The Newsletter of Mid-Hudson Mensa
|
Mid-Mensan
The Newsletter of Mid-Hudson Mensa |
July/August 1997 |
| Paws for Reflection | Betsy Burke |
Balloons and Books: These were two important items on the agenda for Mid-Hudson Mensa during the month of June. Mid-Hudson Mensa has worked closely with the Hudson Valley Balloon Festival for several years now. Part of this has to be due to our own Bill Hughes being the balloon meister. However we also have a symbiotic relationship with the Dutchess County Department of Tourism. In return for helping out at their tent we get to display Mensa materials and try and raise some money for our local scholarship. This year we raised approximately $360.
It's funny to watch us raise this money. One product we've sold for the past several years is a pet balloon. It's just a partially inflated balloon filled with imported Caribbean sand (at least that's what the bag claims is inside). One night prior to the festival, the assembly line of Joanne Schultz, Ron McMurdy, Bill Miller (a non-member), Bill Zigo and I met at Ron McMurdy's house to manufacture these ingenious creatures. The thought of the combined intelligence of those of us producing this product boggles my mind. We can even go into emergency production at the balloon festival when necessary.
A lot of time is put in at the balloon festival. Bill Zigo gets the martyr award for ALWAYS being there. Considering that the festival activities go from Friday at 3 PM to Sunday at 8PM and entail being there at 5 in the morning on Saturday and Sunday, you can envision the long weekend. Ziggy stayed there the entire time! He did have help (thank heavens). Alan Hauck, Les Herring, Bob Naborney, Vehig Tavitian, Bibi Sandstrom, Ron McMurdy, Joanne Schultz and I were all there for our stints as well. As an extra bonus, Ron McMurdy even took me up in a balloon on Saturday night!
The books were also an important fund raiser for our chapter's scholarship fund. We raised over $400 at the book sale at Susan Berbec's house. We're sorry she's moving out of the area but her generosity in donating the profits from this book sale is certainly appreciated. By the way, the unsold books were donated to the Friends of the Marlboro Library, the library where we hold our Monthly Gatherings. In turn, they were sold in their entirety to a company in Sunny Point called Book Rescue, who sells used books over the Internet. So the Friends of the Marlboro Library raised money as well, and the books will get good homes through Book Rescue.
If you'd like to donate money to the scholarship fund yourself please do so. The check should be made payable to the Area Fund Of Dutchess County. With that, please enclose a letter requesting that the money be deposited in the Mid-Hudson Mensa Scholarship Fund. Mail the donation to: The Area Fund of Dutchess County, 9 Vassar St., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. We're about halfway to our goal of $10,000 for a self-sustainable fund. Let's see how quickly we can raise the other half!
| From the Editor | Bill Zigo |
This month, two more new columns debut.
First, Karen Ditsch provides insight into the world of "Mensa Mom." Besides being a new columnist in our newsletter, Karen and gifted children coordinator Alison Bentley have had a successful start with their Mensa Moms online SIG. I'm not sure if that's the exact name of the SIG, but I believe it will show up in the September Mensa Bulletin as one of American Mensa's new SIGS.
In addition, prose and/or poetry by Helen Schimpf premieres this month. Helen's contributions will appear on a regular basis, but don't let that stop YOU from submitting your own works as well. Any work you submit is more likely to be printed if it's one newsletter page or less, or can be broken into logical pieces.
I've also noticed that the ratio of female to male (frequent) newsletter contributors is about 2:1. C'mon guys, we're falling behind.
I, too, would like to thank Susan Berbec for her willingness to sponsor the book sale. Besides acquiring some good books myself, meeting Susan's son Peter, who's also a member, and getting the guided tour of her beautiful Victorian mansion, I also got to meet several Mid-Hudson Mensans for the first time, such as Jay Sorkin of Wappingers Falls (Jay, thanks to you and your wife for your very generous donation as well). As Betsy mentioned in her column, by the time you receive this newsletter, the books will have moved on to Book Rescue. But the sale was great. It was one of our largest one-time fundraisers ever. We're always looking for more ways to raise money for the scholarship fund, so if you have any ideas, please let us know.
