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Los Altos Rotary Club
Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show
March 20th 2008
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| Writer: John Sines - Photographer: Sam Pesner -
Editor: Cindy Luedtke |
This Thursday's Program: Mar 27 2008 Chenda Smead
"Cambodia-
The Story of a Khmer Rouge Survivor" |
Greeters, JEAN (John) MORDO, GARY MAGGARD and KEN GRAHAM.
Thought for the day was given by
 JOANNE
BYRNE and our song was lead by a
bonneted VAL CARPENTER.
PE SETH MANNING introduced President JOHN MOSS and his guest, his brother, Dick.
NEW AND SEASONED
 We
welcome new Blue Badger, KEVIN PHILLIPS, whose stand-in Sponsor (for JERRY
MOISON) is the (fairly) well-preserved STEVE ANDERSON, even as EXPREZ SAM
PESNER invites all to attend the John Gardner Community Building Awards at
the Cabana in Palo Alto on the evening of April 3, where MARGE BRUNO will be
one of ten honorees. This is a fundraiser for the Los Altos Community
Foundation. Get your $75 in by March 28. Contact SAM for the
handout or fax LACF at 949-0807. MARGE is a splendid example for all
new Rotarians of a life of service to the community.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ROY
JONES (more later about ROY) says get your order in right away for Rotary
shirts for the Rotary Art Show, which is right around the corner.
DAVID BERGMAN is your contact if you wish to step up and assume a
supervisory role at the Art Show. Multo grazi, or the equivalent, to
JOE RENATI, DAVE LUEDTKE and GEORGE ESTILL, among many others, for their
efforts in making last weekend’s Cioppino Feed a great success.
PUNITIVE FINING
 RICK
GLAZE, taking the opportunity to dish it out in a down market, found
Rotarians eager to take one for the Team, even as their net worth falls off
the cliff. First was SAM HARDING, who exhibited a photo of his newborn
granddaughter for at least five minutes. DAN HOLDEN was so quick to
volunteer for a fine that this Intrepid Reporter could not discern his
reason for paying. Same with BRIAN WARD, though there was a certain
Clintonian aroma in the air after the fine. BARRY GROVES volunteered
for a fine because one of his Principals, LYNN SATTERWHITE of Los Altos
High, was elected Principal of the Year by some group in the know.
LARRY MADSEN, who has more eagles than any living human who has never had a
hole-in-one (guess who told your scribe), paid for the privilege of advising
one and all that his granddaughter has qualified for the swimming trials for
the Olympics in two events. We learned from RICK that JEAN HOLLANDS’
husband is a published author of in excess of ten novels.
TODAY’S PROGRAM
RICH CASEY presided over a homegrown show and tell program on genealogy.
BAIDRA MURPHY spoke about discovering the shocking grim facts surrounding
the death of her great grandfather. BAIDRA, or RICH, or both extolled
the genealogical help to be found at the Mormon Temple in Oakland, open to
all, and at www.ancestry.com, which costs $10 per month but helps bring
order out of chaos.
 STEVE
FICK spoke about the Borel family travels out of and back to Switzerland
from the 1850’s.
 VICTORIA
EMMONS commented on the fact that zippers have not always been with us.
Imagine life without zippers! In addition, VICTORIA is related to
Charlemagne and Robert E. Lee.
 JULIE
ROSE is a descendant of General Putnam of the Revolutionary War.
 LEN
McBIRNEY has traced back his ancestors in incredible detail, and all were
generous.
 STEVE
YARBROUGH is a shadow of the man he was before he took on the job of writing
notes on the back of all the family photos he has ever put his hands on.
ROY JONES is a descendant of the King of Turkey in 754 A.D. As we all
know, the Holy Roman Empire and Turkey fought a long and bloody war in 755,
and their respective leaders, Charlemagne and Abdul the Bulbul Ameer, fought
an epic duel which ended in a draw. And here we are today with VICTORIA and
ROY, their direct descendants, hopefully ready to let bygones be bygones.
 GREG
DABB’s ancestors moved in 1803 from Wales to Buffalo. The question, of
course, is why?
 JERRY
TOMANEK, like Johnny Cash, the Man in Black, has Indian blood coursing
through his veins. RICH would likely know more about his ancestors in
Ardee, and elsewhere in Ireland, if Americans would stop stealing original
records from defenseless churches up and down the island. What are we
to make of all this? It confirms what Mel Brooks observed, which is,
that it is good to be King. Put delicately, kings have more
opportunity than peasants to pass down their genes. There was one king
in Bavaria who had more than 360 children. If he had been an elephant
seal, it would have been a very good year. So it is not surprising
that so many Los Altos Rotarians carry the genes of royalty.
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JOANNE
BYRNE and our song was lead by a
bonneted VAL CARPENTER. 
