Opening Toast
In light of the new year, if I may, I would like to
raise a toast:
To all Things Past that remain in our memories,
and To all the Good Things the future may bring.
*crash*
- Joy Geiger January 5, 2002
Manager's Corner
Hi all..
Well.. January has come and gone.. and too fast. Still, there
is a ton of material in this month's Bar Rag - we were very
active both on the board and in conference which often happens
when winter descends upon North America.. There is so much in
here this month that we may have to start editing the Bar Rag
again soon. I hope you enjoy it..:)
While the U.S. response to September 11th continued to dominate
(or seemed to to me) our board discussions, we did manage to
investigate "Snow Cultures" a bit - and choose the
dates for Gathering 2002.
It will be held from July 3 through July 8th, 2002 at either
Seattle, Washington or Victoria, British Columbia. The place
will be decided RSN (real soon now.) I'm already looking forward
to it and am trying to schedule vacation time. Please do so
your own selves, too..:)
And finally, we regret that we must cancel our Valentine's Day
Poetry contest this year. We look forward to resuming our annual
Poetry contest in September.
Lou
Website News
We discovered three
Poems About Callahans in the archives
this month - and added them to our site.
Cattwoman's poem,
True Friends, mentions many early patrons by name.
Lou met CattWoman at the Gathering in Sarasota, Florida.
Angel's poem,
My Friends, was the second ever written about
chatting here at Callahans and was post number 3733! Angel, as many
of you know, preceded me as Manager here.
Finally, the third poem I had emailed to myself when it was posted and
somehow lost track of it. Routine housekeeping turned it up..:) It's
by Tim, is entitled
With You, and was posted here last July.
Conference News
From Sandra:
Wow! What an interesting night in chat tonight! [Ed note: January 3, 2002]
We had lots of new visitors who have either just found Delphi or who are
actually experiencing their first time online. To start off our evening
JJ, Kate and I gave our new friend Byron
some tips on how to carefully navigate the web. We may have possibly
confused him, too, but shouldn't everyone be in a state of confusion when
they first start out? LOL
Throughout the night, we had many other new visitors including
Ladycrow, Huehuetenang, Egosum, KenM, Meaning2000, Leather, and Mike76
who's been around Delphi for a while but decided to [finally!] check out Cals.
Cstar, talking about her cozy jammies, robe and slippers,
inspired all of us to get comfortable. Uncle Scooby put
on his Jolly Green Giant robe and educated us on the origin and makings
of grits. There was quite a list of folks who don't have any jammies, but
you know I don't like to kiss and tell :)
Carol (Ladylaughing) stopped by and managed to get
Therm to confess to drowning his pet rock in a river. He claims
that he thought it could swim. Therm did the appropriate thing and buried
his deceased pet rock in his backyard. Carol donned a black shawl out of
respect for the solemnity of the moment.
Listening to stories about Dixie climbing frozen fences at
3:00 am to make sure that her horses were doing well in the rare frosty
southern weather seemed to make Brigitte even more chilly,
so we stoked up the fire for her. Shane, being quite
the gentleman, provided Brig with a pillow for her footsies.
Tim stopped in for a while and dazzled us with his
creative drink making abilities. And that invisible apron is just... wow!
Mommamackie made it in too... then out... then in...
then out... then... well, you get the picture. Welcome back Momma and
thank you for your persistence. We enjoyed spending time with you again.
Just before I left chat for the evening, I had one very important
question for Tad that just needed an answer... what was
up with the "Mute" name?! The answer that followed had me
in stitches, though Dixie and Therm, having lived through it, didn't
seem as amused as I was. It tickled me to think of someone sitting there
speaking in motions instead of words...quite creative Tad.
My thanks to everyone! It was a fun night..:)
From Silky:
Whee! What a busy night! [December 29, 2001] New folks...
Moochas... Desirable... Stabled.... OHO2...
Free2play... waynesworld... At least they were
new to me. Lots of coming and going. And some terrible puns...
I jumped in to help the twin (Cane)tend, since
it got kinda crowded in there after a bit.
