BRIARCLIFF MANOR ROTARY MEETING 8/28/09 - from Don Wilde

BRIARCLIFF MANOR ROTARY MEETING
August 28, 2009

TODAY’S QUOTE
More than a catbird hates a cat,
Or a criminal hates a clue,
Or Russia hates the United States
That’s how much I love you.
--Ogden Nash

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

On this date--August 28, 1986--Urho K. Kekkonon, ex-President of Finland, died.
Damn!

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!!!!REMINDER!!!!!

Next Friday, September 4th, has been designated “Food Pantry Donation Day!” Please bring your non-perishable goods to the September 4th meeting.

The items recommended by the Food Pantry are: Canned fruits, Canned vegetables,Tuna fish, Baked beans, and the always-popular Macaroni and cheese. Let’s try to fill at least one brown-paper grocery bag!

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MEETING OPENING: Our weekly meeting opened officially at 12:16, or thereabouts.

SALUTE TO THE FLAG, SINGING OF A PATRIOTIC SONG, AND A PRAYER:
Our salute to the flag was led, heroically once again, by Sy Yuter, the rousing patriotic number was sung by golden-voiced Marie Fuesy, and the whole thing was wrapped up to a fare-thee-well by Bishop John, who led us in a plea to Our Maker for a little now-and- then understanding.

THE PRESIDENT’S REMARKS: Our bouncy new president got the meeting off to a roaring start with a list of committees and an appeal for chairmen thereof. He stressed that all the committees are important to our mission of service to the community!

MEMBERS’ COMMENTS AND ASTUTE OBSERVATIONS: It was noted that the Annual Briarcliff-Pleasantville Football Luncheon will take place here, on October 2nd. Mark your calendar, please!

On the following weekend--Saturday, Sept.12—Community Day will take place in Briarcliff. This is a monumental Fund-Raising Day for our Rotary chapter, and we all are urged to pitch in and do our part, serving famished locals in the Briarcliff Rotary Food Tent!

It was noted also that Friday, October 16th, is Visitors’ Day and all members are urged to bring a guest to our weekly meeting, as a potential Rotary member. This will be the kick-off of our Annual Recruitment Drive!

NEXT WEEK’S SPEAKER: Our speaker on September 4th will by Mr. Eric Kaoyer, a representative of the “Sheltering Refugees in Need” program.

REMINDER: DON’T FORGET TO BRING FOOD CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE FOOD PANTRY ON THAT DATE!!!

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TODAY’S SPEAKER: Our speaker today was Susan Grunthal, School Outreach Coordinator for Taconic Opera Co.


She started by alerting us to the news that that the Taconic Opera’s 2009-2010 season (their 12th season) will feature a list of glorious operas: Mozart’s Mass in C Minor (One performance only!), Giuseppe Verdi’s “Macbeth”, and a U.S. premiere:of a seldom heard double bill: Puccini’s “Suor Angelica” and Westerhead’s “Dona Flor.” Performances will begin on October 16th (“Macbeth”) and will end on April 25th, with, the U.S. premiere of the thrilling double bill. Prices range from $66 to $79 for season tickets (The $79 is for Aisle Seats.)

She pointed out that many local opera companies are closing their doors. But the Taconic Opera is holding on! She appealed to us for male singers! (Sy??????)

The opera’s home is nearby, the ticket prices are very reasonable (Briarcliff Rotary members receive a generous discount), and subtitles are always in English.

Give it a try. You’ll like it.

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THE DRAWING: This week’s drawing was won buy two persons, neither one of which was Bishop John. The good Bishop immediately announced--he was among the losers-- that he was “fed up” with the whole thing and was immediately converting to Buddhism. .
OUR MEETING ENDED at 1:30, with an encouraging amount of back-slapping. .

Respectfully submitted by
Don Wilde

8/28/09 Attendance - Robert Amsterdam, Frances Chu, Antonia Conte, Etrusca Cosentino, Zachary Cosentino, Dean Dykeman, Zeneth Eidel , Rodney Ertischek, Marie Fuesy, Peter Garth, John Herzog, Rachel Leihbacher, Shelley Lotter, Geraldine Mahoney, Ernest Pacchiana, Fiala Portnoy, Vladimir Portnoy, Paul Rosen, Mark Seiden, Donald Wilde,Elinor Yuter, Sy Yuter

