PROGRAM
And now, to the less important news about our meeting of August 11th. The Pledge was led by HARLAN LEWIS. Next up was the song, God Bless America, ably led and accompanied by LENNY and PP JIM. There was an abortive attempt to inject “I been Working on the Railroad” but this effort failed due to lack of public support -as it should have. After all, we do have some standards of right and wrong, and they should be upheld. PP RALPH WOODWARD provided the Invocation, although there were those who questioned under what category his presentation really fell. It concerned two children who ran into each other while on their way to church – one headed for the Catholic Church and the other for the Baptist gathering. It turned out that when they met after church, one of them commented to the other that he had never realized how much difference there was between the Baptists and the Catholics.
There were no visiting Rotarians, but we did have several non-affiliated guests. PP STEVE SCHERER introduced his Dad’s younger brother, the Reverend Doctor Ray Scherer. LENNY FRIEDMAN first reminded President DON that he was standing up (to be recognized), and then introduced his ‘beautiful gem of a gem, Sunny”. President DON has three guests – his daughter, Adelaide McIntosh, who teaches at John Thomas Dye School, his oldest grandchild, Melissa McIntosh - she is an assistant teacher at the Dye school – and her younger sister, Meagan McIntosh, who is a senior taking Pre-Med at John Hopkins in Washington D.C. She is planning a career in Veterinary Medicine. He then pointed out that despite their last names, they got their good looks from the Nelson side of the family…PETER MORE reminded us as he introduced our new Rotaract Governor, Tori Hettinger, who was accompanied by Candice Danshevar, the new UCLA Rotaract President.. BRUCE HARRIS brought Caroline, who always brightens the place up.
ED GUALD reminded us that the Japanese students plus two from Turkey, would be with us next Thursday. They will join us for lunch, and afterward will be visiting the Getty Museum. This concludes about 5:30, and Ed urgently needs some help in returning them to where they are staying. Several cars are needed, and PLEASE call ED if you are available. Again, this is URGENT, OK? The new Westwood Branch of the Library is featured in the Times, and you are aware that we will be helping them with their introduction to Westwood. TERRY M. WHITE was called on the carpet to explain his recent election to the Board of Directors of the Jonathan Club. President DON suggested that among the perks of his Directorship were considerable savings in meal costs, and for that reason he felt that TERRY would be willing to pay a fine of fifty clams. This was reluctantly agreed to. DON then attempted to extract some tribute from any other member of the Jonathan Club who were present, but none stood up.
The Rotary District had initiated a new Passport Program, in which we are urged to carry the Passport to the club where we make up, and then give a brief report on what went on at that club. MIKE GINTZ was the first such Passport deliverer, and he visited LA Five, along with CATHY REZOS and Tori Hettinger. They were there to assist with the development of a Rotaract Club for LA FIVE. MIKE reported it was an excellent meeting, with lots of business networking taking place, and he was favorable impressed. I am the custodian of the Passport until someone who is making up wants it, so call me and we will arrange a transfer of the document. President DON then dangled before us the possibility of making up at the Simi Valley Rotary Club. The ladies of Simi 'have bared almost all’' for a Simi Valley Calendar. This appealed to DON as a worthwhile project for WVRC, so by visiting Simi Valley you could get the full scoop on how we might proceed... There was some rather unnecessary discussion about the ages of our members, but this is really extraneous to the project, as I’m sure you will agree. Stay Tuned. And we must not forget that during all this palaver, our newest member, WARREN DODSON, got nicked for five bucks, somehow.
Birthdays were next. KACY ROZELLE started us off on the 1st, choosing Basking Ridge, New Jersey for his debut. DR BRUCE ROLF arrived in McPherson, Kansas on the 8th. And today, the 11th, I honored Los Angeles – as did both JACK HARRIS on the 13th and DAN PRICE on the 16th – three in a row for good old LA! That left one date, but two participants – the 25th, with LENORE MULRYAN landing in Lompoc, and MARK BLOCK in far away Passaic, N.J. Before our serenade began, President DON reminded us that last month, MAX LICHTENBERGER came along on the 6th in Steyr, Austria – and since he wasn’t present on Birthday Day in July, he was fined ten dollars as a storage fee for receiving his present a month late. Being present has its rewards!
DON then had a pretty good story: The Mother Superior of a Convent was 98, and would soon die The nuns thought some warm milk might be welcome, so offered her some, but she refused One enterprising sister found a bottle of Irish whiskey in the kitchen, added it liberally to the milk, and the glass was again offered. She took a sip, then proceeded to down the whole glass. She was asked for some wisdom, before she died. She raised herself up to a sitting position, and opined, “Don’t sell that cow”.
Before the Speaker came on, DON told about the dinner on Wednesday evening at the UCLA Faculty Center, honoring the new Rotary International President, Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar. It was a very nice affair – made more so by the help of PEGGY BLOOMFIELD, HARLAN LEWIS, and PP RALPH WOODWORTH who handled the check-in, sold drink tickets, and kept everything going. PP RUDY ALVAREZ was in charge, so WVRC was well represented – they were all nicely applauded.
Emergency Appeal: Many of you stepped forward recently to help one of our members who is in bad shape financially. Thank you. Now he has lost his car and thus needs some cheap transportation. Any donation would help but his need is immediate. Checks made out to me, please. (If you have an old car which you don't need, that would be a bonus, of course). Your help will make a difference. Thanks. —Ernie Wolfe
TONY MARRONE introduced our Speaker, Bart Baggett. He graduated from Pepperdine, and holds credentials in hypnosis and handwriting analysis. He has appeared on over 1500 radio and TV shows, has his own afternoon FM talk show, and specializes in handwriting analysis. The title of his presentation is “Personality Traits of the Rich and Famous”.
He began by outlining what his talk would cover. Asking how many of us had had their handwriting analyzed, he wasn’t surprised that few hands were raised. When he was very young, his Dad asked him for a sample of his handwriting – he pooh-poohed the idea. But he discovered that he had a feeling for doing this analysis, and was right over 80% of the time. He then proceeded to read President DON’S handwriting, and came up with the following: DON has a strong need for attention, and very sloppy handwriting. This is a sign of a brilliant mind! He should loosen up, is slightly sarcastic, but very diplomatic.
The study of handwriting began about a century ago. Since that time, much has been learned – an example is Karen Lundberg, who had a stroke ten years ago. She could no longer speak and the doctors gave her the bad news. But she could hear perfectly, and Bart began working with her. She began by producing a figure 8, and as she improved her ability to draw such a figure, her speech actually began coming back. She has since regained 95% of her ability to communicate.
He showed a slide of some messy handwriting – and asked, would you let this man date your daughter?
Most of us agreed we wouldn’t. Turns out that this sample is from a prisoner in jail in Arizona. He contends that you can change your life by changing your handwriting style. He showed another sample, and pointed out that the characteristics shown on the left side would be more fun at a party. Block printing is most difficult to read – cursive is really all that works. Writing can show some variations in intelligence.
He asked us to write a sentence which uses all the letters in the alphabet, which we did. He then pointed out that where you cross your t’s shows how outgoing you are. The loop on your d’s indicates degree of sex drive, he claims. There were some other hurried examples, but he didn’t plan to end in thirty minutes, and that’s all the time there was.
Comment – his talk was entertaining, except for the last five minutes was entirely devoted to a plug for what he does, with books, lectures, etc. I would suggest that Program Chairs emphasize to Speakers that this type of promo isn’t what Rotary speakers should do.
