THE LAMORINDAN 8-28-09

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

John Linneman had three. I liked this one best: "One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings."

AND HE'LL BE COMING BACK FOR MORE

Prez-Elect Thomas Peeks ran the meeting in Herr Fazel's absence. Thomas didn't look too shell shocked, so I think he'll do.

VISITING ROTARIANS

Luis Alcon - Peru, by way of the Concord Club
Bob Meyer - Alamo
John Sherry - Lafayette

GUESTS OF OTHER PERSUASIONS

David Stegman
Dan Rogers - 2nd time
Carol Chaffey - many more than 2nd time

BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS GOODIES

Jackie Welles had a birthday. Ray forked up some amount or other.

Steve Ware had an anniversary. He forked up some amount or other.

Rich Shearer had a birthday. He forked up some amount or other. (Are you detecting a pattern yet?)

Bob Riegg had his 50th Anniversary. $50 for the Club coffers, and $100 for the LSR Endowment. (Ha ha, fooled you. Even if I'm in a big hurry to get this out, a 50th anniversary deserves a little extra ink.)

HE'S OUR GUY, IN FLEMISH, FRENCH OR ENGLISH

Aymerich van den Hove. Remember that name. If you don't, you'll probably be fined. Why? Because he's our new Youth Exchange Student, and for the next 11 months or so, he will be subject to our tender mercies.

Aymerich arrived on August 22 at SFO, and was greeted by the Wares, Jon Fazel, and the Cal Marching Band. Yes, that last part is a lie, but it would have been cool.

Aymerich introduced himself to us today, and based on his PowerPoint presentation, he's going to fit right in.

We learned a little bit about Belgium. It is a Federal state (which means that the Flemish-speaking Flemish in the north and the French-speaking Walloons in the south don't talk to each other unless they can't help it.) The third major area is the city of Brussels, from which Aymerich hails. Neither the Flemish nor the Walloons talk to them.

Belgium gained its independence on September 27, 1831. Before that, Belgium was ruled by, and got tired of being ruled by, the Duke of Burgundy, the Spanish, the French, and the Dutch.

We saw some fine art: a statue of a kid peeing into a fountain and a statue of a dog peeing on a hydrant. Aymerich clearly understood the level of artistic sophistication of his audience.

He showed us slides of other high-points of Belgian culture: beer, french fries (really invented in Belgium) and chocolate. Jeez, does this kid get us or what?

His first week in Lafayette was spent with the Wares and the Johnsons, playing billiards, and starting school at Acalanes High.

Aymerich wants to go to the beach, see San Francisco, check out Lake Tahoe, visit Alcatraz, along with a host of other things. So invite him along when you go someplace, okay?

He said he wants to go fishing with Steve Ware, Tay Wheeler, Paul Bettelheim etc. He may think he does, but he really doesn't. I guess he'll just have to figure that out for himself.

Welcome, Aymerich. I think it's going to be a great year, for you and for us.

WHAT DID RODNEY DANGERFIELD SAY ABOUT RESPECT?

Pat Flaharty may be the Grand High Exalted Immediate Past President And Font of All Wisdom, but he still had to pay $20 when his cell phone went off.

DISTRICT CONFERENCE AT LAKE TAHOE, OCT 1-4: YOU SHOULD GO

I think the headline pretty much says it. Talk to Pat Flaharty for more info.

TRIFECTA, JOHN SHERRY STYLE

John Sherry, Past Prez of the "Other" Lafayette Club, had three things to tell us:

(1) Larry Duson is recovering from ear surgery - like Larry needs an excuse not to pay attention to what anyone is saying (get better soon, Larry);

(2) John went fishing in Alaska (no, he didn't see Russia from there) and caught a 50 pound salmon; and

(3) there will be a golf tournament at the Rossmoor course on October 5, along with raffles and auction items stuff. First prize is dinner at Bill Eames' house. Second prize is two dinners at Bill Eames' house.

INPUT NEEDED

Mark Roberts, doing his best impersonation of Krysten Laine, announced that the Fund Raising Committee needs input about ideas for . . . take a wild guess . . . if you said "fundraising," give yourself a kewpie doll. Ideas under consideration include a Concours d'Elegance, which is French for "Staring at a Bunch of Cars You Will Never Be Able To Afford in a Gazillion Years," perhaps in October or November. We also need to fish or cut bait on the Auction PDQ, so please forward your thoughts and ideas to Mark.

