Sydney Altman
Sydney Altman, born in 1949, grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with her parents and three younger brothers. She loved the freedom that was part of being a child in New York in the 1950's. She distinctly recalls traveling alone on the subway when she was four years old. When she related this memory to her mother, her mom's response was "Are you crazy, we would never have let you go alone on the subway at that age." Other important childhood memories include her desperately wanting to change her name to Darlene after the Mouseketeer, and spending a lot of time searching her face for a dimple like Shirley Temple.

Sydney attended the High School of Performing Arts where she majored in drama. Her lack of talent was discovered early in her high school career and she decided to become a child psychologist. She graduated from S.U.N.Y. Binghamton in 1969 and received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Boston University in 1975. Sydney worked as a child psychologist in a variety of settings, both as a clinician and teacher for the next 15 years.

Sydney married Bruce Singal in 1982 and over the next six years had three children, Jesse, Gabriel, and Alex. She then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1993 and spent the next few years trying to find a part-time legal job that would allow her to spend enough time with her family.

Still trying to figure out what she could do when she grew up, and getting older by the minute, she commiserated with her best friend of 40 years, Zoe Lazar, (who was also getting older by the minute). Alternating between complaining and laughing about their slowly decaying minds and bodies, they decided that humor was the best way to age with grace and the idea for BaBoom press was born.

Zoe Lazar
Zoe Lazar grew up in the New York City hinterlands of Bayside Queens with her parents, older sister, and no pets, (although she desperately wanted a dog). She spent much of her early adolescence visiting Greenwich Village, growing her hair long, folk dancing, playing the guitar, and trying to catch a glimpse of Bob Dylan in Washington Square Park.

A drama student at the High School of Performing Arts, (Fame High School) she went on to college, planning to major in Theater Arts and pursue a career as an actress. When she realized that she was better at listening to people's problems, than portraying them on the stage, she changed her major to Psychology and eventually earned her doctorate in Psychology. She went on to become a psychoanalyst, graduating from the William Alanson White Institute in N.Y.C. She has taught and practiced psychology since 1974 and continues to maintain a private practice in psychology and psychoanalysis.

Zoe married Ira Lazar and they had three children, Alex, Samantha, and Damien, and Zoe finally got her dog, Pocahontas. Zoe and her best friend of 40 years, Sydney Altman, had always found themselves laughing together about life's assorted difficulties and hurdles. Since their families were always complaining about their constant laughing when they were together, they decided to finally do something constructive with their warped sense of humor. Thus, was BaBoom Press born.