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Callahan's December 1999 Bar Rag!"To Callahan's Warmth
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"From one mended spirit to another, ******SMASH****** --Jim (CROWLEY47) An anniversary...and a belated thank you
Happy holidays to all! We're very pleased with the results of Operation Butterball thus far. Elizabeth Kate and Vickie (MIDUSTOUCH) are doing great work in encouraging our donations and I'm quite sure that our aggressive goal of 450 gifts, which equates to over 2000 US dollars in food gifts, to local charities and food banks worldwide will be met. You can help - see below. Some staff news.. Carrie (CARRIEO) has stepped down as Promotions Manager after discovering some joyful, though pressing, non-cyber obligations. We're very thankful for her participation and pleased to note the current happiness in her personal life - she deserves it. Peter Desmond, our longtime poetry editor, has agreed to become our first Message Board tender - with the Poetry folder under his direct purview. You may have noticed an increased presence from Peter already..:) Last but probably most... we've added a new topic area to our site. Read more about the very special "Solace" area.. which takes us back to our roots, and which already has become one of the most meaningful and popular topic areas we've ever had. Our thanks to Selena (SILLIEST) for suggesting it, and Cstar for implementing it. Enjoy the holiday season everyone..:)
And the beat goes on...! Unusually, the poetry chat had two theme nights in November. The 11th was Veterans Day/Remembrance Day/Armistice Day, so we read some powerful war poetry. On the 25th, Thanksgiving Day, we were subjected to a lot of turkeys -- poems by Julia Moore, America's worst 19th century poet. Our chats on December 9th and 23rd will be normal in comparison. :-) The winners in the Poetry Contest were......(Drum roll Please!) First prize for a poem about work went to Susan Eisenberg for "Force Equals Distance Times Weight." David Brewer took the silver for "Teaching Tech." Brian Tierney bagged the bronze for "Business." In the category of poems about Callahan's, Elizabeth Kate's submission, "In Solitary," won. So many good poems were submitted that there were also seven Honorable Mentions which, like the prize winners, can be read on our board." Peter, Poetry Editor We marked a first for Callahan’s late in October. Our very first message board tender was announced. Peter Desmond has been appointed as our official Poetry area tender. He will continue his very popular Poetry Chat every other Thursday night. Peter has been a wealth of information recently, posting links to Byron, Shakespeare, Australian, Irish, Canadian, and many other poetry sites. We’re looking forward to what he has in store for us in the future. Operation Butterball was launched in mid November. This is our annual food drive, to collect pledges of gifts to food banks, and other charities around the world, local to our patrons. One turkey donated equals 2 gifts, 4 cans of food equals 1 gift, $5 equals one gift. Donated time can also be counted. If you, or your family or friends would like to join in, please go to the link above, and pledge your donation. As of November 28th, we had pledges in excess of 367 gifts. It’s not too late to reach our goal of 450 gifts through the holidays. Please, give what you can. Auras. Do you have one? Can you see them? This discussion started in a poetry thread, but it quickly became obvious that it should have a thread of its’ own. Midus (MIDUSTOUCH), Elizabeth Kate, Bob (WEREDRAGON), Selena (SILLIEST), Vibe (VIBEGUY), David (KIRWAND) and others discussed Auras, flow lines, Kirlian photography, and empathy. There was a sharing of feelings, definitions, and a discovery of things felt, but not previously understood. How Old Are You? Selena took a two part poll, that also asked, In Your Imagination, How Old Do You Feel? Turns out that Callahanian’s fall pretty much into one age bracket…. All of them! Just like we suspected. Milady (MILADYDONNA) showed us how to become Jedi, in Become a Jedi Master Well, how to pick our Jedi names, at least. Right, Neipf Gonew,Thoca Baaug, Cryam Avlan, and Johll Sowat? Lou didn’t like his name, but Pewter did. He even signed off: Pewot Blard, may the farce be with you. It’s silly, but fun. Try it out! Sex and guns... No, no! Not together! Those are just two of the discussions going on in our Political Activism folder right now. Selena decided that Tryin ta start trouble would be a good thing one day. Peter (PHDESMOND) thought that the sex scandal at a conservative college would be a good topic for discussion. She did, and he was right. November was Cookbooks and Recipes month at Callahan’s. The recipes are scattered. In Cookbooks of Note, Elizabeth Kate shared a pound cake recipe,, Walt (WWW3) posted a recipe for Garlic chicken. Bikewriter’s (DICKESTEP) Jambalaya with a twist is in A Taste of the unusual. Shame (SHAMEAA) told us how to make a quick Onion/garlic dip, Brian (FBT1) posted an “orgasmic” Hungarian Mushroom soup, and Jennli (JENNLI) topped it all off with a holiday fruit Jell-O in A Recipe for Fun! Hombre Verde chimed in with a Tuna Dill spread that he guarantees kids will love, and JP (JP8) served us MUD!! Longest poetry thread ever at Callahan’s? kestrel, a haiku, started in August by Elizabeth Kate, in which she wonders where her friend kestrel (Chad) is, soars, sails, and seduces…. A host of poets, including EK, David, kestrel, Midus, Kay, Renetta, punstergal, daniel, artwork, and many others have kept this thread going for more than 3 months, and 400 posts. Friends, flying, puppies, children, solitude, peace, hurricanes, magic, gypsies and seduction. There’s more, much more, in this everlasting haiku thread… "It's a word that's made of two little words, And each of these words, when it is by itself, means 'alone'. But when you join them, they mean the opposite... The two little words are 'sol' and 'ace', and put together they are..." Solace. We’ve created a new, and very special folder on the message board this month. “Solace” is the folder where the pain and the joy can be shared. Where comfort and happiness can be freely sought, dispensed, and given.
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Shared pain is lessened, Birthday Greetings were heartily extended to:
Ilyana, as usual, was first to solve our November 1999 riddle! Barb and VibeGuy 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 Mikel's December 1999 Riddle for your chance to win a Spider Robinson book from our bookstore! Signs You Have Had Too Much of the 90s
1. You tried to enter your password on the microwave. -- from Nanc Forward, Ho
The world has shrunk to only you and me -- Elizabeth Kate and David Brewer. October 1999 (posted in November). Moby PunRef> Anyway - take a movie title, give it a pun-twist, and then give a short explanation, sort of TV Guide synopsis. Walt> For instance: Civil war from a Southern magician's point of view - Gone With the Wand? Hombre Verde> oh you mean like The Umpire Strikes Back...all the refs walk out on baseball? Moby PunRef> Example - Bogie and Hepburn open a laundromat in Nairobi - The African Speed Queen. Walt> Language experts invade Normandy: The Linguist Day Dreamer> War of the Pearls......a love story between sex starved oysters.. but something gets between them....and it's all gritty from there....:) Hombre Verde> The Pearls of Pauline...how she really paid for the mortgage Moby PunRef> Ahnold plays a Santa lost in the Congo in Jungle All the Way Momma Mackie> The life long feud of two aromatherapists - War of the Noses Neil> Soylent Greed ---An entire civilization rises and falls due to cannibalism? Hombre Verde> for whom the bill tolls...the history of long distance communication Moby PunRef> The story of a matador - For Whom the Bulls Toil Dreamer> Mr Smith goes to washing.....a story of a man and his laundry Moby said of that night.... By the time I'd typed in my first example and hit "Enter" both Walt and Hombre Verde had come up with their own examples! Hombre Verde was the winner of this round. Walt chose TV shows for his topic, and we continued on in a similar vein. All in all, one of the best Punday Nights in a while! -- Punday Night November 16, 1999 It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all of the answers. -- James Thurber 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. |