September-October Rotary Programs - from Sy Yuter

SEPTEMBER

4 * Sheltering Refugees in Need – Eric Kaoyer
4 Bring food for Food Pantry

11 *Play the Guitar – Mike Risko

12 *COMMUNITY DAY

18 *District Governor Karl Milde

25 *What’s Going On In Albany – Assemblywoman Sandy Galef

OCTOBER

2 *Briarcliff-Pleasantville Football Luncheon at Briarcliff

9 *War Against Alzheimer’s – Michelle Muir

16 *VISITOR’S DAY – What Rotary Is All About

23 *History of Briarcliff – Tom Vincent, Historical Society President

30 *My Life – Fialla Portnoy

*PROGRAMS CONFIRMED


Rot8-31
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September Programs - from Sy Yuter

SEPTEMBER

4 * Sheltering Refugees in Need - Eric Kaoyer
4 Bring food for Food Pantry
11 *Play the Guitar - Mike Risko
18 *District Governor Karl Milde
25 *What's Going on In Albany - Assemblywoman Sandy Galef

*PROGRAMS CONFIRMED
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BRIARCLIFF MANOR ROTARY CLUB MEETING - 8/21/09

BRIARCLIFF MANOR ROTARY CLUB MEETING
August 21 2009

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The families of one’s friends are always a disappointment.”
-- Norman Douglas

THIS DAY IN HISTORY.
On this day in 1994—August 21st—Ernesto Zedillo won the Mexican presidential election. And the world has never, never been the same since.

*******
.
MEETING OPENING: Briarcliff Rotary Club president, Mark Seiden, opened our meeting promptly at 12:15, accompanied by a trumpet voluntary and a bevy of dancing girls..
..
SALUTE TO OUR FLAG, PATRIOTIC ANTHEM, AND PRAYER: The Salute to Our Flag was rendered by the irrepressible Sy Yuter, Paul Rosen led us in a Salute to Our Flag, and Reverend Lee rounded things off with a thunderous appeal to The Almighty.

PRESIDENTIAL COMMENTS: President Seiden announced our participation in the upcoming Briarcliff Community Day, urging us all to show up, wearing our Briarcliff Rotary shirts, as walking advertisements for our Club. He also spoke interestingly on a number of other matters, to numerous to mention.

HAPPY THOUGHTS, ANNOUNCEMENT OF COMMUNITY NEWS, AND A COLLECTION OF THIS AND THAT. O.K., I give up!! You caught me; I might as well confess!.My weekly notes were lost--or stolen--by either Zen Eidel or Roger Federer, so the following account may be scattered. Or missing. Or both.

I swear, tennis-jealousy does terrible, terrible things to a person!

NEXT WEEK’S SPEAKER: Our speaker next week will be the Director of the Taconic Opera Company. In our rendition of our National Anthem next week, everyone is asked to sing their best. Please!

THIS WEEK’S SPEAKER: Our speaker this week was new-member Mike Risko, owner and proprietor of the Ossining Music Center.

He was fascinating, displaying, as he did, various guitars and recounting his Ossining Music Center adventures. (Confession: I took guitar lessons from him at one time. Mr. Risko is very, very good--and has a world of patience. I was a failure—to this day, one of his major disappointments.

Mike illustrated his talk by showcasing various guitars—some mellow and some offering a little more bite—all with a beguiling sound—all the while speaking about matters musical and about his charming wife, who assists him at the Center.

It was an intriguing talk. Mike is going to be a great addition to Briarcliff Rotary!

THE DRAWING: The winners of this week’s lottery were Mr. ? and Miss ?
(See loss-confession, above.)

THE CONCLUSION OF OUR MEETING: Our weekly meeting ended precisely at 1:32 pm, with a release of pigeons and Bishop John’s hilarious impression of Kate Smith.

Respectfully submitted by
Recording Secretary, Don Wilde

8/21/09 Attendance - Robert Amsterdam, Frances Chu, Antonia Conte, Etrusca Cosentino, Zachary Cosentino, Dean Dykeman, Zenith Eidel, John Herzog, Geraldine Mahoney, Ernest Pacchiana, Paul Rosen, Mark Seiden, Ken-Ichi Shimazu, Donald Wilde, Elinor Yuter, Sy Yuter

Website Committee

Dear Rotarians,

Greetings from Cape Cod! I read about how hard our new Briarcliff Rotary president Mark Seiden is working back home trying to put the new organization in place. I remember on 8/7 meeting, Mark handed out a sheet of Club’s Planned Events of the year and various posts & roles for our Club members to participate. Among the roles, a Website Chairman was listed. You all know that we have a blogsite, I would like to take this opportunity to fill you in with a little of its background as well as my thoughts about that role.

