![[ Nu Alpha Phi ]](../../NAP.gif)
News Alpha Phi
Robert Shaw at Carnegie Hall
Nu Alpha Phi ArchivesThe time has come for Nu Alpha Phi to consider its history. Already our first brothers, the charter members, have passed on. Many other elder members too have departed. They take with them memories and stories lost to time. Too, the physical history, fraternity artifacts, are lost to children and grandchildren who may or may not understand the relevance, the value, the sense of descendance we, brethren, feel. Help us now. Help us while there is time. Help us while the memories live. The Oak Leaf deeply wishes to be the focal point for the effort to collect these memories, photographs, stories, pins, paddles, mugs, t-shirts, posters, anything Nu Alpha Phi. We challenge you all to leave, lend, or give us your memories. We promise, if you intend to lend, to return your items swiftly. We promise, if you leave or give us anything, to preserve and cherish and make available to other NAP alums for perusal, research, and just plain enjoyment. Where possible and appropriate, these items and the stories behind them will be published on our website. Don't leave those canes, pins, pennants, mugs, and photographs to molder or rot in a closet or a basement. Give them back to the fraternity that gave them to you. We want to collect a complete set of Metates, old Student Lifes, Collages, other Pomona publications that contain stories, articles, poetry...anything by, about, or related to Nu Alpha Phi. We need your help building this library. E-mail or call Chris or Paul for address information. Web Site NewsThis issue will be the third we've published in tandem on the web site. We thought it was significant that the last issue was available online before the printed version was distributed. In fact, it was available at least a couple of weeks earlier. While we can't yet guarantee this will happen every time, there is a strong likelihood that's how it will work out. We notified those of you we could (by e-mail) that the issue had been published on the web site. If we don't have your e-mail address and you would like to receive such notifications, send an e-mail to: Include your name, class year, maggot number, and, of course, e-mail address. If you have a web site, personal or business, send that too. We'll post these so your classmates can look you up. Speaking of maggot numbers, if you've forgotten yours do not let that keep you from sending in news and dues. We promise to find out what your number is and publish it with your letter. We do this all the time. In fact, now, if you use the Internet, you need never fear memory loss, at least as far as maggot numbers go. Why? You can now look them up on the web! Or, if you can't quite remember an alum's name, look them up by year. That's right, the Nu Alpha Phi Member Information System is now available on the web site! Direct your browser to: http://www.nu-alpha-phi.org/oakweb/ Finally, sometime in the next couple of months, we will be adding web site versions of a few back issues of the Oak Leaf. Retractions, Corrections, and Just Plain GoofsVice President of Planning, Richard Fass (rfass@pomona.edu) responds to the Oak Leaf regarding our quoting Student Life quoting him. We said the Student Life said:
Fass responds:
"The College has not decided that it would like to grow--only that it must grow if we need to respond to demands for expansion of academic programs. Also, the Admissions Office stats don't tell the story, since enrollment may also change because of leaves, withdrawals, etc., that are not reflected in stats about new students." Our last issue was published, unfortunately, without a final review by Chris Hall. Hopefully, had he had a chance to peruse the final copy, he would have caught my "Harwood" gaffe. The photograph of Bob Dozier '23 #3 was not taken in Harwood (which, at that time, was a women's dorm) but by a photographer named "Hartsook" (which looks very much like "Harwood"). Hartsook was a thriving photography studio in the early 20s. Then, adding insult to injury, in Frannie's memoriam, I dated photos of Bob and Frannie only one year apart even though there were quite obviously decades apart. Apologies, Bob! First Alumni Wash
Identified in the fray were Matt Garfein '93 #1042 (whose band Monkeyboy, in which he plays with fellow alum Paul Mathus '93 #1043, was given a glowing review in the SF Guardian), the redoubtable Kate McKinley '90 #1012 who never shed her signature leather jacket despite the growing body heat, and Oak Leaf editors Paul Nagai '88 #978 and Chris Hall '80 #870, who had been graciously let out for the night by their respective spouses4. Later in the recent New York state transplant Barney "Better Living through Chemistry" Grubbs '93 #1061 made a surprise appearance, accompanied by his lovely former lab assistant from Cornell, a woman named Kate who for security reasons declined to reveal her surname. Barney has been summoned from Ithaca to whip the unruly Cal Chem department back into fighting trim5. As the evening progressed and the crowd grew thicker, Matt excused himself to attend to business (dinner and an one-on-one interview with MTV's