Idioms, Constitutional Thriller and Fashionistas of the 60s - edgelording at EarlyBirds!

Dear Members, Guests and Friends,

TM Marie inspired us with an invocation about possibility.

TM Aleta led us in Idiomatic Table Topics.  We soon learned that...

* TM Jose uses "Pardon My French" when he curses in the US and "Pardon my English" when he cur ses in France.

* TM Emmanuel thinks "with flying colors" means booking flights with different airlines.

* DTM Mary Helen had a very erotic fantasy visualizing slathering butter and gobfuls of jam to edgelord her dietetic protocol.

* TM Randolph would rather abstain from "cutting the mustard" and cutting the cheese because inevitably he's left with cleaning up the dishes.

* TM Terri (welcome back!) pointed out the importance of wearing her heart on her sleeve, although the Miami summer heat keeps her sleeveless.

* Guest Nett falls  "head over heels" often in honor of her Southerness but mostly for her edgelord son.

* Guest Millie stated that her grandsons are "the apple of her eye" and they are of the Golden Fuji variety.

* DTM Jim D. says the best thing since sliced bread is... sliced bread with a slather of butter and gobfuls of jam. Get it???? He Won Best Table Topics Award.

Along came the prepared speeches...

* TM Tom kept us with baited breath by presenting us with a ctituional thriller, in which we did not know if the unkown person was caught in flagrante delicto (or infraganti with his married lover) and it turned out to be a 1700s incarnation of Jackson or Travolta.  Don't miss the next episode!

* I, Ana, revealed my condition of hyperthymesia which led me to get hired with go-go boots into a maritime non-prostituion ring which ended with mandatory 3-month summer vacations.  I Won Best Speaker Award.

And as far as evaluations...

* DTM Mary Helen attested that she has never heard a cliffhanger speech of the constitutional variety in all her years in Toastmasters.

* TM Marie is seriously considering wearing hot pants and going disco-dancing again real soon.  She Won Best Evaluator Award.

The Word of the Day was

EDGELORD, noun

a provocative person, especially online.  

Can be used as a verb, as in "I like edgelording others.  It beats plain old-fashioned confrontation.

Here's the link to the recording:

https://youtube.com/live/bL-62LjgxIE?feature=share

See you next week!

Ana I.

Recap Writer

https://youtube.com/live/bL-62LjgxIE?feature=share

Labor Day Memoirs, Let's Win, How to Sleep Productively - lots of denouements at EarlyBirds!

Dear Members, Guests, and Friends,

TM Marie launched us off with denouements around Labor Day.

We discovered that...

* TM Randolph is searching for the balance between sacrifice and priorities - now that Back to School is in full swing.

* Guest Miki is looking for her dream job in Japan - torn and confused between food and drinks, IT or school management.  What will be the denouement?

* TM BeckyJo's work advice is "Show Up, Be on Time, Put Your Stuff Away and the only wrong question is the one you don't ask.

* TM Ricardo's first work experience led to his penchant for the French words which bring about happy denouements.

* TM Jose changed industries several times and in all of them made long and lasting friendships from all walks of life.

* TM Tom developed the brilliant skill of keeping his mouth shut.  That was a result of common sense and situational awareness. He Won Best Tasble Topics Award.

* TM Pam's 2023 Summer Highlight is in the works, includes ripping out torpedo grass in her yard and the EarlyBirds 60th anniversary.

* DTM Jim D will ride his bike on Labor Day and work (for free) on his Honey Do List.

And then came the prepared speeches...

* TM Aleta has joined Area 13, 14, 15, 16 as Contest Master and Area Director and is determined to win this thing together - first by organizing the contest in 2024, in direct contrast to disorganized contests of years past.

* TM Chris showed us how to make money while we sleep.  All we need to do is create a website, training videos, YouTube programs, write Books and start blogs, learn HTML, Dream Weaver, Cold Fusion, infusions, Profusions and Delusions,  Wordpress and we're all set! Piece of cake!  She Won Best Speaker Award.

As far as evaluations....

* DTM Jim disappeared at midpoint into the ethernet and in true team fashion, the eval was concluded by TM Tom.  They both agreed TM Aleta has great clarity, which will greatly assist TMI's lack thereof.

* TM Randolph totally enjoyed the superb sound effects of the speech and wishes all teachers used them to convey the message, not the mess.   He Won Best Evaluator Award.

The Word of the Day was

DENOUEMENT, noun

The outcome of a situation, when something is decided or made clear.  

Example:  I waited for the denouement of the story before drawing erroneous conclusions.

