Class members of Bluffton High School's class of 1941 gathered for a reunion at Mennonite Memorial Home this month. Those attending, standing from left, Ken Oberly and Doris Garmatter Hamman. Seated from left, Marjorie Stratton Marquart, Faery Bronson Mesler and Treva Harris Crawford.
You graduated from BHS in 2004, then headed off to University of Cincinnati. Why UC? What was your major? Where did you do your co-ops?
I ended up at UC because 1) They had a very strong graphic design program that emphasized theory over tools. 2) Their cooperative education program. 3) It's a liberal arts school-I knew I liked art and design, but I have other interests too! 4) My brother David had moved there a couple years prior which helped alleviate some of the intimidation of moving away from home-it's always nice to know there is family nearby.
The mysterious identity of a young Arab lesbian blogger who was apparently kidnapped last week in Syria has been revealed conclusively to be a hoax. The blogs were written not by a gay girl in Damascus, but a middle-aged American man based in Scotland.
Former Bluffton resident, Tom MacMaster, a 40-year-old Middle East activist studying for a masters at Edinburgh University, posted an update declaring that, rather than a 35-year-old feminist and lesbian called Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari, he was "the sole author of all posts on this blog".
"For me personally, it had a very similar feel to the bus accident in 2007."
Those are the thoughts of Allen Slabaugh, in an interview with the Associated Press concerning a second bus accident that he survived.
Slabaugh survived a 2007 bus crash that killed five Bluffton University baseball teammates and two other people. He told the AP of flashbacks this week when he went through another serious accident with another team - fellow cyclists he'll lead on a cross-country ride for charity.
