Dear Members, Guests and Friends,
TM Tom started us off with common and uncommon sayings. We thus discovered that…
- TM Lois takes the plunge by daily swimming in her multiple heated pools while preparing her Toastmasters’ speeches.
- TM Kip no longer has to pull his socks up because to avoid slips and falls he walks barefoot and besides, his clothes dryer has voraciously decoupled all his socks anyway.
- TM BeckyJo returned to her birthplace, Hawaii, and to her dismay found that they paved paradise and put up a parking lot (sung to the tune of They Paved Paradise And Put Up a Parking Lot by Counting Crows)
- TM Chris revealed candidly that she and her husband live in a menage a trois of only the two of them. He, she and the symbiotic ChrisJim.
- Guest Terry relied on the saying better safe than sorry while working at Florida DOT – where sometimes it was sorry better than safe.
- TM Aleta confessed that she’s a hugger, a toucher, a feeler, and a smoker, and a joker, and a midnight toker (sung to the tune of The Joker by the Steve Miller band)
- I, Ana, like a deer in the headlights, talked about the homeless steer Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer heading for a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. I Won Best Table Topics Award.
And along came the prepared speeches…
- DTM Kip is trying to get on with the endgame by decluttering stuff, reminiscing of strange people he met in strange lands in need of computer fixes and he now has a keypad lock for the rescue team to access the premises.
- TM Chris recited The Cremation of Sam McGee and her journey from icy cold Alaska to sunbathing with baby oil in Florida beaches and making frequent visits to Florida State University’s popular bar called “The Late Night Library”.
- I, Ana, aka Chaunceyna Gardner (*see PBS (Post Blog Scriptum) fortuitously became a well-renowned Pioneer of the Blogosphere – without even trying! I Won Best Speaker Award.
As far as evaluations go….
- TM Marie praised DTM Kip for his zany interpretation of life as a computer repairman who makes house calls.
- DTM Kip enjoyed the poetic opening and closing of TM Chris’ speech and the wooly gear that she donned. He encouraged her to wear a bathing suit for the beach portion next time.
- TM Carmine liked my use of language and admired the fact that I’m clueless and here because I’m not all there. He Won Best Evaluator Award.
The very timely Word of the Day was:
FESTIVE, adj.
Indicative of or marked by high spirits or good humor.
And by golly, we used it and lived our festive spirit well today!!!
P.B.S. “Being There” 1979 movie starring Peter Sellers and Shirley McLaine.
Middle-aged, simple-minded Chance lives in the townhouse of a wealthy old man in Washington, D.C. He has spent his whole life tending the garden and has never left the property. Other than gardening, his knowledge is derived entirely from what he sees on television. When his benefactor dies, Chance naively tells the lawyers that he has no claim against the estate and is ordered to move out.
Chance wanders aimlessly, discovering the outside world for the first time. Passing by a TV shop, he sees himself captured by a camera in the shop window. Entranced, he steps backward off the sidewalk and is struck by a chauffeured car owned by elderly business mogul and advisor to the President of the United States, Ben Rand. In the car is Rand's glamorous and much younger wife Eve, who mishears "Chance, the gardener" in reply to the question who he is, as "Chauncey Gardiner". Chauncey is introduced to the Prez, and In a discussion about the economy, Chance takes his cue from the words "stimulate growth" and talks about the changing seasons of the garden. The President misinterprets this as optimistic political advice and quotes “Chauncey Gardiner” in a speech. Chance now rises to national prominence, attends important dinners, develops a close connection with the Soviet ambassador, and appears on a television talk show during which his detailed advice about what a serious gardener should do is misunderstood as his opinion on what would be his presidential policy.
Though he has now risen to the top of Washington society, the Secret Service and some 16 other agencies are unable to find any background information on him. During this time Rand's physician, Dr. Allenby, becomes increasingly suspicious that Chance is not a wise political expert and that the mystery of his identity may have a more mundane explanation. Dr. Allenby considers telling Rand this, but realizing how happy Chance is making him in his final days keeps him silent.
While the President delivers a speech at Rand's funeral, the pallbearers hold a whispered discussion over potential replacements for the President in the next term of office and unanimously agree on Chauncey Gardiner as successor. Oblivious to all this, Chance wanders off through Rand's wintry estate. He straightens out a pine sapling flattened by a fallen branch, then walks across the surface of a lake. He pauses, dips his umbrella deep into the water under his feet, then continues on, while the President is heard quoting Rand: "Life is a state of mind."
Link to the YouTube recording: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eY8qarVIsk
See you next week!
Chaunceyna Gardiner
Blogger Extraordinaire
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