Fisher Picture Of The Day

Naomi and the Boys (Boston, MA, January, 2012)

2012-01-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

(Photo by Elizabeth Fisher)

I've Seen This Kid Before (Boston, MA and Teaneck, NJ, 2011 and 1978)

2011-11-01T04:31:00.000-07:00

I was really startled to see one of the Facebook pictures of Naomi this morning: I have seen that kid before. I know pictures of babies can look alike, but the minute I saw this picture I knew exactly who it was (wasn't).

What's the Joke? (Boston, MA, July, 2011)

2011-07-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

What's so funny?

Whatever it is, maybe the joke's on Dad?

Naomi Sabrina Fisher (Boston, MA, May & July, 2011)

2011-07-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Naomi was born to Allison and Dave 2 months ago:

(Photo thx Dave)

Her big brother looks on. Note the little pink card, like her Aunt Dora's 29 years ago:

(Photo thx Dave)

Now she's a really big girl (and very coordinated, despite her posture here):

With a great smile...

(Photos ripped from Allison video)

...and a very proud grandma:

Marcos and me (Key Biscayne, FL, March, 2011)

2011-03-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

I'm spending all my time at the Sony Ericsson open in Key Biscayne these days. Here I am, swiped off TV, helping the ever-popular Marcos Baghdatis with my sage advice (he lost anyway). That's my pretty awesome reserved seat!

The Mutz Family (Lincoln, NE, unknown date, probably late 1930s)

2011-03-15T05:03:00.000-07:00

This picture fills in three important family members who I haven't had pictures of before: Elizabeth's maternal grandparents, and her uncle Ster. Now, finally, photos here have shown all of Elizabeth's and my 8 grandparents, and all 14 of our aunts and uncles. Shown below are Sterling Mutz and his wife Jessie Clarke Mutz in the front, and their daughter Jessica and son Ster in the back.

I never met either Sterling or Jessie Mutz, both had died before I met Elizabeth (and Elizabeth never met her grandmother). I did meet briefly Sterling's second wife, "Grammy Ginn". Ster we both knew well. He was an engineer with Cushman, the golf cart company, and I remember his helping me reconnect a lifter rod in the engine of our second car; we used baling wire. Amazingly, that engine repair held for the long remaining life of that car. Ster died young. He was a volunteer fireman, and was killed in a head-on collision, rushing to a fire. The person whose house burned down was racing out to get help, passed on a hill, and collided with Ster. Ster was married to Aunt Mary, who died two years ago.

Besides capturing all the missing family members, I really love this as a photo. Something about the composition, the poses and the way it is such a period piece strike me. I recommend clicking on it, and then clicking on the photo that comes up in the browser, to see the full version. The painting over the fireplace is of Jessica. It was done by a noted local artist, and she had that painting until she died.

Uncle David, Photographer (probably Estes Park, Colorado, probably early 1960s)

2011-03-11T04:47:00.000-08:00

There was a previous photo of Uncle David posted a couple of years ago, but this one captures more the person Elizabeth and I knew in the 1960s and 70s. He lived in Little Italy (on Sullivan St.) in Manhattan, and Elizabeth worked with him at the Equitable. He had a lot of hobbies that he took seriously, and photography was one of them. These pictures were probably taken in Estes Park, Colorado. There have been a few photos already posted from there, since Elizabeth's father's family often vacationed there.

The only picture previously posted of Dorothy Good, Elizabeth's grandmother (for whom Dora is named), didn't give a real sense of what she looked like. But here is a picture of her taken, I think, at the same time as the above, undoubtedly by Uncle David. Next to Elizabeth's grandmother is Elizabeth's grandfather, and their son (and thus David's brother), Tony, is in the back.

A Kodak Bowling Team (Rochester, NY; 1975)

2011-03-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

Besides Kodak, Rochester is also the home of Bausch + Lomb. That's all I'm sayin'.

Ari As Usual (Miami Beach, FL, Feb 2011)

2011-02-09T11:42:00.000-08:00

I got a new phone today, much to my delight (and, nearly as much, to Ari's). So another excuse for him to smile, as if he needs one.

First picture, literally right out of the box:

Ari rides the Miami Metromover (Miami, FL, Feb 2011)

2011-02-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

Ari's biggest interests seem to be trains and construction. I had been building up a ride on the Metromover, and was afraid it would disappoint, but it was great.

The Metromover is Miami treasure, not well-understood nor used by most residents. It is a small, driverless train, on rubber wheels, that goes all through Miami's central city area, usually about 30 feet up in the air. It is free, and cars--the size of typical airport interterminal train cars--come every few minutes. Unless you really study it (as I did, since I often took the train to school at MDC) the route is unfathomable, and you often see people wandering around befuddled.

Henry came with us, and we went through every stop except the school board stop (which was the one stop beyond where we got on), even the stop that's inside a building.

Henry's photo.

This is one of the old-style cars, where you could actually sit in
the front window. (Henry's photo)

Henry's photo

Elizabeth's photo

Henry's photo

Ari at Maurice Gibb Park (Miami Beach, FL, Feb, 2011)

2011-02-07T05:59:00.000-08:00

Ari is visiting while Dave & Allison vacation.

IT'S A GIRL! (Norwalk, CT, Jan 1982)

2011-01-25T02:50:00.000-08:00

Happy (2011-1982)th Birthday Dora!!

Sunday 1/24 was Superbowl Sunday (and there was a big football game, too. SF beat Cincinnati, 26-21). Maybe that's why we had a Turkish substitute obstetrician. I looked, and he's still there 29 years later. In fact, he even looks exactly as I remember him, only 29 years older.

Dora & Elizabeth conspired to have a really fast labor, and right out of a bad sitcom I couldn't get the car up the icy slope of our driveway. Fortunately, we got a middle-of-the-night lift from the husband of Diane, Dave's and eventually Dora's child-care person.

Note the same little card above her head.

It was a really long night.

Havanese Club of Belle Isle (Miami Beach, FL, Jan 2011)

2011-01-19T05:11:00.000-08:00

Rainy, foggy day on BI, 3 terrific Havanese meet up.

