Pola

Polar Expressions

A Monthly Publication of Alaska Mensa

You grow up the day you have your first real laugh, at yourself. ~  Ethel Barrymore

Vol. 34, No.10 October 2008

Hello All…Goodbye All…Late…Late…Late! My apologies for being super late getting this finished. It won’t happen again from this corner because I’m bowing out as newsletter editor. Too many demands—new part-time job, son too slowly moving out of his room, cat diagnosed with cancer, son’s dog here while son is on the slope, changing over computers, learning to cope with Vista, printers not available, pdf program not available, writing not getting done, quilting, church, class, exercise, a cold. I’m torn too many ways and just don’t want to use the time for the newsletter any more. I’m going to put two months together on the calendar; so a December issue—from whoever does it then—can update whatever happens at the November and December board meetings.

Farewell, All….~ Marie Lundstrom, Retiring as Editor

Polar Expressions is the (more or less) monthly publication of Alaska Mensa. We reserve the right to decide if or when a submission will be published. The deadline for submissions is the 30th of the month for the following month’s issue. All hard copy submissions (legible, please—remember, they have to be re-typed!) should be sent to P.O. Box 143174, Anchorage AK 99514-3174. E-mail submissions—in MS

Word—should go to nlg@alaska.net or mal@mensalaska.org.

Please limit letters/articles to 250 or fewer words. Material not bearing a specific copyright may be reprinted by other Mensa publications, as long as it’s credited to Polar Expressions.

Thank you to those who let us know they would prefer to get this via e-mail instead of snail mail. If there are others who would like to make this change, please let Norma Gertson know and give your e-mail address. This will save us first class stamps. Last month (September), we mailed out 99 copies of Polar Expressions and at 42 cents each, it makes over $40 out of our treasury, plus the cost of toner and paper for the copier, stickers, and address labels. With e-mail, you’ll get it sooner, and if there are color photos, you get them in color. If you have a color printer, your version will be better than our black and white copier can produce.

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New Faces Around Alaska Mensa

Betsy Campbell is our new Program Chair! She’ll set up events, such as potlucks, dinners, game nights, etc. As soon as we know her phone number, it can go on the list on the officer page. Betsy is on the nursing staff at UAA. She is from Pennsylvania and has worked in Washington, Tennessee, and Russia. A nurse-practitioner, she has a doctorate in public health. And two dogs.

Eugenia Haagland, another new face, has agreed to select books/DVDs/CDs on Mensa’s behalf from the Anchorage Public Library’s wish list. She’ll spend $100, and BP will match it.

Some Money Options

Buy Books! If you buy a book through the web site, http://alaska.us.mensa.org and Amazon.com, our scholarship fund gets a commission per book. Check out the procedure explained on the web site.

Sign Up for Escrip. If you register any one or all of your existing grocery loyalty, debit and credit cards in the program, participating merchants will make contributions to your chosen group (that’s Alaska Mensa, thank you!), based on purchases made by you, just by using the cards you have registered. There is no cost to you! In Anchorage, Safeway and Barnes & Noble, and possibly others, participate. Contributions can be as much as 4% or 5%. Check it out at http://www.escrip.com/program/about.jsp.

Election of Officers

Nominating Committee was to have received names of those interested in running for offices of president and vice president by Nov 1, with ballots to go out to membership in November and tallied in December. Nancy Welch is chairof the Nominating Committee. Stay alert for a ballot in the mail.

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Book Recommendations

by Marie Lundstrom

The web site has about 200 recommended books listed. Here are two more—Alaska books by Alaska writers: Leaving Resurrection: Chronicles of a Whale Scientist by Eva Saulitis.  Intriguing essays, poetic style, highly personal.  Science by a poet.  Read it with topo maps to locate yourself.  Mixed responses in my book club—some loved it and bought copies for family and friends. A couple of members were lukewarm—wanted more science, less poetic style. I loved it! 

The Accidental Explorer: Wayfinding in Alaska by Sherry Simpson.  Essays in a more journalistic style.  Highly personal in a different way from Saulitis.  Our next book (November) in my book club.  I’m enjoying it, especially since I have taken a writing class from Simpson and tune into her style.  Good stuff.

