Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

Or I nominate, Michael McFaul, former Obama security chief, an ambassador to Russia, who dated a friend of mine, his freshman and sophomore years. He took us to the Grateful Dead once although I would deny the rumor about how high we got. He directs Freeman Spogli Institute, which is part of Hoover, although he is a lefty as surely as Steve Carlton.  

I nominate Matt Porteus, who runs a lab on campus overlapping in some ways with MTL crispr Cas nine. He was at Gunn with me back in the day.  Played tennis for Harvard. Not sure if that’s points for points against points for points against points for or points against.  I was describing for the undergraduate Rabiah Kabir— heck, pick Rabiah Kabir, the flute player from Berkeley, who is performing at one of my Lytton Plaza shows tomorrow I was telling her that Matt’s sister, Kim Porteus, directs the Nelson Mandela foundation. My fellow Dartmouthian. Their father was a business school professor at Stanford.  Heck Kim Porteus, a step down, but you can never fathom the human heart.

Lenny Siegel— wouldn’t that be ironic? (Lenny was an anti-war activist and later mayor of Mountain View; he lets me mine his A3M list-serve for story ideas for Plastic Alto. [editor: fuck Lenny Siegal the self-hating Jew who kicked me off his list serve for calling him a self hating Jew — he said that kibbutz are a type of military human shields no Kibbutz are a failed model of socialism but thank you Stanford for finally removing these pro-Hamas sophomoric antisemites as of 2/18/24 L’ Chaim.]

I like Weissman, Irv Weissman, but not just because our names are similar and he’s a fellow Dartmouthian, but he lives on campus near Steve & Eric Cohen, sons of Paul J. Cohen, or their former neighbor, David Leavitt, the author.  

I could easily list 100 of my favorite Stanford affiliates who would be better than MTL, who I always thought he was too good to be true.

James Barrett Yardley — who went to Gunn not Stanford and Chapel Hill. His mother was a Knight fellow in 1981. He won a Pulitzer for exposing corruption in China.  CC, Jim Yardley.

I was psyched and then in fact pulled over and called her office on her first day of work Dartmouth’s -new female president although a little disappointed to realize she was coming from Barnard not Columbia overall.

I nominate Aleta Hayes. Senior lecturer in dance. Stanford needs $1 billion gift for steam, not stem.  

Zachary Moses Ostroff, Charlie Altura. 

Carol Hegna Milton ‘81 — of Casper, Wyoming, and Houston, Texas disclosure a former girlfriend of mine. Jean Watt sometimes known as Jean Jean Sex Machine for reasons literally and figuratively unknown to me, but in NYC also known as Jean Godfrey June has been in leadership or editorial leadership, which is fitting here, in New York. Her father taught. Ian Watt. English. 

Malcolm P. Harris — letting him dip his beak into that billion dollar budget would bind  his hands about giving it all away. 

Some pudgy guy number 32 Vogelbach of the Mets, who just homered as I wrote this

The female harp player and writer associated with A3M — anti-war activists and alumnae.

Josh Thurston Milgrom Lecturer in Music wore a prince T-shirt. His father won the Nobel prize. His stepmother was or is married to two Nobel prize winners. Winning. Go see “Barbie”.  

John McEnroe, or Mindy Kaling, or the little girl who was actually Sri Lankan. Bill Rose for his film about Elizabeth Witsee. 

Richard Sherman. Best corner in the game. Literally the inventor of code-switching.