The encounter: That's, top to bottom, Mambo, the ever-beautiful Cleo, and Mickey

The boys rough-house while Cleo looks on

Ari and Elizabeth (Miami Beach, FL, Dec 2010)

2011-01-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

At the playground in Maurice Gibb Park.

And On The Bongos... (Miami Beach, FL, Dec 2010)

2011-01-12T09:13:00.000-08:00

(Allison took the photo.)

Tanya visits Dora, January 2011

2011-01-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

This post is written by Fisher Picture guest blogger, Dora.

The Fishers have a large, close extended family. I feel so lucky to know and be close with so many of us- Fishers, Cohens, Weinbergers, Fong-Cohens, Luxenburgs, now even some Amiras (venturing into 3rd cousin territory)!

This weekend, second cousin Tanya came to visit me in Chicago. Many of my friends say to me, "what does it mean to be second cousins?". So let this post explain how we are related.

We share great grandparents, Mollie and Isaac Cohen.

Our grandmothers are sisters, Rae Luxenburg and Sue Fisher, both pictured here on the left in this whimsical picture (on the right is Marci, Tanya's aunt and my dad's first cousin)

Our fathers are first cousins, Josh and Verne.

Verne with his aunt, my grandmother, Sue, in 1996.

I'm pictured here with Tanya's grandmother, my great aunt Rae, at my grandparents 50th anniversary 15 years ago:

Tanya, with her mother Susie and grandmother Rae (my great aunt), as a baby:

All this makes us second cousins!

Photo taken 5 minutes ago at a cafe in Chicago:

So fun to have you here, Tanya, and may our families continue to be close for generations to come.

Happy Birthday Dave! (Darien, CT, Dec 1980)

2010-12-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

Dave gets a pair of threes today. Here's when he earned his first one. That's his child-care friend Tara with him. I assume this is 3 y.o., not 4, because Elizabeth doesn't look 8+ months pregnant (also, Dave looks 3, silly smile and all). Dave's son turns 3 any day now!

Mickey Is 3 Today (Asheville, NC, August 2010)

2010-08-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

And what a great dog he is.

Why is he set to "alert"?

Ah, just the usual reason.

Otis Visits (Asheville, NC, July 2010)

2010-07-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

He brought his people, too.

Fishers and Cohens (almost certainly Bronx, NY, about 1950)

2010-05-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite of all the family pictures, having all four of my grandparents, and almost all their children, in one photo. I don't know where this was--Betty and I noodled over it, and eliminated all the likely places, but I'm sure it was someone in our family's apartment. I don't know the event either, but given how everyone is dressed, it could well have been a Passover celebration. In any case, in this photo are:
[Back row] Annie, Sam
[3rd row] Jerry, Betty, Mollie, Isaac, Sue
[2nd row] Rae, Paul, Rose, Sol
[Front row] Josh, Willa

Missing are Bud and Harry Cohen, plus my father (who undoubtedly took the picture). As always, click on the picture for a much larger version.

Harper-Harper (Boston, MA, May 2010)

2010-05-09T16:09:00.000-07:00

One of the sweetest dogs anywhere, however mysterious she looks here. Anyway, a phone picture--taken with my Palm Pre Plus--that I really like.

Boston Childrens Museum (Boston, MA, May 2010)

2010-05-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

Dave Gets That Degree (Boston, MA, May 2010)

2010-05-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

Dave's graduation! Good video tomorrow.

Elizabeth at the Sony Ericsson (Key Biscayne, FL; Mar 2010)

2010-03-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

Hat and bag by Whittall & Shon (Dick & Elliot brought it as a gift when they came to dinner once). In the house, the hat looked a little silly for a tennis tournament, but seemed obviously superior to all other hats once in context. Church, tennis, whatever.

Turkish/Greek Cafes (NY, NY and unknown, unknown dates)

2010-02-13T16:19:00.000-08:00

I have always treasured this picture of my grandparents, which I was told was taken in a Manhattan Turkish/Greek nightclub. I would guess it was in the 1940s, but I'm not sure. There is something really evocative about it.

Today I happened to find myself listening to Maria Callas singing an aria from La Traviata. When I looked at her bio in the Wikipedia, I found this picture, which to me really resembles the picture above. Turks & Greeks, again, an ongoing theme here.

It's Dora's Birthday (Darien, CT, early 1980s)

2010-01-25T15:18:00.000-08:00

Genie wanted a picture, to go with Norman's profile picture.

From Our Balcony (Miami Beach, FL, Nov 2009)

2010-01-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

Our friend Harold Davis visited us in November, on his way back from Cuba.

While here, he took a few shots of Miami. He said that if he lived in our apartment, he'd be out on our balcony photographing day and night. Here's a sample:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harold_davis/4269986748/

In flickr, go down to the comments and click on "View this image larger" to do just that.

Lefty (The Bronx and Fayetteville, NY, about 1949 and 1963)

2010-01-11T02:22:00.000-08:00

I am a lefty, in the sense that I prefer my left hand for almost everything--though I am pretty ambidextrous. I socially identify with lefties, a lightly oppressed minority (maybe 10% of the population is left-handed). But my parents always told me that I am natural righty, trained left. That's because because my teenage father was a high-school baseball player, and he wanted me to have the advantage lefties have in most sports. He was Whitey Ford's relief pitcher at Aviation High, which, as he pointed out, meant he didn't pitch much. And he played second base. I think I have a team picture I'll post some day.

I confirmed that I was a natural righty with my father 3-4 years ago. Elizabeth is a little skeptical of this story, but besides what my parents told me, I have some supporting evidence: I am really very ambidextrous, but lefties tend to be; I kick right-footed, but evidently about 1/3 of lefty males do so. But my best evidence is this picture:

So why am I golfing right-handed in the picture below? For one thing, it's not such a big deal in sports with a two-hand grip (like batting in baseball) to change hands. But the real reason is this. Early in my golfing career, I finished a round at Lyndon Golf Course, a cheap public course across the street from the famous and exclusive Onondaga Country Club, where I sometimes caddied. The "pro", who I didn't know, came up to me and said, "you should try playing right-handed". I was a pretty know-it-all teenager, and was used to unimaginative people who couldn't get their minds around people doing things with their left hands (this was still medieval times). So I came back with a snotty, "Oh yeah, why?". He answered, "Because I just saw you play left-handed." Whoops. (Sure enough, I tried it, practiced for a few minutes, and immediately shot a way better round than I ever had left-handed. Never golfed lefty again, even though I had to get a new set of clubs.)