From Tim:
Tad was guest tender tonight [December 27, 2001], and he
was a riot. After searching fruitlessly for various drinks, he provided
Dixie a glass full of pepper, Carol a
glass full of dirt, and various other unlikely pints. (I snuck in and
got a glass of hot lard with a hair in it, being unwilling to wait for him
to find the proper ingredients.)
Eventually Tad found the Miller Genuine Draught, and from that point on
he greeted every patron with the words "Welcome to this and that at
Callahan's! What kind of Miller Genuine Draught do you wanna drink?"
Also attendant for the silliness: KapnKate, Shane, JP8, FISHNUT,
Parinton, SHELLYPU2, and probably a few others whose names I
misremember or have forgotten. :(
All in all, it was a fun time, with plenty of silliness to go around..:)
From Ron:
Punday tonight was, to say the least, unusual. There was a decent crowd by
about 7:45p.m. (9:45 eastern), so things got off to a slow start.
JJ, Kate, Therm, Shane, Robmagus, Scooby, Darlene, Wild, Dream, Mommamackie,
Brig, and several others were there, with Delhpi booting
indiscriminately. I was a victim at one point, and others had a lot of
trouble staying at times as well.
There were some terrible one-liners committed by the usual offender
(Therm), as well as contributions from several others. Therm won by
default, since by 8:30p.m. (10:30 eastern) there were 3 of us left,
and the other person was an innocent bystander. Not to diminish
Therm's efforts, but he *was* the only choice :)
Kate had some good ones, including one about picking up a couple less than
a dozen morays (I think), tossing a couple and being "Kapn and the
ten eels." She also observed that the evening seemed to be going
down the drain :)
Scooby rocked the boat a little and asked if we had noticed his "
CAPS SIZE." Darlene sneezed and asked for an anchor chief.
And Therm... well he came up with "Did you hear about the Inuit who
went out in his kayak and lit a fire in it to stay warm? It sank, just
proving that you can't have your kayak and heat it too"
BTW, for any that didn't catch the topic as it floated by, we had a
nautical theme tonight <g>
Message Board News
From bits:
Words with snow
Carol (LADYLAUGHING) posed the question
"Just how many things can we find that either begin or end
with the word snow?" The punning soon ensued. Walt (WWW3)
perpetrated this line on us: "Snow business like show
business." This shameless pun, "Snow use--I can't think
of a thing!" was posted by Greymaus (GREYMAUS1).
And, apparently, bones (BONES_10)
"snows a pun when he sees one." Not all of the responses
were puns, though most remained lighthearted. Carol gave us "
snow on the rooftop" and Dave (FLATBUSHSKP)
broadcast to the crowd "All I get on the TV is snow."
Susannah (SUAYRES1) offered "snow-storm"
and described one memorable snow storm that had pink lightning!
CATLAUGHING, a true child of snowy climes
answered the question with "January." Katie
(CATKATIE1) lamented that Ohio was the only state where
you could experience all four seasons in a month. Serenity
Sue (SUEMO) reminded us "To be politically correct
let us not forget snow women." Gwenhwyvar(PUNSTERGAL)
showed her scientific side with "acid snow (acid
precipitation in the form of snow) and corn snow (granular snow
formed by alternate thawing and freezing.)"
Lastly, we offer a warm welcome, despite the topic, to Jill
(AIRPLANE2002), who was stopped by Cat’s
response.
Tim (BRUNOTIM)started
Hibernation Mode with this question: "Am I the only person
who gets serious about laying in provisions during the winter time?
I mean, geeze... I live in California, in a place that hasn't had
snow in twelve years!" Check out the discussion to find out who
else is a pack rat, and who else deals snow.
Silky (SILKY_43701), started a
snowball fight that went on for over 60 posts! "Silky stares,
somewhat morosely out the window, at all that white stuff fallin out
of the sky. Oh well....only one thing to do with all this snow...
<VBEG>!! " Did she miss anyone?
Walt (WWW3) informed us that
It's Snowing in Virginia "I've been waiting for five hours
now and it's finally snowing! It started out so agonizingly slow -
an occasional white pellet so small and fine I had to look twice to
make sure I saw it. Very gradually it picked up in speed and quantity.