I've changed the deadline for submissions to the newsletter to the 15th of the previous month. That seems a bit more realistic. As usual, submissions will always be accepted earlier.
| Membership | Bibi Sandstrom |
Please welcome back Suzanne Cecil of Monticello, and allow us to formally welcome Linda Spellmon, who as of this writing has closed on her home in Poughkeepsie and is now officially in Mid-Hudson Mensa.
We regret to report the deaths of two members, Diana Nyyssonen and Randy Hess. Diana worked at IBM; Randy Hess, his sister informs us, died in February and "was very proud to be a member and enjoyed Mensa very, very much."
Susan Berbec, who opened her beautiful Victorian mansion (it's still available for sale, folks!) to us for a Big Book Sale, is a multi-talented member who unfortunately for us is moving to California. She has 5 quilts out of the 400 in the National Quilt Association's 28th annual show in Syracuse right now and has her first 2 professional commissions to do right after that for her "Artistic License" custom needlework career. Anyone interested in commissioning her for a heirloom quilt (she can include photos!) can contact her at susanberbec@worldnet.att.net. We're sad to see you go! Susan's son, Peter, also a member, will be attending Fordham University this fall and will transfer to Greater NY Mensa.
Susan's leaving but we've gained a brand-new member: Casimer and Carolyn Decusatis added to our ranks on May 20 by coming forth with Rebecca Lynn. Big sister Annie, 3½, showed off her new responsibility and new kite at the Balloon Festival the first weekend in June.
Also making an appearance at the Balloon Fest was Pete Lewis, who reports he has recently "merrily married Mary"! Since moving here from Minnesota, he's worked as an IBM contractor "making more money, having more fun, and not having to attend any United Way meetings!" He started his Mensa membership in Ohio and was very active in Texas before moving to Minnesota.
| Monthly Gatherings | Bibi Sandstrom |
The last of our First-Friday meetings had a large turnout for John Vanderlee's multi-media presentation of his "box of whistles" - theater organ pipes. He described their early history and how an "unconventional man" (most likely a Mensan) and a "frantic piano player", Robert Hope Jones, invented the first original synthesizer and liberated the console from the organ (what Vanderlee called "Spike Jones in an organ"). He showed pictures of the "mecca of organ nuts", the Wanamaker Store Organ and its 14-story pipe organ built in NJ in 1929, passed around actual pipes and showed us how the length and width affects "the color of the sound". Mr. Vanderlee, chair of the New York chapter of the Theater Organ Society, ended by inviting us to come take a backstage tour of the Bardavon sometime. Keep watching your calendar!
The first of our Second-Friday-of-the-Month Gatherings, in June, had Robert Peck invigorate us with a performance of and instruction in Tai Chi Chuan. We learned about its emphasis on "mind-energy" and how to use it to improve the mind-body connection. We all tried to "Support the Moon", "Pick the Apples", become rooted and climb a fence!
Upcoming Monthly Gatherings:
Don't miss learning the spectroanalysis of M&M's, the salinity concentration of french fries and just why you shouldn't eat margarine or Crisco at our July 11 meeting, when Dr. Jerry DeMenna shares slides and knowledge of food chemistry! He's a former Mensan [who may rejoin - Ed.] who performed his "Aesthetically-engineered edibles" talk at a nearby Regional Gathering earlier this year, which entertained a number of us. Find out why we use lemon on fish, sauté garlic in butter and should avoid yellow M&M's!!
Jerry's culinary presentation will include:
Sadie Penzato holds a CAS in administration plus four earned degrees in art education, with majors in painting and art history. The B.S., M.S., and CAS are from SUNY New Paltz and the M.Ed. and Ed.D. are from Columbia. Her doctoral dissertation is titled Sicilian Marionettes, a Didactic Form of Folk Art. After twenty years of teaching art, she left, and now spends time writing, painting, and exhibiting, in a studio/art gallery that is located on her small farm in Highland, N.Y. At our August 8th Monthly Gathering, she will speak on her self-published book, Growing Up Female and Sicilian (in a Small American Town in the Thirties), and provide tips on self-publishing.
