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Palm-Mensa©
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Palm Beach County Mensa August, 2001
most recently updated Sunday, July 22nd, 2001 |
dawg dayz! |
Contents
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News and Notices * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Big Deal in December. Our chapter is hosting the 4th quarter board meeting of the American Mensa Committee (AMC), November 30, December 1 & 2, at the Airport Hilton in West Palm Beach. We need 2 kinds of volunteers--transportation experts and hospitality experts--to help make this meeting a great success for the AMC. When AMC members deplane, it would be nice to have a friendly south Florida Mensan escort them to the Hilton. Most members arrive Friday afternoon. We will have a hospitality suite for Friday and Saturday nights; it would be great to a couple members stock the suite with snacks and drinks-we do get a subsidy from the National Office to offset costs. If you would like to volunteer to help make this event a fun one for all, please call Elissa, 561.272-0475 or email elissa12@bellsouth.net. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A Little Bit of Help Needed I volunteered to be the Circulation Manager for our group's newsletter on an interim basis. It's not a big or onerous job (I hope!), but I do want to solicit some assistance, both to keep down my workload and to ensure that one or two other people know how to do it, in case I'm not able to. I would therefore like to hear from one or two people who can work with me for a few hours one day or evening after the 20th of June, or of July, or August, etc. We could get together at my home in Palm Beach, or at the West Palm Beach Library, or wherever would be mutually convenient. Please give me a call at 659-3620 or e-mail me at aesdth@yahoo.com if you'd like to help out. Thanks, Amy Shaughnessy * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Member
Laura Michaels is interested in getting a science fiction group going
in Palm Beach County. If any local members are interested in SF, they
can check * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * |
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Elissa Rudolph The Tenth Story First, I want to thank everyone who voted for me; I hope to be worthy of your confidence. I am very proud to be the first elected Regional Vice Chairman of American Mensa's newest region, the Tenth, following Karen Lary's brightly blazed trail. Thanks, Karen, for moving us forward! We have 12 groups ranging in size from 68 members (Tallahassee) to 479 (Tampa), all with their own very special characteristics and talents. By the end of my two-year term, I plan to have visited your group and met as many members as possible. And of course I am accessible by phone and e-mail whenever you have a problem or need an answer to a question. But because I don't have all the answers, I will be looking to you, too, for solutions. At the Annual Gathering in Dallas, five Region 10 groups shone like the stars you are in the Group of the Year (GOTYA) program and the Publications Recognition Program. Northwest Florida Mensa copped the Category IV GOTYA award for the second year in a row. The same group won PRP awards for their newsletter, PensaMensa (Lars Runar, ed.) in the Service: Reporting & Photography areas. Manasota Mensa's The 4M (Edgar Coudal, ed.) won an award for overall service. Flamenco, newsletter of Miami Mensa (Marlene Adams, ed.), won awards for Presentation: Blue Pencil, and for Entertainment: Humor and Continuing Item. David Jenrette, Flamenco artist, won for his cover cartoons. Meir Pann, Flamenco contributor, picked up an award for her column, "For the Love of Sophie." Space Coast Area Mensa won two awards their newsletter, The SCAM (J.T. Moran, ed.): Special Mention for Bambi Maxwell's column, "Remembering David," and an Owl in the medium group category. The owl rewards overall editorial excellence. The fifth group, Palm Beach County Mensa, won an Electronic Media award for Local Group Information (Glen Moulder, Webmaster). Congratulations to all! Unless I miscounted, our region garnered 37 nominations. Fabulous, for one of the smaller regions. You can go here to view all winners: http://www.us.mensa.org/best_of/prp.php3 If your group is interested in entering either of these programs, please contact me. Region 10 had winning representation in CultureQuest© XII, too. Two teams-Culture Cats