Some Really Old Stuff…by Marie Lundstrom

Long ago, in 1975, Alaska Mensa organized and began to produce a newsletter, Mobserver. According to the masthead, I was the editor, typer, organizer; and Carole Quam was the duplicator, labeler, and mailer. Members were encouraged to send “printable words, enraged letters, kudos, recipes, enquiries, jokes, polemics, poems, stories, drawings, riddles, word games, punches and plaudits” to said staff. Here is a report, in the second issue (sometime in April—on cover), of a recent meeting.

WHAT HAPPENED. . .

Herewith casual report (via Carole Quam) on what happened

at last meeting March 28 at Paulette Briggs’ new home. . .

[1] Correct spelling for newsletter is MOBSERVER (no punctuation).

a) Unanimous commendation to Marie for job well done. PLAUDITS!

PLAUDITS! [ed. note: Accepted, accepted! J]

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b) $1.79 collected from members in attendance to reimburse

C. Quam for postage.

[2] LOCAL DUES will be $5.00/year, payable to John Short by

May 1. This is to cover cost of producing and mailing

MOBSERVER. [dig in those thin purses . . .

[3] “For lack of a single negative vote, the By-Laws were enacted.”

--someone in attendance. [see last MOBSERVER for full text of these

fulsome laws.] . . . . . . . commendation on the unique quality of the

By-Laws to Cliff Wickstrom, their promulgator. [hmmmm?]

[4] SELECTION OF CAMEL-BUILDERS-AT-LARGE, -MEDIUM,

or –SMALL (in other words, members for THE Committee) were voted

as follows: 1. Clifford Wickstrom: at-large, by his own admission

2. Carole Quam: at-medium (tho hopefully at-small after some

more diet and exercise)

[5] Proposed OUTDOOR RECREATIONAL ENDEAVORS:

1. Hatcher Pass for criss-country skiing—next year.

2. Picnic at Paulette Briggs’ lot on Stroganoff Drive, at a future date (but not on July 4 as this would be discriminating against certain member(s).

3. Approved and accepted! Summer Solstice Party—June 21.

. . . . please contact Chas. Monroe (old phone #) for suggestions on an appropriate site and/or program.

[6] Presentation, by John Short, to Paulette Briggs: a house-warming gift of a small framed print . . .from the membership.

[7] Special request for inclusion in MOBSERVER (from John & Cliff):

Momentous Mensa Meeting Decisions:

Note from present editor: This old stuff was typed, plus hand-drawn lines, borrowed or stolen clip art, and most likely bootlegged through a copier at someone’s work. Some things never change!

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October 2008

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
			1 5:30 Board Mtg + Dinner, Village Inn, 4403 Spenard Rd	2	3	4 9:30 Breakfast Sunrise Grill, 8201 Old Seward Hwy
5	6	7	8	9	10	11 9:30 Breakfast
12	13 ER/Palmer Dinner	14	15	16	17	18 9:30 Breakfast
19	20	21	22	23	24	25 9:30 Breakfast
26	27 ER/Palmer Dinner	28	29	30	31
For ER/Palmer dinners, call Mary Rose Clark, 355-6688, to make sure of location. ER dinners likely at Pizza Hut; Palmer dinners at Gold Miner

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November 2008

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
						1 9:30 Breakfast Sunrise Grill, 8201 Old Seward Hwy
2	3	4 Election Day	5 5:30 Board Mtg + Dinner, Village Inn, 4403 Spenard Rd	6	7	8 9:30 Breakfast
9	10 ER/Palmer Dinner	11	12	13	14	15 9:30 Breakfast
16	17	18	19	20	21	22 9:30 Breakfast
23	24 ER/Palmer Dinner	25	26	27	28	29 9:30 Breakfast
30	Call Mary Rose Clark, 355-6688, for place of ER/Palmer dinners.

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Spelldown at the Dena’ina Corral

by Marie Lundstrom

Mensa members enjoyed a chew ’em up night of hot, competitive spelling at the 2008 Biz-Bee October 17 in the new Dena’ina Convention Center. Norma Gertson competed on the hybrid Hagen Insurance (where she works)/Anchorage Literacy Project team. Denise Yancey, though not a competitor, actively cheered on the ACS team from her work as they made it into the final rounds.

I was there as a glory-covered former winner—our Alaska Library Assn-Anchorage Chapter team (Robin Hanson, Jim Curran, and I) won last year after coming in fourth in 2006. (A different AkLA-A team won in 2004). I cheered on our new AkLA-A team, although they went down in the third round this year, on spinet.

