Machado, Proverbios y Cantares XXIX ("Caminante"), which is enormously popular wherever Spanish is spoken:

Caminante, son tus huellas
   el camino, y nada más.
(Wayfarer, the path is your footprints, and nothing more.)

Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.
(Wayfarer, there is no path. You make the path as you go.)

Al andar se hace camino,
   y al volver la vista atrás,
   se ve la senda que nunca se ha de volver a pisar.
(As you go you make the path, and looking back you see the route that you will never walk again.)

Caminante, no hay camino,
   sino estelas en la mar.
(Wayfarer, there is no path. Only ripples on the sea.)

For a musical rendition that is widely known in Mexico, click here. (Thanks to Alejandra Sandoval, Diana Péralta sar Delgado, and Carlos López, visiting winners of the Ópera San Miguel competition.)

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Trial by Susman

Steve Susman's law-firm-in-overdrive, Susman Godfrey, was recently profiled in the magazine Lawdragon as "America's leading trial law firm." The magazine said "Pick your metric - money, U.S. Supreme Court clerks, bet-the-company cases, percentage of partners in trial annually - the firm runs circles around everyone else.... Watching Steve Susman in trial... you know you are in the presence of greatness." Whew! It's an absorbing read. Click here.

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T-Sniping

Figures like Donald Trump inevitably spur artists to skepticism, soon to include that of the irrepressible Bill Weeden. As co-writer and actor, he’s been helping a young documentary filmmaker ready an offbeat feature film screenplay for crowdfunding appeals. In it, a would-be dictator, President Donald J. Krueger (Bill) is brought low, as Bill explains it, “outrageously....” Click here to find out who does it.

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Bulldogg-ed Webmaster

The approaching summer gives me a chance to introduce our webmaster, who also is the creative mind behind the bulldog mashups (above) that have frequently brightened this website. Click here.

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QUOTABLES
Is This You?

"The thought of roots soothes, says the French philosopher Roland Barthes, and the thought of the future disturbs and agonizes."

--Jonathan Silin, author of Early Childhood, Aging and the Life Cycle,
in the East Hampton Star, April 5, 2018

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NECROLOGY

Sadly, we must announce the recent deaths of James Carthaus, David Hovland, Daniel Neary, William Sanders, and William "Willy" Wheeler. In due course, their obituaries will posted on this site.

Thanks to the sustained, devoted work of Bob Oliver, now joined in this endeavor by several classmates, notably, in the past two years, John Stewart, you will find newly posted obituaries on our website here for:

• Felix Peter Dzwonkoski
• Richard Lakein
• Robert W. Tate

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NOTIFYING CLASSMATES OF SERVICES

If you would like classmates to be notified about your funeral or memorial activities, if we get the information in time the Class of 1962 will send information to the names on our class email list. Please ask those who will be in charge to send the details to Bob Oliver at oliver@moglaw.com, 203-624-5111, and for backup to John Stewart, Class Secretary, at johnhargerstewart@gmail.com, 845-789-1407. We will not send out information unless someone makes this request.