It's coming down steadily now - not a blizzard by any means, just
a good solid snowfall. Absolutely silent. It's not melting when it touches
down." Amazingly enough, despite Cstar’s
intervention, a few folks hijacked this thread and started building
sand castles! Shame on EK, Beach Blanket Brigitte, Boo Boo Bob
and Bits!
In
Snow Play Bits asked the question; "What do
people do for fun when it’s snowing?" These folks like to stay
inside: Sandra (DEMONRED), Greymaus, Peter
(PHDESMOND), Tim (BRUNOTIM),
Elizabeth Kate (ELIZABETHKAT), Sandy (MISSS),
Cstar (CSTAR1), Carol (LADYLAUGHING),
CANEGURU, IVORILUV, Bob (BOOBOOBOB.)
While these folks like to actually go out and play in the
snow: GIRLZOOT, ALOUZON, Snowgod (KERRY726).
CATLAUGHING
liked the idea of building snow sculptures and
Serenity Sue (SUEMO) related this memory: "Once
upon a time in a decade far, far away it was Christmas time in
Illinois. A man and his wife ventured North from Missouri with their
grade school aged youngsters to visit Grandpa Jack and Grandma Betty.
The most wonderful snowstorm fell on Christmas Eve. The entire family
bundled up against the 0 degree temperatures and the wind after dark
that evening and went sledding down the hill on the street where the
Grandparents lived. Even the sixty-year-old grandparents sledded. It
was a wonderful moment in time filled with total joy and happiness
for all involved."
Here’s an incomplete list of some of the other snowy discussions:
Snowmen? Are they bigger in Texas? Started by Carol.
Snow etiquette started by CATLAUGHING
Snow! Started by Cstar
Brrr started by Caneguru (check out the snowman
in Cane’s first post!)
Cold Weather Creatures started by Cstar
Lou wanted to know if you could feel the numbing
cold when you read "Call of the Wild" in this
Brrr thread.
And another report from bits, this one on some of the discussion
surrounding Hobbits, Middle Earth, and Tolkien:
There have been several Tolkien related discussions over the last
couple of months, beginning with
I'm So Excited!! which discusses The Lord of the Rings movie
that came out in December 2001.
There was the Songbirdie-Premiere dilemma: "I know this married
couple up in Canada who are both huge fans of Tolkien and are Very
Excited about the movie. The husband's company had something do to
with an on-line trivia contest relating to 'Lord of the Rings.'
The company got three tickets to hand out and He (the husband) got
ONE ticket to the Toronto premier of the Movie for TONIGHT! Just ONE.
The director is supposed to be there, maybe some of the actors...
it's a Red Carpet kind of Premiere. A full 5 DAYS before the national
release date! When I was up visiting them last week, the wife was
offering $400 Canadian to one of the other employees to give up his
ticket. And I think she was offering other things to the husband that
I can't say here (or this'll get moved to the Grab Bag!) in exchange
for HIS ticket! If one goes without the other, it could be a real
problem. What a dilemma! This could really be a test of their marriage!
Dave (FLATBUSHSKP): The movie was FABULOUS. I found the movie matched
my expectations for a couple of the locations. The kids sat through it
without a problem. When it was over they could not believe we were
there for 3 hours. There are some minor story changes and some things
that were left out for time. The special effects were first rate and
the acting well done. The changes don't ruin the story so just go with
them and enjoy your visit to Middle Earth.
Mitzi (MTPROCT): We saw it and thought that it was really great. My
son has seen it twice so far. BTW, I never read the books, but I may now.
AELITH: I saw it today! it is just so wonderful. It was very clever
of them to draw on the famous illustrations for the famous locals so
every thing looked as expected - familiar. The story really flowed. But
that was part of Tolkin's gift. Just can't rave enough.
ALOUZON: I was thrilled with how much they stuck to the dialogue and
language of the book. Even if all scenes could not be included due to
time restraints and moving the plot, key discussions still took place.