Norma’s team went down in the sixth round, on issei. But Denise’s team from ACS stayed and stayed. The Biz-Bee went 23 rounds, according to MC Barbara Brown, a record. ACS and the BP-sponsored DAR team duked it out, just the two teams, for a dozen rounds. Every other team had had their balloons popped for missing a word.

ACS and BP/DAR missed plenty of words, but as one missed, the other team missed, so both stayed in the game until the final round when BP/DAR spelled bibelot; but ACS missed kulak; then BP/DAR spelled the next word, osteoporosis, correctly and thus won the night.

Following are the words facing the 13 teams. A ** means a team misspelled it and went down, until the duel between BP/DAR and ACS. (Note: Top raffle ticket sales let two teams stay in even after missing a word—lots of cash went to the Anchorage Literacy Project!) Rnds: 1 2 3 4 5

character tamale malaria diphthong masala

manicure **adamant **spinet satori efficacy

tragic tariff **etymology diablo **commissar

biblical providence allegory poltergeist asana

canasta oregano patina mistletoe gourami

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angelic meticulous condor borzoi wedel

irony hydraulic femininity nachtmusik ocelot

participant crimson matriarch indigenous glockenspiel

nostril amnesia precipitate debacle bromeliad

fiend bratwurst origami backstein

anchovy acronym zinnia sassafras

nightingale fatigue coyote poignant

lilac entourage

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**issei einkorn **fuliginous

zeitgeber kibei **eisegesis

vivace **sarsaparilla **clairsentience

edelweiss gymkhana esurient

cynosure paparazzo glossopyrosis

**mynheer balalaika **oleaginous

**schottische fantoccini gruiform

witloof hoomalimali desquamate

mahout mandir troglodytic

pfeffernuss **bolus

7 bhalu **vair

croissant anschluss **legerdemain

gynarchy tchotchke **molybdenum

bolshevik hedebo bibelot

dichotomy farouche **kulak

garcon cartulary osteoporosis

**eocene **butyraceous

nadir duramen

How well would you have done with these terrors?

prabhu **hamadryad

[I lost track of

the rounds here

and may have

missed some misses]

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A Test for Mensans...

Note: This quiz (it looks like a logic puzzle) surfaced without any identification of source or solution. Have at it!

There are 5 houses in 5 different colors; in each house lives a person with a different nationality. These 5 owners each drink a certain drink, smoke a certain brand of tobacco, and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of tobacco, or drink the same drink.

THE QUESTION IS – WHO OWNS THE FISH?

Hints:

1. The Brit lives in the red house

2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets

3. The Dane drinks tea

4. The green house is on the left side of the white house

5. The green house owner drinks covvee

6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds

7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill

8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.

9. The Norwegian lives in the first house

10. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who

keeps cats.

11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who

smokes Dunhill

12. The owner who smokes Bluemaster drinks beer

13. The German smokes Prince

14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house

15. The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water

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OFFICERS & BOARD MEMBERS—ALASKA MENSA

President: Denise Yancey 907-243-7504

e-mail: yancey@alaska.net

Vice President: Dan Gilman 907-333-7311

e-mail: dangchilly@yahoo.com

Sec-Treasurer: Norma Gertson 907-338-5950

e-mail: nlg@alaska.net

Member-at-Large: Nancy Welch 907-743-9883

e-mail: mal@mensalaska.org

Scholarship Chair: Carol Schlitte

Program Chair: Betsy Campbell (phone # later)

Gifted Children: Position available

Main Proctor: CarolAnne Mocarski

e-mail: proctor@mensalaska.org

North Proctor: Joe Nava 907-479-2340

Newsletter Editor: Position available

Caveat: The opinions expressed in this newsletter are the views of

individual members, not Mensa

Caveat: The opinions expressed in this newsletter are the views of

individual members, not Mensa

Webmaster: Position available

SIGHT Coordinator: Position available

Caveat: The opinions expressed in this newsletter are the views of

individual members, not Mensa

e-mail: sight@mensalaska.org

Web site: www.mensalaska.org

Changes of address go directly to

AMERICAN MENSA

1229 Corporate Drive West

Arlington TX 76006-6103

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