Palm-Mensa | Newsletter | February, 2001

 

Palm-Mensa©

Palm Beach County Mensa
Newsletter for

February, 2001

 

 

 Last updated Tuesday, January 30th, 2001


Contents

RVC Update - Karen Lary

Notes From the Underground - Barry Karas

Member News and Updates - Glen Moulder

PBCM 2001 Elections - Glen Moulder/Barry Karas

Treasurer's Report through December 31st, 2000 - John Swick

January Events Review - various

Book Box - Dustinea Jacquette

Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga - Carole Seuling

Valentine's Day in History - submitted by Barry Karas

AMC Office Candidates for 2001 - Cher Burnham/Maggie Rubin

Advertisements - Glen Moulder

Editor's ForuM - Glen Moulder

This month's calendar  Events for other groups

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

RVC Update

Karen Lary

Today I attended a meeting at Walt Disney World. One of the high-level managers met with us to discuss the stuff high-level managers generally discuss. One of the topics was about how we need to do a better job of identifying what is really important to our users, as opposed to what we see as important.

OK - here's why this is relevant. I was thinking about what I wanted to say to you, the members of Mensa's 10th region, and it occurred to me that we have the same problem in Mensa that most large companies have. The local group members don't think the AMC is interested enough in their concerns - that we just don't get what is really important at the local level. Well, I care, and I want to hear from you. I know some of the things those of you who are officers in the local groups face every day -- I've been there. We have an amazingly diverse region, and I'd like to get a feel for the issues that concern each of the local groups in Florida.

I will be contacting the local group officers to arrange a time and place that I can visit with each group in the next few months. I want to hear anything and everything that is on your minds concerning Mensa - the good stuff, as well as those things you feel we could be doing better. I will do what I can to help. Although I am new to the AMC, I am not shy about speaking up at meetings, so if you have something you would like me to pass along, let me know.

I'd like to thank every one of you who have been serving as an officer or newsletter editor in your local group. You are the ones who keep Mensa alive - keep up the good work. If you are coming into a new position with your group, please let me know if I can do anything to help get you going.

If you are not currently involved in your local group, please remember that the words we most want to hear from members are, "what can I do to help?" We really need more people to come forward so that no one will suffer burnout. My dearest friends are the ones I've made in the past 10 years serving as a local group officer, editing a newsletter, or participating in an RG. If you give to Mensa, I guarantee it will give back!

I've heard from quite a few of you about National Testing Day. Congratulations on your success!

By the time you read this we will have enjoyed another Heart of Florida regional gathering, this year in Deland. In case you didn't make it -- I'll let you know how it went.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes From the Underground

LocSec - Barry Karas

MOVIE NIGHT. Linda Madison will host our first Movie Night on February 24th at 7:30 P.M. Check the calendar for details and note that reservations are limited to eight.

TIME AND AGAIN. No, it's not a TV show although it is grounded in reality. It's time for our group elections again. (Has it been almost two years since I've been in office? Well I guess that old adage holds: "Time flies when you're having fun.") The open offices are: Local Secretary; Editor; Program Director; and Treasurer. There are no requirements other than desire...except that the Editor should have a working knowledge of word processing, web design and management. Of course, the prior officers will be readily available to give advice and guidance. Send in the nomination form that will be printed in the February issue of the newsletter if you wish to run. I can *almost* guarantee that there will not be any controversy. All you have to do is to mark your ballot - which will be designed so it won't be confusing <g> - and mail it to a member of the Election Committee by April 20, 2001. The only potential "tricky" part: PLEASE SIGN THE OUTSIDE OF THE ENVELOPE.

ELECTION COMMITTEE. These members volunteered to be on the committee: AMY SHAUGHNESSY (phone - 561-659-3620) and DON SPERO (phone - 561-627-4720; e-mail - dspero@adelphia.net). We are very appreciative that these members chose to help.

CULTURE QUEST XII (CQ XII). The Super Bowl has its Roman numerals and so do we. This year the Team Captain is ED GROSS of Boca Raton (e-mail: MISTERED3600@cs.com). CQ is on Sunday, April 29th. That's a good omen 'cause it's my birthday. Please contact Ed if you want to be on the team. This is a fun time as far as I'm concerned - many of the questions are so ridiculously hard that it's funny.