The casting is WONDERFUL. I would not have recast any of the actors
differently. I am NOT a Liv Tyler fan and I thought she was good. The
reshaping of the plot to include more female presence on screen was
rather well done (poor Glorfindel gets the boot again!), and the only
thing I found intrusive about the Arwen-Aragorn love story was the fact
that it slowed down the fast pace of the movie (it was quite accurate
if you've ever read the appendix in the back of the book). I love the
soundtrack (purchased it right after I saw the film). Sometimes the
music was overpowering in an overly-dramatic way, but I liked it
nonetheless. My main beef was with the ending of the film. Frodo does
not tell everyone that he is leaving (in the book), but considering how
people (who have not read the novel) may have reacted when the rest of
the Fellowship go after Merry and Pippin instead of the Ring-Bearer, it
made good sense. The movie was long, but it had to be in order to get
all the relevant information into the plot. Luckily I have heard that
the next two will be a little shorter. I have also heard that the
story-telling coup of the novel, the second last chapter will not be
included. Too bad, but also understandable. Maybe it will be on the DVD
version for the hardcore fans. If I were to rate this film on a scale
of 1-10, it would be 1,000,000. I never want to see another movie
again! (except for the next two parts, but I will consider it one film,
just as the three novels are really one book) Peter Jackson is God.
ALOUZON asked for help finding information about
Tolkien & allegory. Here are snippets from some of the responses:
Boadecia (_RHIANNON) It seems to me that "the bomb", the V2
and Buzz bomb attacks on England and all the other war technologies that
sprang out of WWII horrified Tolkein. Tolkein believed in the virtue of
simple, technologically limited societies (i.e. the Shire) and shunned
the idea of "technocracy."
The grey pilgrim (0LORIN) "Tolkien Lecturer in a Pinch" I
don't think Tolkien changed very much during this time. His "
formative war-years" were around 1916 in WWI, where he fought at
the Battle of the Somme. the Hobbit was a story meant for his children
(although he later regretted the "talking down" to children
he employed in the novel.) The LOTRs was produced over 15 years at the
request of the publisher of the Hobbit (they wanted a sequel). Tolkien,
however, for the 20 years up until that point, had been very busy with
the creation of his linguistically inspired mythology (of which the
LOTRs is a small part.) The Hobbit had little intrusions of this
backstory, but Tolkien got utterly sucked into it which he was
writing LOTRs. Since this mythology was broad, serious, and often
terrible and tragic, LOTRs assumed this nature, and one can even see
the stylistic inconsistencies in the novel stemming from this (noted
also by the author.)
CGeorge (CGQ3) I think the individual races represented something too.
The Elves, like the Ents, represented the death of old beliefs, the
end of a purity from living with the land, like American Indians.
Their contrast is the Men of Rhonan and Gondor, who fight to make
themselves known, and are proud of who they are. Proud, to a fault.
The Dwarves represent companies who take in harmony from the land.
Their contrast is Sauron, who forces what exists into his own
versions. (the Nazgul, the orcs, the trolls, etc.) The hobbits have
no contrast I can see. However, they, to me, represent just about
the best of what Tolkin believed of humans.
Dave (FLATBUSHSKP), aka Gandalf the Grey, found a
fun LoTR test. Visit the thread to find the test and who other
Callahanians would be if they were characters in LoTR:
Tim (BRUNOTIM) posted a LOL spoof of LoTR in the LoTR for Short
Attention Spans thread.