from Tampa Bay Mensa and Tragic Kingdom from Central Florida Mensa-placed 3rd and 4th. Are we a winning region, or what? Have you submitted the name of your scholarship coordinator for the 2001-2002 Mensa Education and Research Foundation (MERF) essay contest? Only one of our groups has done so-you know who you are!! Seven of our 12 groups had winners last year-let's make it 12 of 12 this year. http://merf.us.mensa.org/scholarships/scholarship_winners/currentwinners/region10.php3 to see all the regional winners. It's a brand new region-let's have a brand new Web site for regional news. Are you interested in helping, contributing information, designing the template?? Call me. Coming Attractions: FLoRanGe '01, Broward Mensa, October 12-14, Coral Springs (new location), hurricane or no hurricane, Registrar: Jerry Fortner, gfortner@mindspring.com AMC Meeting, Airport Hilton, West Palm Beach, November 30, December 1 & 2. Call me for details. AMC meetings are open to all Mensans. AMC members are very happy to be coming to our warm Gold Coast for a December meeting.... Smarti Gras, Central Florida Mensa, January 25-27, 2002, Orlando, Registrar: Eddie Trulove, truluvs@cfl.rr.com. |
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Glen Moulder 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 August MensAnniversary (year and persons) to:
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35 ! Gino Giglio 34 Dr. Samuel Askinas 31 Joseph Lattyak and Bernice Sklar 23 Jacquelin Levine and Edward Sorensen 20 Russ Maxwell and Rear Adm. Alban Weber 15 Lindy Southwick 13 Jose Dubra and Susan Recchia 06 Dr. Jay Monfred 04 Edward Gross 03 Rory Burton, Jeffrey Gerstin, Philip Kapp, Linda Madison, Glen Moulder and Harry Powell 02 Jo Andrews 01 Michael Davis, Paige Davis and Sean Zullo |
Happy August Birthday (day and persons) to:
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4th John Hotchkiss 6th Richard Doggett 11th Susan Baker 12th Richard Linett 17th Michele Stanek 18th Brian Jones 19th Margaret McKenzie 21st Roberta Kadlecz 23rd Gina Gross and James Pressly 24th Judge C Trowbridge 25th Brandy Ellis 26th Allan Hadhazy 27th Leslie Kavchak |
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Upcoming Events Spotlight |
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Check back later for details! We're planning a beach walk, a talk by Wiccans and other new events, so please stay tuned! |
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Annual Mensan Convergence - Elissa Rudolph If you've never been to a Mensa Annual Gathering, you have not yet experienced, really experienced your Mensa membership. On a local basis we make friends and some people become like family. Imagine that feeling expanded about 100 times throughout five or so days and you might get close to what an AG is. Typical attendance is between 1000 and 1500 depending on locale; the AG in Dallas drew about 1300. In Philadelphia last year I think there must have been at least 1500 Ms. Programs and tours spread out over multiple days give attendees so much to choose from, there is always a conflict, but it's a happy conflict. Here's a sample of what was offered on Thursday afternoon, 2:30 to 4PM: "Negotiating Your Way Through the Movies" led by a film critic, "Managing Gen X and the Clash of Generations," "The Mercury 13" with Jerri Truhill one of 25 female aviators who underwent the grueling testing to qualify as a Mercury astronaut in the 1960s(13 women, including Jerri, did it), 2 Leadership Development Workshops, and a meeting of the Science Fiction & Fantasy SIG. The entire 5 days were as full. See photos for more fun in pictures. Hospitality was open 24 hours so that if you got the "hongries" at 3AM you could shuffle downstairs and grab a snack. And you would certainly find Ms who had not yet been to bed. A slumber party without much slumber...that's a good way to think of an AG. Next year's AG is in Phoenix at the Princess Resort. Here's another opportunity for you to get together with Ms from all over the country and rediscover what it means to belong to Mensa.
Five out of the ten RVCs are female: (from left) Barbara Lytle, RVC 9, Betsy Burke, RVC 1, Stacey Kirsch, RVC 4, Sallie Banko, RVC 2, and Elissa Rudolph, RVC10.
Pam Donahoo, Mensa's Executive Director (l) does the "Y" in YMCA along with Marie Mayer, former Communications Officer at the AG's Literary (get it?) Costume Ball.
Dr. Jean Becker, American Mensa's newly elected Chairman with her husband Ed Becker.
