Dear Members, Guests and Friends,
With a libertarian flavor,
Our International Speech Contest took off with a great invocation by TM Terri about
C L A R I T Y !!!
Voting was a real challenge because all our contestants were fabulous!!
* DTM Mary Helen focused on New Year's Resolutions, after concluding that growing up she was a Rebel Without A Clue.... and she still writes grocery lists while riding Uber to the airport. She Won Third Place.
* TM Chris became a lawyer in flower power Berkeley, handled divorces in Haight-Ashbury and finally found her passion in computer teaching and soulmate TM Jim G. She teaches while singing a capella. She Won Second Place.
* TM Paolo related to Roman Cicero and especially the Greek Demostenes, who overcame stuttering and commanded the masses to march into war while eating moussaka and gyros. He Won First Place and will represent our Club in the February 24 Area Contest. Congratulations Paolo!!!
While the votes were being counted and recounted (after all, some of us are in Florida), TM Marie delighted us with some National Day table topics. We discovered that...
* DTM Jim D. reminisces about Vernors' Ginger Ale, Sanders' Ice Cream and Hot Fudge, but Detroit is waaay too snowy, icy, frosty and coldy for him. Hello, Florida! Bye Bye Michigan!!
* TM Jose thoroughly practiced Know Your Customer while in Sales, but now he's become a Libertarian who hangs up on telemarketers while feeling lots of compassion for them. Ahhh the joys of retirement!! He Won Best Table Topics Award.
* I, Ana, a self-designated wordsmith, have a neurotically keen eye for detecting typos and misspellings (except my own) and will emulate TM Marie in reading segments of Roget's Thesaurus every night before bedtime while using one of Roget's slide rules.
* TM Terri likes Dunkin Donuts coffee, not only on National Gourmet Coffee Day but every day - although she is switching to tea for medicinal... oops. meditative purposes. Her new motto is "It's tea for me!"
* TM Aleta credits her avoidance of yo-yo weight gain/loss to her intensive woodchopping, brush clearing, timber logging, bonfire building, mulch distributing... while doing jumping jacks and cartwheels on her property. It works!
* TM Ricardo's motto for 2024 is "Avoid Procrastination" and he plans to get started... some time... later... much later.
Our next TLI (Toastmasters Learning Institute) is scheduled online for: Saturday February 3 in the morning hours. Login details to be forthcoming.
The Word of the Day was
LIBERTARIAN, noun
Someone who is more culturally liberal than a Democrat, and more fiscally conservative than a Republican. Methinks. They believe in a limited role of government.
Example: Rand Paul and John Stossel are well-known Libertarians who resist the expanding, all-encompassing role of Big Brother in our lives and other aromatic by-products.
The Contest ran very smoothly, the ballot submissions were flawless and our Club moves forward.... Let's March!!!
Here's the link to the recording:
With a libertarian flavor,
Ana I.
Recap Writer
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