A CHALLENGE. The good folks of Broward Mensa have challenged us to a trivia (not trivial) contest. They said they'd whip us, are we going to let them get away with it? We've arranged for a match on Tuesday, February 13th. It's in their territory, but they're hosting, so we'll be the visitors. Contact me (bkaras@bigfoot.com or 561-964-4360) if you want to join in. We can coordinate our effort and all go together (and perhaps we'll have two vehicles and perform a pincer maneuver). No firearms please...but chads of all types are allowed.

 

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Member News and Updates

Glen Moulder

At the end of December, 2000, Palm Beach County Mensa had 290 members, increasing the total by 12 members since November. American Mensa, Ltd. reported membership at 45,687 up by 774 from the previous month. We welcome new members Lavi Ramstein, Angela Zanin, Stanley Needelman, Eric Ackerman and Ivan DeQuesada. We also welcome Abby Knott, who recently moved into our area, and Blossom Meyerson, Ronald Kessler and Peter Pinter, who are reinstating.

Please note: If you don't see your birthday shown in this section when it should appear, you probably indicated to the national office that this information should be withheld. If so, and you do want it to appear, simply contact the national office and change your information withholding preferences.

 

Happy February MensAnniversary (year and persons) to:

38! Ellen Jaffe

30 Dr. Charles Schulman

23 Robert Dolson

21 Ruth Dumas, Shirley Smuckler and Susan Yeutter

18 John Conway

17 George Kierspe

15 Henry Lenga

14 Diane Carper

10 Dr. Morton Chalef and Donald Walker

09 David Hoshaw and James Pike

07 Alan Damsky and Vickie Mathews

04 Keith Penska, Donald Spero and Arthur Vanmoor

03 Arthur Matluck and David Saxon

02 Susan Baker and David Osofsky

01 Ann Kasper and Richard Koppe

 

Happy February Birthday (day and persons) to:

2nd Dr. Charles Schulman

6th Sean Zullo

8th Steven Collins and Frank McNally

14th Shirley Smuckler

15th Benjamin Field and Peter Pinter

21st Deena Nathan-Strauss

22nd George McEvoy

25th Ralph Hutchins

27th Linda Madison and Michael Purcell

 

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PBCM Elections

Glen Moulder

According to our By-Laws (Article IV appears below), it's time for our group elections. The process is simple -- nominations are submitted to the Elections Committee and then votes are sent to the committee from the ballot mailer that will be sent to all members. The committee is responsible for collecting and tallying the responses and resolving any questions that arise during the election. The elected offices are Local Secretary, Editor Program Director and Treasurer. Nominations must be for and from members who are currently in good standing with American Mensa, Ltd. and must also be members of PBCM. Nominations must be received by the committee by March 1st, 2001. Ballots must be signed on the outside of the envelope and must be received by the committee by April 20th, 2001. Any questions or comments should be addressed to the members of the committee. You may contact them at:

Ms. Amy E. Shaughnessy, Chairperson, 44 Coconut Row, #B, Palm Beach, FL 33480-4069 (phone 659.3620) or Donald Spero, Member, 1618 Twelve Oaks Way, #201, North Palm Beach, FL 33408-3266
(phone 627-4720)

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Palm Beach County Mensa By-Laws (excerpted).

ARTICLE IV. ELECTIONS:

1. By majority vote the [Executive Board] EB shall choose an Election Committee (hereafter EC) of two to four members who must be members in good standing but not members of the EB, who shall serve for the forthcoming election only, and who may not be candidates for election. The EC shall be responsible for receiving and tallying the ballots and certifying the results.

2. The February issue of the newsletter shall announce the forthcoming election for officers to serve for two years and shall announce the name and address of the members of the EC. It shall announce that nominations must be received by the EC by March 1 and must be signed by the person making the nomination who must be a member of PBCM in good standing to be valid. Persons may not be nominated unless they have agreed to serve.

