Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show August 21st, 2008

 
PAST PRESIDENT JOHN MOSS remembered well how to call our members to order as he filled in for PRESIDENT SETH who was attending to his wife, Marilyn, after her surgery yesterday.
 
DENNIS YOUNG led the flag salute. Then banker STEVE SHEPHERD delivered the Thought for the Day, which were actually 8 thoughts by the American wit Mark Twain. Most chuckles were heard for the quotation that a banker is a person who lends you an umbrella when it’s sunny and wants it back when it rains!
 
KURT HUEG led us in “Sing a Song.”
 
PAST PRESIDENT SAM PESNER was our Photographer, PAST PRESIDENT WYATT was Cashier, and greeters were CHRIS ELSON, JOE LOCONTE and PAST PRESIDENT MARLENE COWAN.  Corralling the greeters inside the meeting room has improved the flow of traffic, as they had been slowing down the cashier line with their enthusiastic greetings!
 
PRESIDENT ELECT TRACIE MURRAY introduced guests who were Lon Savedra, member of San Jose Rotary but resident of Los Altos and his son Alexander, and Bill and Judy from the Rotary Club of Norfolk, CA.
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Marilyn Manning’s surgeon said her operation “went well” and biopsy results are due in a couple of weeks. She will return home Friday. Best wishes for a speedy recovery to both Marilyn and Seth.

JOANNE BYRNE is at home with her mother and sisters after surgery and is in good spirits. She will begin chemo treatments immediately and welcomes visitors. Please phone ahead. PAST PRESIDENT MARY PROCHNOW is calendaring volunteer meals for the family. Our best wishes and support to JOANNE and her family.

Polio Eradication Day trip to Ivory Coast is November 4-13, a personal way to make a difference in the Polio Plus Campaign. Ask PP JOHN MOSS for details.

YOUTH EXCHANGE needs a LARC volunteer to host a youth exchange student, and JANE REED enthusiastically raised her hand. Way to go, JANE!

JOAN ROSSELLE called for restaurant volunteers to follow Chef Chu in donating for the A Sante’ fundraiser to benefit the RotaCare Free Clinic.

BILL BALSON reminded us to attend the Fellowship Wine and Cheese reception tonight at GREG DABB’s office.

FRANK VERLOT called for more members to join the World Community Service Committee, meeting next Wednesday from 8-9:30 am at Northern Trust, thanks to hosting by STEVE SHEPHERD. This large and influential committee selects worthy service projects around the world, and some of our LARC members personally travel to check project results. You are all invited to join.

KENDRA’s announcement was that DENNIS YOUNG’s accounting firm RSM McGladrey will be honored by CSA as a Hometown Hero on Sept. 12 at the annual CSA Hometown Heroes Breakfast.
  

JOHN SYLVESTER was again at his best as Finemaster with obtuse questions relating to the Olympic Games. PAST PRESIDENT SAM PESNER answered correctly that UCLA’s gold medal decathlete of years past was Rafer Johnson.

LEN MCBIRNEY knew which Olympic gold medal swimmer was married to a Cal football star; it was Zoe Ann Olsen who was actually his classmate at Berkeley. To celebrate his 62nd wedding anniversary, LEN volunteered $6.20 which he later was coaxed into raising to $62.

AL TRAFICANTI volunteered that he and wife Nancy had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by taking his entire extended family to Alaska, and that announcement cost him $50.

MATT CABOT paid $25 to avoid answering an Olympics question!

PRESIDENT-ELECT TRACIE didn’t want to tell her age, but did volunteer $46 to celebrate her birthday.

LOUIS BOREL offered to join the President’s Club to mark his 45th wedding anniversary which they celebrated with a trip to Cambodia (I think. I could barely hear over the laughter and comments.) He was recently volunteered by his future son-in-law to cook lunch for 309 ROTC Cadets, no small task. That future marriage may already be in trouble!

BAIDRA MURPHY offered $10 to commend LARRY CHU for donating the first meal to JOANNE BYRNE’s family upon her return home from the hospital.

JOE RENATI simply raised his hand and said, “Here’s a hundred bucks!” which so astounded the Finemaster that he tried calling on JOE a second time, but it didn’t work twice.

JERRY MOISON, still irritated by his record low intake as Finemaster last week, volunteered just $10 and later $5 in order to bring down JOHN SYLVESTER’s average fine. DENNIS YOUNG followed up with a question, “How do donations manage to lower JOHN’s total fines?”, whereupon JERRY clarified that he was seeking to lower the average.

BRIAN WARD told a joke about the man who celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary by taking his wife to Hawaii. For the 50th anniversary, he said he was thinking about bringing her back! BRIAN got such a good reception that he promised to join the President’s Club if we listened to his second joke. Needless to say, the second never matches the first, but this writer expects he paid his fine, so the joke was “beneficial to all concerned.”
 
HERB MARSHALL is now an old married guy, though he didn’t marry the woman announced in last week’s Rotator. She was actually the woman who had introduced him to his new bride, named Lorraine Foehner (pronounced “phone-her”) The wedding was “a wonderful experience,” said HERB, and Farshad Ghaffari, son of PAST PRESIDENT FIROOZ, served as his groomsman.
 

We even had time for fellowship today, since there was no Ten Minute Talk.

PRESIDENT-ELECT TRACIE introduced PRESIDENT SETH’s speaker, Mike Wasserman, who brought his collection of unique sports treasures to show and talk about authenticating sports memorabilia. He had plenty of stories to tell about why each item was unique and admitted that he has “a collecting problem”. Mike is now Vice Mayor of Los Gatos and a Kiwanis member. All profits from his Los Gatos store, Collector’s Corner Two, are donated to 100 organizations that benefit children’s charities.

He warned us that 90% of sports memorabilia are counterfeit. A certificate of authenticity can cost $100 but having one increases the value and liquidity of items.  Even with certification, there is no guarantee of true authenticity. Strangely, several of his own collected jerseys had been signed in his presence, but were still not deemed to be authentic by GAI, the most reputable authentication company, in his opinion.

To please us all, Mike brought memorabilia representing a variety of sports (except hockey), including his favorite three signed bats, eight jerseys and three baseball cards.  His favorite bat is the one last used by Ted Williams that isn’t in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

His favorite baseball card is part of the very first set of sports cards printed in 1887 which includes Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill Cody as sharp shooters. He has collected the entire set of 50 cards, and his favorite baseball card is the oldest card in best condition in the world!

The signing of his poster of Mohammed Ali fighting Joe Frazier almost got him in trouble when he offered, “Thanks, Champ!” Then, the great Mohammed glared down at him and demanded, “Who are you calling a chump?”
 

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