Pledge of Allegiance: Rachel Ni lead the pledge.
Thought for the Day: Lage Andersen gave us a “show and tell” about his current reading material. He first quoted Frank Bruni, a New York Times Opinion writer on a column entitled “For the Love of Sentences.”
The ethical shortcomings of Supreme Court Justices about the generosity of billionaires Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas was pointed out by Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri who mimicked Jane Austin’s famous first line of “Pride and Prejudice—“It is a truth universally acknowledged that an American billionaire, in possession of sufficient fortune, must be in want of a Supreme Court justice.”
And from the book “Number Go Up—Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall” by Zeke Fox describing the challenge of debunking falsehoods in the internet age --- “the bullshit asymmetry principle: The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.” Lage opined: observing that this is an election year we will all have plenty of opportunities to observe the bullshit asymmetry principle in action!
Visiting Rotarian: Erika Monteverdi joined us from the Palo Alto University Club. Turns out she lives in Hillsborough! A major effort ensued on the part of many to convince her to join our Rotary Club. Likely there will be further efforts to do so! So glad she could join us today!
Visitors: So many visitors! Cary invited many of his Merrill-Lynch co-workers and associates to the performance. In attendance were Tom Hunt, Keith Vernoche, Jason Ting, Jeff Ting, Elizabeth Lomelli. Also Kim Dunne from B of A, and music friends of Cary-- Den Tien Price and Enrique Bonaparte IV. Jerry’s wife Dr. Charlene Hsu-Winges also came for the concert.
Announcements:
1) The Lions Club is seeking nominations for Burlingame Citizen of the Year. Nominations are due May 10 so please get any suggestions to Jennifer Pence or any other powerful Rotary official.
2) Don’t forget our Rotary Golf Tournament at Green Hills on September 30. We need sponsors and players so be thinking of those you know who can support our major fundraiser of the year.
3) Cary thanked the many, many Club members who worked so hard to put together the wonderful Burlingame’s Got Talent. A slide show highlighted some of the action. What a fun evening and such a variety of talent, acts, and ages. And thanks to all of those restaurants who were so generous in donating the huge spread of delicious food choices. Truly a great event that is sure to be repeated in the years to come.
New Member: Rachel Ni inducted our newest member sponsored by Christine Krolik—William Li. He received his pin and thanked the Club, promising to help in the technical end and any other area he is needed. Welcome William!
Program:
This very special meeting featured a String Quartet: Cary Koh on the violin, Sue Soong, violin, Stephanie Ng on the viola, and Michael Graham cello.
Cary started the concert with a quiz—playing a few bars of classical music featured in various movies, and having the audience guess the composer and the show. Nobody won the bottle of whiskey at stake!
The concert featured the String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, “Dissonance”, K. 465 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The 4 movements were featured along with “teaching moments” by Cary describing the composition’s structure. Mozart used this piece to play with the full steps and half steps of the music scale and is unlike most of his other works.
We were all blown away by the professionalism and incredible talent of Cary and the Quartet—a truly wonderful presentation. Thanks to Cary and the other 3 musicians for giving us a real treat!
Our very own Burlingame Rotarian, Mark Lucchesi has started a podcast for the Burlingame Historical Society called "Burlingame is a Small Town." He has interviewed a number of Burlingame Rotarians as well as other prominent folks in our community. You can check out his YouTube podcasts 