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Callahan's March 2000 Bar Rag!"To Callahan's Warmth
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"I will miss you Charles Schultz. You have been a part of my life always." To echo Hombre ....and that fitting toast RATS ******SMASH****** --: hendo (DHENDERSON21) : Goodbye, Mr. Schulz Hi all - and Happy Saint Patrick's Month! February was a tumultuous month at Callahan's but the magic of the place remains strong! More and more of you have expressed warm feelings about the place - both to me personally and on our board. And I want you all to know that I appreciate your thoughts.. your prayers and the keen sense you have given me that we are needed. Further, I've noticed what I think is an upturn in the number of people who bring the magic of Callahan's with them when they arrive. This also bodes well for our future. If you think you recognize certain qualities in a fellow patron, magical qualities if you will, please drop me a line about it. I love magic makers..:) Speaking of magic makers, I am pleased to join Cstar in welcoming Vickie (MIDUSTOUCH) as our newest message board tender - and I *think* the drinks are on Vickie! :) Delphi Demons, or more properly perhaps, Internet Demons have plagued us recently and I must ask you all to be patient as Delphi Forums does its best to resolve the technical issues involved in relocating their computer equipment, and hacker attacks on both Delphi Forums and the Internet at Large,
And the beat goes on...!
Punday Night and Poetry Night continue to be well attended, even though many people have been having trouble getting to our conference rooms this month. Peter and Nanc are each producing wonderful events with the help of hard working assistants, and talented patrons..:) There is a rumor floating about that we'll be having Tall Tales Night again soon, and several other pokers are in the fire..:) If you had a great time in one of our conferences, tell us about it! We want to hear your thoughts! February saw the conclusion of the Valentine's poetry contest, and the big winners were Callahan's own Midus/Vickie and Kestrel/Chad, who co-wrote a pantoum. Diane Hamilton was awarded second prize. The first place poem, Remembered Joy, and the second place winning entry, Falling In Love winning entries as well as the runners-up will be posted soon on the web page. (I know, you're asking "What's a pantoum?" It's a verse form in which lines get repeated in a set pattern. Try it, you'll like it!) CStar gave us the following report! February is short on days, but long on fun at Callahan's! Several things were going on. The Love Poetry Contest ended February 7th, with the winners announced on Valentines Day. Were you surprised? I love teasing you guys. I posted what I thought was going to be a short teaser called Coming Soon! to announce a new feature at Callahan's. One hundred and four posts, a crooked canasta game, a few hands of Fizzbin, a rousing contest of Calvinball, and a week and a half later, I was finally able to announce what was coming soon. Callahan's Cwestions, a trivia question game , began on February 1st. Sunny Beth, a long time riddle solver is running the game for us. Each month, a book prize will be offered to the person who has amassed the most number of points in a month. Look in the Games folder, to see how you can do! February was also Black History Month. Peter's excellent cache of African American literary web sites were a wealth of information. Would you like to read the works of Langston Hughes? Phillis Wheatley? Maya Angelou? Take a look at the links Peter has provided. Do you know who invented Super Soakers, pacemakers, or fountain pens? You can find the answers here, at some good sites on black inventors. And finally our own little (warped?) brand of fun.. The Demon Hunt! was introduced way back in October, but due to a recent influx of what we call "Delphi Demons" has enjoyed an imaginative resurgence. Tall Tails... er Tall Tales continue with Vickie (Midustouch) as our current Mistress of the Hunt. Speaking of whom.. I'd like to congratulate Vickie on becoming our newest message board tender. Yea! Vickie! One of our newer board tenders, Elizabeth Kate, sent in this report. In February we officially celebrated Black History month on the Message Board. In the General Discussion folder, we struck upon a related, but parallel theme: the tension between hatred and tolerance. Our discussions ranged from that blurry line between humor and hate, in Something's Troubling Me to how the expectation of bigotry can color our perceptions in Parrish's thread, Funny How When You Expect Hatred. A link to a site with graphic pictures of violence against African-Americans spawned another discussion of hatred... and what we could do about it... and just how much awareness of the past we need to ensure a more peaceful future. Opinions also covered all parts of the spectrum in, abortion, death penalty, murder? In which thread, Callahanians demonstrated an incredible ability to discuss issues, often fraught with hate and fear, with the tolerance and listening that helps make the magic of The Place. And SuzyQ had the rare experience of throwing the well-read Lou for a loop in Is this better, SuzyQ? which turned into an insightful conversation