Directions: The Marlboro Library is on US 9W in the village of Marlboro, about ¼ mile south of the flashing traffic light, on the west side of the road. The entrance to the library is on the side road immediately to the south of the library sign. The speakers' presentations begin at 7:30.
| CryptoGrams | Jim Jelacic |
Easy:
EM RU Q TZAPMLQE KMF LFBE RU QRPU EM
RYZOW XMLU EXU RQSMO HZEXMFE BAZPPZOW
EXU RUQOB.
Hard -- no punctuation and grouped in five:
PYWDF TLKGH APZDW WLHAI UQGFF TUWHG
UWFPX GLWZP DVWLW DQIHU TDWTX HWLPQ
PVYPG LHWD
Answers near the end of this newsletter.
September 5-7 at the State University of New York Field Campus at the Ashokan Reservoir, minutes from historic Woodstock.
The all-inclusive price of $119 gives you:
Please note: This RG is not recommended for children under age 12. Children under 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times. Also, since this gathering is on a college campus, alcohol is prohibited. So you can't drink... wine (or beer, or liquor, or moonshine or hooch or any of that kind of stuff).
Register with a down payment of $30 or more by 7/31 to be eligible for a drawing for a full refund. Additional information will be sent to you with your registration confirmation package, or is available on request. See this web site's RG page for contact information.
If you'd like to attend our RG just during the day (one or more days), the day rates break down as follows:
| Day | Rate | # of Meals |
|---|---|---|
| Friday | $30 | 1 |
| Saturday | $51 | 3 |
| Sunday | $34 | 2 |
| Meet A Mensa Mom | Karen Ditsch |
It's been my observation that there aren't a lot of Mensans with children. So maybe just to enlighten my fellow Mensans, or maybe because misery loves company, I've decided to share my experiences with you. I have two children, a 2 year old boy and a 3 month old girl. This isn't Miss Mensa. A life of glamour and fame isn't for the Mensa mom. I'd be happy to just have Mensan children, but they're too young to test. I'd be glad to settle for just one quiet hour when I can read a book; One without any pictures in it.
The story began when this mensa mom did the first brainy thing and decided to stay home with her children. Remember, mensa tests on IQ, not on common sense. Mensa Mom still isn't sure whether IQ is based on socialization or genetics, and in the fantasy state I was in before the first child, I determined that no one would be able to intellectually stimulate them as I could. And at this point, I'd be thrilled to hear that IQ is totally genetic and nothing I say or do has any effect on their long term intelligence. But I'm afraid it isn't quite that easy, and I've got work to do. So I sit through the cartoons in French I bought Kyle, before he was born, for the 67589th time (give or take 100 showings). This cartoon was adorable for a few months, but I have learned the hard way that children like to see the same thing over and over (and over).
Mensa Mom also thought that with my intellectual gifts, I would be able to offer my child a unique perspective. I thought I would be able to always give my child the correct answers to those adorable questions young children are always asking, like explaining exactly why the water is blue, and looking up the answers when I didn't know them. No, for me, I thought, I will never use my father's answer "Just to make little girls ask questions." Until my son asked me what a giraffe says. What does a giraffe say? It wasn't in my encyclopedia, and the giraffes at the zoo weren't talking. Well, I didn't exactly use Dad's answer. It was a little boy the giraffe wanted to make ask questions. Many thanks to another more experienced mensa mom who suggested I tell him the giraffe says "slurp" when it eats leaves off the trees.
But they aren't always adorable questions. Kyle has toy trains that use magnets to hold the engines and cars together. But the positives and negatives aren't marked and the cars look the same front and back. And it isn't easy to explain polarity to a child who is screaming and throwing the cars across the room because they aren't fitting together right. Finally, I had to give up the cute "positive, negative" speech I wanted to give and mark the front red and the back blue with a permanent marker. Maybe that can be a building block for all that explaining I want to do?