I'm really glad I play tennis left-handed. Besides being a big advantage if you want to run for US President (Obama, McCain, Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Bush I, Perot: all lefties), it is a big advantage in tennis in particular. (That's why Rafael Nadel's uncle trained him to be left-handed. He's the only other natural righty trained left I've ever heard of--the other way around is of course common.) I've written up the reasons it is so advantageous in tennis here.

Terror In Miami (Miami Beach, FL, Jan 2010)

2010-01-10T04:00:00.001-08:00

Wonder why I've had winter photos on this blog for the last week?

If you've never lived here, you can't imagine what this feels like to the residents. This isn't some abstract number on an Internet weather forecast; this is our balcony. Our heat pump has been blasting full-time and can't get the apartment above 70, which is OK for us, but a lot of our neighbors have no heat at all. I hope Norman's father's farm isn't getting hit too badly.

I looked out our window at all the beautiful boats anchored there, and wondered how cold the residents must be (these are boats that people who sail down here for the winter live in). But then I remembered who they were, and looked up their home weather. Never mind.

The Snow Kick Continues (Syracuse and Fayetteville, NY, about 1954 and 1964)

2010-01-10T02:22:00.000-08:00

Before we had our house (when we lived in the Vincent Apartments), snow just meant fun, not shoveling. Here I am with the three kids I hung out with all the time.

And here's a picture I missed from my post last week: The finished product!

Thanksgiving in Vermont (Burlington, VT, probably Nov 1985)

2010-01-09T02:22:00.000-08:00

From the same visit as the snow scenes in yesterday's post. Once again, Paul using his surgical skills to carve the turkey.

There's that stupid pineapple turkey thing again. I'm sure that was my fault.

Obviously, it smelled really good.

Robert, the cocker spaniel.

The boys work with the help of some beer. The one on the right seems to have made a great discovery of some kind.

More Snow (Burlington, VT, probably Nov 1985)

2010-01-08T15:44:00.000-08:00

We sometimes spent Thanksgiving with Paul, Susan and, eventually, Dan. This is their house in Burlington.

Too Much Snow (Fayetteville, NY, early 1960s)

2010-01-05T16:28:00.000-08:00

This bad weather all around the country (even the longest cold spell we've had since living in Miami) has reminded me how much I hated the part of my childhood devoted to snow. Syracuse is the snowiest real city in the US, and I think most of it fell on my driveway during the 4 years I lived in a house there. Shoveling it all myself was a really bad side of being an only child. The year I left for college, my parents bought a snow blower. (Yes, I got my daily fix of the New York Times in high school.)

I would get up in the morning, and this is what I'd often find.

Uncle Sam and Me (Probably Bronx, NY, about 1949)

2010-01-05T02:22:00.000-08:00

The background looks like this was one of those Van Cortland Park Sundays I wrote about before, where the Turks and Greeks got together (not that Sam was any of those, but the two-family thing again).

Sam was a perfect uncle for a little kid. He took me lots of places, and I have many good memories of being with him. After he and Sue got married, they represented a far more sophisticated, educated and modern world than anyone else in my family, and it was good for me to be exposed to all that.

Mickey At Camp (Pompano Beach, FL, Jan 2010)

2010-01-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

While we were in California, Mickey wrestled with camp, at the Pompano Pet Lodge.

Pictures:

1 2
3 4
5 6

Scattering My Parents' Ashes (San Diego, CA, Dec 2009)

2009-12-31T11:59:00.000-08:00

Double-click for high-res full-screen version (after the video starts). The hills in the background are in Baja California, Mexico.

Scattering Ashes from Josh Fisher on Vimeo.

The Manger (Bethlehem, West Bank, Nov 1999)

2009-12-25T00:22:00.000-08:00

In 1999, Elizabeth and I went to Israel, where I had a conference. We toured a lot, especially in West Bank, where most of the historically interesting spots were. Here we're in the Church of the Nativity, in the traditional exact spot of the manger where Jesus was born.

Christmas at Jessica and Gordon's (NY, NY, Dec 1979)

2009-12-13T02:22:00.000-08:00

We visited Jessica and Gordon in their apartment in Murray Hill.

My parents came with us.

Note the little upright piano (it was a Baldwin Spinet), before Gordon and Jessica gave it to us.

I guess this is when I scored the blue bathrobe I'm seen in elsewhere in this blog.

Santa (Unknown place, mid 1980s)

2009-12-12T02:22:00.000-08:00

I haven't a clue here. From Dave & Dora's ages, this could also be from the 1986 visit to Rochester, but I'm totally guessing.

Hanukkah (West Henrietta, NY, Dec 1986)

2009-12-11T02:22:00.000-08:00

We interrupt this Christmas marathon to bring you Hanukkah.

We celebrated Hanukkah a little at our house, but not much. Here are the kids at my parents' house. I'm dating this 1986 (which meshes with the kids' apparent ages), because that's the year Elizabeth and I went to the Yucatan, and the kids stayed with my parents. Hanukkah was on December 27th that year.

Dora made the wood menorah on the left at nursery school. Dave made the construction paper one in the back.

Christmas 1982 - Part 3 of 3 (Darien, CT, Dec 1982)

2009-12-10T02:22:00.000-08:00

(Elizabeth said, "These Christmases don't seem a little the same to you?" I replied, "If these don't bore everybody, I don't know what would bore them.")

Two stockings now.

Christmas 1982 - Part 2 of 3 (Darien, CT, Dec 1982)

2009-12-09T02:22:00.000-08:00

Christmas Dinner:

And the after-party (or maybe the before-party):

Christmas 1982 - Part 1 of 3 (Darien, CT, Dec 1982)

2009-12-08T02:22:00.000-08:00

Our last Christmas in the house in Darien.

What's that peeking out from behind the presents??

It's "Dorrie's" first Christmas. Notice that the tree has moved back to being on top of the toy chest. Another baby to knock it over!

We had to move the tree in any case because the piano is there. Gordon and Jessica closed up the apartment in NY, and kindly gave us that piano.