Jenny McCarthy was hinted at)6, but others in the throng maintained the relentless party atmosphere and caused a bottleneck in the kitchen when it came time to order pizza.7 A large contingent of men equipped with sunglasses and earpieces in nondescript black suits appeared at one point, heralding the attempted attendance of President Bill Clinton and Family,8 but there was apparently not enough room to accommodate his entourage. Bill Gates,9 while not a Nappie, was warmly welcomed into the proceedings, and at one point His Happenin' Holiness The Pope could be seen doing the Frug with several Swiss Guards, displaying admirable aplomb for a man of his years.10 Also reported to have been seen were Herb Caen, Susan Sontag, former presidents Jimmy Carter and Martin "Old Kinderhook" Van Buren, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir (who offered a stirring rendition of "We'll Pass the Loving Cup Around"), Gwyneth Paltrow, Saul Bellow, and the entire Population of Wisconsin.11 When attendance rose to over 35,000, the fire marshal was obliged to close down the proceedings. A spectacular time was reported by all involved. Plans are presently being laid for a San Francisco-based installment of the event, and City-based fixer and smooth-talker David Vinokur '86 #933 was reported to be deep in negotiations with Giants brass for the use of Candlestick Park.12 Recent 49er publicity problems, however, forced them to pull out of the talks. Fortunately, a suitable replacement location and date were found, so, clear your calendar of all previous engagements and mark the date: May 24, 1997 from 6 p.m. to 9 or later. Find a map, call for directions, break out compass and sextant and head on down to the Thirsty Bear Brewing Company. No excuses will be accepted. Besides, if the first Alumni Wash rocked, this one will be absolutely devastating. Don't miss it! Site Details: Thirsty Bear Brewing Company
Hot and cold tapas and seven brewed brews on tap
Contact David Vinokur for more details: 415-956-8647email_deleted Notes: 2 Honestly, our table was almost full. [BACK] 3 From our pitchers. [BACK] 4 Who might never be so foolhardy again. [BACK] 5 Reportedly in the National All-Graduate Chem Department Smoked Salmon Eating Contest. [BACK] 6 Although not by Matt himself, who was meeting his mother in Emeryville. [BACK] 7 It was only two pizzas, but it sure ground things to a halt. [BACK] 8 Somewhere other than La Val's Pizzeria. [BACK] 9 Or at least a guy wearing a grimy windbreaker and talking to himself who looked vaguely similar to Bill Gates. [BACK] 10 This is a complete fabrication. It is well known that the Pope limits his dancing to the Lambada exclusively. [BACK] 11 By CH in a fever-dream induced by eating too much pizza right before bedtime. [BACK] 12 Improbable as it sounds, the snobby SF Nappies who couldn't be bothered to cross the Bay Bridge are promising a tremendous turn-out. [BACK] Coming SoonLast issue we promised you a story by Jonathan Gaw about the large number of Nu Alpha Phi alumni who are working in the computer field. We still plan to run that article. However, since we moved the publication date of this issue forward to be in time to announce Jack Peck's induction into the Pomona-Pitzer Athletic Hall of Fame this Alumni Weekend, the article was not ready. We will run it in our next issue. If you would like to contribute or suggest a story idea, contact us immediately. We're looking for good ideas. Quest for Perfection[Recent sheepish monkeying around with the art and science of animal cloning forces even the most ardent anti-Luddite to sit up and take notice. I don't know about you, but we're rushing out to read Quest for Perfection by Gina Maranto '77 #807. Although mentioned in our last issue in the introduction to Gina's article on her admittance to Nu Alpha Phi, serious attention to her achievement was not possible. So, without any further blathering... --Eds.] From the introduction to Quest for Perfection: Greeks, Romans, and other Western thinkers on up through the Middle Ages readily drew parallels between the husbandry of domesticated animals and of humans, parallels which became ever stronger in the eighteenth century with the rise of scientific breeding. By the early nineteenth century, techniques that had been originally developed for manipulating animal sperm had been adopted for use with humans, and over the years, each ensuing advance on the farm, as it were, found its way into the clinic and the hospital. In a very real sense, the birth in 1978 of Louise Brown, the world's first in vitro fertilization baby, was the crowning achievement of several centuries' worth of animal research. Today, possessed of the ability to tinker with embryos in the laboratory and to alter their very genetic material, we have in hand the tools necessary to a radical overhaul of the human line. ----------------- "Gina Maranto writes with a rare combination of intelligence, compassion, and moral wit. Quest for Perfection is a learned and satisfying subversive history of our attempts to fool with Mother Nature." --Dennis Overby, author of Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos. | ||||||||
