|
|
Callahan's October 2000 Bar Rag!"To Callahan's Warmth
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
"To all those who couldn't make it to the Gathering..... Rest assured that you will all be in our thoughts this weekend. All of you have a safe, wonderful weekend. I'm sure that more than a few glasses will be hoisted to our absent friends. To ALL our family, no matter where they are...." ***************SMASH***************** -- Silky The Gathering has come.. and gone. But it will be a long, long time before it ever becomes forgotten. I'm pretty sure I can speak for all the participants when I say that we all had a great time together. Our message board hit all time record numbers of posts after the Gathering as we talked about our adventures together and tried to share our experiences with those who couldn't go. We hope to make this an annual event, perhaps in St. Louis each year. Photographs of the Gathering? Yep - we have them and they're laid out on our website for your (and our) pleasure. One last detail - Silky became our newest 'tender at the Gathering. She cried..:)
And the beat goes on...! As mentioned above, we have 4 new poems about us on the board in July and two more collaborative poems to be added soon.. We've also added biographies and images of several new patrons to our Patron's Page. Brigitte sent us a report on Labor Day. I can't believe I missed this cookout. Labor Day In honor of Labor Day, we had a wonderful cookout complete with fireworks and a water balloon fight. JP, Tami, Silky, and numerous others stopped in to join the fun. Rich was brave enough man the grill for us and a newcomer named Ruby made puff pastries with fresh berries for dessert. Bits came bearing Brownies with a caramel swirl, yummy!! Long lost Magpie stopped in with a CPA added to his name, congrats! BorderWolf volunteered to set off the fireworks for us and did a wonderful job, till Rich got hold of some and tried to set them off in the grill LOL. After the fireworks, I brought out a big basket full of water balloons and everyone ended up soaked! It was a great evening; I want to thank all who stopped in for making it that way! Join us in our conferences! We have saved you a seat, and your favorite beverage is waiting. If you had a great time in one of our conferences, tell us about it! We want to hear your thoughts! Bits shared with us about travel related topics, which appear in our General Folder. The Denizens of Callahan's discussed several travel related topics during September. In addition to the threads about "the gathering" we discussed tips and funny stories about preparing to travel in the general folder with the thread named "Journey Preparations" and in the thread named "Travel totems" we discussed animal encounters experienced during travel. Bob (BOOBOOBOB) related this tale of woe caused by his sister: I got my itinerary and called Sunshine...who lived in Arizona at the time, and I said, "Sunshine...where do I live?" She said sweetly, "Cleveland!" No...I proceeded to explain to her that Gerry had made a mistake...I live in Columbus, Cleveland is about 150 miles north of me. She said...in that sweet, brain-dead voice of hers..."Just rebook the ticket." So I called about that...it couldn't be done without another $600 being shelled out that none of us had. So, after getting up a 5:00 in the morning on the day of my flight and going to work at 6:30 am and staying until 5:30 pm (mandatory overtime...fun!) I went home...tried to nap, couldn't, packed lightly and left for the bus station, where I had to wait for the 11:00 pm bus to Cleveland. I took the bus, got to Cleveland at 1:00 am and took a cab to the airport where I had to wait until 7:00 am for my flight. I refuse to sleep in an airport, I'll miss my flight, and so I was up all night. Fortunately, the Cinnabon was open, so I could ply myself with coffee and sugar.
"From Cleveland, I flew to Cincinnati...150 miles SOUTH of my house...I
literally flew over my apartment. I had a three-hour layover in Cincinnati
from which I flew to New York. La Guardia is SO MUCH FUN!!! Another three-
hour layover there, during which I called my parents and asked to have my
sister hogtied until I got home."
See the full message here.
Plex A related this soaring tale in the "Travel totem" thread:
I found myself staring at these 2 taloned feet drawing perilously close to
my body. All I could think to do was thrust the quarterstaff out
perpendicular to the bird's flight, and hope she missed me for it.
Microseconds later, I felt a THUMP and the stick got heavy. She had made a
perfect landing on the middle of the stick. Now, I had another problem - an
unhooded bird of prey, who did not know me, not more than 3 feet from my
face. There was a frozen moment when my eyes met hers. I can't really
describe what went on in those 3 seconds or so, but somehow an understanding
was reached, and she settled down on the staff, not even objecting when I
moved it to my shoulder with her out past my hands. The falconer hustled
over, having dried the glove off, and she stepped daintily out to the end of
the stick and then onto the glove.
See the entire message here.