about the treatment of homosexuals in U.S. society. (The U.S. society part of that naturally grew stronger at the input of Italian, LRecio and Dane, Advent, among others! But such tolerance and understanding and listening is commonplace around here.) If it weren't for the shocking news that our cats have come from Mars, we might have been bored this month! Fortunately, an up-to-date newcomer, Governor Walters, MMMSOLES introduced us to our extra-terrestrial felines, and gave us a sure-fire way to recognize the imposters we call pets. Read the thread if you're concerned about your own furry friend! To stave off the shock, David Brewer and the theatrical crew at Cal's kept us entertained with stories from the boards, while Kirwand and several others set a more elevated tone with a cultured discussion of the difference between art and science. David sent in another super report! The Creative Writing folder's month started with a bang, when MMe (Mike) gave us all Tools to help you with your writing, with a *really cool* site (http://www.voycabulary.com) that converts words in your files into hyperlinks showing definitions, pronunciation, and synonyms. Thanks, Mike! Suemo (Sue) struck a chord in many of our hearts with her (misnamed, Sue!) Winter lament, Not Creative, but It's How I feel -- it is, so, creative! Purr (Jo) got us all interested in a discussion of writing techniques and language in Torn by culture, (poetry wise) ; I still think that editor steered you wrong, Jo. Griddlebone showed us how tough it is for ancient gods to keep up with modern times, in Right of Passage, and then switched to a first-person narrative with the first five installments of A Work of Art. We are all waiting impatiently for further developments in this one! Just as we are eagerly anticipating further episodes in Gwynned's (Rebecca) story for young people, Quaddlebaums, which she started last month. Our younger audience is doing well this month; Elizabeth Kate's charming picture-book text, Jupiter and the Wide, Wonderful World gave us a peek into the point of view of an adventurous equine. Have something you would like to say about our message board? Drop me a line and let us know. Staff Birthday Greetings were heartily extended to:
Chad was the first and only person to solve Ilyana's challenging February 2000 riddle! But he didn't do it alone. Congratulations to Megan and Jenny, too! 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 our March 2000 Riddle for your chance to win a Spider Robinson book from our bookstore! Joke of The Month - "Things My Mother Taught Me"
My Mother taught me LOGIC...
My Mother taught me FAITH...
My Mother taught me MEDICINE...
My Mother taught me to THINK AHEAD...
My Mother taught me ESP...
My Mother taught me to MEET A CHALLENGE...
My Mother taught me HUMOR...
My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT...
My mother taught me about SEX...
My mother taught me about GENETICS...
My mother taught me about my ROOTS...
My mother taught me about the WISDOM of AGE...
My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION...
My mother taught me about RECEIVING...
And my all time favorite thing, JUSTICE... Leisa Purser Dame (SCOOBY381): 2/25/00 Things My Mother Taught me. Poem of the Month - ATTITUDE ADJUSTIN'
Heard of the farmer with the educated mule?
Puts me right in mind of the politicians' style ---
'Course, it could be another case of bad hearing --
Grandpa used to call it "Attitude Adjusting"
Now, if we could just whop upside the President,
Well, I don't figure it's likely to come to pass --- -- by Allan/TUT RA Feb 2000 Excerpt from an announcement on the message board: Hi All, I want to take a bit of time to announce a new feature of Punday Nights. When ... and ONLY when, someone WANTS to tell a LONG Pun, they should "Step up to the Line", the same way you would if you were going to make a toast. To Toast **or** Tell a Long Pun.... First you type: "(/act Your Name "STEPS UP TO THE LINE"); What you are doing here is stepping up to the line in front of the fireplace... ;) Speak your toast,** Or **Tell your Long Pun... then throw your glass into the fire place; Type (/act ******SMASH******) For the Newer Folks: In Callahan's it is a Tradition that when someone "STEPS UP TO THE LINE", for any reason, that every one listens. People usually signify they are listening by typing (/act Listening) or something similar to let the speaker know they have their attention. So, During ALL Punday Nights, we are going to start "STEPPING UP TO THE LINE" to tell LONG PUNS... New Things Happening on Book Nights: Every Month we do a book night...Book Night Punday Days are special because we award a real Book; chosen from our Web Page Book Store, to each of the evenings winners. In keeping with our effort to encourage LONG Puns; book Night is now going to be the "NIGHT OF THE LONG PUNS" What this means is that LONG PUNS, during a book night bring EXTRA credit for the Punster. Longer Puns will count more in the judges scoring. -- Nanc, Feb 2000 "Of those who say nothing, few are silent." -- Thomas Neil Thank all of you who submitted information for the Bar Rag! For those of you who would like to please email me. This is your Bar Rag, let me know what you would like to see. 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. |