Christmas 1980-81 (Darien, CT, Dec 1980 or 1981)

2009-12-07T02:22:00.000-08:00

I am sure that these four pictures were from 1980 or 81, probably all from the same year, but have no way to get closer than that. I'm convinced that the three with the tree are from the same year (which I'm guessing is 1981, but who knows).

The stocking was hung from the banister with care. These stockings came from Kaye. In later years you'll see three of them when Dave, Dora and Dan were all in the same place for Christmas.

I really love this picture. This was not a common expression on Dave's face, and I can't imagine what brought it on. It's obviously from his birthday, but the tree is there, so it goes here. The little girl is Tara, daughter of Diane, who did childcare in her home for both our kids. Dave and Tara were inseparable playmates.

Insert all the jokes about who the train set is really for.

Christmas 1979 - Part 2 of 2 (Darien, CT, Dec 1979)

2009-12-06T02:22:00.000-08:00

I'm just deducing from Davey's age and haircut that this first picture is Christmas 1979. Both our kids were a little leery of this Santa thing when he was in the flesh. And they hadn't even seen Bad Santa.

This has to be Dan. He would have been a little over 3 months old at Christmas, 1979, and that's when this tree is from.

Christmas 1979 - Part 1 of 2 (Darien, CT, Dec 1979)

2009-12-05T02:22:00.000-08:00

The Christmases in Darien, where we lived from Summer 1979 to Summer 1983, are a little hard to sort out, but I think I have them figured correctly (careful inspection of tree and ornament placement, etc.).

Our house in Darien was broken into not long after we moved in, and our TVs (and a few other things) were stolen. You can see a small b&w TV, that I think had been decommissioned, on the TV stand, replacing the color TV that we inherited from Elizabeth's grandmother when she died a few years before.

The first appearance of the red cardinal tree-topper!

Christmas 1978 - Part 3 of 3 (Teaneck, NJ, Dec 1978)

2009-12-04T02:22:00.000-08:00

Note the similarity of the first picture to the baking picture from Christmas 1976. Different haircut, though. And a different TV.

Turkey before...

...turkey after. Paul, with his surgical experience, usually got saddled with the carving, which he was way better at than anyone else.

One more shot of the loot.

I posted this picture before (on Mother's Day), but this is where it came from. See that front door? You can see that there's a storm door with a glass panel behind it. Once, carrying Davey in the car seat in front of me on our way to the car, I walked right into that panel as if it weren't there, shattering glass violently in all directions. Good thing he was in a car seat. (Yes, some of us used car seats even then.)

Christmas 1978 - Part 2 of 3 (Teaneck, NJ, Dec 1978)

2009-12-03T02:22:00.000-08:00

More photos from the Christmas of 1978.

Earlier, I blogged the four generations of Fisher boys. If you click on the photo, and look carefully at the background, you can see that this is three of us.

Christmas 1978 - Part 1 of 3 (Teaneck, NJ, Dec 1978

2009-12-02T02:22:00.000-08:00

Dave(y) was the first of his generation in all of our families. This was his first Christmas, and we had tons of company. He had just turned one, and could already walk. You can see the transition of the tree from something that had to be attended to every minute, to having a chair block his way.

Look at the chair blocking access to the tree.

One of the last trees before the ubiquitous red cardinal made its appearance on the tops.

Betty and George still lived 5 minutes away in Teaneck (not a coincidence, Betty found our house for us), so we were able to see a lot of them and their kids.

Christmas 1976 - Part 2 of 2 (Teaneck, NJ, Dec 1976)

2009-12-01T02:22:00.000-08:00

Jessica and Betty.

And Jessica's not-yet husband, Gordon, who I believe we met that day. I recall that we had given them very careful directions about how to get to our house by public transportation (it was just across the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan, where they lived). But they showed up in a hired car, and the driver lurked outside for the hours of their visit. We were duly impressed! (Elizabeth says Jessica was very embarrassed.)

With Sarah and Calico.

Christmas 1976 - Part 1 of 2 (Teaneck, NJ, Dec 1976)

2009-11-30T02:22:00.000-08:00

This was our first Christmas in our own house (we can't really remember whether we had Christmas trees in our apartments before that, we probably did, at least tiny ones).

I'm cutting off the bottom on our front porch in Teaneck. This is a few months after we bought that house.

Elizabeth used to bake up a load of really delicious soda breads (or maybe these were her pumpkin breads) every Christmas.

And finally, the bow (no red cardinal yet).

Turkey for Thanksgiving (Istanbul, Turkey, Nov 1991)

2009-11-29T11:57:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned in a post earlier this month, we went to Istanbul over Thanksgiving week in 1991. On Thanksgiving Day itself, we went to the Sheraton and had a Thanksgiving dinner, sort-of, that was being served for homesick Americans I guess.

I can see from our photos from the trip that we also visited a cemetery on Thanksgiving Day. This image has stuck in mind since then:

We also visited a large synagogue in central Istanbul that day; I imagined my ancestors having been there. It is the synagogue that had a terrorist massacre in 1987, so getting in the door was no small matter.

Some more pictures from our trip to Istanbul:

Dave took this incredible and sad photo of a gypsy with his bear. There was a real mystery with this. After Dave snapped the picture, the gypsy came to me for money. He had some amount, maybe $5 in Turkish Lira, written on the pan you see in his hand. I offered him instead about $1. That was a large amount of money in Turkey in 1991--a taxi across town cost like 37 cents, and the cab drivers were almost running you over to try to get you in the cab. Anyway, the guy walked away rather than take my $1 equivalent. He'd already done the work, it was $1 or nothing, he picked nothing. It made no sense--was it pride? market support? Years later Martin solved the mystery. The gentleman was offering to do MORE--like maybe have the bear dance. We were negotiating over the price of something in the future, not something already consumed.

Thanksgiving 2003-4 (NY and Chappaqua, NY, Nov 2003 and Nov 2004)

2009-11-29T04:08:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth and I went to NYC for Thanksgiving 2003 and 2004.

In 2003, we rented a small row house on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn for the holidays, and to go to Betty & George's 50th Anniversary Celebration. Dave came up from Atlanta. Dora, who was living just a few blocks away, made the amazing turkey. It was especially wonderful because Diana, Dora's Jamaican roommate, helped with the spices.