Mensa Mom dearly loves her children, although I'm quite positive I'm not having any more. The thing I didn't take into account when deciding to stay home is that the mom, Mensan or not, who stays home also gets to become the short order cook, the laundress and the cleaning lady.
Miss Mensa is running around with the elite. Mensa Mom is typing with a baby on her lap and needs to check the roast chicken in the oven. But Mensa Mom is pretty grateful she had a mensa-caliber (if not dues-paying) mom to answer my questions and deal with my temper tantrums.
Now Mensans, call home and THANK YOUR MOTHERS!
| Lightning | Helen Schimpf |
Lightning flashes are the shears of Mother Nature.
She cuts celestial cloth,
Measured off by thunderbolts.
As she snips her zigzag pattern,
Does she make a hat for the rain,
Or cut sky-colored sections to dress her lakes?
| Living Smarter | Bill Zigo |
This month I'm providing updates to two previous Living Smarter tips:
Last month, at the end of Miss Mensa's column, I credited a comment from Carl Altman concerning deer ticks and Lyme Disease. A useful tip Carl had mentioned which I had not included: When checking your body, watch for anything which feels like a small, loose scab, particularly if it's in an area where you do not expect to find one. What you've found may be a tick.
My July/August 1996 Living Smarter column contained tips for storing vegetables and fruits. I mentioned that apples and carrots shouldn't be stored together, because apples excrete a gas which can turn carrots bitter. Here's an update: The gas in question is ethylene. It can accelerate ripening, promote spoilage and cause deterioration in some produce. Besides carrots, this can also occur in cucumbers and lettuce. But apples aren't the only culprit. Other fruits which emit ethylene are bananas, melons and avocados. So if your refrigerator has multiple crisper drawers, use them effectively.
If you have any tips you'd like to share, please to send them to Living Smarter, c/o Bill Zigo
| Pun of the Month | Jim Jelacic |
This groaner comes from Tom Rankin:
A group of chess enthusiasts had checked into a hotel and were standing the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?", they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he replied, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer."
Send in your own groaners to PUNS c/o Jim Jelacic.
| Program Notes | Bill Zigo |
Attention chess players! If anyone is interested in attending the Chadwick Chess Club at Vassar College, which meets Monday nights at 7:30, contact Alison Bentley. Perhaps a group would like to try it once first to see if they enjoy it and would like to return on a more regular basis.
And from Bibi Sandstrom, camper extraordinaire:
Hi Campers!
It's definite! The Third Annual "Mid-Hudson Mensa Goes Camping With Other Chapters" will take place again on the third weekend in July. We have reservations for Group Campsite #2 for Friday the 18th, Saturday the 19th, and Sunday the 20th at Tolland State Forest in East Otis, MA. Come any or all nights.
The site is only $8 a night (Total!! If eight people show up, it's $1 a person a night; sixteen, 50¢ a person a night!), plus flush toilets, showers, swimming, canoeing, hiking, beach, interpretive center, & reservoir! Pets are even allowed but alcohol isn't (statewide ban.) And because it's a group campsite, you don't need to make reservations! (However, just to get an idea, let me know your plans, if convenient.)
As usual, we charge no other fee, although this year if you want to make a donation or contribution to Eric's Famous Campfire Pizza Dinner Saturday night, we'll accept it. Also as usual, BYO lodging, drink, and some food for you to share. See you there!
Questions on the Camping Weekend? Contact Bibi Sandstrom.
| The Game Page |
One of the newer games you'll probably see in the game room of just about every RG these days is SET , "The family game of visual perception." Since its debut in 1988, SET has won numerous awards including the most important one (to us, anyway): Mensa Mind Game, in 1991 (i.e. one of the top mind games of 1991).
