#ThrowbackThursday: 2015

This is an old Joe Show webisode, the first one we did featuring a guest, in the form of one Ian Adams. I love this one, even with all the flubs and silliness!

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You Can "Take" Classes Online With Me If You Want To

I write a lot about the pure drivel that stood for "education" in the 1970s. That's because the rest of my life has been preoccupied with un-learning all of that baloney. Last month, over a reunion weekend that we try to do every-so-often, I consulted with my three girlfriends (great loves of my life!). These are the lifelong friends, and Michelle, Colleen and Simone were there with me from Grades 1 through 8 when we were at the mercy of some old nuns for showing us how the world works. But here's the thing...the old nuns didn't actually know how any of it works. And they didn't like questions. So they didn't like me. They gave us this Bible as big as our History book, and both books contained names and stories and dates, and it was all presented in the same way, more or less. So George Washington and Jesus and Santa all figured into the narrative about the same, more or less. They sent us off to high school with a right proper disaster of a world view. High school and college had a big job to do, which is UN-learn us and try to point us in the right direction. Every time I think about it, I'm staggered anew by the gall. It is so galling.

Of late, I've been availing myself of the great universities who've kindly posted full semesters on YouTube, with particular interest in history and literature. Right now I'm "taking" two classes, should any of you find yourselves seeking something better to do than poke around Facebook. At Harvard, Dr. Marjorie Garber knows a lot about every Shakespeare play, and at Columbia, Richard Bulliet knows a lot about how come my early education was such a load of crap. 

Course: Harvard, ENGL E-129

Shakespeare After All: The Later Plays 

Course: Columbia, W3902 

World History to 1500 CE

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Reunion 2018 and #Throwback to 1984

October 2018 Reunion

1984

You May Also Like: What Story Will You Tell A 6th Grader?

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Throwback Thursday: 1985

     😅😋😍                                                                                                 "Hey," I said to Diana, "if you get a chance while you're in the states...didn't you say your sister kept that newspaper clipping of us in high school, the one of us at the tennis courts with my dog?"

Michelle DiPoala, left, and Diana Tramontano, both of Roxbury, chat Tuesday afternoon at the Roxbury tennis courts off of Route 67. Meanwhile Grover tries to take in a bit of the conversation.

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Hey, that's perfect for Throwback Thursday

Centre Pompidou, Paris (mid-2000s)

Diana's son is 12, and I only just met him yesterday.
I did everything possible not to make the kid feel weird when we met for lunch.
From his babyhood I've thought he had the eyes of an old soul.
Nice to meet you, son.

I visited Diana in Paris, way back in the early 2000s, just once.

This is us, the only photo from that visit (taken by her *asshole husband.)

We forgot to get a photo yesterday.

We look just like we do here, only twenty-something years older.

The 90s were so weird
I loved the ribbed mock turtleneck I'm wearing. 
It was so soft, and it traveled well for my job at the time.
I also bought one in black, red and hunter green.
This one is the color of vanilla bean ice cream.
I insisted on rocking "The Jennifer Aniston" on my head.
Someone should have punched me in the face.

*I'm sure his friends think he's great. But we have never gotten along. 

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Hey, Old Friends!

Mary stopped for lunch on her way back to New Jersey.
(Photo: Mary Katherine)

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Lords of the Ring

Joe had the guys over for Lord of the Rings Risk. This game is Jacob's (in the hat). These guys play these kinds of long, complicated games. I can't even hang through the reading-of-the-instructions. Depicted here, Blake appears to be re-reading some portion of the instructions. That's Chris on the right.

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Throwback Thursday: June 29, 2014

Found an old photo from when Mary stopped by on her way back to New Jersey!
I need new glasses. Maybe I'll get black frames again.

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Secret burgers

Russell House Tavern - Harvard Square, Cambridge

We met up with Les and "the Sarge" last night.
Did you know that Russell House makes a "secret burger" that you can ask for?
It's not on the menu.
Les told us.
Joe got it.
I can't tell you about it. It's a secret.

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Throwback Thursday - 1988

Somewhere in Rhode Island

Brenda got a group of us together to rent a condo for a long weekend. This was right after graduation.
Everyone else dropped out except for three of us, so me and Brenda and Hub went and had a blast.

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It Was An "I Want Yule" Party

On Saturday afternoon, The I Want You opened for the Weisstronauts' annual holiday bash. Joe and I took the opportunity to host a lovely after party. An "after party" that starts around dinnertime? Perfect. These days, that is about my speed. That's not an "aging scenester" thing...yes, I'm aging but even when I was the right age to head out to someone's basement at 3am after band load-out, I didn't. I pretty much always wanted to go home and jettison my bra and let the silence supercede the deafening ring of rock and banter. I loved going out to rock shows, but my love affair with "silence" burns quietly eternal.

