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Callahan's June 2001 Bar Rag!"To Callahan's Warmth
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"Here's to new friends and new beginnings. *** Smash *** - Lou (ROSE8364) Hi all.. "...the mission of Callahan's Saloon on Delphi Forums is to have fun while providing a safe cyber meeting place for friends new and old to learn, to love, to enjoy each other's company with respect, tolerance, acceptance, and good humor." I want to talk a bit this month about the word "safe" in the quote above. The issue can become a bit complex. How do you ensure newcomers to our community who enter a conference room or post on our board won't be personally attacked - or stumble over vulgarity, X-rated material and such? Our conference and message board 'tenders are our first line of defense. We all owe them a great debt of gratitude. They are all volunteers helping to make our community safe. Besides being a safe place in cyber-space, we are also a place to listen and to share. Sometimes a troubled patron enters a crowded conference room - and we all try to provide comfort, at the least by listening to what's on his or her mind. But we formally ask our 'tenders (when they become 'tenders) to boot even troubled patrons out of conferences if they become disruptive or personally abusive to others in the room. While we want to provide a friendly, caring environment for all, we place a priority on providing a safe environment. An environment where all our patrons, including other troubled patrons, may be able to find someone to talk to, or just to listen without being run off by vulgar, hate-filled, X-rated or abusive language. Do you think we have our priorities in order? Lou Hi all.. Some of our Publishing tools came under the spell of Delphi Demons this month which significantly delayed the January 2000 Bar Rag, but we did manage to add three new Patron's pages to our site: Please visit Woodys new page, along with the Fluiddruid's page and finally David Healy's new page. We also reorganized and added 6 new slogans to our Burma Shave section of the Wall. The reorganization should help the pages load faster and gives us more room to expand. Cstar told us about a new printing of "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" so we added an amazon.com link to our Bookstore page. " The Callahan Chronicals" may be a better deal, though. Our newest collective poem, written by several patrons and which Lou tentatively entitled Morn has also been added to the site. Last but not least, two of our newest tenders have added their mugs to our Staff Page. Please have a look at David's bio and then turn your attention to Brigitte's new page. This in from Peter. January saw two more of our traditional poetry fests. People came early, stayed late (demons and gremlins permitting), shared interesting poems, and offered helpful comments to hopeful poets. Caro sent in this review of the Cal's Babes' rugby match. The ladies of Cal's played a terrific rugby match in the bar parking lot about a week ago. Bogues was the Cal Babes' Head Coach, and his team of 15 included 1st 5/8 Mary, Hooker Burgee, Winger Helen, 2nd 5/8 Shari, and Fullback Caro. Rich graciously volunteered to be the team's masseuse, Judy refereed from under the couch, and HawgWyld was commentator. The girls warmed up by jumping on pogosticks while the team's medical squad, including nail girl Phillippa, were on the sidelines in case of a chip or breakage injury. The girls faced a tough team including Bacchus, Elmleaff and NZ rugby greats Jonah Lomu and Jason O'Halloran, but that did not deter the Cal's Babes. Coach Bogues was frustrated at the girls constantly calling for time outs to check their lipstick and hair, but Hooker Burgee managed to score the first and only try of the first half with ShariBabe making the conversion. This brought an end to the first period, and at half-time the score was 7-0, in favor of the Babes. In the half time huddle, the Babes were given orange slices to help rejuvenate them, but BurgeeBabe and CaroBabe were seen swigging the Brandy flask, much to the dismay of Coach Bogues. The second half was the toughest. The men were out for revenge and they gave the Babes a rough go. ShariBabe came out in the beginning of the second half and kicked a penalty goal, bringing the score to 10-0. Bacchus, Elmleaff and some of the others tried their best to undo the Babes, but the girls were a force to be reckoned with, and MaryBabe did more than her part by tripping and smashing the opposition. As the end of the final period neared, HelenBabe scored a try with CaroBabe making the conversion, ending the game with a score of 17-0. Of course, keeping in rugby and Callahanian tradition, both teams went back to Cal's for a few drinks and songs to celebrate. Jersey swapping however, another rugby tradition, was deterred by the shy and reserved Coach Bogues since the teams were of the opposite persuasions. A fun time was had by both team members and spectators. Looking forward to the next match up!! GO CAL'S BABES! Cstar gave us the follow report: A special announcement was made this month…. Kestrel, David, and Elizabeth Kate were appointed as message board tenders. Kestrel will be handling duties in Political Activism, David in Creative Writing, and Lizkat will be watching over General Discussion. Please greet our new tenders with a return of the smile I know they're giving you! Serious conversations about social ills seem to have been the order of the day on the message board:. Elian, the six year old Cuban boy drew lots of attention from people around the world, and our patrons were no different. Elian came to the US on a raft, after the group he was with died at sea while escaping from Cuba. Lou, Mitzi, bardabard, Harvey and others talked about whether the child should be returned to his father, or stay in the US with other relatives. This battle is still being fought