Courtesy of Rick Ashburn, two bon mots.

First, from legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow: "Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar."

Second,  from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, waxing philosophical on the Iraq war: "There are things that we know that we know.  There are known unknowns; that is to say that there are things the we know we don't know.  But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things that we do not know we don't know."

VISITING ROTARIANS

None. (Something we said or is it the fire marshal?)

GUESTS OF OTHER PERSUASIONS

Andre Ptaszynski -- Jim Brencic's boss and formerly partner of Past President Harley Jensen, speaking of whom . . .

Harley Jensen -- Past president of Lamorinda Sunrise, back for a visit

Ryan McCowan -- Skip's son

Ceara Brencic -- Jim's decidedly better half

A.J. Brencic - Jim's and Ceara's elder son

Jack Brencic - A.J.'s baby brother

Daryl So -- friend of Chuck Bove

Kara Wheeler -- Tay's daughter, heading back to U. of Oregon to complete junior year

Cameron Shearer -- Taking papa Rich (definitely NOT the better half) back to The Home

BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS GOODIES

Paul Fillinger observed a wedding anniversary. Since he remembered it, he'll probably get to celebrate another one next year.  This one involved dinner, family, dogs and $50 in the pot. (At the time, it all made abundant  sense.)

Rounding up: Twenty-seven years of wedded bliss is worth $30. Ask Joanne Luscher.

Don Reichert didn't remember what happened on March 25, 1988.  That cost him $10. Here's a hint -- it's when he was indicted - er, make that inducted -- into Lamorinda Sunrise. Not a charter member, but close.

COLORS WE GET, NAMES NOT SO MUCH

Brad Davis took a red badge away from, and bestowed a blue badge upon, Chuck Bove.  This means, I believe, that he is deemed a full-fledged member of our august group. Condolences, er, congratulations, Chuck. Nice to have you aboard.

In a related item, Gary Fulcher still has his red badge and intends to retain it more or less forever.

A MOMENT WITH AYMERIC

Aymeric was going to show us photos from Hawaii, but The Curse of Lamorinda Sunrise rose up yet again to smite him and his laptop-unaided efforts.  As for upcoming doings, he is busy cleaning his room. Why?  Because Mom, Dad, little brother and his girlfriend are coming for a visit this Thursday.  We may get to meet them at next week's meeting if they are not jet-lagged out of their minds. (Girlfriend? Hey, Americ, we want to know more.)

BUDDY BURKE FOR CONGRESS!

Nope, that is neither a joke nor a misprint.  Mr. Boudreau (Boudreau?) Burke has thrown his hat into the ring, and none other than Paul Fillinger made the announcement in his unique style. Because this is Lamorinda Sunrise, Buddy received a rousing cheer and was fined $10. Fresh proof that we "party" like no other Rotary club.

AS IF HE DIDN'T ALREADY GET IT

2008-2009 will be remembered as the year that then-President Pat Flaharty finally got it. Emerging from PETS indoctrination sessions, he proclaimed early and often that he had not previously understood the full range of Rotary's impact.  "But now," he declaimed, "I get it!"

He still does.  On April 17, Pat heads off to Nigeria to help immunize children against polio. (In the most heartfelt way imaginable, he announced that he was going to "Give kids polio," but this reporter has it on good authority that he really meant that he was going to "Give kids polio vaccine," which we presume to be dissimilar.)  We look forward to hearing about what is sure to be an experience at once life-changing and life-affirming.

Pat did not stop there, though.  He also presented two Paul Harris Awards.  A Paul Harris Award is given in recognition of an individual's cumulative donation of $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation, the organization that funds Rotary's good deeds around the world.  The Foundation not only finances such gargantuan international projects as Polio Plus and the clean water drive, but it also provides matching funds so that local clubs (or thereof) can carry out international projects (example: the bridge we built in Tanzania.  The Rotary Foundation also sends money back to each District (50% of what each District sends in as a matter of fact) that allows local llubs to leverage their funds for qualifying area projects. 

From the get-go, Lamorinda Sunrise has been a 100 percent sustaining club, meaning every member donates at least $100 to the Rotary Foundation annually -- something of which we can all be very proud. That means that we have a high percentage of Members who are Paul Harris Award recipients.  Today, Pat was able to make two more Paul Harris Award presentations.

The first was to Al Sevilla, who received his second Paul Harris, meaning that over time he has contributed $2,000 to the Foundation. The second award was to Ryan McCowan, Skip and Linda's son- - yes, you can donate toward a Paul Harris Award for family members.  Many thanks to Pat, Al, Skip and Ryan. These awards are more than lapel pins.  They represent the ongoing vitality of the most successful private service organization in history and they help to ensure that Rotary's good works continue into its second hundred years.