I am not a technical person but I’ve been relying heavily on my PC for information gathering and data keeping as well as communicating with my family and friends for years. I like websites. However, I’ve been paying for my personal domain of a Website www.franceschu.com for years but I never got it started because it is just a bit too difficult to use. It is still there - empty.

Back in February this year, a friend while vacationing in Orlando, helped setting up a Blog site for me. I found it easy to use and it is free. By following his instructions, I also set one up for Briarcliff Rotary for our Club to try it out. With President Peter Fulfree and Paul Rosen & few of our board members’ consents, it has been up and running and keeping our Club’s program & event schedules, weekly reports as well as some pictures from our Club’s activities for Rotarians, their families, and friends to view and read.

I volunteered to maintain our blogsite. But basically, I just do some ‘copy and paste’ from emails I received. The http://briarcliffrotaryclub.blogspot.com has also been listed as an item on the Rotary Club’s Websites list on www.rotary7230.org since March. Our blogsite although may not be as fancy in design as I would like to see, but it is by far one of the more up-to-date websites fill with latest news as well as recent activities on our district’s list.

As you probably have noticed that I’ve been using the word “website” and “blog site” intermittently... Why? Simply because based on my research by Google-ing, I found that a website can have the attributes of a blog, and a blog can do anything a website can. Because they are both websites.

Acting as our blog site’s administrator, I’ve been talking with some of you asking you to accept the role of an administrator, or an author for our blog site, but so far, no one has accepted any of those roles. Since Mark and the new Board members now are looking to formally establish a Website Chairman’s role, I would be happy to work with anyone of you if you have already volunteered to accept that role. If no one has volunteered, I would be happy to volunteer provided if I can persuade some of you to work with me to establish a Website Committee?

May I propose that we begin by one day perhaps Paul Rosen can bring in his laptop for me to give you all a demo of our blog/website? Perhaps we can start with a steering Committee of 4 to 6 members and that our first job is to define the roles and goals of a Website Committee, as well as to identify opportunities for all Club members’ participation as authors, auditors, or reviewers?

Thank you for reading this email. I hope you’ll give it some thoughts to participate in making our Website a big success by considering joining the Website Committee. I’ll see you all on Friday, 8/28.

All the best,
Frances
You are welcome to visit my personal web site:
http://franceschusblog.blogspot.com
I like to read your comments :-)

BRIARCLIFF MANOR ROTARY MEETING 8/14/09 by Don Wilde

BRIARCLIFF MANOR ROTARY MEETING
August 14, 2009

TODAY’S QUOTE

When I hear someone sigh, “Life is hard,” I am always tempted to ask,
“Compared to what?”
--Sydney Harris

AN HISTORICAL NOTE

On this date, August 14, 1993, Kevin Costner became the 2,233rd movie biggie to receive a star on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame.”


MEETING OPENING: Our weekly meeting opened officially at 12:16, more or less.

SALUTE TO THE FLAG, SINGING OF A PATRIOTIC SONG, AND A PRAYER:
Our salute to the flag was led, heroically, by Sy Yuter, the patriotic number was sung by the golden-voiced Marie Fuesy, and this section of the proceedings was wrapped up with a heart-felt plea for Divine Mercy, delivered by Father Lee.

THE PRESIDENT’S REMARKS: Newly-elected president, Mark Seiden, got the meeting off to a business-like start with several important announcements having to do with the health and future of our club and the setting up of committee chairs. We all heartily concurred with his sentiments.

TODAY’S SPEAKER: Our speaker today was Tom Wills (husband of the estimable Fran
Wills), who spoke on the subject of “Block Printing.” He was very interesting.

He began with a brief history of block printing and then segued into examples of the art form, illustrated by a number of examples. He spoke about the Rainbow Technique (using more than one color), about the versatility of Japanese print makers (They were very, very adept!), the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect, on block printing, (Immense!) and the stages that are required before the final object is realized. (Many!)

The color in block printing lasts seemingly forever (Some have endured for more than 500 years, if kept out of the sun!), and he spoke further about the connection between Fine Art and Block Printing (On occasion, the English artist, Turner, and the equally talented, Edward Much, among others, turned their hand to block printing.)

Mr. Wills concluded his talk with the showing of various examples of block printing. They were very, very impressive.

Thank you, Mr. Wills, for a delightful and fascinating talk!

