From the Publisher

Since Valentine’s Day falls in February, and this is the January/February issue, I thought now would be an appropriate time to share with our readers how Melissa, my wife and Co-Owner and Editor-in- Chief of this magazine, found each other.

Melissa and my paths could have crossed so many times before we actually met. Melissa studied at Vanderbilt from 1983 to 1987 to get her B.A. in Art History, while I was at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vandy from 1984 to 1986, getting my M.B.A. in Finance. We probably passed each other several times (Jonesy’s for sure, the college dive bar across from the stadium behind Wendy’s). Melissa and I lived three doors down from each other on East 90th Street in New York for two years. Melissa then moved five blocks from there to Madison and East 92nd two months before we were introduced. We were even at many of the same memorable events before we met (the Squeeze concert at Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym in 1985, the Rolling Stones concert at Shea Stadium in 1989, to name a couple).

Our introduction was concocted by two members of the Centennial Club, Lenora Johnson, and my mother, Dotty. Lenora’s twin daughters, Colleen and Heather, were Melissa’s suitemates at Vanderbilt. Melissa had recently broken up with a boyfriend, and I had recently broken up with a girlfriend as well. So, Mom and Lenora both thought it would be good to have us meet. Now typically, blind dates arranged by my mother were not my cup of tea and usually did not work out well, to say the least. Hence, I was hesitant to agree to the meeting, but my arm was twisted—a lot! Ergo, I agreed to meet this girl named Melissa McGrath.

So, I called Melissa, and we agreed to meet for a drink at Luke’s Bar and Grill on the corner of East 79th Street and 3rd Avenue. When I arrived, Melissa was with three of her friends visiting her from out of town, one of which was Colleen. Melissa came with backup! During our conversation, I opened my briefcase where Melissa saw I had a bottle of Mylanta. Melissa says “stressful job, huh?” I was an investment banker back then, and yes, it was very stressful. Melissa invited me to join them later in the evening after their dinner, which I very much wanted to do, but I had already made plans with friends. We agreed after our respective dinners to meet at a nightclub on West 57th called Le Bar Bat. Melissa and her friends stepped into their limo provided by one of her girlfriends’ husbands, where Melissa told her friends that she thought that she was going to marry me. Her friends immediately told her that she had probably blown her chance by calling me out on the antacids. After my dinner, my buddies and I went to Le Bar Bat, which was a dark labyrinth of at least eight different rooms on four or five floors, and combed the club for Melissa and her posse but to no avail.

A few days later, I gave Melissa a call to ask her out on a proper date where she turned me down because she was going to Florida with some of her friends, including some from the group as mentioned above from college. A couple of weeks later, I mustered up the courage to ask her out again, and thank God she said yes. Our first date was January 4th, 1992. Fast forward 18 months to July 16th, 1993, I proposed to Melissa while staying at my parent’s house for Marty and Beth Poe’s wedding. I figured I had her where she couldn’t get away. Fast forward again nine months later, we were married in Greenwich, CT, on March 5th, 1994.

God has a perfect plan, and for me, that has been a rich life with Melissa. So, Melissa, the love of my life and now business partner, thank you for everything over these wonderful 30 years since that first drink at Luke’s Bar and Grill that might never have happened.

Dave Mahanes, Publisher dave@slmag.net