Lexington Spoke
Posted by Charles Cassell
on Aug 06, 2012
I arrived at today’s meeting, courtesy of the Charlie Vail Taxi Service. (My son Alex needed my car to get to work.) Thanks, Charlie. It would have been a long walk on a hot day.
Since the only rules of thumb for writing a Spoke are to use King’s English and keep it interesting, let’s start with the origin of that idiom, which means using past practices as guides.
In 1732 Francis Buller, an English judge, proclaimed that "a man could not beat his wife (or I might add, a Spoke writer) with a stick larger than the diameter of his thumb." Regardless of Buller's intention, his "rule of thumb” was taken seriously by many, resulting in a large public outcry. (Don’t try this at home!)
Beautiful, sunny, toasty day. Scrumptious chicken scampi with Caesar salad, plus chocolate chip cookies. 27 Lexington Rotarians and 2 guests, both sitting at PP Doug H.’s table. The Pledge was led by PP Don S., the first verse of America by PP Dave . and the invocation by moi. The Welcome Song was sung with gusto and verve, which brought smiles to our two Spanish-speaking guests, Sebastian and Angelica Corbat from Argentina. (Hearing it in a “foreign language” must help.)
Sebastian, Angelica, and their two little girls will live in Lexington for a year, while he has an allogenic stem cell transplantation at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. They will be living at 532 Lowell Street, and their oldest daughter will attend Fiske School. It would be great if Rotarians could provide assistance in helping them become familiar with their surroundings and comfortable in Lexington. (Spanish language skills a plus, but not necessary.)
Then things got mean. PP Bob S. reminded Sgt.-at-Arms Connie that there were tables without guests. (PP Bob was sitting with the guests.) PP John O. moved that PP Bob pay a fine for “ratting us out.” While the majority of the members cried out for a vote, Pres. Dave was deaf to the appeal. Fines were collected over the lifeless body of Majority Rule. (Hey, didn’t a revolution begin over such things?)
PP Bob S. gave me the capital letters BC, the initials of either my favorite comic strip by Johnny Hart or the 60’s stripper, Bubbles Curley. I’ll have to ask him. More Happy Dollars: Jim S. hosted a terrific day for the Smiley family, which you can read all about in Lexington’s most colorful and informative newspaper (no names, please). PP Don S. is enjoying a visit from his son’s family. His grandchildren greeted him with, “What is the password for your WiFi?”
To help PP Nick C. get a return on his $4 investment, which occurred when he paid his no-guest fine with a fiver to “No-change Connie”, I volunteered that the Wagon Wheel sweet corn that I won in last week’s raffle was absolutely the best I’d ever had. Since no good deed goes unpunished, PP Don S. suggested that I pay a fine for letting him “give” me the winning ticket last week. Huh? I paid out of respect for the best dentist that my son has ever had.
Kerri Rist, a local Realtor with Coldwell Banker, gave a great classification talk. She’s currently studying management at Northeastern University
(information technology and organizational communication). She has worked for Digital and Hewlett-Packard, travelling all over, while selling their products and services. Now she provides taxi service for Emily, her 14-year old dancing daughter who is at sleep-over camp, and Zachary, her 15-year old baseball playing son who would do well to get a job. Kerri is a avid boater and tri-athlete (swim, bike, run), has a place on Lake Winnipesaukee, and does a lot of volunteer work. VP Jim S. and PP Bob S. asked for help with boat repair and snow shoveling for the elderly, respectively.
This Week’s Challenge: Next week I will pay the Club $1.00 for each Rotarian who can draw me a circle with a single dot in its center…without taking the point of the pencil off the paper. No Googling and no help from anyone older than nine. (That’s third grade age.)
Submitted before recess, PP BC
Since the only rules of thumb for writing a Spoke are to use King’s English and keep it interesting, let’s start with the origin of that idiom, which means using past practices as guides.
In 1732 Francis Buller, an English judge, proclaimed that "a man could not beat his wife (or I might add, a Spoke writer) with a stick larger than the diameter of his thumb." Regardless of Buller's intention, his "rule of thumb” was taken seriously by many, resulting in a large public outcry. (Don’t try this at home!)
Beautiful, sunny, toasty day. Scrumptious chicken scampi with Caesar salad, plus chocolate chip cookies. 27 Lexington Rotarians and 2 guests, both sitting at PP Doug H.’s table. The Pledge was led by PP Don S., the first verse of America by PP Dave . and the invocation by moi. The Welcome Song was sung with gusto and verve, which brought smiles to our two Spanish-speaking guests, Sebastian and Angelica Corbat from Argentina. (Hearing it in a “foreign language” must help.)
Sebastian, Angelica, and their two little girls will live in Lexington for a year, while he has an allogenic stem cell transplantation at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. They will be living at 532 Lowell Street, and their oldest daughter will attend Fiske School. It would be great if Rotarians could provide assistance in helping them become familiar with their surroundings and comfortable in Lexington. (Spanish language skills a plus, but not necessary.)
Then things got mean. PP Bob S. reminded Sgt.-at-Arms Connie that there were tables without guests. (PP Bob was sitting with the guests.) PP John O. moved that PP Bob pay a fine for “ratting us out.” While the majority of the members cried out for a vote, Pres. Dave was deaf to the appeal. Fines were collected over the lifeless body of Majority Rule. (Hey, didn’t a revolution begin over such things?)
PP Bob S. gave me the capital letters BC, the initials of either my favorite comic strip by Johnny Hart or the 60’s stripper, Bubbles Curley. I’ll have to ask him. More Happy Dollars: Jim S. hosted a terrific day for the Smiley family, which you can read all about in Lexington’s most colorful and informative newspaper (no names, please). PP Don S. is enjoying a visit from his son’s family. His grandchildren greeted him with, “What is the password for your WiFi?”
To help PP Nick C. get a return on his $4 investment, which occurred when he paid his no-guest fine with a fiver to “No-change Connie”, I volunteered that the Wagon Wheel sweet corn that I won in last week’s raffle was absolutely the best I’d ever had. Since no good deed goes unpunished, PP Don S. suggested that I pay a fine for letting him “give” me the winning ticket last week. Huh? I paid out of respect for the best dentist that my son has ever had.
Kerri Rist, a local Realtor with Coldwell Banker, gave a great classification talk. She’s currently studying management at Northeastern University
(information technology and organizational communication). She has worked for Digital and Hewlett-Packard, travelling all over, while selling their products and services. Now she provides taxi service for Emily, her 14-year old dancing daughter who is at sleep-over camp, and Zachary, her 15-year old baseball playing son who would do well to get a job. Kerri is a avid boater and tri-athlete (swim, bike, run), has a place on Lake Winnipesaukee, and does a lot of volunteer work. VP Jim S. and PP Bob S. asked for help with boat repair and snow shoveling for the elderly, respectively. This Week’s Challenge: Next week I will pay the Club $1.00 for each Rotarian who can draw me a circle with a single dot in its center…without taking the point of the pencil off the paper. No Googling and no help from anyone older than nine. (That’s third grade age.)
Submitted before recess, PP BC