WE MAY NOT WIN, AND WE MAY NOT LOOK GOOD DOING IT, BUT THE CHANCES OF INJURY ARE REASSURINGLY LOW

Bob Heinen stood up to announce that our Merrie Band has been signed up for Local Rotary Bocce Tournament. The date is May 8, the place is the Waterfront Park in Martinez, and the chances of victory for us lie somewhere between nil and zero. Fun, on the other hand, should be available in abundance,and the odds of getting hurt are much lower than the softball game against the Lafayette Club that never quite seems to happen.  Says Cap'n Bob: "Bring your own balls."

MOTORAMA UPDATE

Buddy (er, Boudreau) Burke showed an example of the genuine Motorama bowling shirt (sans the extra-cool Motorama logo that will be on the real ones) and took orders for said shirts. If you didn't get to sign up, call Buddy.  Since this is a discontinued shirt (which may explain the low $50 price), there is a limited number in the uber-cool brick-and-cream color scheme, which meansthat  some latecomers may get a different, marginally less uber-cool color scheme, like pomegranate and mauve.  (Buddy, may we assume you chose the brick color because it closely matches the red clay of Georgia?)

ALL ABOARD FOR MONTREAL

Thomas Peeks asked how many people were planning to go with him to this year's International Convention in Montreal. It is not clear how many hands went up because this reporter cannot count that high. It is for sure that former District Gov George Chaffey is on the list. Fluency in French not required.

It also means another installment of Expose Yourself, that ongoing series of programs in which fellow LSR members tell us whatever they think we ought to know about them.  This month's speaker, the one and only Jim Brencic. 

Born in San Jose in 1970, Jim watched the Santa Clara Valley fairly explode.  Fields he played are now carpeted with houses.  But he and his brothers had plenty of outside time, as his father often took them fishing. Jim claims not to be much of a fisherman, but we saw a photo of young Jim with a real whopper, presumably unenhanced by PhotoShop.

Taking pen in hand to create unique visual images, Jim started cartooning at an early age. He even attracted the attention of Jim Hummel, a longtime artist for the San Jose Mercury-News, who came to visit a young Jim, gave him some specialized equipment, and spent time telling him what it takes to get ahead and how to go about it.  Jim has never forgotten an experienced artist taking the time to give a youngster serious attention, time and advice.

Eventually, Jim went off to Cal Poly where he met his future bride, Ceara.  They both went into architecture, putting their respective artistic and spatial talents to work.  They also both went to Italy to spend a year in Cal State's Italian campus -- yes, there is one, in Florence.  How sweet -- except it wasn't the same year. Jim's was first, and then as he was about to head home, Ceara announced that she was going, too.  Rather than another year of a long-distance relationship, Jim managed to get admitted to an Italian university right next door for another year.

Jim noted that art students in Europe, and certainly in Italy, tend to be far more advanced than their American counterparts. Art appreciation and education is taken far more seriously in Italy than here. The Italian students come out their equivalent of high school with far more grounding in drawing, oil painting, sculpture and the history of art.

Back in the States, Jim and Ceara ended up in the Los Angeles area, each launching their respective careers. Ceara has the distinction of being the first person on site for what became the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, a project on which she worked for three years. Jim, meanwhile, was doing a mix of commercial and residential projects.  Jim and Ceara married in 1999.

They wanted to move back to the Bay Area, where they both have roots (Ceara hails from Marin County). For a while, Jim worked in San Francisco, mainly working on senior housing projects.  He enjoyed it, but the commute was less enticing.

After searching for a job closer to home, Jim found Jensen & Ptaszynski, a Lafayette architecture firm of no small repute. His first project was to "administer" the construction of a major office building in Concord. Jim was too polite to put it quite this way, but "administer" in this sense appears to really mean "babysit the contractors to make sure they don't screw up the plans."  He seems to have been quite successful in this task, as the finished product is quite handsome.

Jim noted that the J&P office is fairly "old school" in terms of use of technology to create designs. That does not mean that new computer technology isn't used- - computer design tools allow for views that simply are not possible any other way -- but the office does a lot of drawing over the computer generated images. This captures the best of all worlds: the technical mastery of computer graphics and the warmer, deeper and more subtle shadings that only the human touch can present. 

Of course, Jim's presentation prominently featured photos of Caera and their two sons, A.J. and Jack. To top it all off, Jim showed a shot of what he sees as his ultimate dream position, a photo of the Round Up brandishing a tongue-in-check mock sign: "Jim's Bar & Architecture."  We'll drink to that!