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Callahan's September 1999 Bar Rag!"To Callahan's Warmth
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May we cross the bar together with vessels made of glass, ******SMASH****** -- Midus (MIDUSTOUCH) August 22 August was a month of significant change in Callahan's.. Carrie (CARRIEO) has agreed to become our Promotions Manager, a newly created staff position. She'll be helping the rest of us promote and coordinate our activities around monthly themes, and as with all staff positions, trying to keep me out of trouble. And after two years of faithful service on Callahan's staff, Mitzi (MITZIPROCTOR) has decided to hang up her bar bell and return to the grace and simplicity of being a patron and 'tender here. Mitzi served our community as Message Board Manager and Conference Manager as the need arose. We all owe her a debt of gratitude. Luckily Ken (DRANGD) has agreed to take up the mantle of Conference Manager. Ken is a longtime patron and popular 'tender here and his appointment was only natural. We're looking for great things to happen in our upcoming conferences..:) As long as I'm mentioning staff folks, have you noticed the traffic on our message board lately..? Those of you who visit our board daily know that the recent upsurge in board traffic is largely due to the tremendous effort of our Message Board Manager, Cstar(CSTAR1). She is now trying to find ways for us to manage reading all those posts, and she would love to hear from you if you have useful tips that she could share with the rest of us..:) Do please join me in thanking Carrie, Mitzi, Ken and Cstar for their work on staff here. They, and our tenders, are at the forefront of creating and nurturing the cyber-magic of Callahan's. We launch our Third Annual Poetry contest in September, Poetry Month in Callahan's! Please visit our website for a link to the rules and other details about the contest...
Lots of changes.. Lots of improvements.. Lots of strength..
And the beat goes on...! Pewter has built and added the Collective Poetry pages which highlight many poems done by patrons, line by line and post by post on the board. I think you'll agree that some of this poetry is simply fabulous..:) We've also revised our posting guidelines twice this month, and have plans to augment the Welcome Page with tips and tricks for posting and chatting. August was a month of sadness and joy of the staff at Callahan's. We bid a fond farewell to Mitzi as our Conference Manager. Everyone here will miss her in this position, but be assured she will be around. Mitzi would never abandon us. In turn, we welcomed Ken K. (DRANGD) as the new Conference Manager. We are certain that Ken will do an outstanding job and look forward to working with him. Recently during pun night, Walt and Bjorn decided to rewire the hot tub. Together they plotted and schemed to make the hot tub cold on the right, hot on the left. The plan was successful! Ken reported in what may be his first official act as CM that it has been decided that if there is more than one wench in a room, they shall be collectively referred to as Wenchae..... ::Smile:: Caro reported that on August 19, there was an impromptu "Kiss the 'Tender Night" when Will was 'tending. It brought in LOTS of customers, who suddenly became *very* attached to the 'tender. (We are sure Will was having fun with it too.) Peter gave us this update on poetry night. The two poetry chats in August were well attended and lasted long into the night. September promises to be an especially poetry-intensive month, since THREE chats are scheduled: On the 2nd, the 16th, and the 30th. One poem that everyone knows starts "Thirty days hath September..." For that reason, our last chat of the month will be "Famous Poems Night." Plan to bring your favorite poem. Mitzi sent in the following report on the Cals Babes Meeting. The First Official Meeting of the Babes of Callahan's was held Friday at 10:00 PM Eastern. In attendance were, Carobabe, Shameaababe, Kiwibabe, Judybabe, Burgeebabe and her Mom for a bit, Mitzibabe, Marthannbabe, Brightbabe and Dreamerbabe. Brew and Bogues were hired to entertain us to start off the meeting. Well Brew wouldn't strip and chose to leave instead (chicken). Bogues showed up and we had to use force to get him off the stage and out of the room. Maybe firecrackers were a bit rash. Nah! As soon as were sure the coast was clear, we began planning, drinking, scheming, drinking and laughing and did I mention drinking? Who made those shooters anyway? We raised a glass in cheer to Cal's Babes before Adjourning. A great time was had by all. :-) Moby has returned from vacation with pictures to share! Be sure to visit the web page and take a virtual vacation! Thanks for sharing Moby! September has all the makings of another fabulous month. Be sure to join us here a Callahan's. Lou - would it scare you if I told you there were over 3500 messages posted in August? Busy month!! Did you go on a vacation this summer? Did you just come back from one? Read any good science fiction books lately? August was travel and science fiction writers month at Callahan's. Here's a bit of what we were up to while you were off on vacation, sitting by the pool reading, and having a good time! Betcha we had almost as much fun! Pewter began the