A PROBLEM SOLVED, OR MULTIPLIED?

A1 problem solver demonstrates

Jim Marggraff rarely does things the same way other people do. Apparently that applies to Thoughts for the Day. It seems that his mind today wandered to 10 years ago when he became acquainted with Buckminster ("Bucky") Fuller and his Jitterbug (Tetrahedron) Dance. This led him to issue a challenge - to describe to the guy next to you how to "assemble" a bunch of colored sticks from a bag. The only one with the courage to respond was Gillett Johnson, venturing that it should be 6 squares all the same color. Jim then (figuratively) patted him on the head, and proceeded to show that there were, to say the least, more than one way to do it. This is just another instance of where the words of this alleged Newsletter fail you. From his bag of sticks, Jim demonstrated a dazzling array of shapes and colors, using quick manipulations and slights-of-hand to make the sticks do his bidding in shapes that Leonardo da Vinci would have admired. The shapes went beyond mere tetrahedrons. There may have been dark suspicions that this was all taught to him by his son. Anyway, his point was that there are different ways to solve a given problem. We should work for that first answer, then discard it and go on. It takes more than three times to reach a brilliant solution.

GUESTS

Rotarians:           

Troy Fedderson, lion tamer of the Lafayette Club

John Sherry, Lafayette, qualifies here as a Mystery Rotarian  

Larry Sly, Concord Foodie                      

Other:                           

Gwen Reichert, Queen for a Day

Carol Chaffey, Past District Queen

Maureen Newman, Lafayette Senior Services

Dr. Barbara Persons, guest speaker

Caroline Kennedy, speaker's bodyguard

Surprisingly, Alicia Cragholm was NOT here

LADIES' DAY  

Welcome back Patti

For sure it rates a special mention that Patti Witalis is back! She'll be around for a couple of months. We'll find out how rowdy the La Jolla Club is, and whether they have "Stand Down" there. Wonderful to see the Colonel (Ret.).

Carol Chaffey is starting a project - how unusual. This time it's back to the Chaffey's old haunts in Liberia, where many intriguing photos of that young couple were taken in the '60s. They managed to keep the peace there, but after they left, the whole thing blew up with 14 years of civil war. The Peace Corps was kicked out, but thanks to a capable and compassionate female

Glad to help out, Carol

president, things have calmed down and the Corps can come back. Unfortunately, the war resulted in many uneducated children. Carol plans to remedy that through the Liberian Education Assistance Program. She, along with two other women, will be there the whole month of March as a teacher/planner, giving workshops on lesson plans and presentation in which she does have a wee bit of experience. Unfortunately grants are hard to come by, and she asks, frankly, for our support to defray expenses of the trip and purchasing and transporting supplies. A Liberian bag was passed around.

Maureen Newman, head of Lafayette Senior Services, says she wants to give seniors a good time. Who better qualified than Paul Fillinger, her host of the morning, to organize a workshop for socialization. Volunteers will interact in areas of special interest to the seniors. The organization partners with our HOMETeam and Maureen will be including that interesting fact in the Lafayette Recreation Guide which is delivered to every home in Lafayette.

RECOGNIZE THESE FOLKS?    

No stopping these two

The Reichert team scores again, as Gwen, in recognition of much contribution and ambassadorship, was awarded more jewelry on one of those pins that everyone is supposed to wear. Not only that, but she's put up with Don for 61 years. Don tried, rather unsuccessfully, to pass it off as their l6th anniversary. His recognition amount is unpublicized, but undoubtedly generous.

But Jim Marggraff wasn't wearing one of those pins at the critical time when he and his Odyssey interactive globe, Leapfrog and Livescribe were publicized in detail in the Lamorinda Weekly. In aggravation, this was a lot of advertising. In mitigation, he did acknowledge in the article that he belongs to Lamorinda Sunrise. It all averaged out at a cool $10.

Stevie scores big

Steve Ware, as usual, doesn't do things halfway. In fact, he did them double - 15 years in the Club, and a birthday. He tried to show off his vocabulary by refuting Mark Roberts description of him as being lugubrious. Anyway, he abandoned his employees and sneaked off to Napa with Laurie, had lunch at Tra Vigne, picked up Becky and had a lobster dinner at home. His birthday gift showed the distaff level of devotion: kneepads and work gloves.

Mark Larks, after all that physical training, is one tough guy. One way this is manifested is that he goes for spicy food that is 100% pain, increasing

Come on Mark, you coulda skipped the gory details

each birthday. This year featured ghost pepper sauce, and we were treated to a graphic description. His recognition was forcibly stopped about when the sauce had flowed halfway down.

After that, Brad Davis seemed almost benign. His 37th anniversary was spent at Buckhorn Road House, which he described as sophisticated. He avoided cross-examination on this point by contributing a C-note to the Endowment.

SCHEDULE CHANGES FOR THE WEEK

The next meeting of this motley crew will be held at Rossmoor this Wednesday, in the Fireside Room, at 11:30 am. It is the annual inter-club meeting and all members are encouraged to attend. Alex and Mark will be there with badges and luncheon tickets (yes indeed, the club is paying!) so that you will not be led astray. Of course, we will be DARK, DARK, DARK on Friday morning. If you insist on going to Postino anyway, better bring a key and some coffee to keep you company.

PLASTICOS

That's not a misprint, for once. Why is plastic surgery plastic? It comes from that Greek word, meaning "to mold".

Dr. Parsons' incredible journey

Dr. Barbara Persons is about as qualified to be a plastic surgeon as anyone could imagine. During her second year in medical school, she was hit by a semi driver who was both drunk and having a seizure. Barbara had 16 reconstructive surgeries as a result. Talk about having been there and done that. Fortunately, she was led to plastic surgery as her life's work.

Born and bred in Lafayette. Attended UC San Diego, and medical school at University of Vermont. Total of five years general medical school and four years in the plastic specialty. She's been around, notably at a Navajo reservation near Lake Powell which involved a general practice seeing 50 patients a day and communicating with the medicine man. She returned to Lafayette after 25 years, with three kids. Persons Plastic Surgery, Inc., is located at 911 Moraga Road.

All doctors in this field are both plastic and reconstructive, so they aren't just facelifters. Barbara's practice is 70% cosmetic and 30% reconstructive.

She graphically showed a number of cases: a blown-out eye from a gunshot, a broken jaw fixed with titanium plates, removal of skin cancer, breast symmetry and facelifts (uplifting).

With her lengthy and general training, she does most work herself, but at times will team up with specialists when a difficult crossover is involved. One area she is cautious about approaching is the hand, which she leaves to specialists unless the problem is very basic.

Dr. Persons feels a big field in the future for plastic surgery is face transplant. However, there are ethical issues involved. Therefore, we had best not speculate about possible transplants within our club. That   could be interesting!