We later met Cliff & Joyce, and Evelyn to take in a movie and dinner.

In 2004, we went to Chappaqua and Allison met Paul and Susan at around Thanksgiving. I think the first picture was at Allison's sister's house, also in Westchester, where we had Thanksgiving dinner with Allison's family.

Thanksgiving 2000-2002 (Brookline, MA and Miami Beach, FL, Nov 2000, Nov 2001 and Nov 2002)

2009-11-28T10:52:00.000-08:00

In 2000, Dora brought her freshman roommate Nui home for Thanksgiving. Nui was from Hawaii, so wasn't celebrating with her family. (Ignore the incorrect date printed on the photos.)

Same place, but a year later, right after 9-11. Josep is a computer scientist who was visiting my lab during that eventful year. He an his wife, Laura, had always seen American Thanksgivings on TV, and wanted to see one for real, so were thrilled to be invited.

By 2002 we had move to Miami Beach, and celebrated at The Murano. Tried to get our minds around a hot Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving With Paul and Susan (Chappaqua, NY and Woodbridge, CT, mid 1980s)

2009-11-28T05:36:00.000-08:00

I have no recollection of this guy, but somehow he's both in Woodbridge, and at Paul & Susan's table at Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving 1997 (West Henrietta, NY, Nov 1997)

2009-11-27T08:05:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth, Dora and I visited my parents in Rochester for Thanksgiving, 1997, a year before my mother died. This was the last time I can remember her being herself, she sank pretty fast after that.

Thanksgivings At The Davises (NY, NY, mid 1980s)

2009-11-26T11:02:00.000-08:00

Often during the 1970s, 80s, and sometimes 90s, we went to Martin & Virginia's for Thanksgiving, most of that time driving down from Connecticut, staying over a few days when we drove down from Boston (e.g. I know we did so in 1992, because Dave and I saw "The Unforgiven" first-run in Times Square the next day. We were the only customers in the 3,000 seat theater, except that as the movie was about to start, a young couple came in, and sat directly in front of us. Outrageous!! After a couple of minutes, the guy turned around and said, "gotcha", or something, and then they moved. New Yorkers!)

M&V always had lots of people over for these dinners, especially foreign graduate students, usually Martin's Italian graduate students. The older couple in some of the pictures below are Virginia's parents. Also there are Nathan, Elise, Peter (pre-Emma), Harold (who might have taken any of the first three pictures, though Virginia also might have) and Harold's friend Pamela.

Transitions (Over the Atlantic, and Woodbridge, CT, Jan and Jul 1990)

2009-11-07T13:28:00.000-08:00

1990 was a very turbulent year for us. It started in Brussels, then Multiflow folded and I took my job with HP. A a result, we flew back to the US, and moved to Boston.

Here are Dave and Dora in business class on TWA. I flew back to the US 13 times during our 10 months in Brussels, so by then I was able to buy reserved seats in business class at highly discounted coach prices (usually about $500 round trip). It's worth mentioning that when we used some of my zillion miles to fly first-class to Istanbul in 1991, Dora, nearly 10, made a very important declaration. She said very seriously, as if she had given this a lot of thought and arrived at a considered decision, that she would henceforth choose first class over coach for her travels. As if she had decided to go with Toyota instead of Honda. Even then, she was a consumer with good taste.

My job at HP required us to move to Boston, and spend summers in Palo Alto for a few years. Below is the end of the packing up of the very full moving truck, in our driveway in Woodbridge, that took our possessions away. They were placed in storage while we spent 5 weeks in California (they were later delivered to our new home in Brookline). You can see the outline of Dora's head in the foreground.

Harold at Work (Little Havana, Miami, FL, Nov 2009)

2009-11-07T11:18:00.000-08:00

Our friend Harold just returned from two weeks on a humanitarian mission to that little island just south of here. He stayed overnight with us while changing planes.

Harold is a noted photographer and author. We toured Little Havana on his way to the airport, and, since he had just taken many pictures of such monuments from the other side, he couldn't resist taking some from this perspective. The little "Plaza De La Cubanidad" is for the Bay of Pigs invasion (there is a more significant museum and monument on the subject somewhere in Little Havana) and the 13 de Marzo incident. The passage of José Martí says, "The palms are lovers who wait", I suppose they are the palms of Cuba waiting for their heroes to come home and rescue them.

(As always, please click the photo for better viewing)

Asheville Home (Asheville, NC, Sep-Oct 2009)

2009-11-02T04:01:00.000-08:00

Just for ease of reference, I'm recording these two pointers to photo albums from our Asheville home:

House Tour

Fall Photos

Swine Flu !! Part 2 (Woodbridge, CT, Dec 1985)

2009-11-02T03:15:00.000-08:00

Because I have 6,000 almost-randomly sorted photos, I'm always finding ones that belonged in an earlier post.

When I did the swine flu posting back in May:

I missed this terrific one, from the same great pig-out:

Betty's and Rae's Families (Bronx, NY, and California, ~1957 and ~1995)

2009-10-31T16:30:00.000-07:00

Back in Miami, and now I have access to the 6,000 old family pictures again.

The left-most child below is my cousin Verne (Cousin #17/Ray's #2), who I've somehow missed in all these pictures. Just two more of my 19 first cousins to go! To the right of him are his sister Marci, and Ilene and Larry in front of Betty and George.

And here are the four of them again, about 50 years later.

Travels With Mickey (Black Mountain, NC; Paris, France; Rapello, Italy, 2008-9)

2009-10-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Somehow, I keep taking this same picture. Yes, he's wearing a beret in the Paris photo, click on the photo and it will be obvious. Notice, btw, that in all three pictures Mickey is staring right at the camera. In all three pictures, I took the shot with the self-timer. How does a dog know to stare at the camera? He was born knowing how to stare at cameras.

(Next week, I finally get access to the 6,000 old photos again!)

What's Out There, Anyway? (West Virginia and Cambridge, MA; Oct 2009 and late 1990s)

2009-10-07T03:37:00.000-07:00

(Borrowed from Norman without permission.)

Ari And Olivia On The Beach (Hilton Head, SC, August, 2009)

2009-10-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

Allison took these great pictures of Ari with his cousin Olivia.

