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President Tom Arkell called the meeting to order and Graham Kennedy led us in Grace. Don Shaw used his famous harmonica to get us off in the right note for the singing of our National Anthem. We toasted the Queen and Canada and President Tom introduced the head table as follows: Sir Wordsworth Frumly, Lord Reginald Ringround, Sgt-at-Arms, Peter Mahoney, Lady Hermione Castlehowe and to introduce our guests, Brian Stewart.
Brian introduced our visiting Rotarians: Don Hetherington from the South Club; Jim Brown from Berwyn, Pennsylvania; Doug Fraser from the Port Colborne Club; Betsy Wall from the Waterloo Club. Our guests were Brian Leyden guest of Angus Adams and Waldo Pauls guest of Betsy Wall.
All Rotarians and guests sang Happy Birthday for Ron Dubciak and Joel Chatterton.
President Tom read a letter from Karen, Bill Ford’s friend, companion and caregiver thanking all the Rotarians who assisted with the last arrangements for Bill. Karen reiterated how Bill loved his time at Rotary and up to the very end he looked forward to Thursdays so he could be with his friends.
Tom reminded Committee Chairs to prepare their year-end Committee Reports.
Chris Blake, Chair of Youth Leadership Committee needs volunteers to drive six high school students to Ancaster on Friday and return them safely on Sunday(call Chris at 905-468-2081).
Doug Foss reminded us of the Canadian Federation of University Women’s 34th Annual House Tour; Sunday May 4th 12-5pm. Doug has tickets ($20) at 905-688-5525.
Larry Iggulden reminds us that there is a Major Grants Committee Meeting after next Thursdays regular Lunch Meeting.
Collected by Steven Tenyenhuis
Steven Tenyenhuis reminded us that it is St.George’s day at Rotary so he passed the new basket for Happy Pounds. He calculated that a Toonie is close enough. Steven threw in a pound to Celebrate Governor Simcoe High School’s victory at the World Robotics Competition.
Marg Jarrell was happy that competitor #18799 finished the Boston Marathon in 3hrs and 31 minutes. There were a lot of pretenders in the room trying to steal Doug Geddie’s thunder (check out the picture).
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Will the Real Doug Geddie Please Stand Up! |
Rick Merritt was happy to pass on some sound advice from his tax accountant.
Betsy Wall paid a Toonie to remind us of their Golf Tournament to raise money for an irrigation project in Haiti. It will be at the Royal Niagara Golf Club on May 24th.
Norma Medulun was happy to have the chance to be a reader at Connaught School.
Sat Singh was happy to see old friend Brian Leyden visiting Rotary today.
Doug Geddie was happy to place 82nd out of 900 in his age group at the Boston Marathon but was especially happy to finish miles ahead of his coach.
Lady Castlehowe was given the podium to plug her shopping website, byappointmenttohermajesty.com. In exchange, she put together a basket of goods available on her site. All present would have a chance to win this great basket after the 50/50 draw. Who would not crave these typical English delicacies such as Twiglets, Colemans Mustard, Walkers Crisps, Spotted Dick and finally Rock Candy from Hastings. These can be washed down with a bottle of Flint Valley Wine from Surrey. All this wrapped in a Marks and Spencer Designer plastic bag – what’s not to like!
Jim Denham won the chance to draw the Ace. He did and is about $1000 richer today.
Ron Dubciak and Joel Chatterton.
Bob Lawler was the big winner.
St.George’s Day
To help Celebrate St.George’s Day, we went directly to BBC Studios in London for the taping of the highly acclaimed Sir Wordsworth Frumly Show. As the budget has been cut the crew had to use a Boot Box Camera (coincidently BBC for short). Sir Wordsworth’s guests today were Lord Reginald Ringround and his wife Lady Rosalind Ringround, both from the Royal Shakespearian Society.
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Lord Reginald Ringround and his wife Lady Rosalind Ringround |
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Lady Rosalind , Sir Wordsworth & Lord Reginald Ringround |
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Lady Rosalind , Sir Wordsworth & Lord Reginald Ringround |
After preliminary laments regarding the disappearance of Sir Wordsworth’s dog Marmaduke and fondly recalling last years winning of the Corgi Throwing Championship, the panel got around to discussing the real purpose of the Society. Lord Ringround stated that their purpose was to shape the English language. Sir Wordsworth thought that shaping the English language had already been done by Ray Bukovec.
Sir Wordsworth got around to the main topic of the evenings program, which was to discuss Lady Ringground’s discovery of a lost William Shakespeare Play. She bought it on eBay for $29.95. The title of the play is “The Three Stooges”. The main characters are Curly, Larry and Moe. When pressed on the authenticity of the play her only defense was “that no one would not follow the 4-way test”. Sir Reginald concluded that the works were early (probably when William was 5 years old) as they are written with orange colored crayon.
An actor, Larry was called in to perform the early play and one could see the resemblance to Hamlet, a later play by Shakespeare. Who could not see the resemblance in those lines brilliantly performed by Larry; “to eat or not to eat” and “woe is me I am a starving stooge” and “a chance to burp –Ay, there’s the rub”.
Sir Reginald repeated the line that took him a whole evening to remember but sums up the play – “a play from the mind of a unique and superlative genius”.
After the three stooges completed their theatrical demonstration is a very pieous fashion, Sir Wordsworth went on to interviewing St.Patrick. His first choice was to interview St.George but due to budget constraints could only afford St.Patrick. Sir Wordsworth noted that St.Patrick was holding a large snake. St Patrick indicated that the snake’s name was Monty. It was also a Python! Yes Monty Python! In fact it had just eaten and hence, one could say that it was a full Monty!
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St.Patrick & Sir Wordsworth |
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St.Patrick & Sir Wordsworth |
Sir Wordsworth wanted to know if it was true that St.Patrick preached forgiveness because the Irish had a great deal to forgive.
St.Patrick went to Northern Spain after he left Ireland. He recalled a tragic accident at a City hall when a fire broke out and several people perished. The lesson learned was that one should not put “too many basques in one exit”. Sir Wordsworth finally realized that his guest was not St.Patrick. It was in fact the scoundrel who absconded with Marmaduke.
Doug Geddie thanked John Crossingham for entertaining us today and did not know what to admire most – his fertile mind or the courage of his companions.
Next Week:
Spring Birds at Point Pelee – Chris McNaughton – St.Catharines Lakeshore Club.
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