Lynda Kay and Bob Beattie, California Ms, also take the AG's Literary Ball literally. When she says "Out, Spot!" he knows what's expected. |
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Breakfast at the Crab House - Glen Moulder We started our July breakfast out on the deck, as usual, but soon everyone agreed that it was just too hot and muggy to be able to enjoy ourselves. Within ten minutes of being seated, we were all sweating, sticky and uncomfortable, so we moved the party inside to the air-conditioned dining room. Joining us was the Chairman of South Africa Mensa, Tim Knights, whom Elissa had met the week before at the AG. He was in the area visiting, so came out to breakfast with us and brought his delightful cousin Nell. He explained that the events held by his group were often speaker events that addressed serious topics and that he was looking for some ways to implement more "fun" events, like the ones he saw on our calendar. I think Elissa gave him some good words, he seemed pleased when he left. This breakfast has become sort of an unofficial Palm personal digital assistant (PDA) user's group SIG. Four out of the seven people there have Palm, Handspring and Sony Palm operating system PDAs and we beam applications and information back and forth and see who has the latest cool stuff. Kind of geeky, yeah, but if you've got a PDA, you might enjoy our little group, so come on out! Attending were Bob Dolson, Elissa Rudolph, Linda Madison, Tim Knights and cousin Nell, Pam Berteau and me. There WILL NOT be an August breakfast at The Crab House, as I'm going to have a little vacation time. Hope to see you in September, though. |
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Yasas! Here's to You!! - Elissa Rudolph We missed you at the recent Mensa Adventure at Yiasou, a Greek restaurant in Delray Beach. "Yiasou" means hello and the establishment was certainly friendly, helpful, and attentive. Constantine, our server, was intrigued by the description of Mensa-organization for people whose IQs are in the upper 2 percent of the general population. He thought we got together to engage in serious intellectual discussion. Ha! By the end of the evening he realized we also enjoyed having a good time. This was after several of us got up to dance and carry on. The only serious business we engaged in was deciding on what entrees and appetizers we would eat that night. Flaming saganaki was a hit (goat cheese set on fire at the table to the cry of "Opa!!"). Shrimp and chicken Mykonos, spanakopita, dolmades, and much more were enjoyed by the crowd. Sharron Ronco, Phyllis and Stanley Godofsky, Dorothy Mihalyfi, Phil Kapp, Glen Moulder, Pamela Berteau, Barry Karas, Faith ---Bob Dolson, Elissa Rudolph all seemed to have a great time! Won't you join us for August's Mensa Adventure? |
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Way Up North - by Bill Whitesell Last month's gathering attracted a record number of attendees, 2-legged and 4-legged, to Bill Whitesell's. The former variety included Bobbi & Julius Kadlecz, Janice Johnson, Alan Posner, Dick Hancock, Lee, Sean, and Kyle Crooks, Deche Hamill, Laura Bulawski, Rosemary Elliott, Eunice, Jennifer and Bill Whitesell; the latter variety included Schooner (Janice's dog) who we heard went swimming, Baby G. (bird), and Henrich von Schutzstaffeln, a purebred Doberman who can (if he wishes) trace his lineage back to Eva Braun. Or so says his owner, Bill. Visit Bill & Heinrich next month on the first Saturday in September. |
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July at the Waterpark - Julie Cooper Although no one else joined us at the waterpark, Ken and I, Austin and Annabelle had a great time. We arrived early in the day, before the park got crowded, so Austin and Ken were able to ride the giant waterslide seven or eight times in a row. Annabelle and I stayed close to the kiddie pool and splashed around in the fountains designed especially for the little ones while the guys took an innertube ride down the Lazy River. Although it looked like rain most of the morning, the weather held out until a little after noon. When it started to drizzle, we grabbed some lunch at the snack bar, then headed for home. Bring your Mensa kids out for our next adventure! |
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Perkophiles - Glen Moulder The July Perkophiles didn't have much of a draw, but it had power! Attending were Amy Shaughnessy, a former Chairman of AML, Elissa Rudolph, the current RVC of Region 10, Bob Dolson and me. As in June, we met at E.R. Bradley's in West Palm. What a great place to have a weekend breakfast. We sat on the shaded deck, not far from the Intracoastal Waterway. Only a few other tables were occupied, so we were able to hear each other speak and didn't experience the crowding and service issues we've seen in other restaurants. We discussed how the dinosaurs might have evolved had they not become extinct probably due to an asteroid impact, and the great creatures created for Jurassic Park III. We also talked about Mensa politics, past and present. Very enlightening experience for a relative newbie like me. Elissa is going to host Perkophiles in August, so come on out and join her. If you haven't met your RVC and would like a chance for a little one-on-one, this might be a good opportunity. |
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Monarch Migration, Dr. Death and the Hades Factor Miss Dustinea Jacquette |