THE DRAWING: This week’s drawing was won by Eleanor Yuter (A big “Yay!”).The second prize went to Mark Seiden. (A more sedate Presidential “Yay!”)

Bishop John immediately announced that he had seen enough and was immediately giving up on Christianity.

OUR WEEKLY MEETING ENDED with an inordinate amount of kissing and hugging.

Respectfully submitted by
Don Wilde
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8/14/09 Attendance - Robert Amsterdam, Lee Carozzi, Frances Chu, Zachary Cosentino, Dean Dykeman, Zenith Eidel, Rodney Ertischek, Marie Fuesy, John Herzog, Rachel Leihbacher, Geraldine Mahoney, Ernest Pacchiana, Fiala Portnoy, Vladimir Portnoy, Paul Rosen, Mark Seiden, Donald Wilde, Frances Wills, Elinor Yuter, Sy Yuter
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BRIARCLIFF MANOR ROTARY CLUB MEETING - 7/31/09 by Don Wilde

BRIARCLIFF MANOR ROTARY CLUB MEETING
July 31st, 2009

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“There are men in my life—and life in my men!”
--The indomitable Mae West

ADDITIONAL QUOTE OF THE WEEK…

”I am the toast of two continents: Greenland and Antarctica.”
--The equally indomitable Dorothy Parker

*******

MEETING OPENING: Paul Rosen, substituting for our tardy, newly-elected President,
opened our weekly meeting with a display of great brio and gusto
..
SALUTE TO OUR FLAG, PATRIOTIC ANTHEM, AND PRAYER: The Salute to Our Flag was led by an excited Sy Yuter, the patriotic song by an equally ebullient Peter Garth, and this portion of our proceedings was concluded with a stirring appeal for Divine Guidance from the Rt. Reverend John Herzog.

PRESIDENT’S REMARKS: As mentioned before, inasmuch as our Chapter President was delayed on business, the indefatigable Rod Ertischek called for Happy Thoughts and Significant Community News. The response was overwhelming.

HAPPY THOUGHTS AND ANNOUCEMENT OF COMMUNITY NEWS: Eleanor Yuter happily announced that she has discontinued a debilitating drug, Paul Rosen that a local restaurant’s troubles with Briarcliff’s Village Board had flamed up anew and went on to inform us that Dunkin’ Donuts had opened a store located between UPS and Squire’s “All You Can Eat For A Reasonable Sum” Restaurant. Sy Yuter bounced back to remind us to bring food to next week’s meeting for the Food Pantry drive. Frances Chu reminded us to look at our new blog site, Dr. Ken-Ichi announced that he was happy to be with us, as did our guest speaker. Other announcements of events were made, but due to a racket made by the unruly table next to ours, I could not make them out.

NEXT WEEK’S SPEAKER: We will learn together the identity of next week’s speaker.
But you can be sure that he or she will be outstanding.

THIS WEEK’S SPEAKER: Our speaker this week was Keith Safian, President and CEO of Phelps Hospital. His subject: the Universal Health Care Debate.\

Mr. Safian was most interesting on the subject of the changing face of medical practices. He started by pointing out interesting statistics for Phelps Hospital in 2008: 1,106 births, 473 medical procedures, and a record-high revenue stream of $165,377,000. In that year,there were 284,567 Phelps outpatients (more than 20,000 a month!), the Phelps campus has grown by leaps and bounds, and a newly-expanded child-care center has been opened. He spoke about the current critical nursing shortage, the crisis in infant-care, and Phelps’s need for a fully-functioning Emergency Department. A campaign aimed at raising 20 million dollars is in progress to remedy those situations.

Although he did not need to, Mr. Safian underscored the different and vital ways in which Phelps Hospital serves our community.

They are many.

It was an excellent talk, and one that was greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Mr. Safian!



DRAWING: The winners of this week’s lottery were kept secret.

THE CONCLUSION OF OUR MEETING: Our weekly meeting ended precisely at 1:32 pm, with a fly-over of 200 Navy jets and the launching of a secret rocket.

Respectfully submitted by
Recording Secretary, Don Wilde
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7/31 Attendance - Robert Amsterdam, Frances Chu, Antonia Conte, Dean Dykeman, Zenith Eidel, Rodney Ertischek, Marie Fuesy, Peter Garth, John Herzog, Rachel Leihbacher, Geraldine Mahoney, Ernest Pacchiana, Fiala Portnoy, Vladimir Portnoy, Paul Rosen, Ken-Ichi Shimazu, Carl Weiner, Donald Wilde, Elinor Yuter, Sy Yuter