was keeping watch on him at the hospital. Word was that there had been
no major problem found, but (in keeping with modern medical insurance
practice) he is being kept a while for "more tests and observation".
That's called "defensive medicine". We missed Denise, and wish Nick a
speedy return to being an active presidential spouse.
Roberta was right there taking up the leadership task. It's nice to
have 2 Presidents-elect; it provides coverage for cases when one is off
in our Nation's Capital, attending to important polo matches and such!
HELP! Two weeks ago, today, this "Most Unnecessary Publication on the
West Coast" carried a banner asking for volunteers to write it.
Nothing heard so far. Frank has said he would give it a try, but he
does work elsewhere for a living (and for Phuoc's living) plus he's
taking on the heavy job of Secretary. Can't some of the rest of you
volunteer for a "once in a while"?
With a bump on the bell (yes, it's been back in good shape for a while)
Roberta beat us into order, of sorts. Bob Rice tried to lead us in GBA
(too bad Frank was busy being Ticket seller and couldn't provide
accompaniment – we needed it!) and Rev Bill gave a somewhat wordy, but=2
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heart-felt invocation. "and away we went" (with apologies to Jackie
Gleason).
Diane, the UCB Circle K "K Family Chair" was right at the top of the
agenda. She had 2 supporters from their Club to back her up and Pres.
Josh on his way to class had popped by to make sure we knew who was in
charge. It seems they had about 300 potential members show up for
their first meeting last week and were expecting a bunch more tonight.
Of course they were busy all week with service projects and attending
induction ceremonies for Division 2. On Sunday, they handled face
painting and dinosaur/hobby horse riding at the Solano Stroll to
support us. From the pictures, they not only supported but outnumbered
us!
And that LTGUV Installation. Yep, that was our own, tied for 1st woman
in our Club, VC. I'm a little confused as to her title these days. She
was LtGuv Elect, but now that she's been inducted but is not yet
officially seated maybe she's the LtGuv in waiting; who knows. We just
know she'll do a great job. We know already that she's out to raise
some money and push us to get new members; she was peddling her 2009/10
Division 2 pin.
Reports are that Bill C. came thru his longer-than-expected surgery
well and is resting at home in anticipation of a busy year supporting
our new LtGuv.
And, of all things, at
the Installation Phuoc was awarded a District
something-or-other for his year as President. Does anyone remember
when he was President?
Under the new regime (represented by Roberta) the Dine Out will be
stabilized at 2nd Friday each month. It will be expanded a bit to
include the entire Berkeley Kiwanis Family and see if we can't promote
more "togetherness" (not a quote from Roberta).
VC spoke a bit as LTGuv in Waiting, or whatever, about membership (we
need lots of new members to get our Division up to targeted strength)
and some sort of cock-a-mamie plan to raise money by a phony weight
loss competition between her and her poor spouse. It sounded like she
was making it up as she went along, but I'm sure we'll get more
details. It probably will entail some method for extracting money from
us!!
Lots of H$ for the Bears and Bill C. recuperating. And, yes, we had a
program; starting with a speaker and ending with a "skit".
As senior member of the Gin Fizz team, Jack gave us the background. A
group of then-senior members always had a supply of snacks (including
popcorn) and suitable beverages to help while away the time at District
Conventions (beats listening to speeches) and members of our club were
more than welcome to drop in and participate, and naturally they had
gin fizzes every morning to get the day started. Of course the word=2
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spread outside the club and pretty soon folks from other Division 2
clubs; then folks from other Divisions; then folks from District. You
see, contrary to your supposition, our members did not spend the day
sitting around the room; they were out and about meeting and greeting
and knew most all the regulars. Eventually, the "Berkeley Room"
morphed into a Division room (the Berkeley room, however, persisted.);
and the Saturday morning Fizz Off became a must affair as a prelude to
the Prayer Breakfast. Then, some upstarts decided to make their own
Gin Fizzes and the contest was on. There were ups and downs, but
mostly Berkeley won and it was an up. And so we have the modern
Fizz-off.
The Berkeley Gin Fizz recipe was a closely guarded secret, inscribed on
the back of a small card purportedly from Charlie Judy. The card ended
up in Jack's protection and this year he could not attend so needed to
pass the secret on to another member and chose VC, probably due to the
fact that she was Charlie's daughter. And, she won at the District
Convention last week.
So, the skit part of the program was Duane dressed as a blue Nun (how
tasteless) pouring samples of Gin Fizzes from a Blue Nun Wine bottle (A
normal pitcher is more normally employed for pouring.) containing the
Gin Fizz. The first batch was supposedly the result of closely
following the original recipe, and
the second batch was VC's
improvement on that recipe. The first batch, to my trained senses, was
a terrible abomination of what had always been a very smooth and
refreshing Gin Fizz. The second was on the same level, maybe it was
worse. Then, in reviewing her performance VC noted that she had failed
to add Gin to the second batch and I'll bet the same could be said for
the first batch. With that, we fled.
Next week? Who knows! Hope you join us to find out.
JP
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