By courtesy of our Proxy Voters, the Gs, we watched the First Place speaker at the International Convention.  She demonstrated, once again, that you can participate in a Triathalon even if you don't know how to swim or bike by simply focusing on the running portion of it and gesticulating a lot when you tell the Tall Tale.  Thanks Jim and Chris!

Our first-time Grammarian, TM Ricardo,  came up with the Best Grammar Trophy to TM Tom for most flowery language symbolized by the phrase "I learned to shut my mouth."  Ah, the irony of it all!..... Great job, Ricardo!!

Here is the link to the recording....

https://youtube.com/live/3MMINWvEn1I?feature=share

See you next week!

Ana I.

Recap Writer 

Self-created Table Topics, Magical History Tour and Caterpillars and Larvae - variety is the name of the game!

Dear Members, Guests and Friends,

Our meeting was all about flexibility, improvisation, omissions and spontaneity today. 

We skipped the Invocation and the Joke but we enthusiastically recited The Pledge of Allegiance, yes siree, we did!!

Our Topic Master, Tom, had spent inordinate amounts of time preparing a topic and then decided, last minute, to leave all the work to the participants.  We had to pick our own Topic!

We thus found out that...

* DTM Jim D. couldn't hurkle-durkle on his last trip as he had to catch one crack-of-dawner flight after another!

* I, Ana, am reading Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba as I hurkle-durkle with a Rum & Coke (aka as The Lie, formerly Cuba Libre) while flipping the pages.

* TM Jose told us about a remarkably humble musician named Rodriguez who made it big in South Africa and remained in construction to hurkle-durkle instead of rewriting his employment history.

* TM Ricardo used the theory behind Eat, Pray, Travel to reconnect with his 3 sisters, who taught him how to understand complicated females without even trying!

* TM Marie today celebrates her anniversary to a creative Rock who designed a fairytale wedding and whose marriage has succeeded mostly thanks to the precipitation levels of rain  in Fort Lauderdale.  She Won Best Table Topics Award.

* TM Pam recently found out that wasp larvaes are carnivore, not vegan.  Attention everyone - more will be revealed in Part II.

* TM Aleta thinks she lives in Dull City, USA, a minuscule section of the large cosmos, where she sits on various Boards, is a labor mediator, a John Deere tractor troubleshooter, a brush-cutting, tree-chopping, fireplace stoker, and other 'minutae'. 

And then came the terrific prepared speeches...

* TM Jose took us on a Magical History Tour of the Principality of Andorra, a tax haven for influencers under 25 years of age who like to golf at high altitudes and pledge allegiance to France's Emmanuel Macron and the Bishop of Urgell (a third cousin twice removed of Richard the Lionheart and his illegitimate son Philip of Cognac).  

* TM Pam gave vivid comparisons of her own life metamorphoses versus Kafka's charming roach story and is ever so grateful that her soul is timeless and although her hands tell a weathered story, her spirit is still a teenager's, so she's been practicing the Limbo Rock - how low can you gooooo???   She Won Best Speaker Award.

As far as evaluations go...

* TM Tom praised TM Jose's spiritual message of his golden labradoodle riding on a cable car barking at the lowly cows below.  Jose's impressive library collection so impressed him that he suggested Jose blurs it next time.  He Won Best Evaluator Award.

* DTM Mary Helen unequivocally stated that TM Pam's speeches render her, MH, speechless and that it's a good thing hummingbirds have not been able to eat us due to a challenging size discrepancy between our two species.

The Word of the Day was

HURKLE-DURKLE, noun

200-year-old Scottish word meaning to lie in bed or linger about when one should be up doing things.

Example:  Hurkle-Durkle is the reason the Scots's expertise focuses on time-travel tv series versus working on improving their accent so everyone besides other Scots can understand them.

Here's the link to the recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5PGV7dJ5yo

See you next week!

Ana

Recap Writer 

Hurkle-Durkle not for now

This and That, Cats & Dogs, What's Going On In the District? A nuanced meeting at EarlyBirds

Dear Members, Friends and Guests,

TM Aleta started us off with an inspirational invocation from Charles Swindall titled "Attitude", which set a beautiful mood for the meeting.

 

I, Ana, led us in Table Topics regarding "This and That"...  We soon learned that...

* TM Ricardo is a fearless daredevil whose next adventures will include climbing a mountain, swimming across the Mediterranean from Denia to Ibiza - all in one week!

* DTM Christine is finally discarding her 1970s granny dresses and settling for hot pants and fluorescent eyeshadow!

* TM Jose is a music legend in his own mind and enlisted EArlyBird members to be his groupies at his home music studio playing the Top Forty Hits. He Won Best Table Topics Award.