3. The EC shall announce the names of persons nominated in the April issue of the newsletter. Ballots shall be printed in the newsletter or in a separate mailing and sent to all local members indicating that only members in good standing may vote, that the envelope containing the ballot must be signed to be valid, and that ballots must be in the hands of the EC by April 20. For offices for which there is only one valid nomination, the EC shall declare the nominee elected.

4. The EC may decide to permit candidates to provide the newsletter with a set amount of campaign material. If so, each candidate who chooses to avail himself of this right shall have an equal word limit. The newsletter shall remain completely impartial.

5. The EC shall inform the candidates of the time and place of the ballot count and invite them to be present in person or by proxy for verification. The ballots shall be counted no later than April 30. A plurality of valid votes cast for each office shall constitute election. If a person is elected to more than one office, his vote for the lower office in terms of succession shall be invalidated and the next highest candidate shall be deemed elected to that office. Order of succession for purposes of elections shall be: Local Secretary, Program Director, Editor, Treasurer.

6. Challenges to the election must be submitted in writing to the existing EB by June 1 following the election. Any actions taken by the EB in the meantime will not be affected by the outcome of any such challenge.

 

2001 PALM BEACH COUNTY ELECTION

ACCEPTANCE OF NOMINATION

 

In accordance with Palm Beach County Mensa Bylaws Article IV, Section (2),

I, _______________________________________________________

(Type or print your name)

accept the nomination to run for (check all applicable):

             Local Secretary

             Program Director

             Newsletter Editor

             Treasurer

and pledge to serve if elected.

 

Signature:          ________________________________________

Membership number:  ______________________________

Date:               ______________________________

This form must be sent by postal mail to Ms. Amy E. Shaughnessy, Chairperson, 44 Coconut Row, #B, Palm Beach, FL 33480-4069.

 

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Treasurer's Report - July 1st through December 31st, 2000

John Swick

 

Description

Sub

Amt

Subtotal

Total

Beginning bank balance JUL 1, 2000

 

 

$1,028.46

 

USPS bulk mail balance

 

 

491.31

 

ASSETS TOTAL

 

 

 

$1,519.77

Income:

 

 

 

 

Dues returned for local use

JUL

165.95

 

 

 

AUG

198.84

 

 

 

SEP

174.83

 

 

 

OCT

265.15

 

 

 

NOV

186.73

 

 

 

DEC

187.48

$1,178.98

 

Revenue from tests

 

 

$287.50

 

Newsletter subscriptions and ads

 

 

$0

 

INCOME TOTAL

 

 

 

+$1,466.48

ASSETS SUBTOTAL (Assets+Income):

 

 

 

$2,986.25

 

 

 

 

 

Expenses:

 

 

 

 

Cost of printing newsletter

JUL

36.09

 

 

 

AUG

46.22

 

 

 

SEP

41.98

 

 

 

OCT

46.53

 

 

 

NOV

47.44

 

 

 

DEC

44.52

$262.78

 

Other postage and supplies

 

 

$80.41

 

Other expenses (holiday party)

 

 

$194.45

 

USPS bulk mail permit

 

 

$100.00

 

USPS bulk mail account

 

 

400.00

 

TOTAL EXPENSES:

 

 

 

-$1,037.64

Bank balance December 31, 2000

 

 

 

$1,457.30

2003-07-26-SAT drt Version 2.00. Redesign at new address

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2003-07-26-SAT drt Version 2.00. Redesign at new address 2003-07-26-SAT drt Version 2.00. Redesign at new address

USPS bulk mail acct balance, JUL

 

 

491.31

 

Deposits

 

 

400.00

$891.31

Postage mailing newsletter

JUL

70.69

 

 

 

AUG

72.92

 

 

 

SEP

63.07

 

 

 

OCT

65.88

 

 

 

NOV

74.43

 

 

 

DEC

74.01

 

-$421.00

USPS bulk mail acct balance, DEC 31

 

 

 

$470.31

 

 

 

 

========

TOTAL ASSETS

 

 

 

$1,927.61

January Events Review

 

NORTH COUNTY - Bill Whitesell

The January North County Gathering was a massage party held at Donna Bognar's. Those attending were Donna and David Bognar, Bobbie & Julius Kadlecz, Lil & Bob Bienenstein, Jody McGee, Laura Bulawski and me.

