Scituate Rotary - Member News

CLUB NEWSLETTER for February 16, 2005
February is Rotary World Understanding Month

February 23^rd – Rotary World Understanding and Peace Day and Rotary’s Birthday

Present: Ben, Bill, Connie & Alden, Beatrice, Donn & Carol, Loic, Karen, Walter, Janet, guest speakers Donna Nuzzo-Mueller and Pat Jacquart, and visiting Rotarian Louis Burridge.

Carol Salden reported on visiting the post office and postmaster. All the books have now been delivered and we have been assured that next year we do not need labels or route numbers. We do need to meet with the postmaster in advance of mailing next years phonebooks. Thank you Carol and Donn.

Our guest speaker was Donna Nuzzo-Muller and Pat Jacquard from Scituate High School . Pat has been the principal of SH for six years. She talked about the new school budget which will require a new override, that will be voted on at the next town election. She is keen to maintain a dialog with the Rotary because she believes we should support each others missions. The High School considers themselves a friend of the Rotary. They are very appreciative of our scholarships and therefore would like to give something back. She has plenty of volunteers, so we just need to ask when we need extra hands for any of our projects and she will make sure we have them. Donna also spoke about how much high-school has changed over the past 10 to 15 years. The students are expected to learn more and do more. There are mandated standards from both the state and federal governments that are not funded, so teachers must work longer and harder, spending more of their own money to meet these mandates. Scituate High is thankful that the town has always made education a priority in their budget. The students are very fortunate that arts and language courses have not been cut or eliminated as has happened in many surrounding school districts with budget constraints. Scituate High is proud of the large number of students who pass the MCAS, graduate and are accepted into college. Once a month Mrs. Muller has lunch with the officers of all the clubs within the school. Janet has been invited to speak at one of these “Officer’s Club” meeting about our legs and wheels project.

Donna’s colleague, Pat Jacquart is the foreign language department chair. She spoke about her programs within the school. They have many international visiting programs, including a group leaving for Italy today and another going to Normandy in the near future. Pat has some history with Rotary in Texas and is enthusiastic about exploring a relationship with our club that would inform her students about the international aspects of Rotary.

Yours In Rotary,
Janet

On Tuesday evening Janet, Bart and I attended the District’s Centennial Celebration held at the Providence Convention Center in Rhode Island . Over 700 people attended the dinner and program. It was a wonderful celebration of 100 years of Rotary, spotlighting the many amazing things Rotary has accomplished both here and abroad. Each club in the district was asked to nominate one member who is representative of the true spirit of Rotary, the devotion to Rotary ideals, and dedication to the concept of “Service Above Self.” Janet Schmitz is the member we elected. I feel the District is extremely lucky to gain Janet as a new Assistant District Governor for the 2005-2006 year.

The photos below are from the Celebration. The last picture is of Janet ringing the centennial bell. RI commissioned the manufacture of five bells to commemorate its 100 years of service to communities worldwide. These bells, each a replica of the standard club bell used at all Rotary meetings, were sent on five paths of travel and will eventually “visit” every Rotary’s more than 39,000 clubs around the world. Attendees were invited to ring the bell in honor of their club in the House of Friendship.

As always, I really enjoyed SSA Bill’s Words of Wisdom. So much in fact, that I thought I would include them for those of you who were not at the meeting:

In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are “limbs”, therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, “Okay, but it will cost you an arm and a leg.”

As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year (May and October)! Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford wigs made from wool. They couldn’t wash the wigs, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term “big wig”. Today we often use the phrase “here comes the Big Wig” because someone appears to be, or is, powerful and wealthy.

In the late 1700s many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board folded down from the wall and was used for dining. The “head of the household” always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Occasionally a guest, who was usually a man, would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. They called the one sitting in the chair the “chair man.” Today in business we use the expression or title “Chairman” or “Chairman of the Board.”

Personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee’s wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman’s face she was told, “mind your own bee’s wax.” Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term “crack a smile.” In addition, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt . . . therefore the expression “losing face.”

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. However, how to prevent them from rolling around the deck? The best storage method devised was a square-based pyramid with one ball on the top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem… how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a “Monkey” with 16 round indentations. However, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution was to make “Brass Monkeys.” Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so that the iron cannonballs would come right off the monkey. Thus it was quite literally, “Cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey” (All this time you thought that was an improper expression, didn’t you.)