* TM Aleta, whose motto is "If It's To Be, It's Up To Thee", states that her favorite old-time saying is "Right on, Brother"

* TM Emmanuel does not remember the strangest dream he ever had but he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was indeed strange.

* Guest Miki finds that Japan's national motto needs to be "Smile - It won't kill you" because her compatriots are annoyingly serious and suspicious of those who smile, like Miki!  The Imperial Royal Family has been notified of her campaign instructions.

* TM Jim has no guilty pleasures, just a lot of pleasures that are not guilty - no nuances there!

We had 2 fantabulous guest speakers today:

*TM Giyora taught us that countries may be enemies, governments may be hostile to each other, but individuals are much the same and can co-exist peacefully, much like cats and dogs - sometimes.   Good luck in the contest!  He Won Best Speaker Award.

* DTM Lois, our District Director, told us about our District and where do we belong.  She inspired us to lead and introduced us to the Bahamas Convention Contest Master, a happy loggerhead turtle swimming in her virtual background. She Won Best Speaker Award, too!

And then came evaluations...

* TM Tom absolutely loved TM Giyora's universal message of brotherhood among cats and dogs and is suggesting an Urban Outfitters casual top for the contest.

* TM Marie thinks DTM Lois needs to go into the construction business and make grand experiments with test balloons.  She Won Best Evaluator Award.

The Word of the Day was

NUANCE, noun or verb

A subtle difference of shade or meaning

Give nuance to...

The effect of a word is nuanced by the tone of voice.

DTM Lois commended EarlyBirds for having won President's Distinguished Club for 59 consecutive years, and then she executed her LLL 3 (listen, learn and leave), as preparations are underway to celebrate a Hybrid 60th Club Anniversary on September 16.  Check our website for more information and to sign up to participate!

Safe travels, TM Chris and Jim G., as you represent us at the Reef Convention By Proxy next week.  

Here's the link to the recording

https://youtube.com/live/cNIG_16C2eQ

See you next Thursday!

Ana I.

Nuanced (methinks) Recap Writer

Favorites, A Kiss is a Kiss, Who Are They? An inherently rich morning at Early Birds!

Dear Members, Friends and Guests,

Our Prez TM Jim G. started us off with an inspiring invocation about our mutually supportive communication enhancement objectives.

TM Randolph asked us about our favorite...

* song.... TM Aleta's inherent ballroom dancer's DNA awakened and she waltzed around the room to the tune of Sweet Caroline.

* app .... TM Tom's is OFF, DISCARD, DISCONNECT, DROP OFF, IGNORE, THROW OUT, STOMP phone... which he, like the rest of us, cannot live without.  He Won Best Table Topics Award but his phone has been confiscated by Apple.

* holiday...  TM Ricardo likes Christmas Eve midnight dinner, when his family toasts, kisses, hugs, dances while reminiscing about the ghosts of Christmas past.

* industry... TM Chris asserted that many individuals don't know technology training exists but you must be inherently avid to learn for her to even come near you!

* age... I, Ana, prefer my first 10 years as a competitive swimmer - a giant among short people and carrying around my birth certificate to prove my age.

* book... DTM Mary Helen is reading Zuruck zur Liebe (a Return to Love, Volver al Amor) just to learn to tell Jim Ich Liebe Dich...

* first job... DTM Jim delivered papers in snowdrifted Syracuse to buy a Schwinn black phantom bike.  He got the bike but suffered frostbite!

We had a great icebreaker and a great speech today...

* TM Ricardo likes to write short stories, prepare videos and fly glider planes, and had an inherently emotional father-son moment when his father became his brother-in-flying.  He Won Best Speaker Award.

* DTM Jim finally revealed what we all suspected:  he comes from a long line of undercover La Cosa Nostra Lincoln Towncar drivers disguised behind very tall hedges.  He Won Best Speaker Award.

Along came the evaluations...

* TM Aleta concluded that TM Ricardo is a fearless risk taker who speaks with clarity and likes high altitude kisses in the mouth.

* TM Pam concluded you cannot judge "The Family" by its book covers and liked DTM Jim D's Rayban sunglasses as seen from a high angle.  She Won Best Evaluator Award.

The Word of the Day was

INHERENT, adj

Existing in something as permanent, essential or characteristic.

Example:  The latitude and longitude of Florida on Planet Earth make it inherently hot, hotter and hottest all year round.  Why do people act surprised?

Being inherently an international club, we were visited by our former member and lasting friend, Miki O.. now residing in her native Kumamoto, Japan.   Happy to see you again, Miki!

Next week, our Area Director, DTM Lois M., will speak at our Club.  Be sure not to miss it!  

Here's the link to the recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3S9K47H7lA

See you next week!

Ana

Recap Writer