Well, the reunion was a qualified success — qualified only because a few people had to cancel at the last minute. (We had only 38 students in our class, so even a few cancellations can have an impact.) No radical departures; most folks are doing roughly what I would have guessed a decade ago. Also had some nice meals, most notably at Cafe des Amis — yum. Seafood corn bisque, crawfish cornbread topped with grilled drum and crawfish etouffee, and absolutely insane white chocolate cheesecake — perhaps the greatest dessert in global history.
I was particularly pleased to see that my old high school newspaper, The Eclectic (motto: “Rhythm and News”), has been revived. The most recent issue even reprinted an old article of mine and ran a brief (and somewhat fictional) biography of me — proving that the Eclectic legacy of questionable editorial decisions lives on.
One of the no-shows at the reunion was Chanda Rubin, who (as has been well chronicled on this site) used to have the locker underneath mine. She had a better excuse than most no-shows, though, being in Paris for the French Open. (Actually, at the exact moment I was downing cheesecake, Chanda was winning the Spanish Open.)
This latest crabwalk.com edition of ChandaWatch begins with her easy first-round win over the apparently cheery Slovakian Henrieta Nagyova. Up next: the Zimbabwan Cara Black. (Who is white, and thus perhaps not all that welcome any more in her troubled homeland.)
After Chanda eases past her, her likely path to the quarters will go through up-and-comer Laura Granville and the Rooski Anastasia Myskina. And (as a reward for Chanda’s climb in the world rankings — she’s up to No. 8) she won’t have to face a Williams sister until the semis, assuming she can get through Justin Henin-Hardenne.