 

SOUTH COUNTY

 This event has been temporarily suspended.

 

Chesterfield's Fields Another First Friday - Elissa Rudolph

Our group again held forth in the large function room at Chesterfield's in Delray Beach. This area seems to be an almost ideal arrangement because the setup allows people to move around, play musical chairs, and, in general, let the conversation flow. Our servers Angela and (sorry, forget the other one's name) worked hard for our group and assistant manager Jenna stopped by a couple times to see that everything was in order. Sounds like they like us, they really like us!! Helping the evening roll along were Paul and Pat Couture, Stan and Ros Needelman, Sharron Ronco, Barry Karas, Merrell and Jerry Fortner, Ann Bachman, Ryan Leonard, Carol Seuling, Faith Bantay, Jim Parsons, Glen Moulder, Pamela Berteau, Bob Dolson, and Elissa Rudolph. Hope to see you at the next First Friday!!

 

Perkophiles - Glen Moulder

In January, our Perkophiles on the 13th was huge! I made a mistake on the calendar and had it advertised for the 16th, but that didn't stop people from finding out the correct date anyway and showing up for the fun! Pam and I got there early and got the big table again. By five after nine Elissa Rudolph, Bob Dolson, Richard and Alexandra Linett, their friend Bob Ashmore, David and Michaele Saxon, Pat and Paul Couture and Paul's cousin Rita had shoved a couple of more tables together and queued up for coffee and bagel goodies.

There was still a lot of outrage over that travesty of a presidential election and we talked about the poor performance of social workers in protecting children at risk. There was discussion about education, careers, hobbies, the cloning of animals and the monkey with the jellyfish DNA (does it have tentacles?). Come on out and join us next month and maybe we can take over the whole front corner or the outside tables.

Breakfast at TooJays - Glen Moulder

Richard Linett hosted a breakfast that he thought might be a small, intimate affair. Instead, ten people in all showed up and we occupied the whole front corner by the window. The food flew and the conversation touched on many different subjects. We all managed to get the correct food orders and then some of us went to an art show at the shopping mall in Tequesta. Great fun! Come on out to Rich's next breakfast on the outdoor deck at the Crab House on February 3rd (it's in the calendar). Attending were: Richard and Alexandra Linett, Bob and Ann Abbott, Pat and Paul Couture, Glen Moulder and Pam Berteau and Bob and Peg Peyton. 

MensAdventure Dinner at Saigon-Tokyo - Barry Karas

The January MensAdenture was held at Saigon-Tokyo in Greenacres. Attending were SHARRON RONCO, JOHN SWICK, RYAN LEONARD, LINDA MADISON, FAY HARRINGTON, CAROLE SEULING, ALLYCIN WINCHESTER, TOM WINCHESTER, PAM BERTEAU, GLEN MOULDER, ELISSA RUDOLPH, BOB DOLSON, and last, but not least (plus they're from my part of the country) PAT and PAUL COUTURE. Most people had Vietnamese food. General consensus: the food was quite good, but the service was lacking (maybe because the restaurant personnel were not used to serving a large party?). In any event, the CAMARADERIE WAS EXCELLENT.

 During the dinner I was reminded of one of the main reasons why I joined Mensa - to be with people who could understand me (NO, not in that way!). I was talking with a person and made reference to a non-obscure item that probably wouldn't be recognized by most people. That person "got it" naturally, and I only noted this a few minutes later.

 

Not Quite Ready for Mensa! - Elissa Rudolph

The City of West Palm Beach Library was not quite prepared for a Mensa testing session last month. The Genealogical Society was holding their meeting at exactly the same time we wanted to administer timed intelligence tests. Apparently the person reserving the exact same square footage thought it would work. While it might have been very informative to sit in on their session instead of guiding nervous test-takers, we opted for rearranging furniture in a quiet corner of the library. With the help of Eileen the library assistant, Pat Couture of Boston and South Florida Mensa chapters, and Deche Hamill (one of our own) from Port St. Lucie, the tables and chairs were thoughtfully rearranged and ten potential Mensans sat still for the tests. The ages of the test-takers ranged from 14 to over 50, split in half gender-wise. Interesting to note that of the ten, seven attended due to local advertising. They either heard it on the radio (NPR or WXEL) or read about the test session in a local newspaper. Shows that potential Mensans do not spend all their time in front of a computer. They read! They actually read! Wait 'til I tell Miss Dustinea Jacquette, our retired librarian lady who is always exhorting us to visit our local bibliotecas and read!

