THIS WEEK:   In an invocation both short and sweet, Andrew Comstock shared much in few words:  Be grateful, attend to what can be done, and smile through it all . . . Guests included Christine Krolik, former mayor of Hillsborough; Terry Trumbull, Palo Alto lecturer and environmental attorney; and Eric Berkovsky, Rotaract President and C.S. major from the no-man's-land across the Bay.  Their hosts: Cheryl Young and Jay Miller . . . Mike Heffernan reminded us of why we're here.  He, Jennifer Pence, and Mike Horwitz attended Spring awards ceremonies for intermediate, high school, and college scholarship recipients.  Your club has committed close to $50,000 for these worthy scholars over the next four years.  That's something to smile about . . . File under "Misc." If you are a Zoom participant who blacks out the video, Fritz Brauner wants to know what, if anything, you're wearing. No, not you, Ted...

 

SPEAKER:   We heard from Ted Cheeseman, Ph.D. candidate, top-of-the-line tour guide, and world-class expert on whales.  His subject: those who live largest.  (Dung beetles, too.)

Fun facts: Nowadays, approximately 3,000 whales ply California's coastal waters, breeding in Mexico . . . Blue whales are the biggest animals in world history, weighing in at as much as 200 tons.  Their tongues alone outweigh some fully-grown elephants! . . . Whales travel thousands of miles each year to remote feeding and mating grounds.  More than Mike Harvey, even . . . The last U.S. whaling station didn't close until 1971.  Located at Point San Pablo . . . Toward the end, whale oil, which once fueled the world, was used primarily for dog food, margarine, and something else your correspondent didn't catch . . . Grateful thanks to Cheryl Young for bringing us this spellbinding speaker. ... New to me: "entanglement rescue team." Seafaring samaritans who save whales entangled in nets or fishing line. The best kind of do-gooders... For more whale news and pics, President Em kindly recommends https://bit.ly/3fc9vqg

 

ROTARIANS IN THE NEWS:   Flocking Craze Sweeps Nation!  Plastic Flamingos have been popping up on front lawns from Bangor to Barstow.  Teams of flockers, sent out from Flocking Central, plant the flamingos in the dead of night, return to retrieve them the next day.  Recently, Flocking Founder Wendi Upchurch consented to an interview in her palatial World Headquarters, a former chicken-plucking facility on Rollins Road.  Upchurch was fetchingly attired in a pink T-shirt emblazoned with the organization's official motto, two single-syllable words in the imperative mood, one of them the second person singular pronoun.  At only $75 per flocking, "Our service is ideal," says she, "for birthdays, anniversaries, bar mitzvahs, and anarcho-syndicalist initiations."  Proceeds go to scholarships.

 

USE A Cliché, GO TO JAIL:   In an unprecedented move, the Burlingame Rotary Board has placed two members, one of them a former man of the cloth, on probation.  The miscreants were heard to characterize this week's speech as "a [marine mammal] of a program." The Board action was explained by Club Secretary Marilyn Orr: "Curse words we expect, obscenity we endure, but clichés will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law." 

 

NEXT WEEK:  Hillsborough City Manager Ann Ritzma, "What's New in Hillsborough."

 

 

 

Password to access the recording is: 96R#pxA$