THE LAMORINDAN 1-15-10

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

George Chaffey collected ten pieces of wit and wisdom (example: "If you think there is some good in everyone, you haven't met everyone") and then managed nine victims ... er, I mean fellow Rotarians to read them off, 10 through 1, David Letterman-style. Hilarity ensued.

VISITING ROTARIANS

Larry Duson, Lafayette Past President
Bill Eames, ditto
Sherry Glover, Lafayette (and long-suffering employee of Larry Duson)
Debbie Roessler - Moraga Past President

GUESTS OF OTHER PERSUASIONS

A.J. Brencic - Son of Jim, and bacon connoisseur
Caroline Kunkel - daughter of Robbie
Bill Henry - friend of Gary Fulcher's
Bill Wigman - ditto

BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS GOODIES

Ken and Patti Kosich have a brand-spanking new grandson, one Nicholas Kenneth. Ken voluntarily contributed $100 toward little Nick's Paul Harris Fellowship.

Ernie Furtado spent at most of his birthday watching a high school wrestling match, but also found time to see Cal trounce USC in basketball that evening. Oh the fun.

Bob Riegg had planned to spend his birthday in Mexico. That didn't work out. Then he planned to go to Mendocino. That didn't work out, either. So he went to see "Avatar" and had dinner at Vino instead. Here's guessing that Pat was along, too.

Gary Fulcher finally started building his boat. It sounds like it will be too big to sail in the bathtub, but that has not yet been confirmed by independent sources.

Mike Edwards is heading off to Hawaii for the Winter, and his 40th Anniversary will be happening whilst he is on the former Sandwich Islands, so he left an appropriate emolument. He didn't even post-date the check or anything.

Buddy Burke had plenty of time to confess his sins, meaning his and Holly's birthdays. After much heming and hawing, the every-shy Buddy admitted to spending Holly's birthday (which is carefully and completely walled off from Christmas, which is three days later) at Gracie's BB in Vallejo, an establishment which Buddy recommends highly.

A MOMENT WITH AYMERIC

Our Bouncing Belgian Boy didn't do much over the holiday, he reports; some homework, lots of sleeping. An Acalanes basketball game was on tap for tonight, and a visit with a Youth Exchange friend is on tap for Saturday.

Finals are also coming up, and Aymeric is looking forward to them about as much as any of his Acalanes comrades.

Aymeric will also be doing his community service by helping out at an emergency nursery -the kind for little people, not the kind for plants. I'm sure we will hear more about that in coming weeks.

TGITLFOTM NEWS

You know all about TGITLFOTM, of course. It's the end-of-the-month gathering held on the last Friday of every month except November and December, when holiday craziness makes it not such a good idea. But for every other month, it's a great idea.

But we need places to hold these gatherings. That means people need to volunteer their houses. In particular, we need a place for this month's confab or there won't be a January TGITLFOTM.

Thus spake Brad Davis, and he's usually pretty accurate about stuff like this. Call him if you have a house and would like to host a great group of people on January 29.

Quick reminders. It's pronounced tuh-GITT-uhl-foe-tum and it's an acronym for "Thank God It's The Last Friday Of The Month." If you are pronouncing it the same way Joanne Luscher does, you know you've got it wrong.

THE BILLS ARE NO PROBLEM, BUT THE SURCHARGES ARE MURDER

As you know, Ernie Furtado has been passing out the latest Lamorinda Sunrise bills the past week or two. It happens four times per year, and we all know to expect it. But Rich Shearer learned the hard way that leaving your bill on the table one week equals being in President Fazel's bulls-eye the next week. It was only five bucks, but it was the thought that counts.

Thomas Peeks committed the same infraction, but he got off scot-free because (a) he is going to Montreal for the RI Convention and (b) is going to PETS, which stands for President-Elect Training Seminar and at which George Chaffey is a trainer, which means that (c) he takes over the fining reins on July 1 and King John is smarter than we gave him credit for and doesn't want to set himself up for King-to-Be Thomas's wrath.

KING FAZEL ANNOUNCES MORE GOOD DEEDS BY LSR, THIS TIME FOR HAITI

By now you are all aware of the dire straits that the people of Haiti are experiencing following the devastating earthquake last week. Lamorinda Sunrise has a history of stepping to the plate to help when disaster strikes. We raised funds for flood victims in Iowa on two occasions. 1993 during Brad's year we adopted Ames, IA and again in 2008 during Paul F's year we adopted Cedar Rapids, IA and worked directly with a Rotary Club in each of their communities to maximize our contributions. In 1998 during Skip's year we worked with the Guatemalan consulant in San Francisco and collected truck loads of food and clothing for Hurricane Mitch victims. Finally, in 2004 during Joanne's year our club raised $10,000 for Palm Bay, FL who suffered through 3 hurricanes in 4 weeks. Overall our club has raised nearly $40,000 in cash and supplies in these 4 projects alone.