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Love, Dorkface

---------- message ----------
From: Michelle
Date: Sun, Oct 23, 2016 at 7:47 PM
Subject: Birthday
To: Jenny

Today I got you a birthday card. In about 3.5 weeks, I'll forget that I did that. I'll remember the day before your birthday, then I'll search frantically for the card, but won't find it in the "safekeeping" place where I cleverly hid it from myself. I'll find it sometime in December, at which point I'll put it aside to mail with a joke scrawled inside about "better late than never, har har." Every time I remember to mail that, I'll forget where it is, then when I find it, I won't have stamps. When I move, I'll find the card, along with your 2015 birthday card that had gone through all these same phases, too.

Love,

Dorkface

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The vortex is strong with this one

Photo: Ed Green

This selfie Ed took at a game last summer!
These guys! These smiles!
💓💓💓

I met Ed decades ago when I first began to go out and see local bands.
Psychotic Larry was a hard rock trio featuring, of all things, Ed on keytar
and my buddy Peet on bass.

Ten years or so into my relationship with Joe,
it comes up, for the first time, that Ed and Joe had been roommates at Berklee
Joe had also played bass in Psychotic Larry, whaaaaat?
I love that they hang out again.
I love when circles complete.  

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Dirty Sweet 'N You're My Girl (Eulogy For An Awesome Chick)

Genine was a high school friend. Brief, bright and deep, that was our love, from about mid-freshmen year to the summer of junior year. I wish I could find my goddamn yearbook so I could see what we wrote into the blurbs on each others' pages at graduation. Was it "remember when we..." and was it promises to keep in better touch? It's things like that you grasp for, when you find out a one-time friend is gone.

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Throwback Thursday: 1989

Louie's Caffe - New Rochelle, NY
(Photo: ? The camera was Lorraine's, but...that's Lorraine on the right)

Here's the thing.
Our college IDs were laminated, but they didn't have Date of Birth.
You could peel back the laminate,
type in a DOB that made you 21,
and use a warm iron to melt back the laminate into place.

Our "Junior Sisters" dutifully took us through it freshman year.
I dunno if that's what CNR had in mind with the Junior Sister program.

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Throwback Thursday: 2000

Jessica is so glamorous.

When Jess moved to LA, her Boston people missed her so much.
Aaron & Paula threw her a party. It was a costume party
but the "theme" was kept secret from Jess.
When she got there, she had to guess.
It was "LA Stereotypes."
My costume:
I powdered my face more pale than it usually is, even.
Then I smudged under-eye bags
and pinned a stuffed monkey to my back.

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Throwback Thursday: 2001

Somerville, MA

Ha! I love this because it was the first day that I got the new webcam. In those days, the only way to get an image or video from a PC was to hook up a bulbous little camera. I don't even think it was USB at that point, but a webcam was some tech magic at the time!

I wasn't trying to get a shot here. I was futzing with my new webcam. Jeffrey called. When I posted this on Facebook in 2008, there was no such thing as Throwback Thursday.

Related: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Briefcase

If the link didn't forward, that means Diaryland has finally been retired. I've grabbed some old essays for when that day comes. This is one of them.

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Throwback Thursday: 1990

CNR, c.1990

Jenny is my best friend, next to Joe.
But we don't have many photos of the two of us!
Amazingly, somehow, this is the only one from college.

All we can remember about this day...
...it was very early morning.
...it was cold as a--well, somethin' real cold.
...we were on a parade float.

What parade?
Why?
Why is Jenny about to blow up a red balloon?
Are my eyes even open yet?

So many questions.

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Birthday Bowling

My dude abiding.
We went to a bowling birthday party.
Happy birthday, Chris.

Joe and George

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A Sinnock Thing Happened On Their Way To Ontario!

Hub and Kelly came over with the kids on their way back home from his dad's place. I made a sauce and fried up some eggplant slices, Caprese and green salads and bread. We had an awesome visit, and I need a serious nap now! My face hurts from laughing. Gabe and Lucy are two of the happiest, most expressive and friendly little people.

Gabe found the thumb piano and plucked out a song,
then he sang us a Christmas carol he learned at school.

I don't know about Obamacare but a couple of Canadian kids came over
and checked everyone out.
Dr. Lucy treated Joe for a Wolf Bite.
He's gonna pull through.

Photos: Kelly Sinnock

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