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

About Books

Dustinea Jacquette

This month's book selections cover a wide range of subjects from entertainment fiction to the fascinations of the natural world.

 

If someone promised you that you would win $100 million in the lottery if only you would pick the numbers they gave you...If you were poor, uneducated with a small child to take care of....If you really had no hope of pulling yourself out of an ever deepening rut....would you accept? Even if it meant letting that person use most of your winnings to further their own gain? Even if what would be left to you would be more than you could spend in a lifetime? Even though deep in your soul you know it's wrong to benefit from a fixed lottery? Such thoughts crowd the head of pretty LuAnn Tyler, a poor but smart young mother whose boyfriend has abused her for the last time. A strange, cross-dressing, manipulator with a genius for selecting just the right kind of "winner," has made LuAnn an offer from which she cannot walk away. In David Baldacci's latest tale, "The Winner" (author of "Absolute Power"), readers find out LuAnn's decision and how it affects her for the next decade of her life. A bit improbable, but the story is one we've all considered-just what would we do if we were guaranteed huge winnings, but with a Faustian price tag? What would you do?

buy me at Amazon.com

Here is a fascinating trip through the 20th century with a fish long thought to be extinct. A huge fish, five to six feet in length, with blue scales, extra fins that resemble limbs, and a puppy-dog tail, the coelacanth (see-la-kanth) may be the linking species that bridges the gap between ocean-going organisms and land dwellers. Fossils of a coelacanth-like fish exist that are dated to 400 million years ago, but the animal was thought to have disappeared during the age of the dinosaurs. And yet, in 1938, the curator of a small South African museum, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer recognized the strange-looking fish on a trawler's deck as something she had never seen before. The story of how she involved J.L.B. Smith, a respected biologist, in recognizing the ancient fish, preserving, studying, and eventually providing for its conservation, fills "A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth" by Samantha Weinberg. Immensely readable and informative, this book will fill you with encouragement for the human and fish species. If this "dino-fish" can survive through ice ages and land mass upheavals, maybe we can survive too. (Of course, if this fish disappears while being "conserved" by human caretakers, then we deserve to disappear too.) For more information on the coelacanth, go to http://www.dinofish.com/ and order a T-shirt. I did.

buy me at Amazon.com

Don't bother with "Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think"-too negative & condescending to other authors like Elizabeth Marshall Thomas who wrote "the Hidden Life of Dogs."

But you may enjoy "Owls Aren't Wise and Bats Aren't Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife" by Warner Shedd. With personal stories and well-grounded scientific facts, Shedd tells us that porcupines cannot throw their quills, bats are certainly not blind, and owls sometimes do dumb things. He compares the lynx with the bobcat, polar bears with their brown and black cousins, and weasels, ermines, mink, and ferrets. Think moose are slow moving, kind of stupid animals? Au contraire! They can out run you, and if you get caught between a cow and a calf you may end up as a moose pie! Buffalo Bill would have been chagrined to learn that his name should have been Bison Bill. Our native animal is not a buffalo-buffaloes live in Asia and Africa. We know them as Cape buffalo or water buffalo. Our American or Plains animal is a bison, whose Latin name underscores the correctness of the name-he is a Bison bison bison. The Canadian version is Bison bison athabaesca. The myth surrounding beavers is that they gnaw trees the way they want them to fall. Again, the author tells us that sometimes beavers end up under the trees they fell-dead. Most of the time, they're just lucky. However, beavers are tremendous engineers in the ways that they build their dams and lodges. The author's personal encounters and comments sprinkle this book with an authenticity that is extremely entertaining. Well worth your time!

buy me at Amazon.com

That's all for now, my pretties! Visit your local library soon!

