Active Lifelong Learning
Lifelong Learning - Lifelong Doing - Lifelong Friends
WELCOME TO ESCOM NEWS & CLUB NOTES – June 2022
Editor: Ellen Breazeale....breazeales@comcast.net
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ESCOM NEWS
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New Club...e-mail to find out more!!!
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The Ur Discussion Group – Zoom
The group will be discussing Ultimate Reality.
Seven people have already signed on but the time and venue for meetings
are being negotiated.
All interested are invited to participate and contribute.
Photo Caption: The Standard of Ur is a box displayed at the British Museum in London. The two large sides show aspects of life in early Mesopotamia. The purpose of the object remains unknown. It might have been mounted on a pole and carried – hence its name. Others think it may be the sounding box of a lyre. The decoration on each side is divided into three levels (registers) which can be read from bottom to top. One side shows scenes of peace and the other scenes of war.
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CLUB NOTES
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No matter what your interest, there’s an ESCOM club that’s ‘right’ for you.
Review the list below. See what’s being offered and
contact a club leader to join the group!
Most of the ESCOM clubs are continuing to meet via ZOOM.
Some clubs -- Astronomy, Bridge, Chess, Humanities, the Book Forum, the Digital Camera and Table Games clubs -- will be meeting in person at either the Deedy Lounge or the IVC ESCOM Center. This change is noted for each of these clubs.
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Arlene Stark
Philosophy of the Mind Club – Zoom
1st, 3rd & 5th Monday
10:00 am - noon
This club continues as a tribute to its esteemed late leader, Arlene Stark.
Discussions focus on Science and Philosophy.
Our current area of interest is on Chaos Theory.
We are viewing Great Courses videos on
the subject.
All interested are invited to participate and contribute.
Photo Caption: Chaos: When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future. Chaotic behavior exists in many natural systems, including fluid flow, heartbeat irregularities, weather, and climate. It also occurs spontaneously in some systems with artificial components, such as the stock market and road traffic. This behavior can be studied through the analysis of a chaotic mathematical model, or through analytical techniques,
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Astronomy Club
2nd Monday
10:00 am - Noon
IVC ESCOM Center
The ESCOM Astronomy Club is engaged in learning and discussing about the (non-mathematical) current knowledge of the structure of the universe and its components.
This includes the different kinds and lives of stars, planets and planetary systems, asteroids and comets, galaxies and galaxy clusters,
to name a few.
We follow the contemporary discoveries of numerous active spacecraft
and earth-based and space-based telescopes which use the range of
the electro-magnetic spectrum.
We learn and discuss about the hunt for exo-planets and the conditions for and
against the possibility of life existing elsewhere.
Our format is roughly an hour of discussion and presentations of book reviews, contemporary space exploration events, and what
to look for in the current night sky.
We are now engaged in the lecture series from the Great Courses
titled “A Field Guide to the Planets”, after which we discuss the material
covered and any contemporary discoveries that provide insights to the lecture.
Contact: Michael Patrick mdpatric@pacbell.net 415-456-2778
Photo Caption: What: Earth’s 23.5° tilt of its rotation axis relative to the orbital
plane of the Sun produces our seasons.
When & Where: June Solstice on 21 June 2022 produces 1st day of
summer and longest day in Northern Hemisphere, and 1st day of
winter and shortest day in Southern Hemisphere.
Distance: On 4 July 2022 Earth will be the furthest distance on our
orbit from the Sun, known as Aphelion, at 94,509,598 miles.
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Book Banter Book Club – Zoom
2nd Wednesday 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Biographies, Autobiographies and semi-fictional biographies of lives before and after WWI.