SET is a deck of 81 cards, each with a combination of 4 different attributes:
Color: Red, green and purple
Shape: Oval, squiggle or diamond
Number: One, two or three of the same item
Shading: solid, open, or striped
Twelve cards are dealt face up onto the table. Each player (there can be any number, but it seems to work best with 3 to 6) scans the cards looking for a set of three cards with attributes fitting the requirements. The requirements are that for each attribute all 3 cards in the set must be the same, or else they must all be unique. As examples, the following are sets:
Three red solid squiggle, Two green striped diamond, One purple open oval - in this case each attribute is unique on each card.
Two purple open diamond, Two purple striped squiggle, Two purple solid oval - in this case, the number and color are the same, and the shape and shading are unique on each card.
Whoever sees a set of 3 cards yells, "Set!", and identifies the set. If correct, this person removes the cards and keeps them. The remaining cards are studied for more sets. If there are none, 3 more cards are added to the table. This is repeated until all cards are used and no more sets are possible. Whoever has collected the most sets wins.
In an "official" game, if you incorrectly call out a set, you must surrender one of your previously claimed sets (so in many games, the name of the game would seem to be "Ssss - never mind", or "Se - oops"). Most games of SET I've played at RG's and games nights tend to be more forgiving.
While the basic version of SET is very popular, there are several variations on the game, the rules for some of which can be obtained from the game manufacturer. SET can also be played solo, as a tool to sharpen mental and perceptual skills. In fact, Betsy Burke has used SET in her 4th grade classroom as a learning tool.
SET is almost always available at every Mid-Hudson Mensa games night.
| Trivia, July/August '97 | Jim Jelacic |
Greetings, Fellow Trivians!
Here are the answers to May's questions:
Q21: Which US city has the most Mobil 5 Star restaurants?
A21: New York City, with 4.
Q22: Name the members of the Saturday morning kids' TV show "The
Banana Splits."
A22: Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky.
Q23: Who assassinated Robert Kennedy?
A23: Sirhan Sirhan.
Q24: What English folk hero is found in Sir Walter Scott's
"Ivanhoe?"
A24: Chief Outlaw Locksley, or Robin Hood.
Q25: What do coriander, cilantro and Chinese parsley have in
common?
A25: They are all different names for the same plant.
Q26: How much does it cost to mint a coin? Print a dollar?
A26: 8 cents to mint a coin, 4 cents to print a bill. (per a newspaper
article)
Q27: Is a bird's beak bone or skin?
A27: Both.
Q28: Who is keeper of the NBS-4 atomic clock at the National Institute
of Standards and Technology?
A28: Jim Gray.
Q29: Who was the protagonist in the first Warner Brothers cartoon to
win an Academy Award for best animated short (hint: it wasn't Bugs
Bunny)?
A29: Tweetie Pie, in 1947 with a cartoon called "Tweetie Pie."
Q30: How many elevators are in the Empire State Building?
A30: 73.
The winner is Ed Quinn with 5 correct answers. Alan Hauck had 3 and Les Herring had 2. The Kosowski family, ineligible this year for winning last year, had 7 correct answers.
And now, this month's questions:
Q42: Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution. What was the second?
Q43: In which movie did Humphrey Bogart win an Oscar for taking Katharine Hepburn down a river during World War I?
Q44: What war saw the first submarine attack?
Q45: Who composed a symphony called "The Planets?"
Q46: In which field of study would you find a float ball, shutoff valve and a trip lever?
Q47: True or false - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Song of Hiawatha" was based on a real person.
Q48: What word contains all 5 vowels in alphabetical order? (Submitted by David Nuss)
Q49: Who was the only Speaker of the House ever elected President? (Submitted by Ed Quinn)
Q50: What game has variations called Bergen and Matador? (Submitted by Bill Zigo)
Q51: Who said "I don't know anything about music. In my line, I don't have to."? (Submitted by Dave Cardall)
Send your answers and questions (with authenticated answers) to TRIVIA CONTEST c/o Jim Jelacic by June 31.
| What's Up? Current Topics in Astronomy |
Tom Rankin Mid-Hudson Astronomy Assoc. |
In June, I mentioned Mars as an observing project. Did anyone try to find it? Oh come on! That one was too easy!