in court, and I'm sure we'll see more discussion about it. Tut_Ra asked if there was a Cure for Society? Ineffectual parenting, parental, civic, & governmental responsibility were all part of the conversation. Lizkat related the sad story of a student who's the victim of at least ineffectual parenting, and possibly more. We all hope for the best for this child. In Something's Troubling Me Lizkat told of a disturbing radio show, where the dj's perpetrate a hoax on unsuspecting strangers. Bob, David, Bits, Cat, Pegasus and Nightvoice expressed their unhappiness with this kind of juvenile stunt. Is history always true? Cstar asked innocently. Well, OK, she knew it would evoke a response. In a conversation with Lou, the subject of memory and history came up, and she thought she'd see what others thought. History was subsequently described as "subjective" and "always a matter of interpretation." Doug (ALTHIST) said, "History would be no fun if you couldn't argue about it." The consensus seems to be that while the events of the past are recorded correctly in time, they're seldom recorded correctly by man. Thread drift hit this one, David, Old Millot, Suemo, Pegasus, Bits, Advent, Bill, Cstar and the others wandered off into some fascinating discussions on alternate timelines, aristocracy and equality. Continuing on the subject of history, Bill (MERRIT9) and Cheerful Charlie (CSAROGERS) each brought their own perspectives to the events alternately known as The Civil War, The War Between the States, or The War of Northern Aggression. History couldn't be more different, than when viewed from the two sides of a war. Even one that took place more than 100 years ago. Working nicely into February's Black History Month, Bill and Charlie are presently discussing the role of black soldiers in this war of 1861-64 in A different angle to racism wrangling Join us, won't you? David added to the news with the following. The Creative Writing folder was wonderfully active this month! We had Midustouch's (Vickie) horrifying tale of a plague of "Bloody Bugs"; my own (David) childhood asthma piece, "Sleeping Sitting Up"; and Gryphonpoet (Joe) gave us his *chilling* story of the end of a life, "6 Seconds." Papadragon (Michael) sparked many responses in kind, with his story in vernacular voice, "A Possum Christmas"; we were teased and tantalized by just the beginning of Ajonz3's (Mark) reluctant Messiah story -- got a title for that, Mark? And darnit, when do we get to read the rest??? SirWill99 (Will) warmed our hearts with "That Wool Coat," a story about inheritance of something much greater than clothing. And we are all waiting eagerly (but quietly, not pestering her, so she won't tell us about patience -- again! ::grin::) for Gwynned (Rebecca) to give us the next installment of "Quaddlebaums," so we can find out what happened between Grannie and Greatuncle Marcus, and what *are* Quaddlebaums, anyway? We all got to pitch in on a collective thread started MOST provocatively by Cstar, in "Are You Game?" in which Callahan's got an interesting visitor from out of town.... far out of town. By the way, folks.... last I looked, our guest was still passed out, prone; has anyone tried posing a question to him? Perhaps he only stands to reason.... (And I freely confess that I stole that one!) Birthday Greetings were heartily extended to:
David Brewer was first to solve our January 2000 riddle! Ilyana and Pegasus came in second and third. Congratulations to all! It's a lot easier to create a riddle than to solve one. We're always on the lookout for help with content here so send us your riddle creations today! And see Ilyana's February 2000 Riddle for your chance to win a Spider Robinson book from our bookstore! This months joke is a link. We hope you enjoy it. http://www.emode.com/tests/president.html (SEADOG4) January 30 Poem of the Month - ON THE BEACH The message board saw a flurry of activity with the announcement mid-month of Callahan's third annual Valentine's Day poetry contest. (The deadline isn't until February 7.) But regular and new participants posted poems on a variety of topics. Here's one by ADVENT: the edge -- ADVENT, January 2000 This announcement was made by Cstar: Last night, the Grand Pundit of 1999 was chosen from among the round winners from last year's Punday Night contests. Nine winners entered the contest (Hombre Verde had do drop out due to an excess of demons attacking him), and the winners were chosen after two hours of book style (longer, self-contained story puns) punning. The judges had a difficult job to do, with so many fine competitors, and in the end, the winners were announced. GreyLensman took the runner-up spot, and Ken and Walt were named as co-winners! Congratulations, Ken and Walt!!! From Nanc came this report: Hi all, I want to thank Cstar, Mitzi, Jim and Lou who were the backbone of the contest. I want to send a special thank you to Cstar and Lou. And here is a sampling of what went on. Walt steps to the line Kenwa> ::SHRIEK:: -- Punday Night January, 2000 "Love is something you do - the giving of self, the sacrifices you make - even for people who offend or do not love in return. Love is a value that is actualized through loving actions." -- Unknown I would like to take a moment to thank all of the people who are instrumental in creating "The Bar Rag" each month. Without them, I would never be able to pull this all together. Thank you Cstar, Peter, Ken, David, Caro and especially you Lou! I would like to welcome my big brother back to Callahans. Mike you were missed and we are all thrilled you have returned to the fold! Until next month, walk in beauty. We hope you find the Bar Rag entertaining and informative. We can always use good pieces and writers here. If you have something you would like to submit, or have a comment, good or bad, about the newsletter, or if you wish to be added to or removed from our Bar Rag mailing list, simply send us a note. Staff |