DEBRALEE SCOTT, RIP
If the name doesn't ring a bell, you'd probably know her if you saw her. If you're Brian, you knew the name, knew the face, and wanted to marry her.

I once spent a night drinking with Debralee. At Posh. Go figure. It was a warm evening in 2000, and we were part of a large group sitting on the porch. After a few hours of heavy indulging -- including a brief breather when I was dispatched to the liquor store to pick up a few bottles of wine for her (she was good at giving orders) -- her fiance showed up to take her away for the weekend. The following year, he would die on 9/11; less than four years after that, she's gone.

So, among my great many idiosyncratic memories, I will always have the night I drank with, and ran an errand for, Cathy Shumway.