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Callahan's December 1999 Bar Rag!

"To Callahan's Warmth
Wherever You May Be!"

In this issue:

Opening Toast - Manager's Corner -
Conference News - Message Board News -
Birthdays - Joke - Riddlers - Poem - Pun -
Closing Quote - Editor's Note -


Opening Toast

"From one mended spirit to another,
and to all the others who have risen from the ashes
and remained to help others arise from their own."

******SMASH******

--Jim (CROWLEY47) An anniversary...and a belated thank you


Manager's Corner

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...!
Lou


Conference News

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


Message Board News

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.

" Shared pain is lessened,
Shared joy is increased.
Thus do we refute entropy."


Birthdays This Month

Birthday Greetings were heartily extended to:

Rissatoo   RISSATOO   November 2
Selena   SILLIEST   November 4
Rique   SEAMUSTHEDOG   November 9
Samantha   AZSUNBEAM   November 16
Jim   CROWLEY47   November 16
Marthann   TRINITY   November 23
Lauren   LDYLAUREN   November 26
Mme   MIKEMACE1   November 27
GreyLensman   PHOTO11   November 29

Riddlers of The Month

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!


Joke of The Month

Signs You Have Had Too Much of the 90s

1. You tried to enter your password on the microwave.
2. You now think of three espressos as "getting wasted."
3. You haven't played solitaire with a real deck of cards in years.
4. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
5. You email your son in his room to tell him that dinner is ready and he emails you back asking, "What's for dinner?"
6. Your daughter sells Girl Scout Cookies via her web site.
7. You chat several times a day with a stranger from South Africa, but you haven't spoken to your next door neighbor yet this year.
8. Your daughter just bought a CD of all the records your college roommate used to play.
9. You check the ingredients on a can of chicken noodle soup to see if it contains Echinacea.
10. You check your blow dryer to see if it's Y2K compliant.
11. Your grandmother clogs up your email inbox, asking you to send her JPEG file of your newborn so she can create a screen saver.
12. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.
13. Your reason for not staying in touch with family is that they do not have email addresses.
14. If you can't order it by midnight and have it delivered by noon the next day, it is just too slow.
15. Your stockbroker's name ends in .com.
16. A blind date means chatting online with someone you haven't met before.
17. Most of your books are bought online. "Real world" bookstores are now prized as your favorite cafe to hang out, work and meet people of the opposite sex.
18. You get all excited when it's Saturday and you can wear sweats to work.
19. You find you really need PowerPoint to explain what kind of work you do.
20. You normally eat out of vending machines and at the most expensive restaurant in town within the same week.
21. You think a "half-day" means leaving at five o'clock.
22. Cleaning up the dining area means getting the fast food bags out of the backseat of your car.
23. You faxed your Christmas list to your parents.
24. Your idea of being organized is multiple colored post-it notes.
25. You get most of your jokes via email instead of in person.

-- from Nanc Forward, Ho


Poem of the Month - Creation

The world has shrunk to only you and me
A meeting place of bodies, souls, and minds
And for a timeless time, the globe unwinds
Its full rotation, letting us just... be.
Combining sighs, entwining thighs, we lust!
You are a universe for me to share.
Embrace. Explore our hungry bodies. Dare
To want our separateness dissolved in trust.
Our passions stay. We pray. Our pulse is stilled
By asking God to share. With Him, we glow.
He fans our spark, ignites a firmament,
And lights what we create! We wait. We build
It carefully. Creation should be slow.
We grow, and celebrate our sacrament.

-- Elizabeth Kate and David Brewer. October 1999 (posted in November).


Pun of the Month

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


Closing Quote

It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all of the answers.

-- James Thurber


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, or if you wish to be added to or removed from our Bar Rag mailing list, simply send us a note.

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