To the Editor:

As a long-time follower of The Old Men Of The Mountain, knowing the details of the group has become a bit of an addiction.

In that spirit, I have two questions for the scribe:

— 1. Is “John Jazz” his real name or a stage name?; and

—2. Robie Osterman (is it Robie or really Robbie?) seems to be absent more than he is there. Is he OK?  

Richard Rubin

Slingerlands

The Scribe responds: Good morning Richard, Doug Marshall here, sorta the new old scribe for the OMOTM. Happy to hear of your continued interest in the Old Men of the Mountain and The Altamont Enterprise newspaper.

To answer your two questions regarding the OMOTM. First, John Jazz is probably just a nickname from a long time ago that has stuck. I suspect that at some time in the dim dark past, some of John's friends shortened his real last name of Jasniewski to Jazz. I agree, it would be a great stage name if John had a jazz band or something like that!

Second question concerning Robie Osterman. As we all advance in age, some of us can use a little help. In Robie’s case, he cares for his wife. When I first started writing the OMOTM column, I was given several mailing lists from several OFs. All were a little different except for one thing, no listing for Robie Osterman. So he is not on my updated email list and since he gets to join us only once in a while, I don’t really know him as well as I  should. I am not at all sure he has a computer and is online.

Thanks, Richard, for taking the time to ask about John and Robie, and for reading The Enterprise and following the adventures and thoughts and memories of the Old Men of the Mountain.