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Sue Halpern's "Four Wings and A Prayer, Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly" is a tale that will cast a spell over you. The cover alone, a closeup of the Monarch's wing sprinkled with iridescent flakes, draws your hand to pick up the book and turn the pages. Halpern transmits her passion, her drive to know why and how these fragile creatures make their phenomenal trip to her readers with poetic language and hard scientific data. Butterflies born east of the Rockies migrate from as far north as Canada to overwinter in a tiny area in Mexico's Neovolcanic mountains. Those Monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains fly to Pacific Coast. It's the eastern Monarchs that Halpern follows with freelance biologist Bill Calvert a "cowboy entomologist," weighing the insects, counting them, tracking them, and looking for tags affixed perhaps thousands of miles from where they alight finally. No Monarch makes the round trip-that's where some scientists find it hard to term the Monarchs' feat a migration. Several generations may separate the Monarchs that begin the trip in Maine and the Monarchs that return next spring. One thing is certain: Butterflies tagged on the east coast have been located in the overwintering site in Mexico, exhausted and pale, missing many of their colored scales. Millions of the travelers cling to the oyamelis pine trees resting until some biological nudge gives them the sign to head north again. Amazingly these insects manage to lay eggs on milkweed as they travel, setting up future generations of Monarchs who will take part in another migration. I found this book to be a fascinating account of a still-puzzling question of why Monarchs make such a trip and what navigational signs they follow. The Earth's magnetism? Genetic memory? Scientists and naturalists are still collecting information and trying to formulate an answer. Not long ago in September as I was walking the beach in New Jersey, I saw a Monarch lazily (it seemed) flitting along beside me. Although it was tumbling and darting, it was clearly heading south along the shore. A minute later another Monarch appeared, similarly somersaulting and gliding, but unmistakably going south. Then another, and another. I lost count when I got a hundred. It was almost precise spacing: No two went side by side-they all flew singly with about ten feet between each body. It was a memorable experience, one that many shore dwellers probably miss every autumn. Check out "Four Wings and A Prayer." Read it, then say a prayer that the Monarchs continue to perform their annual dance. |
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I'm so glad Jonathan Kellerman continues to write his well-plotted psychological novels with main character Dr. Alex Delaware. This one is about "Dr. Death," a Kevorkian-like character who performs his "services" amid controversy and just outside the law. Unfortunately we, the readers, never get to meet Dr. Eldon Mate; he is brutally murdered inside his van and discovered by hikers. As the story progresses, several characters appear to have motives-the husband of one of Dr. Mate's patients, the son of that patient, a mysterious, shadowy person who may or may not be in the area. All along, details of Dr. Delaware's alliance with Milo Sturgis of the L.A. police department, his love partner, Robin, Spike, the French bulldog, and others keep the reader hooked on the mundane little routines of life while exploring the horrifying aspects of humanity. This is a page-turner-once started it will be difficult to leave it for long. I'm warning you! |
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Robert Ludlum's been writing thrillers with political overtones for 30 years beginning with The Scarlatti Inheritance, through the Bourne stories-Bourne Identity, et al.-and now he's teamed with another writer, Gayle Lynds, for The Hades Factor. Note to Mr. Ludlum: "If it ain't broke, don't attempt to fix it." The addition of another writer, however wonderful their credentials, dilutes Ludlum's impact. His choppy, but direct style is quite able to carry stories; this recent collaboration is flimsy, too female (beautiful, of course) oriented, and not worthy of being placed on the bookshelf alongside previous Ludlum tomes. It's an engrossing story, however. A mad scientist discovers an Ebola-like virus in the Peruvian jungle that is constrained and eliminated by a native cure: drinking the blood of monkeys who've developed antibodies to fight the virus. What a find! So the doctor seeing dollar signs instead of an altruistic gift to mankind, brings the virus home and uses unsuspecting humans as guinea pigs. The virus lies dormant for a number of years, then breaks out and kills the host within days. Should the cure be administered after the breakout, the patient is cured. If not, the victim is irretrievable. The doctor's goal is to allow a pandemic to happen-the virus is shipped in random samples of his own company's pharmaceutical orders-then come to the rescue with the cure. Of course, he will charge billions for the cure. Blackmail or blackdrug? Corrupt government employees are involved and corrupt Iraqis (not sure how they got in there). There is too much emphasis on how good-looking all the "good" men and women are and how the villains are described as "pock-marked with bad teeth." Too superficial, Mr. Ludlum. Get rid of your co-writers or retire. |
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Just because it's summer is no reason to cut down on your visits to your local library. Go and say hello to your favorite librarian! |
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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. |
© 2000-2007 Palm Beach County Mensa. The Mensa logo is a registered trademark of Mensa International Limited and American Mensa Limited, all rights reserved. Mensa does not hold any opinion or have, or express, any political or religious views.