Perl Loves the Amherst Quirks that Irk Larry
On the basketball court, they called him Perl. For some reason I didn’t get that it was a shortened version of his last name, Perlmutter. Instead I thought it was an homage to Earl the Pearl, of the flashy 1960s Knicks. I read about Perl today, he took over my route as an advertising rep for the Daily Hampshire Gazette in the late ’80s.
Today he’s in the paper, named the president of the Amherst Chamber of Commerce. One of his favorite advertisers when he was rep was Larry Kelley, who gets way too much publicity because of his pesky blog and how many people he infuriates every day. Funny, the things that make Larry so mad are what Perl said he likes about Amherst. “It seems we’re forever making national news for the weirdest of reasons, and deep down I love that too,” he told the Gazette’s Nick Grabbe. I can just see Larry now, poring over the paper, composing a blog decrying these same things as ’embarrassments to a fifth generation Amherst resident.’
But over the years, sadly, I rarely see Perl in my travels any more. He’s one of the people that I had the most fun with during my ad rep days, yet we never run into each other and my attempts to set up lunches mostly fell on deaf voicemail ears.
I’m glad for him that he’s got a new gig selling commercial printing and that he’s taken on the presidency of an organization in which I was once an active. Best of luck convincing businesses that Amherst really, truly is a good place to open up, and please don’t move out if you’re there already.
January 19, 2009 @ 8:41 pm
No, actually Dave was the best ad rep I ever had going back almost a dozen years or more of my 27 years in business; and he may have done a sports article or two as well on my karate exploits when he was in that position at the Gazette. He always gave me great deals, especially when I was doing things not directly related to business: like a July 4 Parade, 9/11 anniversary ceremony or even using ads to help get the downtown Garage built (although I was trying to influence Town Meeting so I have no idea what I was thinking at the time).Dave’s been involved with the Chamber forever, so he will make a great President. The new Chamber Executive Director, Tony Maroulis (also a Martial Artist) has been trying to get me reinvolved with the Chamber over the past few months.Now that Perl is President…maybe.