June 8: "The Secret History of Wonder Woman"
by Jill Le Pore
July 13: Margaret Mead book TBA
Contact: Diana Davis:
Photo Caption: Margaret Mead (1901-1978), a student of Ruth Benedict, made anthropology accessible to everyone. After receiving her degree from Columbia University, Margaret studied gender roles, women’s issues, and culture relating to childhood and adolescent development. She served as curator at the New York American Museum of Natural History and was a prolific writer. Her bestseller 'Coming of Age in Samoa' married her interests in Polynesian culture with her study of adolescence. Her work supported the idea that the study of primitive cultures could be influential in analyzing contemporary society. In 1979 Margaret was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Book Club Forum
4th Monday 1:00 - 3:00 pm
IVC ESCOM Center
June 27: "The Bohemians" by Jasmin Darznik
July 25: "West with Giraffes" by Lynda Rutledge
Contact: Louise Kerr
Photo Caption: In this novel of the glittering and gritty
Jazz Age, a young aspiring photographer, named
Dorothea Lange, arrives in San Francisco in 1918. As a naive newcomer, is grateful for the fast friendship of Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, who introduces Dorothea to Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of the city.
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Book Club Marin County – Zoom
4th Tuesday 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Note: While all meetings are scheduled
to end at 3:00 pm, the ending time is flexible.
Planned reading - always subject to change!
If anyone wishes to attend and purchase any of the selected books, they should feel free to contact
Julio Burroughs to obtain book(s) via Book Passage
(to avoid shipping cost).
Of course, if you prefer not to purchase, try the Marin Library (they have curbside service).
If you are a library member, you also have access to Hoopla which has audio books.
As in the past, we welcome suggestions for future readings!
May 24: Tolstoy, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", online version available via Globalgreyebooks.
June 28: Short stories: Lionel Trilling, "Of This Time, Of That Place"; and John Updike, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and So Forth"- to be emailed.
July 26: Arthur Miller play, "The Crucible", Penguin Classics 2003 paperback edition, estimated price $9.99.
Julio Burroughs Julioburroughs@gmail.com 415-927-1488
Photo Caption: A caricature of John Updike by David Levine which appeared in
"The New York Review of Books" in the December 21,1978 issue.
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Bridge Club
Every Wednesday
1:00 - 4:00 pm
Intermediate players welcome
Contact: Margaret Harding
mfh10@comcast.net
Photo Caption: Doctor Zhivago, Sherif Ali, Nicky Arnstein,
Omar Sharif, the charismatic movie actor, played them all but he said that bridge was his personal passion and at one time was ranked among the world's top 50 contract bridge players.
At the 1964 World Bridge Olympiad he represented the United Arab Republic bridge squad and in 1968 he was playing captain of the Egyptian team in the Olympiad. In 1967 he formed the Omar Sharif Bridge Circus to showcase bridge to the world and invited professional players including members of the Italian Blue team, which won 16 World championship titles, to tour and promote the game via exhibition matches.
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Chess Club
Every Friday - 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Deedy Lounge - Kentfield
Newcomers -- at all levels -- are welcome but you must know how to play the game!
Contact: Bob Phillips
bob.phillips3@gmail.com 415-301-1906
Photo Caption: "I am not what happened to me.
I am what I choose to become." ...Carl Jung
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Current Events and Issues – Zoom
2nd & 4th Thursday
10:00 am - noon
After more than 20 years, we are still actively engaged in discussing current events.
Through participation, ESCOM club members experience teaching
and learning opportunities.
We welcome new participants and topics that interest you.
Come, join us. Sit in on one session, no obligation - you may like the experience.
Many have! Hope to see you soon.
Photo Caption: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of goods and services which are of primary consumer needs. They include transportation, food, and medical care. CPI is calculated by taking price changes for each item in the predetermined basket of goods and averaging them based on their relative weight in the whole basket. The prices in consideration are the retail prices of each item, as available for purchase by individual citizens.Changes in the CPI are used to assess price changes associated with the cost of living, making it one of the most frequently used statistics for identifying periods of inflation or deflation.
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Digital Camera Club
1st Monday - Field Outing
3rd Monday Club Meeting
1:00 - 3:00 pm
IVC ESCOM Center
Open to anyone who would like to expand their photographic capabilities by learning from others on how to capture images.