 

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Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga

Carole (Petersen) Seuling

Sometime in the 80's I went to New York's American Museum of Natural History for a Viking exhibit. My memories of it are of treasure: rows, heaps, and masses of gold and silver bowls, cups, rings, necklaces, bracelets, reliquaries, anything bright and shiny that drew the eye of a rampaging Norseman as he hacked his way through a monastery or habitation. This exhibit exemplified what most people think of when they hear or see the word "Vikings": bloodthirsty, savage men who spent their lives killing, looting, and raping the less predatory areas of Europe from the end of the 8th century well into the 14th. Even Joe Colombo, the publicity-seeking mob boss who organized the Italian-American Anti-Defamation League and was shortly thereafter assassinated, called the publication of "The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation" just before Columbus Day in the 60's a poke in the eye for Italian-Americans. What he really meant was that it was scandalous for civilized Renaissance explorers to have been beaten to the New World by ax-swinging marauders half a millennium earlier. (Though the Vinland Map is currently in disrepute, there are still some scholars who believe it is a true representation of Norse travels in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.)

"Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga" is a kinder, gentler exhibit. In choosing items that would illustrate the spread of Vikings westward to Iceland, Greenland, Helluland (Baffin Is.), Markland (Labrador), and Vinland (Newfoundland), those who set up the exhibit had mostly homely, drab, unremarkable, everyday items to work with. The few textiles are faded to brownish gray, the wood items are dry and fragile, and stone implements are worn. Yet these things are somehow more real and more authentically human productions than all the golden treasure of the earlier exhibit. They have been worn and used and even mended. A ringed pin is dinged and a little bent, but it was found in L'Anse-aux-Meadows, Newfoundland, among Iceland-style foundations. A coin minted in Norway long before Columbus sailed turned up in Maine in a Native American midden. The few treasures are of walrus ivory and whalebone: three of the Lewis Chessmen with their dour faces and medieval dress and a beautiful carved ironing board. The scaled-down longboat of recent construction may not be old, but visitors can touch it and run their hands along the overlapping planks that form a beautiful curved bow.

This is an intimate exhibit that reveals glimpses of the daily life of Viking settlers who pushed farther and farther west on the Atlantic during the period of warming that made Greenland more habitable than it is today. Some settlements are still in place (Iceland), some succumbed to the returning cold weather (Greenland), and some apparently lasted for one or two seasons (Newfoundland), but they existed and are proof that the Vikings were more than rapacious killers. This was gratifying to me, since I am a descendant of Danes from Jutland, where my family (according to church records) lived for at least 650 years. The odds of a few of my ancestors being Vikings are pretty high. In the gift shop adjacent to the exhibit (which is due to move on to its next site very soon), I found CDs of lur music (those long, long horns that sound strangely like didgeridoos) and inexpensive but historically accurate Celtic-influenced silver pendants, and I bought one of each. But there were no historically inaccurate horned helmets or toy axes or two-handed broadswords. Vikings are becoming more and more politically correct. (See www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/start.htm/ for an overview of the exhibit, where it will be, and more information on Viking explorations.)

 

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Valentine's Day in History

submitted by Barry Karas

Historians claim that the first valentine was a poem sent in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London at the time. In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine's cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800's and now the date is very commercialized. The town of Loveland, Colorado, does a large post office business around February 14.

In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. In ancient Rome, the lives of young boys and young girls were strictly separate. However, during the Lupercalia Festival, the boys would each pick a girl's name from a vase. The boys then became partners, for the duration of the festival, with the girl that they chose. During the festival, the pairs of children danced and played together. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

How did the custom of kissing start?

Over time, the custom of kissing developed as a way for adults to express their love and affection for one another. The roots of this form of affection can be traced back to primitive times, when mothers fondled their children, much as mothers do today.

Much later, in the sixth century, society apparently accepted the custom of kissing between adults as an expression of their affection. Not surprisingly, France first accepted kissing in courtship, and in amore. There, figure dancing was the rage, and each dance was sealed with a kiss.

The custom of kissing swept from France through Europe to Russia, where Russian nobility loved to ape the French. Eventually, the kiss was incorporated into marriage ceremonies, and today lip-locks couples into sweet matrimony.

