Diary2

Aug 30. Try to clear upper drains in 7 Hamilton. Broke a rusted coupler on disasembly. No replacement found anywhere. Finally, converted entire system to PVC. Believe it or not, the most complete supplies found at the Ace Hardware at the Princeton Shopping Center. Take that, Home Depot and Lowe's. Unfortunately, drain still clogged, even after cleanout of the horizontal pipe. Put in a load of Roebic K-67, bacterial drain cleaner. First try--no change. Try a second time.
Sept 4. The bacteria failed. The baking powder and vinegar failed. The snake cleanout failed. Now the drain is clogged up completely. Call in the plumbing troops; get out the checkbook. Curses! Foiled again!
Sept 16. Lunch at Swagat, a tiny, clean Indian restaurant at Amsterdam Ave and 80th st, just around the corner from our apartment. Excellent luncheon curries (chicken, vegetable, lamb)at only $6.95. Tomorrow off to Venice on Delta Airlines, still running after recent bankruptcy. Back to NY on the 28th.
Sept 30. Back from the Po Trip, safe and sound and not much heavier after reams of good Italian cooking. Our favorite place: the Piazza San Marco in Venice in the evening with a light rain. The lamps shown like beacons in the fog. Hardly any pedestrians. Were shown around the Basilica and given a light show, which starts dark and mysterious with a few lights here and there, and ends up with floodlights revealing the walls and ceilings covered with mosaics. A great show. Take a look at the grand stairway opposite the entrance to the Villa D'Este, where we stayed on Lake Como.
Oct 9. A night of music with Lucy and Michael and their Russian friends. Roseanne Vita-Nahas played dance suites from Bach and Hindemuth, explaining that the underlying structure of their works, which sound so different to the casual ear, are quite similar.
Oct 20. First a visit to the evil dentist. First molar on lower left given temporary filling, to be followed by a crown. Then off to the Solomons and Susan's outing of her book called American Playgrounds. Very professional looking. Will read in due time. The Indian vegetarian meal delicious.
Oct 29. Memorial service for John Bahcall, a renowned astrophysicist at the Institute for Advanced Study. He was a prime mover in neutrinos, working on both the calculations of the flux of neutrinos from the sun and also with the experimenters in the gold mines. Died just a few months ago of a rare blood disorder.
Dec 14. Dinner with Eliz V on Morningside Drive. Met Ed and Barbara Hatcher, who live in 7-room apt across the street from us on 79th st. In crowded NY that's a mansion!
Dec 21. Dinner at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club, at the invitation of Ken and Anne Young, old friends from the Plasma Lab. Met their daughter and her fiancee. Very swanky indeed. Met old pals like Randy Wilson, now in charge of the extensive collaborative effort between the lab and other labs throughout the world.