Our monthly camera club photo outings are currently scheduled outdoors with social distancing protocols and our virtual meetings are held via Zoom.
Contact: Harvey Abernathey
Photo Caption: May Digital Camera Club outing to the Loch Lomond Marina in San Rafael with the shooting theme of "Pathways". Join us for our next outing on June 6th to Luther Burbank Home and Gardens. Image by Harvey Abernathey.
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The Encouragement Writing Club – Zoom
Every Other Wednesday
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Contact: Bernie Cookson
cooksonlaw@comcast.net
508-864-6367
The objective of this club is to share what you've written -- short story, essay, poem -- with the group which will review and critique your work...
honestly but gently.
Photo Caption: Jack Kerouac was the avatar of the Beat generation writers, and his novel 'On the Road' (1957) has inspired countless road trips. He developed a theory of literary style called "spontaneous prose" based on the stream-of-consciousness of the jazz solo and called himself a "jazz poet." He was equally influenced by Buddhism, advising artists to allow their ideas and images to flow freely under the motto, "first thought, best thought." Kerouac started keeping a journal when he was fourteen and continued until his death, at the age of 47. In 1998, 'The New Yorker' published a selection of his journal entries, with a brief introduction by Douglas Brinkley, Kerouac's biographer.
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Food Glorious Food! – Zoom
4th Tuesday 1:00 - 3:00 pm
June 28: "Pat Conroy Cookbook" by Pat Conroy
And...topic selection for July thru Nov 2022
July 26: TBA
Photo Caption: From a March 2016 issue of ‘The Paris Review’: Writers’ cookbooks are often
interesting windows into their psyches. Conroy’s book is one of the very best of the genre.
“This book is the story of my life as it relates to the subject of food,” he wrote in the introduction.
“It is my autobiography in food and meals and restaurants and countries far and near.” Accordingly,
there are chapters beginning with tales of Rome and Paris, of Bangkok and the high seas. And always, always, the Lowcountry. South Carolina is the heart and soul of the memoir, and of the food.
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Friday Film Night - Zoom
Last Friday - 5:30 pm
May 27: 'Simple Justice'
June 24: TBA
Club members will watch a favorite film every month and discuss it afterwards. Running time for films will be approximately 90 minutes allowing for plenty of time for everyone to mimic Roger Ebert.
Note: You can join the group and watch the movie by using this Zoom link:
https://marin-edu.zoom.us/j/97652600292?pwd=UDNxSldrRlc1dlY4RWhQbmJKSmNiQT09
Contact: Ellen Breazeale
breazeales@comcast.net
Photo Caption: The story of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP's effort to integrate public schools in the south, 'Simple Justice', based closely on Richard Kluger's book of the same name, recounts the remarkable legal strategy and social struggle that resulted in the US Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The Court's decision not only struck down segregated schools on the basis of race, but announced finally that America had begun to face the consequences of its dehumanizing social practice. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that racial segregation along "separate but equal" terms was constitutional.
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Great Courses Group – Zoom
Every Thursday 1:00 - 2:30 pm
The GC group is viewing a
12-week lecture series,
'The Celtic World'.
We are half-way through the course which should end at the end of June.
You can drop-in. We'll provide the Course Guide for you to 'catch up'.
. The lecturer is Professor Jennifer Paxton, Director of the University Honors Program and Clinical Assistant Professor of History at
The Catholic University of America.
Our meetings are fun and filled with lively discussions.
Photo Caption: The reverse side of a British bronze mirror, 50 BC – 50 AD, showing the spiral and trumpet decorative theme of the late "Insular" La Tène style, the name given to art and artifacts
created by the La Tene culture, known to us as the Celts. The style influenced
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Humanities Club
1st & 3rd & 5th Saturday
1:00 - 3:00 pm
IVC ESCOM Center
This club continues to study the history and cultures of Western and Eastern civilization.
Currently, the group is viewing a Great Courses series, ''Long 19th Century European History from 1787 to 1917" -- which marks the beginning of the modern history of Europe.