The custom of kissing today, as well as in ancient times, serves to show respect, and to pay homage to another. For example, early Romans kissed each other on the mouth or on the eyes to greet one another in a manner they deemed to be a dignified. One Roman emperor even ranked a person's importance by the body part he was allowed to kiss. He allowed important nobles to kiss his lips, less important ones to kiss his hands, and the least important ones to kiss his feet.

 In Russia, the highest sign of recognition from the Crown meant a kiss from the Tsar himself. Today, natives of many African tribes pay homage to their Chief by kissing the ground over which he has walked.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

AMC Office Candidates for 2001

Cher Burnham


The following is a list of candidates for AMC offices who have chosen to run in the spring of 2001 through the Nominating Committee (NomComm). If you, or any other member of Mensa, has information regarding any of these candidates pertaining to their expected performance in the office for which they are running, please send it directly to me. I will then forward the information to the candidate for response before circulating it to the NomComm and all other interested parties.

OFFICER

CANDIDATE(S)

Chairman

Bob Beatty
Tony Jackowski

1st Vice Chairman

Jean Becker
Linda Hathaway

2nd Vice Chairman

Russ Bakke
Bob Cox

Secretary

Dan Burg

Treasurer

Jim Werdell

RVC 1

Betsy Burke

RVC 2

Sallie Banko

RVC 3

Wil Huff
Rick Magnus

RVC 4

Stacey Kirsch
Cyndi Kuyper

RVC 5

Ike Kullman
Oscar Ziegler

RVC 6

Ray O'Connor
Dan Wilterding

RVC 7

Steve Burnham
Marcia Lannan

RVC 8

Scott Rainey

RVC 9

Barbara Lytle

 

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Advertisements

Glen Moulder

Wanted! We are looking for someone who can offer relevant educational commentary on a wide variety of subjects during normal daily after school activities for our 2 boys, Mensa members, aged 6 and 8. We are not looking for a 'tutor' in the classic sense of the word. Except on rare occasions, we do not wish to have specific didactic sessions. However, we would like for our children to learn science, literature, languages, history, math, etc. both in school and during their recreational activities. If you feel that you can assist us in accomplishing these goals, please contact Eric at 561.775.1950.

 

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Editor's ForuM

Glen Moulder

Do you know Hex? While reading the September, 2000 issue of Scientific American, I came across an article by Ian Stewart about the game of Hex. Although I don't care much for most games, his description intrigued me. This two-person game, like Othello (sometimes called Reversi) is easy to learn but hard to master. The board is constructed in an 11 x 11 grid of hexagonal shapes like this.

Two opposing sides of the board are black, the other two white (red and blue are common also), the players each choose a color. The White-side player has a supply of white chips, the other black. The object is to connect your sides of the board with your chips of the same color. A coin or die is tossed to determine which player moves first. He places a chip of his preferred color on an unoccupied position, the next player places his chip on any other unoccupied hex and the game continues, alternating moves until one player is able to connect his sides. The details of strategy are much too involved to go into here, but this game is much harder than it looks! It has none of the boring deep-level thinking of chess, does not depend on luck and is much more involved than checkers. A typical game is shown below. I played white against the computer and lost.

Hex was developed in the early 1940's by Danish mathematician Piet Hein and was first known as Polygon. Others later claimed to have invented it independently also, including John Nash in 1948, when a graduate student at Princeton. When I read about it, I began looking for both a computer version and a board version. I'm still looking for the board game, it's not available at any local toy or hobby store I've been in. A very well-done computer version called Hexy by Vadim Anshelevich can be found at http://home.earthlink.net/~vanshel/. When you download it, you can play a limited number of games until you register by e-mail, but Mr. Anshelevich does not charge for registration. If you visit his site and contact him via e-mail, please mention that I recommended his site to you. I intend to locate a board version and bring it to the Games Night on the 16th. If you'd like to play, let me know and we'll set up at a table.

 

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Note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and DO NOT reflect opinions of Palm Beach County Mensa, its officers, or of American Mensa, Ltd., which holds NO opinions.

 

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