Somehow it’s already February.  Day 13 of the new administration, we greet the second half of the current, fabulous Rotary administration.  Less than two shopping weeks until Valentine’s Day, just four days until Super Bowl, 28 days until Ash Wednesday.  Time to get focused!
 
President Stan called the meeting to order at the appointed time. 
 

Pledge and Invocation

Defrocked former President Barry Parker led us in the pledge of allegiance, without incident.  Cary Koh delivered a thoughtful and timely invocation, too good not to memorialize here:
  1.  You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
  2. Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.
  3. The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Mahatma Gandhi
Visiting Rotarians and Guests
Something we said?  No guests today.
 
Rosalie McCloud introduced Rachel Ni of Coldwell Banker Burlingame for her third visit.

Announcements 

Thursday, March 16, will be a joint meeting with the Rotary Club of San Mateo at Poplar Creek.  Same venue, different day.  That’s Thursday, March 16!
 
President Stan summoned Cathy Jones to the podium where she was wished Happy Birthday from Monday, January 27, with the Happy Birthday song.  Cathy was also presented with her square badge.  Cathy shared that we will see more of her from now on; Wednesday works much better for her.  We look forward to more Cathy!
Membership Chairwoman Jennifer Pence encouraged members to think about folks in their daily lives who would make good Burlingame Rotarians and invite them to visit.  Thanks for the reminder, Jennifer.

Program

Professor Mike Kimball and Fun Committee Co-Chairman, Fritz Brauner took the school marm chairs and talked about recording our lives and surrendering to our passing thoughts about writing a book.

Mike suggested that our progenitors might very well treasure some recordings of our lives.  It would facilitate these writings to be  making notes of  quotidian  activities in which we indulge that could be mesmerizing  to future aforementioned progenitors…or not. 
At the end of the year, or the beginning of the year, it was suggested that we make a TOP TEN list of personal highlights list from 2016.  For extra credit, we can create then live through a TOP TEN LIST for 2017 and see what survived from the list  prepared in advance at the beginning of the year. Good, fun project for the entire family.
 
It is known that Professor Kimball has been writing and writing and writing a book about reading difficult books.  The audience offered difficult book titles such as Finnegan’s Wake, War and Peace, As I Lay Dying.  Lage Andersen offered The Code of Federal Regulations, but very few have partaken. 
Lage Andersen threw a lot of big words at us:  anthropomorphous or something, interlocutor, metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia. He might be a secret intellect! 
How does one look up the spelling of a word, if she doesn’t know how to spell it in the first place.
Professor Kimball guided us in the talent of creative writing, taking a sentence and, in the editing process, enhancing for more interesting readability.  An example:  Original thought: The professor bored us all to tears. Edited: While the professor droned through his (interminable) lecture, his students dozed, doodled, and wrote (plaintive) letters home. Many thanks to Fritz who emotionally supported the Professor and attempted to appear spellbound.  Not convincing when he fell over for a snooze.
                                    
CALENDAR
February 4   Have a Fun Superbowl!
February 6   Happy Birthday Joe DiMaio
February 8   Bring a good, potential Rotarian at beautiful Poplar Creek as our guest.