Mikel provided us with an interesting and timely post regarding The Callahan Touch in Another Take on Jake which led to some rather atrocious puns being thrown back and forth between him and Vickie. Oh my, that never happens here! (G) David Brewer opens up the Creative writing folder for us with this report: This month in the Creative Writing folder, we were treated to "Remembering the Woodland Farm", parts one and and two, by Jenkoplitz. These are lovely reminiscences, with a voice similar to her "Balls of Kong." Edie James tickled us with an O. Henry - like twist at the end of The Dance which I liked a lot. Jo's Fingerpractice thread offers three completely different pieces with contrasting voices. Nice stretch, Jo. Griddlebone keeps promising more of "The Relic Guardians of the Balance II" (started back in May) but we didn't get any more of it this month, despite consuming copious amounts of tea and popcorn. Maybe Griddle's too busy working on her plans for Mary's Place? Or alternatively, maybe she's been too busy with blathering-thinking out loud. We got two episodes and lots of lively discussion and plot forecasting of "Futures," an archaeological romantic mysterious fantasy -- there, how's THAT for a classification? (G) Or alternatively yet again, maybe she's been too busy keeping us up to speed on the most recent portions of Bounty. I'm glad to know we'll see all of this one soon! My *goodness* you've been busy, Griddlebone. Pegasus got an early start on the October theme of Fables and Folk Tales, with How The Man Got In The Moon in the Stories that Never Made the Books thread. I've always wanted to know that, Pegasus; thank you! This thread will be ongoing in October, folks; bring on your tales! Bob Hall rewrote Cult of the Round Wheel and blew me away *again* with this wonderful concept. It is worth it to do as he suggests, and read it aloud; better yet, have it read to you by someone who's good at it. (It doesn't hurt if the someone is gorgeous, too! (G) The Gods come to visit in June (Jax) Swonford's "Madness Dei," which played to rave reviews! Alchemira's "Lunacy" does a good job of twisting reality a bit sideways. And last but definitely not least, Annwyd returned to us! And gave us two wonderful stories, Kativa's Cats and the unsettling Trees. Welcome back, Annwyd! Peter showed us the world of the Poetry folder in this report: Two highlights in the poetry folder in September: Cortland and Vickie conducted a poetic dialog on love in extremis. Bee posted a poem for comment, and the thread turned into a cowgirl campout. (Poetry is thirsty work.) Peg pinch-hit for Peter at the Sept. 14th poetry chat because he was in St. Louis. So were a number of the poets; as a result, she reports, it was a quiet night. Vickie, Cortland, and Peter performed at both poetry events in St. Louis; David and LizKat enhanced Saturday night's dinner with their work, as did Bright, who read an essay of appreciation. CSTAR sends in this report: September was certainly a month to remember at Callahan's. More post-gathering threads than you can imagine popped up. Bright's Whadda Weekend, Lou's The Gathering: Redux, and Home Safe, Jim Crowley's Hello From St Louis!, Silky's Things I learned this past weekend, and To those that couldn't make it, Moby's Remembering the Gathering, to JP's silly A Crown, and a Man with Latent Monarch Tendencies, it was our attempt to share some of the fun we had in St. Louis with those that couldn't physically be with us. There are photos, too! Take a look at Cortland's photos,, Moby's photos, Ken's photos , and Jim's photos. GreyLensman's photos should be up sometime during the first week of October. So.... do we look like you expected? Will St. Louis ever be the same? Will Stephen's wife ever forgive him? Will Brigitte ever be able to serve Ken a stiff drink with a straight face again? Tune in next year, when we hold our Gathering in ___________. Thanks to all who attended the Gathering, and those that put up with us when we came back. We'll get back to normal.... soon. Not *everything* revolved around the gathering in St. Louis in September. It looks like Biblioholics Synonymous will be starting up again in October, with bits as our new Grand Poo-bah. Join bits, Kirwand (our illustrious past Grand Poo-bah) Bright, David and the others, as they read fairy tales, myths, and legends together. Have a suggestion for a story? Post it here! On the serious side, Lou's having a Mid-life Crisis brought on by the Gathering, and wonders if he should become a New York City librarian, or a Park Ranger in Georgia? Two eighteen year old girlfriends, or one thirty-six year old? Hmmm.... You'll find this thread in "Humor", by the way. Grudges asks simply, "When you get really angry at someone/something, do you hold a grudge?" It's surprising how many of us do hold on to our anger for a long time. Is that a grudge? 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:
Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter: Eskimo Pi -- Lou Poem of the Month - "Sinister Circus"
Sinister circus begins with a wail
A gilded lion’s wagon resplendent with bars --Minstrel (Copyright September 2000) "When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature." --Sigmund Freud I missed the big Gathering! Blast it all, I was in Boise, ID. How unfair is it that I have to work. It sounds as if you all had a wonderful time. I expected that all of you will only believe the good and wonderful stories Mike told about me. The evil ones just simply are not true. Fall has arrived! I don't know about where you live, but here in Central Indiana the leaves are beginning to turn colors. It is not in its full blown beauty, but it is well on its way. For many of us, this is a special time of year. I am included in that group. Each day as I awake to the crisp morning air, I feel more at ease, and peaceful. This is my season. I hope the coming days bring you all joy and happiness. 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. |