The Planets: In July, Mars is still well placed for viewing. It's not as bright, but it should still show a fair amount of detail in a decent telescope. It will be a little lower in the West each night, and it will disappear some time before August ends. Venus is doing just the opposite, rising a little higher every night in the West. It's the brightest object in the evening sky. If you're a night 'OWL', Saturn and Jupiter are well placed for viewing late at night or in the pre-dawn hours. Jupiter is due South at 2:00 AM, and Saturn rises around Midnight in the ESE. Jupiter is very active right now. There is a small white storm that appears to be colliding with the Great Red Spot! I have a chart for viewing the Spot, if you're interested.
Mercury will be best on August 3rd. While they're not easy to find, all 8 planets (9 if you include the Earth) can be seen in late July before Midnight, a couch potato's tour-de-force!
Other July/August events:
| 07-02 | 4 a.m. | The Moon passes close to Aldebaran |
| 07-04 | 10 p.m. | Venus passes through the Bee Hive star cluster |
| 07-11 | 9 p.m. | Mercury passes through the Bee Hive |
| 07-26 | 9 p.m. | Mercury passes close to Regulus |
| 07-29 | 4 a.m. | The Moon passes close to Aldebaran |
| 08-05 | 9 p.m. | The Moon passes close to Mercury |
| 08-09 | - | Jupiter at opposition - 'UP - all night!' |
| 08-25 | 9 p.m. | The Moon passes close to Aldebaran |
There are also a number of times when Jupiter's moons eclipse each other or pass in front of another. I have them all in a chart if you're curious. Finally, Mir, the Russian space station (with a lot of help from the US lately) will make many passes over the Mid-Hudson valley in July and August. Contact me for details.
Astro News: The Hubble Space Telescope has been successfully refurbished, and has shown that the weather on Mars is starting to deteriorate. This comes as 2 space probes make their way to Mars for a late summer rendezvous. More info at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Comet Hale-Bopp is gone now. (I have photos for sale, or just to gaze at, if you're interested.) If you have a telescope, you might be able to find one of the many faint Comets visible now. Details can be found at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/Ephemerides/Comets/. One or two of them may be binocular objects.
Late July through mid August is a great time to watch for meteors, a.k.a. shooting stars. The best time is early morning, but any time it's dark is acceptable. The Aquarids account for the bulk of the meteors, but the real show is on the nights of August 11th-14th, when the Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak. Expect to see up to 1 meteor per minute if conditions are favorable! The Perseids appear to come from the NE part of the sky, so face that direction, but look upwards.
For those of you coming to Moonlight Madness, (see the calendar), I'll be bringing my telescope, so we can check out our celestial travelling companion in detail, weather permitting. That's also the weekend Bibi and Eric will be camping out under the stars, in NW Massachusetts. We'll be thinking of you. Enjoy the view!
Upcoming MHAA Events:
| 7/01/97 - 8:30 PM | Outdoor meeting at Suny New Paltz |
| 7/12/97 - 8:30 PM | Outdoor meeting at Bowdoin Park |
| 7/15/97 - 7:30 PM | Indoor meeting at SUNY - Topic TBD - call for info |
| 8/01/97 - 8:00 PM | Outdoor meeting at Wilcox Park |
| 8/05/97 - 8:00 PM | Outdoor meeting at SUNY |
| 8/09/97 - 8:00 PM | Outdoor meeting at Bowdoin Park |
| 8/19/97 - 7:30 PM | Indoor meeting at SUNY - Topic TBD - call for info |
Call (914) 473-7602 for the MHAA Hotline: Information, Astronomy News, and more! Would you like to borrow a telescope from the Club for a month? Let me know! We've got several "loaner" scopes that are very easy to use. We have lots of other Astro stuff to lend as well!
Next Time: September brings cooler weather and "new" constellations. Clear skies! Tom Rankin
Puzzle answers follow, a page or so onward...
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Easy:
To be a diplomat you must be able to bring home the bacon without spilling the beans.
Hard:
A person with a green thumb is sometimes a fine gardener but more often
a bad painter.