(http://forums.delphiforums.com/callahan/messages?msg=20402.1)
ALOUZON posted another spoof, Felonship of the Ring
(http://forums.delphiforums.com/callahan/messages?msg=20328.1)
Birthdays Last Month
Birthday Greetings were heartily extended to:
| Texican |
|
TEXICAN |
|
January 03 |
| Barry |
|
TRAINMAN11 |
|
January 03 |
| Dan |
|
DANCULBERSON |
|
January 07 |
| MiLady |
|
MILADYDONNA |
|
January 09 |
| Ilyana |
|
ILYANA1 |
|
January 12 |
| Marci |
|
MARCI2001 |
|
January 12 |
| Dennis |
|
GRIBBON |
|
January 14 |
| Will |
|
SIRWILL |
|
January 14 |
| Cane |
|
CANEGURU |
|
January 20 |
| Carrie |
|
CARRIEO |
|
January 22 |
| Cameron |
|
HHMCAMERON |
|
January 24 |
| Debby |
|
BATMOM |
|
January 24 |
| Ginger |
|
MMERMELSTEIN |
|
January 25 |
| Patt |
|
MIST4 |
|
January 25 |
| Richard |
|
LOSTINMICH |
|
January 28 |
| Shari |
|
SHARI127 |
|
January 30 |
Calliversaries Last Month
Elizabeth Kate
ELIZABETHKAT |
|
January 03, 1999 |
| Dawn SHAMEAA |
|
January 04, 1999 |
| Kathy (Cham) WEBMASTERTIP |
|
January 08, 1995 |
| Jester OXNARD |
|
January 10, 2001 |
| Walt WWW3 |
|
January 10, 1999 |
| Hendo HENDO4 |
|
January 13, 2000 |
| Edie EDIEJAMES |
|
January 16, 2000 |
| K'Gale KNIGHTINGALE |
|
January 17, 1999 |
| Arlen BURROSE |
|
January 18, 2001 |
| Crystal WHITERAVEN |
|
January 18, 2000 |
| Trigger HARLZ |
|
January 18, 2001 |
| Crimson KISSING |
|
January 18, 1999 |
| Bob Hall WEREDRAGON |
|
January 19, 1999 |
| Judy JUDYCLEM |
|
January 20, 1999 |
| Chris LARDARON |
|
January 21, 1995 |
| Rainbow REVIEWER1 |
|
January 21, 2001 |
| Brigitte SPROCKIES |
|
January 24, 1995 |
| Wolf BORDERWOLF |
|
January 25, 2000 |
| Maeve MICHELE859 |
|
January 25, 2000 |
| KATSINABAG |
|
January 26, 2001 |
| James JW_CADLE |
|
January 28, 2000 |
| Mallie MALLIE11 |
|
January 29, 2001 |
| Rozalyn ROZALYN |
|
January 29, 1998 |
Joke of The Month
A man asked a nun if she was allowed to smoke.
"No," she replied, "one habit is enough."
- Lou January 9, 2001
Pun of the Month
An elephant got too close to all the baby ducks the circus
had brought in for Easter, and accidentally inhaled a bunch
of them. The poor elephant was choking on them and no one
could help.
Finally the trainer goosed him, and the elephant blew out a
whole trunk full of downy feathers.
Yep! That's what he gets for snorting quack.
- Larry Adams January 7, 2002
Poem of the Month -
"I Like the Me I am with You."
A love villanelle.
Whatever changes we go through,
you help me be the best I can;
I like the me I am with you.
You show me, constantly, a true
and equal partner. We can plan,
whatever changes. We'll go through.
You mirror me; I see you view
me, good and bad, one whole loved man.
I like the me I am through you.
You give myself to me; renew
my trust that who we are will span
whatever changes we go through.
You make me feel I don't have to
pretend to be a better man;
I like me as I am, with you.
The people who are 'us' -- we two
had constancy since we began.
Whatever changes, we go through.
I like me, as I am with you.
- David Brewer Christmas 2001
For his beloved wife Elizabeth Kate
Closing Quote
The only time prayers are never answered is on the
golf course.
- Billy Graham
Editor's Note
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, simply send us a note.
If you wish to receive the Bar Rag each month via email, simply
send us a note
Your email address will not be made visible to others who receive
the Bar Rag. The Bar rag will, of course, continue to be available
on our Web site..:)
And a reminder: we urge everyone to use
our website as a gateway into Callahans on Delphi Forums.
You will find prominent links to our (Delphi) Message Board and
Conference rooms there but also if we ever have technical trouble
at Delphi, we can easily let you know and redirect
you to a backup site if the trouble is truly serious. And
besides - our website itself is special..:)
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