It is time for Lamorinda to step to the plate once again for those in need in Haiti. I was on a long conference call with other Club Presidents in our District on Saturday. We discussed how we can best utilize our resources for the very unique situation that presents itself in Haiti. Your Board of directors has been discussing our options based upon the facts that we have at hand and have come up with an idea on how our club can be most effective.

We will be taking the profits from the cookbooks which were undesignated, amounting to about $2,000, and are also suggesting that we pass the hat this Friday when any of you may elect to contribute an additional amount by check or cash earmarked for Haiti Relief. You may also instruct Ernie to bill you on you next quarterly bill and have that amount directed toward Haiti Relief.

These funds will then be directed in one check from Lamorinda Sunrise to a special Haiti Relief Fund in a District 5160 account to be managed by our District who are working directly with District 7020 in Haiti. This is where Rotary works best. Every dollar we contribute will end up helping those in need and none used for overhead. If you would like to get a better idea of what Rotary is doing in Haiti Google - Rotary District 7020.

If you have already contributed to another charity that is great. If not this is an effective and worthwhile way to make your dollars work. If you are writing a check please make it out the Rotary Foundation, Haiti Relief.

Our Rotary International President, John Kenny's slogan this year is 'The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands" This is what Rotary does so well and this is what Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary does best.

RENO TRAIN TRIP UPDATE - AND THE NEWS ISN'T GOOD

The Reno Train Trip is off. Kaput. Isn't going to happen. A lack of sign-ups has done what Amtrak tried to do for a number of years - stop the Reno Train before it even had tracks to be stopped on. And so, there will be no Chicken-in-a-Pot, no George Chaffey as The Man in Black, no glorious snow-capped Sierras. Darn.

OH, THOSE SILLY NEW MEMBERS . . . .

Chuck Bove stumbled into today's meeting having managed to get about 32½ minutes of sleep and having no idea that he would need to be prepared to speak on any subject. So of course His Fazelness called upon him to give a New Member Talk.

Ah, but Chuck had his revenge, that being stealing the Exalted King John's agenda for today's meeting. Chuck returned it when he was called upon along with a portrait of Andrew Jackson - he seemed to think it money well spent, as did the rest of the hyenas who were in attendance.

Chuck was born in Ohio, but most of his ill-spent youth took place in Pennsylvania across the river from Trenton, New Jersey, right about where some guy named Washington crossed the river with some funsters known as the Continental Army and threw a nasty Christmas morn party for a bunch of misunderstood German visitors. He moved here just in time for the Loma Prieta earthquake. He met his wife here and they now have two little sleep-deprivation machines: Natalie, age 3½, and Kate, age 1.

Chuck is an environmental consultant. He used to work for someone else. Now he has his own company, which, based on my experience with others having their own companies, means he has total control over his schedule: He can work any 100 hours during the week that he wants.

Does Chuck miss the East Coast? For the most part, no. He misses the pizza, although he thinks Amici's comes pretty close to what he left behind. He also misses some of the weather. (He didn't say this, but I'm betting that he misses autumn, with pretty leaves and the six to eight weeks of beautiful shirt-sleeves to sweater weather, which, if my math is correct, leaves 44 to 46 weeks out of the year when the weather is abominable. That was certainly this reporter's experience in New England.)

When asked about hobbies, Chuck ducked the question but did pass on words of wisdom that his father passed along: "Every man needs a mistress - just don't pick another woman."

OH, THOSE SILLY OTHER LOCAL ROTARY CLUBS . . . .

Once every year, the Rotary Clubs in the area (LSR, Lafayette, Rossmoor, Moraga and Orinda) get together for a joint InterClub Meeting. This long-time tradition allows member of these Clubs to mingle with members of other Clubs and for all members to be glad they belong to their particular Club and not some other fly-by-night operation.

Responsibility for organizing the event rotates, and this year it is the Lafayette Club's turn. More details are likely to follow, but we know so far that the event will be on Thursday, February 25 at the new Lafayette Library. Mark your calendars, and see you there.

BUY THIS BOOK. SERIOUSLY, YOU NEED TO BUY THIS BOOK

The book is called "As I Was Saying . . ." It is a collection of the speeches, talks, wit and wisdom of the one and only Cliff Dochterman, Past President of Rotary International and perhaps the most quoted, best loved and most prolific speaker the Rotary world has ever known. It should be in your library.

Paul Fillinger was here to tell us why we should care by giving a heart-felt reading of one of Cliff's best, the story of how a Houston, Texas, Club RINO ("Rotarian In Name Only") went from being a member of a Rotary Club to being a Rotarian. And no, the two are not the same. I can't do justice to the story, but I can and will give away the punch line - you become a Rotarian not by coming to meetings, but by giving yourself over to a need crying out to be filled.