Dora Cooking (Rochester, NY, unknown date)

2009-10-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

Just one more month before I get access to my scanned photos again! This is Dora cooking in my parents' kitchen, I'm not sure when.

Mickey Is Two Years Old Today (Orlando, FL, Late Summer, 2007)

2009-08-24T03:52:00.000-07:00

Mickey was born on August 24, 2007. He celebrated his birthday a day early with an amazing display of maturity. We went to Earthfare for an hour, and, as always, put him in his pen. We pen him because he has ALWAYS destroyed something in our absence, which he never does if we're at home.

But we didn't lock the gate (by accident; we're a little distracted at the moment). When we came home, he was in his pen, with the gate open. But his Kong was on our bed, and his Nylabone dinosaur, which he only gets as a special toy in his pen, was in the livingroom. He had obviously been all over, but destroyed nothing! I've always heard that 2 years was a big maturing stage for dogs, and I guess it was true here. We'll have to see how far we can push this...

Here's Mickey, the pup on the right, nursing at one day.

And at one month, in the middle, in Pauline the breeder's arms, with his four siblings.

New Home (Miami Beach, FL, October 2004)

2009-08-16T13:54:00.000-07:00

We're closing on our house in the mountains in Asheville tomorrow, and we're planning a take-out dinner and some bubbly there tomorrow night. We did this the last time we bought a place, too, using the furniture that the previous owner left behind, and our folding card table. You can see the popcorn ceiling in this picture (before we nuked it); our new place has them too (but not for long).

Hurricanes Aiming For Miami (Miami Beach, FL, October 2006)

2009-08-16T05:41:00.000-07:00

The march of the hurricanes has begun in earnest for another year, taking dead aim on Miami. It is difficult, even from our safe perch in the mountains, not to obsess about them as the intense part of the season begins.

The view from our balcony:

Mischief (Miami Beach, FL, January 2009)

2009-08-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what mischief these two one year olds were up to, but I'm sure it wasn't good.

My Mother and Me (Bronx, NY, November 1946)

2009-08-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

(I've temporarily lost access to all the scans that motivated this blog, but I have a few favorites that I had previously scanned that haven't made it to FPOD.)

Here's my 18 year old mother and me. These kids (my parents, who were 16 and 18 when I was born) literally didn't have a dime to their names (check the run in the stocking). This was just before they found out that she was a Type-1 Diabetic.

Griggs Road (Brookline, MA, Spring 2002)

2009-08-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

Our whole family seems to be engaged in single-handedly solving the housing market stagnation. We're all in one stage or another of house buying.

So it seems appropriate somehow to post the pictures from the real estate listing when we were selling our house in Brookline.

Ari at 2-plus Weeks (Boston, MA, January 2008)

2009-08-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

Fisher Family Dogs

2009-08-08T05:13:00.000-07:00

This is a post by guestblogger Dora.

The Fishers are dog people. There have been many beloved dogs in our families over the generations. Here are the dogs we are delighted to have now.

This is Mickey who belongs to Josh and Elizabeth. He is a Havanese, and is almost two years old.

likes: cuddling, jumping through hoops, destroying things.
dislikes: being left alone, his harness.

Mickey is very smart, he knows the names of his toys and the names of people. If you say "Mickey! Bring ELIZABETH your KONG!" he can do it.

This is Harper, she is the newest addition to Fisher family dogs:

Harper is only six months old and belongs to David, Allison and Ari. She is a black lab mix.
Likes: going for walks to the park, chewing on rawhide, and jumping up on people.

Allison says that despite how puppy-like and playful she is, she is very gentle with Ari. What a good dog!

And finally, this is Otis. Otis is a three and a half year old cocker spaniel who belongs to Dora and Norman (Otis has been a Fisher since he was just under 1 year old).

Otis likes: attention, when you do stretches on a yoga mat, long walks, and smelling your food.
Dislikes: the vacuum cleaner, the yellow dogs next door (grr), when people go to the backyard without him, getting wet.

For a bonus round: Otis and Mickey are very good friends. When they visit each other, they play and play and play, and spend the overnights waiting anxiously by their bedroom doors until the moment they can be together again. Neither of them have met Harper yet, but when they do I'm sure they will all get along too.

Henry and Mickey (Maimi Beach, FL, December 2008)

2009-08-07T14:10:00.000-07:00

The bad news is, I lost all the old photos to a disk crash (until we go back to Miami).

The good news is, the disk crash caused me to finally get a new laptop, and the new laptop caused me to put widgets on my screen, and so I see random pictures all the time, and it's easy to pick out ones that I really like and post them here...

Grrrrr (Brookline, MA, May 2001)

2009-08-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

The horrible disk failure I had on Saturday killed the copy of the 6,000 scanned photos that I had with me in Asheville. Unless I am back in Miami before then, I will only be posting from pictures taken during the "digital age" (i.e., May 2001 and beyond). I also lost the work I had done to gather parts II and III of the Dora/pigeon thing. Blogger Dora will have to fill in with older stuff.

Here is one from my first digital batch:

Today Would Have Been My Father's 80th Birthday (Miami, FL, August 2007)

2009-08-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

My father was born on August 6, 1929. (It's an easy date to remember, the bomb on Hiroshima was dropped on his 16th birthday.) We had planned to go back to Miami to be with him today.

These two pictures were taken on his 77th birthday, we took an Island Queen boat ride to celebrate (see the sign in the background). That was about the last time that there was much vitality to his life: he was getting around Miami Beach some, even taking the South Beach local to get haircuts, shopping in Publix on his own, etc. Shortly after that he weakened further, and couldn't do those things on his own any more.

Puppy Rosie at Betty & George's (Teaneck, NJ, about 1985)

2009-08-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

With my father and his mother (again, the 2 family thing, with Rose at Betty's house).

Betty's long-haired dachshund.

Dora and the Pigeons - Part 1 (Venice, Italy, October 1989)

2009-07-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

Where were this kid's parents?????????

When Dora was very small, she usually answered the "What do you want to be when you grow up?" question, "A bird." We always assumed she was being funny, but we were never quite sure.