Contact:Ruth King
ruthjjking@yahoo.com 415-898-5845
Photo caption: In the 1790's, the French government and state scientific academy created the first version of the metric system, in an unprecedented effort at standardizing weights and measures. Most contemporary French science stars, such as Lavoisier, Lagrange, Laplace, Coulomb, took part in the project. They agreed to base the units on natural constants, defining the meter as 1 tenth-million of the distance between the pole and the equator and deriving from it the units to measure weight, capacity, and surface. The impartiality of nature was a key concept of the Enlightenment. Nature was the source of anything rational, universal, and lasting.
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Moral and Ethical,
Legal Roundtable – Zoom
1st and 3rd Tuesday
10:00 am – noon
The Roundtable is a long running ESCOM Club for discussions, explorations, and issues in our contemporary world.
Stimulating discussions among and between the attendees and the facilitator are the primary mode of participation.
Join us with your ideas and opinions.
Contact: Kevin Colgate
Photo Caption: The American Civil Liberties Union estimates the U.S. spends upwards of $3.6 billion a year enforcing cannabis prohibition, with the majority of more than 600,000 annual arrests largely affecting people of color, who are nearly four times as likely to be arrested as their white counterparts.
Black men receive sentences that are 13.1% longer than white men and Latinos are nearly
6.5 times more likely to receive a federal sentence than non-Hispanic whites.
Federal attempts to legalize cannabis are not taking place in a vacuum, as many polls show a majority of Americans are in favor of legalization in some form across generational and political lines.
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Opera and Beyond Club - Zoom
2nd Tuesday 1:00 - 4:00 pm
This session presents a showing of a complete opera.
Last Wednesday 1:00 - 3:00 pm
This session is a gathering to share the glories of opera. You do not have to know a lot about opera.
Everyone may contribute by
selecting their favorite opera aria.
The club leader will access it on YouTube and talk about it during the session. Also, you can share an article about opera, music, composer, an anecdote,
Your enthusiasm and desire to participate is what counts!
* If you would like to suggest an opera or have access to any operas,
please contact the club leader.
Contact: Michael Sachs
Photo Caption: Tristan and Isolde, lovers in a medieval romance based on Celtic legend. The hero Tristan goes to Ireland to ask the hand of the princess Isolde for his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. On their return the two mistakenly drink a love potion prepared for the king and fall deeply in love. Richard Wagner wrote an opera based on this story. It's being preformed this Summer by the Santa Fe Opera Company... https://www.santafeopera.org/tickets/
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Reading Great Plays - Zoom
3rd Tuesday 1:00 - 4:00 pm
We'll be reading a play each month and
attempt to release its magic to reveal
the author's main objective -- storytelling.
There is no memorization, no accents, no ego and no stress... just the joy of
bringing the play alive!!!
Contact: Gary Gonser ggonser3@gmail.com
Photo Caption: The Allen Elizabethan Theatre, the jewel outdoor venue for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, was built in 1947 as a replica of London's 1599 Fortune Theatre. Just before each performance, an actor opens the gable window, and in keeping with Elizabethan tradition signaling a play in progress, runs a flag up the pole to the sound of a trumpet and doffs his cap to the audience.
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Reflections on WWII Club – Zoom
Fridays 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Fifty-five million people died in the Second World War, the greatest conflict in human history.
To better understand all aspects of this conflict and to share our own experiences, we'll be watching video series from
the Great Courses group.
Photo Caption: Although widely known for his children’s books, Theodor Seuss Geisel,
or Dr. Seuss, was also the chief political cartoonist for the New York newspaper 'PM' from 1941 to 1943. He created approximately 400 cartoons about World War II.
Here, he depicts 'Run-away Inflation". Between April 1942 and June 1946, the period of the most stringent federal controls on inflation, the annual rate of inflation was just 3.5 % ; the annual rate had been 10.3 % in the 6 months before April 1942 and it soared to 28.0 % in the 6 months after June 1946 .
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Spanish Club – Zoom
Every Friday 1:00 - 2:30 pm
Intermediate level conversation
in Spanish on various topics.
Contact: Roberta Schwartz, reschwarz@sbcglobal.net
949-922-3291
or Paula Hammons,
paulahammons@yahoo.com
415-948-8451
Photo Caption: Once a year in mid-June, devils run wild in the Spanish village of Castrillo de Murcia.
A blend of Catholic and pagan rituals meant to represent the triumph of good over evil, the festival of El Colacho dates back to the 1620's and takes place on the Sunday
after the Feast of Corpus Christi.
Its origins are unclear, but some historians believe it may have started as a fertility ritual. During the festival, red and yellow-masked “devils” run through the streets hurling insults at villagers and whipping them with a horsetail attached to a stick. When drums announce the arrival of the black-clad atabalero, pious men who who have come to drive out evil, el salto del Colacho—the flight of the devil—begins
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Table Games Club
IVC ESCOM Center
2nd and 4th Wednesday
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Games such as Scrabble, RummiKube, Mexican Train (Dominoes), and some card games!
We encourage fun and participation. Game rules are followed but there maybe some 'wiggle-room' (so keep your rule-books at home!)
Sue Derana; (415) 987-1719; sderana@yahoo.com
Photo caption: Faro was by far the most popular and prolific game played in Old West saloons, followed by Brag, Three-card-monte, and dice games such as High-low, Chuck-a-luck, and Grand hazard. The object of the game is to win bets. During game play, the banker will turn two cards over at a time. The first card is the losing card, and the second card is the winning card. Players with chips on the losing card will lose their bet. Players with chips on the winning card will win their bet.
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Trivia Quiz
Calling All Smarty Pants - Zoom
4th Sunday - 7:00 p.m.
Hosted by Janis Luft,
longtime Mistress of Trivia
for the Belvedere-Tiburon Library.
General knowledge questions.
Interactive team contest (teams assigned).
June 26: Hope to see you for another round of Bear with Me Trivia.
As always, you’ll get 4 rounds of 5 questions, many with multiple answers.
You’ll jot down your own answers and at the end of each round of questions, the club leader will randomly sort you into Zoom rooms where you will decide on a team name (funny, punny names encouraged) and confer with your teammates before
presenting your group’s answers.
The winning team gets bragging rights for a whole month!!!
Photo Caption: A one and a two and a three…! June is National Accordion Awareness Month.
Through a complex construction of bellows and reeds, the accordion (also known as a concertina) produces its mournful timbre when air is forced over the reeds. While the accordion accompanies traditional polka music, the instrument has found its way into many classical and modern works of music.
For generations the accordion complimented many genres in American music. From jazz and zydeco to folk and Gospel and Blues, musicians found the accordion a fit a variety of musical styles.
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"The Wednesday Detection Club" – Zoom
1st Wednesday
1:00 - 3:00 pm
June 1: "A Morbid Taste for Bones" by Ellis Peters
And..book selection for July thru December 2022
July 6: TBA
Contact: Diana Davis
Photo Caption: In 1137 the head of Shrewsbury Abbey decided to acquire the remains of St Winifred for his Benedictine order. Brother Cadfael is part of the expedition sent to her final resting place in Wales and they find the villagers passionately divided by the Benedictines' offer for the saint's relics. Canny, wise and all too worldly, Cadfael isn't surprised when this taste for bones
leads to bloody murder.
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"Who Done It?" Book Club – Zoom
3rd Wednesday
1:00 - 3:00 pm
We’re a Mystery Book Club
June 15: "Raven Black" Ann Cleeves
July 20: "Bruno, Chief of Police" by Martin Walker
Contact: Diana Davis
Photo Caption: Raven Black begins on New Year's Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors who never come. But the next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered nearby, and suspicion
falls on Magnus.
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For the complete ESCOM Club List, Click Here
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right above the Constant Contact Logo.
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ESCOM | Telephone: 415-485-9652 | email: escom@marin.edu
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