The Spoke - Archive  Oct 17, 2008

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The Spoke is brought to you "LIVE" this week from Boise State University, in lovely Downtown Boise, Idaho. 

And the winner is.....

Guests and Visiting Rotarians:  

This week we had visitarians from near and afar.  Mich Michaud joined us from the Chelsea club and Martin and Trish Brocklebank flew all the way from Norfolk,England to have lunch with us.

Jim McCallister from Salem was a guest of John Quinn.

Recognitions and Fines:

• While standing to introduce his guest, JQ also announced that he and his wife just celebrated their 55^th wedding anniversary.

• Bruce Weir paid a fine for some athletic accomplishment which I missed hearing all of the details, so I will pay a fine for not taking copious notes!
• Liz Bradt once again had a very busy weekend.  The Salem High School Volleyball Team slept over at her house on Friday evening, and then she ran the Tufts 10k on Monday.  Congratulations Liz!
• John Stueve paid a fine for missing last week.
• Bill Kielbasa finished climbing the last of the 48  4,000 foot peaks.  He accomplished this amazing feat in New Hampshire last weekend.
• Tom Leonard announced that next Tuesday the Essex National Heritage Foundation will be honoring two Salem residents, one of them a Rotarian.  Juli Lederhaus will receive the Pioneer in Partnership award for her roles as in the Chamber of Commerce, Salem Rotary and Destination Salem.   Nelson Benton, Editorial Page Editor for the Salem News and our speaker this week, will be honored with the Distinguished Service Award.  A round of applause for these outstanding citizens!
• Juli paid a fine her picture on the front page of the Salem News and for the duplicate sending of the Spoke.
• John Neely and his wife Christine just returned from 3 weeks in China and Vietnam.  When they left the country was in good shape…John also announced the deadline to apply for the Rotary Youth Exchange is fast approaching.
• Dick Lutts paid a fine for recognizing his granddaughter.  She is the captain of the Salem High School’s winning Girl’s Field Hockey Team.
• Viktoria Talebian paid a fine for surviving her first day at Boot Camp. 

Nelson Benton, Editorial Page Editor of the Salem News.

Program for the October 14th Meeting:

Nelson began his career with the Salem News in 1972 as an intern covering the town of Middleton.  During his tenure with The News, Nelson has worked as a city and town reporter, covering most of the communities on the North Shore as a statehouse reporter, city editor and managing editor.

Nelson commented on the news of the day, primarily focusing on the upcoming elections.  In his remarks he noted that Massachusetts has a lower percentage of contested races than any other state in the nation.  There are two contested elections in the state, however, they will most likely go to the incumbents – John Tierney and John Kerry.  Nelson cited some interesting statistics:  This mornings most recent poll had Obama up by 10% over McCain; 90% of the registered voters say the country is headed in the wrong direction; President Bush’s current job approval rating of 23% is lower than President Nixon’s just prior to impeachment; his 73% job disapproval rating is an all-time low; and strikingly, 92% of Americans are following this Presidential election very closely.  In his opinion, he thinks the election will go to the democrats and not only in the Presidential election, but also the House and Senate seats.  Finally, Nelson addressed the three ballot initiatives in Massachusetts – Questions 1, 2 and 3.  Here is the Cliff’s Notes version of what a “yes” vote would mean for each measure.

Question 1 – A yes vote would repeal the state income tax

Question 2 – A yes vote would decriminalize possession of marijuana and make it a civil matter instead

Question 3 – A yes vote would ban Greyhound racing

There were several questions from Rotarians, and I will leave you with a pertinent one to Salem:

Asked by fellow Rotarian Bruce Weir, “In your opinion, who were the top Mayors of Salem.”

1. Sam Zohl
2. Kim Driscoll
3. Neil Harrington               

Events to be aware of -- Save the Dates!!

Upcoming Speakers: 

10/21 Tom Driscoll, Essex County Clerk of Courts

10/28 Dave Gendall, Friends Forever

                          Please visit the calendar section of our web site

                                       for additional important dates.  

And now a few announcements....  

President Dave announced the next Board meeting will be Tuesday, October 21 at 10:45am at The Hawthorne Hotel                                      

Quote of the Week:

“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”

Kahlil Gibran

Stumpers  

This week's stumper:

What common table fruit does not float?

Last week's stumper:

On what social networking site does District 7930 have a page?

Answer to last week's stumper:

Facebook.  Http://www.facebook.com/district 7930

Happy Birthday to: 

There were two Rotarian birthdays this week:  Jim Bailey and Carl Watney

Please email all announcements to be added to the Spoke  and/or feedback to salem_rotary@yahoo.com by Noon on Wednesday.  Also, feel free to contact any of the committee members listed below.

Committee Chair:  Brenda Smith

Editors:  Brenda Smith

Photos: John Quinn (Jay Cue), Carl Wathne, Trip Mason and File

Graphics and Photo Editing:  Rich Eisner

Members:  Denise Flynn, Jim Haskell and Sandy Heaphy