Better yet, Debbie Roessler, Past President of the Moraga Club and the home Club of Cliff Dochterman himself, was here to tell us how to get a copy of this book and have the net proceeds go back to Rotary. (If you buy it through Amazon.com or some other web-order store, you'll pay about the same but there will be no donation to Rotary.)   Send a check for $12.00 made out to Moraga Rotary Club with "Rotary Books" in the Memo line, and mail it to Rotary Books, P.O. Box 122, Moraga, CA 94556

This is a great price for a priceless collection of insight, experience, wit, wisdom, and just plain fun. Plus, you'll learn a bunch about Rotary and your place in it.
So whatcha waitin' for. Send the check, already.

ALL'S WELL THAT EATS WELL

Okay, the paraphrase of the Bard may be a bit over the top, but Buddy Burke's announcement concerning the latest project of the Wellness City Challenge isn't. As you might recall, this is a program aiming at nothing less than revolutionizing the way we eat so that we - and yes, that includes you - will be healthier, more active and less lumpy. It's about sources of what we eat (especially stressing local production of healthy, tasty food) as much as about what we eat, but mainly it's about getting us to think about what we eat instead of grazing on auto-pilot.

So what's new? According to Buddy, the Wellness City Challenge has singled out Martinez as the first town in which the program will be out into place on a city-wide basis. Why Martinez? Because it's big enough to be a good and noticeable model and small enough to be logistically feasible the first time out.

What can you do? You can buy a ticket to the Wellness City Challenge Gala Event, coming on February 5, 2010, at Rossmoor. It's $100 per ticket, and you can reserve tables of eight. The event is to raise seed money to get the inaugural Martinez project up and running.

Need more info? Call or e-mail Buddy.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE EATING TO BE DONE

Buddy Burke wasn't the only one inspired to raise the banner of good eats grown locally. Gillett Johnson rose to tell us about a model program pioneered by a gent named Sianack Sioshani that encourages groups to find ways to raise food locally, both for their own consumption and for sale to, or at, farmers' markets. No Gillett was not trying to get us to devote our Friday mornings to this. Instead, as a member of the Board of Directors of Las Trampas, he thinks this is a great idea for, you guessed it, Las Trampas.

So how do you feel about spending a weekend establishing a garden to help out the staff and clients of Las Trampas?    We thought you'd like the idea.

MYSTERY ROTARIAN

King John pulled another of the fast-dwindling stock of Mystery Rotarian cards and held us in suspense with these three titillating teasers. (1) Our Mystery Rotarian shares the same birth date with Eddie Van Halen; (2) said Mystery Rotarian's college fraternity nickname was "Wild Turk" in reference to some mysterious beverage of some apparently similar name; and (3) our M.R. picked up his or her wedding rings at the same time and place as Joe Montana picked up his and Jennifer's.

Give up? This Lamorinda Sunrise Rotarian who walks so often in the shadow of notoriety is none other than Mark Roberts. And yes, the rocks Joe picked up were just a teensy bit larger than those for which Mark was calling.

PROGRAM

Buddy Burke and Steve Ware scored another coup with this week's program, somehow landing President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to talk about the United States, its security, and its evolving place and mission in an ever-changing world. After the Secret Service finished searching the premises and us, and after the FBI finished processing the information needed for our security clearances, President Obama and Secretary Clinton gave us a detailed and highly confidential briefing on the latest on the location of Osama bin Laden (last known position: Alameda, CA, interviewing for the head coaching job with the Raiders), relations with Russia (we are on the brink of a watershed agreement whereby they will tell us their secret for turning potatoes into vodka if we tell them how we manage to make beer so consistently flavorless), and Equatorial Africa (our decades-old policy to avoid it like the plague unless the Russian or the Chinese show interest remains in place).

Questions from the audience elicited interesting responses. For example, we learned that it was Secretary Clinton's idea to send former President Clinton to Haiti, and that she first had the idea six or seven years ago. President Obama also intimated that he has been working hard on the health care bill, mediating between House and Senate Democrats to help them decide whether to cut costs by "consigning all Republicans to the pits of perdition" (the Senate version) or by "repealing the 13th Amendment as it applies to Republicans and selling them into immediate and eternal involuntary servitude" (the House version). The only time either the President or the Secretary seemed at a loss for words was when Brad Davis raised his hand and asked: "Who are you two again?"

Actually, this was the week that happens to every Club President - our speaker had to cancel at the last minute. So all the stuff already reported managed to fill the allotted meeting time, and Ringmaster Johnkept the circus moving right along.

CALENDAR

Friday, January 22 - District Governor's report

Friday, January 29 - Adarsha Shivakumar, the Jatrophia Miracles

Friday, February 5 - Terry Englehart, Seniors without walls

Friday, February 12 - Dave Simpson, Lafayette Book Store

Friday, February 19 - 4 Way Speech Contest

Thursday, February 25 - Interclub meeting, Lafayette library