Official Minutes – HVBS Meeting on Wednesday, January 15, 2003

  1. On this clear, cold Winter day, Deliberator propelled the Northern HVBS contingent to our appointed Hoffman House rendezvous promptly at 11:16 AM. Members awaited the arrival of our Southern mainstay Geronimo who appeared tardily at 11:39. Protests of his lateness being caused by the pressure of "domestic duties" were met with good-natured understanding. He then, rather immodestly, claimed to be "building up a lot of points" doing the housework and, gasp, vacuuming for visitors. Deliberator and PC Wiz mentioned ironing as essential, stoutly denied by Geronimo. Deliberator said he was especially proud of the creases in the slacks he irons.
  2. Members missed the cheery presence of our gracious hostess, Ginny. Introduced to our session waitress, Vickie, we proceeded to a corner table. Shadow asked Vickie to take our delayed 2002 annual HVBS photo. Deliberator, analyzing problems with past photos taken before the fireplace, suggested the neutral wall instead. After taking the photos, Vickie took members' orders for libations. Remarkably, all ordered wine and, to laughter, Deliberator stated that he "never met a wine he didn't like". Responding to Geronimo's comment that we are "going through waitresses like crazy", Deliberator thought it related to their immanent February closing.
  3. Geronimo then whipped out a gift for ye scribe - beautifully wrapped with a gold bow. Surprised and overwhelmed, PC Wiz opened it to find a commemorative mug with the HVBS logo and the legend: "To Henry Maltz, aka PC Wiz. From: Deliberator, Geronimo and Shadow for his outstanding performance as the Society's Official Scribe. December 11, 2002". I can only say, "Thanks, fellows, I sincerely appreciate the recognition" and congratulations to Geronimo on his work adapting our graphic logo for the cup..
  4. A report by Shadow on the good food and reasonable prices at a Greek (aren't they all? Yes, declared Geronimo) diner, The Red Oak, in Princeton, NJ was favorable received. They also gave a 10% Senior Discount! Shadow's story of the Vogt double anniversary celebrated at the Shields Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg was highlighted by PC Wiz's pictures of the event. Shadow related how the actor playing Mr. Shields involved grandson Alex, whom he insisted on calling "Rollo". It was an outstanding evening. Next Geronimo gave an overview of his and Kay's trip to Oregon to visit son Danny and wife Chako. They were blessed with good weather and Geronimo is working on the digital photos, close to 100 of which were erased by accident. Luckily, Danny had copies of the photos and could replace them. In an hilarious anecdote, Geronimo related how, going out for a few minutes to fill up the rental car's gas tank, he took a wrong turn and ended up in the State of Washington!
  5. Importuned to comment on his recent recycling efforts, Shadow described trying to recycle his auto license plates - a procedure which varies by county. He was not allowed to put them in the recycling box - instead they were to be taken to the recycling facility, 20 miles distant. The plates were therefore given to PC Wiz who is allowed to put them in his pick-up box. A truly chaotic situation.
  6. In our political section Shadow raised the issues of departing Illinois Governor Ryan's release of convicts and commutation of death sentences and Shadow's proposal that voters should have to pass an intelligence exam to qualify for voting. All agreed they thought the governor should not have countermanded the strenuous efforts of the prosecutors and juries in such a random manner. Geronimo stated his belief that paroles should by abolished. Deliberator and PC Wiz thought paroles sometimes worked and helped keep the prisoners in order.
  7. The tech section started off with a bang as Shadow opined that PC Wiz should "can" his recalcitrant Pentium II machine (frequent unpredictable "blue screen" failures) and buy a new one. He then described how his XP Dell shut down by itself with a problem and restarted good as new. To general disbelief, PC Wiz admitted that he would seriously consider buying a Apple Macintosh although Geronimo accurately mentioned their higher cost. Geronimo brought up a problem he is having "renaming" his jpg photos - being asked what program to open the file with. Unfortunately, PC Wiz had no solution for the problem. He then explained the agenda item mentioning the terms "chad" and "SillyC". These are actually computer viruses that resulted in PC Wiz, apparently on the mailing list of a malicious hacker, having to delete hundreds of files and re-install Excel. Moral: Check your system frequently.
  8. Our Sports section was, of course, dominated by the shocking (no, not Shockley) defeat of the Giants. Deliberator said their performance showed that they were not ready for the second half while Shadow declared the Giants had not even tried to blitz in the entire half. It was also obvious that their "kicking game stinks". All agreed that Jim Fassel's offensive calls were not the problem and there was further discussion on the possibilities for next season.
  9. Members ordered coffee and dessert (except for the cautious Geronimo) from the attentive Vickie. Shadow suggested the photo labels which appear on the logo above for members approval. Deliberator, having already researched the matter, proposed Wednesday March 12, 2003 for our next meeting. The date was quickly ratified. The momentous first meeting of 2003 adjourned.

Thanks to Geronimo for his comments and Shadow for the logo alteration suggestion.

HVBS Official Scribe Laureate PC Wiz

January 27, 2003