Anyway, all over the world her irresponsible parents risked her getting meningitis and who knows what else. She really, really wanted to feed the pigeons. Here we are in Venice on our first Italian trip during the year we lived in Brussels. These pigeons are in Piazza San Marco, which is on my short-list of the most wonderful places I've ever been.

Sadly (I guess), the woman selling bird feed in the background of the first picture must now be unemployed. Venice has outlawed the whole pigeon-feeding thing.

From Dora: Remembering Grandpa

2009-07-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

This is a post from our new guest/co-blogger, Dora Fisher.

It has been 50 days since my grandfather, Harry E. Fisher, passed away. As time moves on there are some wonderful things that stand out in my mind about him that I would like to share.

My grandfather loved his wife, my grandmother. He was not a particularly expressive person, but you can see it in how his face is so much softer and happier in every photo with her. This is one of my favorites:

My grandfather and I shared an obsession with dark chocolate. Now, every time I open my freezer and see our stash sitting there-- keeping it frozen was a trick I learned from grandpa-- I think of him. When I was a little girl, I loved visiting my grandparents over school breaks. My grandpa and I would eat dark chocolate together and watch movies.

Rockefeller Center (NY, NY, about 1980)

2009-07-15T19:08:00.000-07:00

Dora & Norman's Visit to Asheville (Asheville, NC, July 2009)

2009-07-08T03:35:00.000-07:00

Norman has posted a nice set of pictures from his and Dora's visit to Asheville. Without permission, here's a nice one--click on the picture for the full slideshow.

Dora's College Graduation - Part 2 (Bronxville, NY, May 2004)

2009-06-30T12:41:00.001-07:00

Evelyn came, too.

With some favorite teachers and friends:

Preparing on Metro North...

Dave's College Graduation - Part 2 (Berkeley, CA, May 2000)

2009-06-30T12:29:00.001-07:00

Dave lived in a dorm his first year, then tried one of the bigger Berkeley coops, but then found the small coop he really liked.

Dora's College Graduation - Part 1 (Bronxville, NY, May 2004)

2009-06-30T04:13:00.001-07:00

OK, Sarah Lawrence is really in *Yonkers*, but for understandable PR reasons, they call it Bronxville, so I will too. It was a great day.

Getting ready.

The family, including not-quite-yet-sister-in-law Allison.

Advisor, friend and mentor Monica tells a story...

...that seems to end with a funny face, to everyone's amusement.

Dave's College Graduation - Part 1 (Berkeley, CA, May 2000)

2009-06-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

Dave's college graduation, the 2000 graduation of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, was a large event, held in the Greek Theatre.

Yes, that's Dave with the orange hair, done for the occasion.

Dora and Margaret (Palo Alto, CA, August 1992)

2009-06-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

Missing from the Greenmeadow posts (Part 1 and Part 2) are these great pictures of Dora and Margaret Cooke (and one of Margaret's little sisters). The first, shot during a hot Nintendo session I guess, has a nice view of the livingroom of the house we stayed in for 3 summers. The second shows a typical Eichler, across the street

Paul Erdös, xkcd and Me (Montreal, Canada, 1968-69)

2009-06-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

This one is a little obscure, and of interest to few, but I can't resist. xkcd is a web comic with a lot of (usually sophisticated) computer science and math humor, and is often very insightful and often very funny (excellent Wikipedia article here).

Elizabeth first pointed me at today's xkcd. My friend Giuseppe also sent it to me from Italy, saying, "I'm sure you will appreciate it, especially the awareness of being one in a thousand that can do so :-)" The comic (linked below) is about Paul Erdös and Erdös Numbers. Erdös was a completely remarkable mathematician, brilliant (that is a serious understatement), and eccentric in many, many ways. I highly recommend the Wikipedia article about him, it captures his character well. He was essentially homeless, and not equipped for modern life, but rather traveled from one mathematical institution to another, often towing his mother along, being put up by those he visited. He was an amphetamine addict, and a lot of his life was necessarily organized by another, the important mathematician Ron Graham.

In his travels, he collaborated with very many mathematicians, often several at a given place. A massive body of significant mathematics appeared with him as a co-author. It was joked that he had once written a paper with a train conductor on his way between institutions. Because he coauthored so many papers, the concept of Erdös numbers arose. It's a little like (but way predates) the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. If you wrote a paper with Erdös, you have Erdös number 1. If you wrote a paper with someone with Erdös number 1, you have Erdös number 2, and so on. In general, your Erdös number is one more than the lowest number of any of your collaborators.

Low Erdös numbers are a source of humorous but serious pride among mathematicians, so I am really proud to have an Erdös number of 2. Here is an alphabetical list of all 8,674 people with Erdös number less than or equal to 2, including his more than 500 direct collaborators (who thus have number 1). I got my 2 by writing a paper with Ron Graham and Frank Harary, who each have number 1. The one-page paper is below. It, and the short paper (by just me) that preceded it, are pretty much the sum of my mathematics research career. I had solved a problem in Graph Theory (by constructing a counterexample to a conjecture), and this was an easier (but less powerful) alternative solution. (This was during the nanosecond that I thought I would call myself Joshua Fisher when I published, so that is the name that's there, but it's me.)

But I also had a more direct interaction with him: I taught Paul Erdös how to throw a frisbee. I was a graduate student in math at McGill University during 1968-69, and Erdös visited our department, gave a talk, and worked with some people. (In 1973, my advisor at McGill, Will Brown, wrote a paper with him.) He came to our department picnic (bringing his mother along, in a wheel chair). He saw me throwing a Frisbee with a friend and asked me about it, saying he had never seen one before (the modern Frisbee first appeared in 1964, and was just getting popular). I showed him how to do it, and we threw it back a forth a few times. He seemed thrilled.

The xkcd strip and most of my paper are below.

You Saw It Here First (Asheville, NC, June 2009)

2009-06-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

Recall the amusing cover (well, it amuses me) of the IEEE Solid State Circuits magazine, covering my invention of VLIW architectures, and their subsequent success. It said, "Part 1". I was just sent the cover of Part 2. They used a picture from the Fisher Picture of the Day; the historic shipment of the first commercial VLIW processor. Now there are hundreds of millions of them, but that was the first.