month on a bit of a sad note, with his SICK AT HEART. He cheered up quickly, when we sent him flowers, traded puns with him, and his sad poem begat a string of haiku by Kay (CHRIS448), David Brewer (DGBREWER),Mary Edna (ARTWORK), and Pewter (PEWTERPOT) himself. Kay gave us a sad one too, with OUR STOLEN FUTURE, a poem about Alzheimer's, written for a friend. MaryEdna (ARTWORK) and Harvey Lacey shared their personal stories of experience with this disease, and all lent their support. DarkEyes brought a sad sonnet, SOUNDS OF SILENCE. We were so glad to see her, we simply hugged her, and said welcome back! And, of course, demanded more sonnets from her...:-) Lou took up Peter's challenge for a collective poem, CAMARADERIE, an acrostic poem. There are 11 other participants, and we're looking forward to seeing its' completion. Speaking of collective poems, they seemed to have popped out all over this month. We have one in OOPS!, and another in MIDUS ENTERS THE BUILDING...JUST. And talk about ditties and poems about Callahan's! AN ACCIDENT/SMASH a pair of sonnets by Elizabeth Kate (ELIZABETHKAT) and David Brewer nearly turned into a duel of honor between David Brewer and Peter Wimsey, with GreyLensman as David's second. Or wait - was the duel almost between Elizabeth Kate and Selena? Gloves were brought, and bloodstains discussed.... who knows? Something may happen yet. What's in a name? Well, some of us revealed our childhood nicknames: Carrie's was Blowfly, Rufus' was Cockroach, Carousel's was Baffy, C Raven's was Kissy Mouse, and Moby's was Dick. I mean, Dick's was Moby. I mean, he named his computer Rhiannon. I mean, Selena called hers Betty, George, and Timmy. No, I mean Midus has a computer called Maria. Bob Hall swears that Mycroft, Daedalus, Icarus, and Orion have lived in his home. Punstergal stops for Speedbump, and Ken pounds on Mussolini.
Harvey Lacey continued to impress us with his storytelling in OKRA, BRICKS HERE AND THERE, BUNDLE OF JOY, KNAPPY NECKED DOG and other "homespun tales and cussin'" stories. Midus (MIDUSTOUCH) joined in the ranks of our Callahan storytellers with some fine tales, NEIL'S KNACK about an Australian horse whisperer, and LEGEND OF THE BOULDERS, a local folk tale. Moby (MOBYDIK) went on vacation to Nova Scotia this summer, and wrote back to give us MOBY DOES THE SPIDER TOUR. This inspired ARMCHAIR TOURS AND TRAVEL TALES, in which we discussed our vacations from the past. GreyLensman's hilarious travel tales, Selena's near disasters, and Moby's continuation of his car trip kept us entertained post after post. We did some virtual traveling in THE CALLAHAN TRAVELER, with trips to North Carolina, Cumbria, England, Japan, Canada's Wilmore Wilderness Park, The Isle of Man, Scotland, and the Bahamas. A side trip was offered to New Zealand by bogues (BOGUES), a native of that beautiful country. The tour is scheduled to end in Ireland, as is only appropriate for an Irish pub, and we hope you'll join us for the rest. Hop aboard! THE ULTIMATE TRAVELER let us combine our two themes for the month, travel and science fiction writers. We dreamed of fictons known and unknown, and traveled to them freely in our borrowed ship, Gay Deceiver. (With thanks for the loan to Robert Heinlein!) We explored the world of C.S. Lewis'Narnia in Kay's retelling, MAGICIAN. Bob Hall (WEREDRAGON) entertained us with his tale of the Cult of the Round Wheel, and GreyLensman (PHOTO11),our very own time traveler entranced us with his time travel tales. Summer is almost over, and with it, our vacations. But the fun at Callahan's never stops! Birthday Greetings were heartily extended to:
For the first time ever we had only one correct solver for a riddle. The indomitable Ilyana solved our August 1999 riddle on her second try! Congratulations Ilyana. The second and third place honorable mentions are *still* up for grabs! 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 September 1999 Riddle for your chance to win a Spider Robinson book from our bookstore! There are many stories related to the sinking of the _Titanic_. Some have just come to light due to the success of the recent movie. For example, most people don't know that back in 1912 Hellman's mayonnaise was manufactured in England. The _Titanic_ was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after New York City. The Mexican people were eagerly awaiting delivery and were disconsolate at the loss. So much so that they declared a national day of mourning which they still observe today.
........ It is known, of course, as Sinko de Mayo. -- from Ken (DRANGD)
His fingers move swiftly across the keys,
Slowly his fingers move across the keys
His two fingers very slowly hunt and peck
His fingers wait patiently, resting on the keys, -- JP (JP8) August 12, 1999 The Punday Night topic was "Libraries and Books" Hummm....that stacks up against the best... If we salute the flag, is it "pledgerism"? Is there a table of discontent? I like the accommodations for my lower limbs...some like books. I like footnotes.
Can I tell you what was King Henry VIII's favorite reference book was?
Do you know what happens when the Library is located just down the
street from a geometric intersection? Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. -- Albert Einstein 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. |