NEW MEMBERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO

And speaking of Mark Roberts, he gave a New Member talk today. He was born in 1957 (a simply wonderful year, if I may be so bold) in Alameda. He shares a birthday with Eddie van Halen, as they were born on the very same day in 1957. Mark does not play guitar the way Eddie does though.

His dad was a traveling salesman who died when Mark was 12. His Mom ran Phillip Martin Travel in Oakland for umpty-ump years.

Mark went to Alameda High and then to USF at the same time as Bill Cartwright. Bill had a better hook shot.

At USF, Mark was flagged to be one of the charter members of the USF Rotaract Club and was its second President. Bill Cartwright still has a better hook shot.

Mark graduated from USF in 1979 and began a whirlwind tour of pretty much every job known to man. His employers have included: Burroughs (the adding machine people, not Edgar Rice); Delta Sigma Pi (yes, that's a fraternity); St. Mary's University; CalShakes; Supervisor Gail Uilkima; USF and the Chabot Space & Science Center. He has now opened his own Farmers Insurance agency in Orinda. (And you people complain about all the lawyers in the Club.)

Mark married his wife, Claire, in 1985. They are still married.
Mark likes wine, is very involved with his parish, is a big proponent of CERT disaster preparedness training, co-chaired the Orinda 4th of July parade and is enjoying the heck out of Rotary and Lamorinda Sunrise. Fear not, Mark, we'll beat that out of you.

HELP NEEDED FOR THE LAFAYETTE ART & WINE FESTIVAL

Alex Arnold is heading up our efforts to help out directing traffic and such at the upcoming Lafayette Art & Wine Festival. The event is being held on the weekend of September 19 & 20. Where? Go to downtown Lafayette and you'll find it. Trust me on that.

Anyway, Alex is looking for folks to do two hour shifts and has a sign-up list. If your name isn't on it yet, please contact him and have your name added.

OH, AND WESTIVAL IS COMING UP

Alex Arnold went on to remind us that we will once again be selling hot dogs at Lafayette Elementary's annual Fall/Halloween carnival, Westival. It'll be on October 10 at . . . wait for it . . . Lafayette Elementary. Mark your calendars.

PROGRAM

It was Expose Yourself time again, and who better for self-exposure than Past Prez Pat Flaharty.

Pat has been a member of LSR since 1993. That's even longer than Mark Roberts.

Pat is a native of San Francisco, and grew up on Madrone Avenue in the West Portal part of town. He is the son of Jack and Sarah Lillian Flaharty. He had flaming red hair as a youth. His year as President of Lamorinda Sunrise seems to have taken care of that.

Papa Jack co-owned and co-ran Kelly's Bar (his partner's name was Kelly - go figure) at 19th and Irving, just south of Golden Gate Park. Jack Flaharty was not a native Californian, and his travels had something to do with dog track racing. Kelly's in San Francisco had certain similarities with Rick's in Casablanca: it appears that the famous line about being shocked! shocked! about gambling would have played with equal humor at Kelly's.

Young Patrick grew up as a member of St. Cecelia's parish and later attended Riordan High, a fine Catholic school for a fine Catholic boy. He says his prowess at sports peaked in about 3rd grade. (Maybe that's why he didn't go to St. Ignatius.)

After high school, off to City College of San Francisco and its Hotel and Restaurant program, then to S.F. State for a degree in Business. It was about this time that he met Margaret, whom he married and they raised a family.

A word here, if I may, about Margaret. Unfortunately, she died a few years ago. If you wondered why Pat did not say much about her, it is because it is still hard for him to do so. But she was a wonderful, smart, fun woman. Those of us in LSR who knew her miss her very much, and can only imagine how much Pat misses her.

So where were we? Oh yes, Pat starting his career at the Disneyland Hotel doing convention sales. He grew tired of that Mickey Mouse outfit (sorry, I had to) and went into insurance. He loved it, and dealt in life, health and business insurance for 40 years. For a while, he was with a major insurance company that he thought moved him around unnecessarily. Once he figured that he and corporate beaurocratic management style were not a good match he came back to the Bay Area and opened his own office. He recently sold it, and now is a retired Gentleman of Leisure, or something like that.

Somewhere along the way, he and Margaret had three kids: Karen, Mark and Ann. They have all grown to adulthood and have done their parents proud (although Mark does have the black mark of having graduated from Notre Dame), and it is clear that Pat loves them dearly.

Pat loves to sail. Pat loves to cook. Pat loves backpacking