Jones Beach (Jones Beach State Park, NY, early 1950s)

2009-06-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

At the same time that my family was driving across the Bronx to go to Orchard Beach, Elizabeth and her family were driving across Long Island to go to Jones Beach, another Robert Moses megaproject.

After we met, Elizabeth and I started going to the beach via subway a lot (first Brighton, then Rockaway). When we got a car, it was off to Jones Beach. We'd wake up really early, and try to get a coveted spot in parking field 9, with its very private beach (closed for the past 20 years due to beach erosion). With all that beachgoing in our backgrounds, I guess it's not surprising that we now live in a beach resort.

I've already included a picture of Elizabeth, Paul and their father at Jones Beach. Here are more pictures of Elizabeth and her family at Jones Beach.

This one shows the art deco buildings along the boardwalk. It looks about the same today, including that odd rectangular structure in front of it, and with the addition of some ugly blue awnings.

Wait a minute! What's this doing here. It's 36 years later.

Orchard Beach (Bronx, NY, about 1951)

2009-06-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

From a New York Times article a few years ago, At Orchard Beach, people remember summer days when their apartments felt like steam baths, and how a trip here meant not just relief but an escape from a harder-edged world.

Among my most enduring memories from my childhood were trips that my parents and I took across the Bronx to Orchard Beach. These always involved lots of my parents' brothers and sisters, and were usually arranged on very short notice. Sometimes it would be after dark, unbearably hot, and no one could sleep, so we would pile into whatever car could be scared up (usually one of Bud's). We'd sleep on the beach.

I don't know who is with Willa here, but you can see Paul and me in the background. Also in the background are the colonnades, the front of the bath house, now a NYC landmark. Here's a current picture on Flickr. Orchard Beach is in Pelham Bay Park, yet another Robert Moses megaproject from the 1930s, and NYC's largest park.

With one of my omnipresent comic books. I had a vast collection of the humorous kind: Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, etc. My 20 year old parents read them too, and embarrassedly insisted they were doing it to vet them for me. I believed them at first.

My mother at about 23.

And two pictures of my grandmother, with Willa, and then with me.

The Cash Register (Bronx, NY, early-mid 1970s)

2009-06-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

When we lived in Montreal, in 1969, we saw this old NCR brass cash register in a shop, for $50. A little ahead of our time, we knew we had to have it. It worked really well. The hard part was getting it home--we finally convinced a cab driver to help us get it into his trunk, and help us get it home. It always took a lot of planning as we moved it from apartment to apartment during the 1970s, since it was really heavy. At some point, we just gave up and sold it to one of the used restaurant supply places on The Bowery.

Sam and Bud (San Diego, CA, January, 1996)

2009-06-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

As I've written, my parents' brothers and sisters became friends. As teenagers, Sam and Bud were close friends. Bud called me after my father died, and he told me that he talked to Sam for a long time, something nice that came out of my father's death.

Here are the two of them at my parents' 50th Anniversary celebration, obviously having a good time:

Dora's Jr. HS Graduation - Part 2 (Brookline, MA, June 1996)

2009-06-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

Dora's Jr. HS Graduation - Part I (Brookline, MA, June 1996)

2009-06-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

Dora graduated from Pierce Jr. High 13 years ago, here is a random collection of pictures from the graduation ceremony.

Yosemite (Yosemite National Park, August 1991)

2009-06-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

During our summers in Palo Alto, we took lots of trips around California.

Uncle Bob and Aunt Maude (Woodbridge, CT and Niagra Falls, NY, Summer 1988)

2009-06-10T19:23:00.000-07:00

Bob was (presumably is, but we lost track of him after he retired to CA) the oldest of Elizabeth's father's 3 younger brothers. Besides Paul, he was my only relative with a career as a research scientist. We got to know him and his wife Maude in the late 1980s, early 1990s. We stayed with them in Buffalo once or twice, and they stayed with us in Woodbridge and Brookline once or twice. They actually lived on Grand Island, a very large island just downstream from Niagra Falls, and right across from Love Canal (uh, oh). They were extremely pleasant people, and we miss them. Here they are in our livingroom in Woodbridge:

I wrote in my Bruges post that they had to take turns doing the "take the visitors to the falls" thing. We were lucky enough to get both of them, though.

Again, in Woodbridge. Notice I'm tastefully drinking an Anchor Steam. Bob has a Schlitz. You can take the boy out of Buffalo, but...

Living In The Woods (Woodbridge, CT, about 1985)

2009-06-09T05:37:00.000-07:00

From 1983-1990, we lived in Woodbridge, CT, a suburb of New Haven. Our (oddly California contemporary, redwood) house was on 2.5 acres of land, but, because we were mostly surrounded by the water company's watershed, it might as well have been 2.5 thousand acres. We mostly didn't even know where our property ended. We really were in the woods--there wasn't one blade of grass to be found, so getting the leaves off the large circular driveway was pretty much our total landscaping effort.

The driveway was a good playground area. You can see left-handed QB Dorrie taking a 3-step drop (check the footwork). Maybe she knew she shares a birthday with Milt Plum. I don't know why my father is wearing a tie, but probably it was a holiday dinner. What are he and Davey doing?

Ah, preparing to launch a balsa-wood, rubber-band prop plane (which you can see top center if you click on the picture). Is Davey delighted?

We built a gym set in the woods at the side of the driveway.

Again looking at Google Maps street view, there the house is, at the top of the driveway. The exit of the circular driveway is at the left in the picture.

Sarah The Cat (Teaneck, NJ, about 1977)

2009-06-08T03:01:00.000-07:00

The pictures we have don't give a real impression of how big Sarah was. One lasting memory we have of her is that during our summer on a dairy farm in Tennessee (1971), she really couldn't go outside like the other cats could. That's because the swifts would see her, and immediately start dive-bombing her. She'd have to run for cover. We had no idea of what that was all about--they had no interest in the other 3 cats. Maybe they couldn't accept that one of the cows was ridiculously small.

(No doubt Paul took both these pictures.)

The Hot Tub At Sam & Sue's (Colonie, NY, about 1986-7)

2009-06-07T16:17:00.000-07:00

A feature of visiting Sam & Sue in Albany was their hot tub. Here's my cousin Michael (Cousin #16/Sam's #1.5), Betsy's twin brother, and Betsy's daughter Samantha with Dave & Dora: