Club News & Notes - March/April 2024

Lifelong Learning - Lifelong Doing - Lifelong Friends

WELCOME TO ESCOM NEWS & CLUB NOTES

March/April 2024

Editor: Ellen Breazeale....breazeales@comcast.net

Here Comes the Sun...

Little darlin', it's been a long, cold, lonely winter

Little darlin', it feels like years since it's been here

Tired of waking up and going to sleep in the dark? Longer days are ahead for California as the official start of spring approaches.

The first day of spring will be on March 19, 2024, the start of the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, but to be more specific, it's the day the sun's rays shine onto the equator while the Earth sits with its axis tilted neither toward nor away from the sun. This causes 12 hours of sunlight almost

everywhere on Earth.

CLUB NEWS

..............................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................

CLUB NOTES

.........................................................................................................

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 but some

meet in person. Please access the ESCOM Club List for complete details.

Arlene Stark

Philosophy of Science Club – Zoom

1st, 3rd & 5th Monday

10:00 am - noon

This club continues as a tribute to its esteemed late leader, Arlene Stark.

Discussions and programs focus on Science and Philosophy.

The group is starting a new series -- “What Darwin Didn’t Know” -- which examines the developments of Darwin’s theory since its formulation.

Ongoing for 24 lectures. People can join anytime.

Contact: Jay Conner greatferm@email.com

415-858-3297

Photo Caption: Darwin suggested a mechanism for evolution: natural selection, in which heritable traits that help

organisms survive and reproduce become more common

in a population over time.

Astronomy Club

2nd Monday

10:00 am - Noon

IVC ESCOM Center

The ESCOM Astronomy Club is engaged in learning about and discussing 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 “Radio Astronomy: Observing the Invisible Universe”, 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: NGC 2392 - NGC 2392, referred to as a planetary nebula, contains

the glowing remains of a dying Sun-like star. The bright, central region is material being

blown away by the nebula's central star.

Where: Constellation Gemini

Distance: 5,000 + light years

APOD: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap031207.html

Book Club Forum

4th Monday 1:00 - 3:00 pm

IVC ESCOM Center

Mar 25 - 'Hidden Power' - Katie Marton

Apr 22 - 'It Takes One to Know One' - Susan Isaac

Contact: Shirley Genetin

genetin@sbcglobal - 415-717-5138

Photo Caption: An engrossing look at twelve presidential marriages—from Edith and Woodrow Wilson to

Laura and George W. Bush—that have profoundly

affected America’s history.

Marton uncovers the behind-the-scenes dynamics of the ultimate power couples, showing how first ladies

have used their privileged access to the president

to influence staffing, promote causes, and engage directly in policy-making, like Edith Wilson who secretly ran the country after Woodrow’s debilitating stroke.

Book Club Marin County – Zoom

4th Tuesday 1:30 - 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 you prefer not to purchase any of the books to be discussed, you may wish to 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!

Mar 26 - Chaucer: 'Wife of Bath (Prologue and Tale)' -- 'Selected Canterbury Tales': Dover Thrift; ISBN 10 04 628 2414-$5.00

Apr 23 -Shakespeare, 'Much Ado About Nothing':, (Edition to be chosen; could be online: Gutenberg)

Contact: Norman Nayfach normansn@hotmail.com 415-499-3173

Julio Burroughs Julioburroughs@gmail.com 415-927-1488

Photo Caption: In the Wife of Bath's Tale, a knight sets out on a quest to find out what women want in order to prevent his own execution. He meets an old woman who gives him the answer - women desire control over their husbands. Because she gave him the answer, he must marry her.

Chess Club

Every Friday - 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Deedy Lounge - Kentfield

Contact: Bob Phillips

bob.phillips3@gmail.com

415-301-1906

Photo Caption: An 8-year-old chess prodigy made history as the youngest player to defeat a chess grandmaster. The boy, Aswath Kaushik, beat Jacek Stopa at

a chess tournament in Switzerland.

Kaushik, who was born in India but lives in Singapore,

handed 37-year-old Stopa of Poland a loss during

the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open.

Current Events and Issues – Zoom

2nd & 4th Thursday

10:00 am - noon

Current Events club has no agenda.

Because…once you write it down, it is no longer current.

From Jay Conner, the club leader: Before the meeting at 10 AM the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month, we each have time to turn to our morning news source of choice for a nugget of news or concern we can present for the consideration of our assembled fellows.

I remember members who claim we have been doing this longer than anyone, that the memory of ESCOM runneth not to the contrary.

Perhaps it runneth not to the affirmative either, but who haveth the burden of proof ?

We welcome all fresh, new, informed opinions, civilly presented and argued.

Contact: Jay Conner greatferm @email.com 415-858-3297

Photo Caption: Applications are now open for the 2024-25 Marin County Civil Grand Jury which is responsible for investigating and recommending improvements in the operations of local governments.

Jurors will serve a one-year term from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025 and spend 10 to 20 hours per week conducting confidential investigations and publishing reports.

Applicants must be 18 or older, a United States citizen, and a resident of Marin County for at least one year. Applications are available online or in print at marincounty.org/depts/gj/how-do-i-apply/.

The application period closes on April 19, 2024.

Digital Camera Club

1st Monday - Field Outing

3rd Monday Club Meeting

10:30 am- 12:30 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 club meetings are held in-person at the IVC Campus.

2024 is off to a good start with the next club outing scheduled to Sonoma Botanical Gardens in Glen Ellen on Monday, March 4th with shooting theme of "New Beginnings".

Feel free reach out if you would like to join with our group to explore locations you may not think of going to...then getting together to share the experiences of photographing.

Contact: Harvey Abernathey

ndimages6@gmail.com 415-385-0054

Photo Caption: Image by Harvey Abernathey - Water drops on glass for the Jan. 8th club outing workshop on "Water Drop" photography.

The Explorers

Monthly - Place/Date/Time TBA

Do you like to explore new places, learn new things, meet new friends or revisit local places you have not been to for a while?

Do you like to get out in Nature?

The Explorers, a new nature club, is for you!

Please read the club description to get a better idea on how the club will operate...click here.

Contact the club leader to confirm your interest in becoming part of this group.

Lisa Symonds...lisasymonds@att.net

Photo Caption: Annie Cohen Kopchovsky’s (a/k/a Annie Londonderry) bike ride between 1894 and 1895 was, the New York World declared, “the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman.”

The married mother of three children under the age of six was attempting to become the first

woman to ride around the world by bicycle. The name “Londonderry” came from the first

of several corporate sponsors of her journey, The Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company

of Nashua, New Hampshire.

Though she is often heralded as the first woman to circle the world on a bicycle, there is much more to Annie’s story than meets the eye! Learn More...

Friday Film Night - Zoom

4th and sometimes last Friday - 5:30 pm

Club members watch a favorite film every month and discuss it afterwards.

Running time for films is approximately

120 minutes allowing for plenty of time for everyone to mimic Roger Ebert.

Mar 22 - 'Firelight'

A governess agrees to bear a child to help her father.

See IMDB Overview...

Apr 26 - Oscar-winning Short Films

Short films include: God of Love, The New Tenants, Toyland, West Bank Story,

The Lost Thing, Logorama, The Danish Poet, Ryan and Harvie Krumpet

See Amazon page for reviews...

Contact: Ellen Breazeale - breazeales@comcast.net 415-892-6546

Great Courses Group – Zoom

Every Thursday 1:00 - 2:30 pm

Starting April 4, this group will be starting a new video series, 'Understanding the World's Greatest Structures: Science and Innovation from Antiquity to Modernity', a course consisting of 24 thirty-minute lectures.

The lecturer, Stephen Ressler, is a Professor Emeritus from the United States

Military Academy at West Point, where he taught for 21 years. He holds

an MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University and is a registered professional engineer in Virginia. He served in a variety of military engineering assignments in the United States, Europe, and Central Asia.

During March, the group will watch the last six lectures from

'The Genius of Michelangelo' series.

You can 'drop in' and join us for these sessions.

Our meetings are fun and filled with lively discussions.

Contact:

Ellen Breazeale breazeales@comcast.net 415-892-6546

Walt Campbell walterlcampbell@aol.com

Photo Caption: The Acropolis in Athens, photographed at night

Humanities Club

1st & 3rd Friday

1:00 - 3:00 pm

IVC ESCOM Center

Contact:Ruth King

ruthjjking@yahoo.com 415-898-5845

New Leader Needed...

This Club's meetings are divided between two Great Courses series:

'London in the Time of Dickens', an opportunity to experience the British capital through the eyes of a literary master whose work is inextricably tied to the city and its rich history.

Throughout 12 lectures taught by Professor Lillian Nayder of Bates College, you’ll tour the city of London in a time of rapid transformation through the life and work of Charles Dickens, uncovering the history of the metropolis, while also witnessing the everyday experiences of Londoners from all walks of life as Dickens represents them.

'The World was Never the Same', a captivating course in which

Professor Rufus Fears—a master storyteller and one of the most popular instructors on the Great Courses faculty—provides viewers with 36 of the most important and

definitive events in the history of the world.

History is made and defined by landmark events -- moments that irrevocably changed the course of human civilization. While many of us are taught that anonymous social, political, and economic forces are the driving factors behind events of the past, Professor Fears believes that it's individuals, acting alone or together, who alter

the course of history.

Photo Caption: The Wright brothers’ 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk, an unprecedented event that

would have enormous implications for the future of commercial travel, warfare, and space flight. Pictured here is one of their first glides, Wilbur in motion at left holding one end of glider

(rebuilt with single vertical rudder), Orville lying prone in machine, and Dan Tate at right,

in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on October 10, 1902.

Maj Jong Club

2nd & 4th Tuesday

10:00 am - noon

IVC ESCOM Center

This club was formed to teach people how to play Mah Jong and to offer a venue for experienced players to meet.

This is not a club where you can 'drop in' with the expectation that you can join a game. You must contact the club leaders, so they can plan

on the number of people who need lessons

orjust want to play.

Contact: Linda Henderson linda_h @peak.org

Pat Bailey... pbailey49 @aol.com

Photo Caption: American Mah Jong was officially established by The National Mah Jongg League, Inc. which published a volume of "Official American Rules" in 1935.

Tournament standards and rules were established in 1986, when the National Mah Jongg League and Mah Jongg Madness jointly conducted their first annual Mah Jongg Tournament at Sea.

Now there are American mah jongg tournaments conducted throughout the United States, and consist of players from America and Canada. Mah Jongg Madness conducts more than a dozen tournaments a year and an annual NMJL cruise culminates in the National Mah Jongg Convention

in Las Vegas every March.

Mindfulness Meditation Club

1st, 3rd & 5th Tuesday

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

IVC ESCOM Center

Hybrid Meeting - Zoom option

This club brings us together to learn and practice mindfulness meditation in a supportive group setting.

Whether novice or experienced practitioner, we can always develop further, and community helps. Our emphasis is on mindfulness of the body, which many consider the most important form of practice. We take advantage of biological knowledge and draw from ancient wisdom traditions.

Our goal is to grow more familiar and comfortable with the basic features of life, including transience, interdependence, and the inevitability of challenges. We foster compassionate acceptance of current circumstances while building capacity to meet life with clarity, gratitude, generosity, and skill.

Contact: Will Meecham willmeecham@gmail.com 415-328-4294

Photo Caption: Mindfulness...a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.

Moral and Ethical,

Legal Roundtable – Zoom

1st, 3rd, and 5th 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.

This club is currently studying 'Thoughts on Capitalism', a 36-lecture course taught by

Professor Jerry Z. Muller, Ph.D. It is designed to help students think about capitalism, not only as an economic system, but in terms of its moral, political, and cultural effects.

The club is also discussing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and

Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT), Google Gemini (GPT),

and Synthetic Biology. All Parts of the Comimg Wave (Mustafa Solymen)

the impacts across society.

Join us with your ideas and opinions.

Contact: Kevin Colgate

kevincolgate@hotmail.com 415-624-4362

Opera and Beyond Club - Zoom

2nd Tuesday 1:00 - 3:00 pm

Full opera video

shown with English Subtitles

Future Operas will be announced on a monthly basis.

Contact: Michael Sachs

michahsachs@gmail.com

415-298-1939

Photo Caption: The San Francisco Opera opens the new season with Giuseppe Verdi’s 'Un Ballo in Maschera' (The Masked Ball) which is based on the real life assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden in 1792. Gustavus is a ruler plagued by his conscience and dedicated to his job, but has a guilty secret: he is in love with his closest friend Anckarstroem's wife, Amelia.

Learn more about the season...

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!!!

Mar 19 & Apr 16 - TBA

Contact: Gary Gonser ggonser3@gmail.com

John Petrovsky jpetrovsky45@gmail.com

Photo Caption: The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will begin its 10-play 2024 season with 'Macbeth', in which three witches tell the Scottish general Macbeth that he will be King of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth kills the king, becomes the new king, and kills more people out of paranoia. Civil war erupts to overthrow Macbeth, resulting in more death.

Learn more about the season..

Spanish Club – Zoom

Every Friday 1:00 - 2:30 pm

Intermediate level conversation

in Spanish on various topics.

Contacts:

Roberta Schwarz,

reschwarz@sbcglobal.net

949-922-3291

Paula Hammons

paulahammons@yahoo.com

415-948-8451

Photo Caption: Regardless of visitors’ beliefs or the strength of their religious convictions, the commemoration of the Passion of Christ in Seville is an art exhibition in its floats, most of which are great works of sculpture and sacred Baroque imagery; it is also an overwhelming spectacle of profound emotion, coordination and team work by religious Brotherhoods and float bearers. For several years, Seville’s Holy Week (Semana Santa in Spanish), has enjoyed the status of being a Festival of International Tourist Interest.

Nothing can beat the thrill of hearing the foreman give the float bearers the signal to march with a ring of the bell and a shout of “al cielo con ella” [lift her to the sky!]. Seeing the levantá, when the bearers raise the float, then the image moving forward to the beat of the music, or hearing a saeta sung from a balcony: these are some of the electrifying moments of the Holy Week processions—the highlight of which is the Madrugá de Sevilla, the procession that arrives at the Cathedral at dawn on Good Friday.

Table Games Club

2nd and 4th Wednesday

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

IVC ESCOM Center

Games such as Scrabble, RummiKube, Mexican Train (Dominoes), and card games!

We encourage fun and participation.

Game rules are followed but there maybe some 'wiggle-room'

(so keep your rule-books at home!)

Contact: Sue Derana

sderana@yahoo.com 415-987-1719

Photo caption: Mehen is an ancient Egyptian board game that was played from the predynastic period to the Old Kingdom (c. 3000 – 2181 BCE). It is also called the 'snake game' because the board is shaped like a coiled snake.

Its name comes from the snake god, called Mehen, who wrapped around Ra, the sun god, to protect him during his nightly journey through the underworld.

The game is for two players; we know this because scenes from the tombs of nobles show people playing mehen and other board games. The boards have sometimes been found with six lion pieces and many marbles. It is possible that the marbles travelled along the spiral grooves, a hypothesis based on worn paint on some boards. Unfortunately, the rules for the game have been lost over the intervening 4000 years, so instead experts make their best guesses about how they

think the game might have worked.

Travel Literature

2nd Monday

1:00 – 3:00 PM

IVC ESCOM Center

This club was formed to share travel through the writings of talented authors and the experiences each member has had -- whether

extensive or limited.

Mar 11 - No meeting

Apr 8- A Year in Provence - Peter Mayle

Contact: Deborah Patrick

debpatrick3@gmail.com

Photo Caption: In a witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs.

The UR Discussion Group

2nd & 4th Friday - 10:00 - Noon

Deedy Lounge - Kentfield

Hybrid Meeting - Zoom option

Ur is a prefix, meaning primitive, original,

earliest - as in Ur-text, Ur-language,

or Pilsener Urquell, the source.

It can also be an abbreviation for Ultimate Reality.

We are doing a series by Professor/Comedian Steven Gimbel on The Philosophy of Humor, supplemented by numerous examples brought by our community. What’s so funny ? Come see. Join us anytime

Contact: Jay Conner greatferm@email.com 415-858-3297

Photo caption: Reality TV, or state surveillance? The ultimate expression of a significant television genre, or the logical conclusion of anti-terrorism legislation..? Dirk searched for clues but the boundaries had blurred. No one was talking...

"The Wednesday Detection Club" – Zoom

1st Wednesday

1:00 - 3:00 pm

Mar 6 - 'Her Royal Spyness' - Rhys Bowen

Apr 3 - 'The Chocolate Cobweb' - Charlotte Armstrong

Contact: Diana Davis

calekdiana @yahoo.com 415-897-4844

Photo Caption: London, 1932. Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, 34th in line for the English throne, is flat broke. She's bolted Scotland, her greedy brother, and her fish-faced betrothed. London is a place where she'll experience freedom, learn life lessons aplenty, do a bit of spying for HRH --and find a dead Frenchman in her tub.