posted 03-31-00
Martha Ng and Haim
Levy Get Married !!
Martha Ng and Haim Levy
were married on Sunday, March 26. They were married in a traditional
Jewish ceremony. Gary and Betty Richardson were in attendance and
passed on this information to me. Martha and Haim met here at the
studio a couple of years ago. Although I haven't seen them around
lately, Gary says they are "fixtures" at the Longhorn on
Tuesdays, so i am pleased they are still dancing!
Congratulations! Or
should I say, "L' Chayim!"
posted 03-28-00
Profiles in Courage
Maria Sklodowska (1867-1934), better known today as
Madame Curie, was born November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. She would
become famous for her research into radioactivity, and was the first
woman to win a Nobel Prize. In conjunction with her husband Pierre,
Marie Curie discovered that uranium ore, or pitchblende,
contained much more radioactivity than could be explained solely by
the uranium content.
The Curie's began a search for the source of the
radioactivity and discovered two highly radioactive elements,
"radium" and "polonium." The Curie's won the 1903
Nobel prize for physics for their discovery. In 1906 Pierre,
overworked and weakened by his prolonged exposure to radiation, died
when he was run over by a car.
Madame Curie continued her work on radioactive
elements and won the 1911 Nobel Prize again, this time for chemistry
for isolating radium and studying its chemical properties. She was
also instrumental in developing the use of X-rays to would help to
locate bullets and facilitate surgery for soldiers injured in WW
I.
In 1934, at the age of 67 Madame Curie died of
leukemia, thought to have been brought on by her prolonged exposure to
radiation during her research. As they say, you can always tell who
the pioneers are by the arrows in their backs as you pass them on the
trail.
I believe Marie Curie – as well as her husband
Pierre - deserves to be called a Hero. Both people bravely took
incredible personal risks to make important contributions to Mankind.
I would imagine other scientists, such as the AIDS researchers, often
wonder if they could inadvertently meet the same fate as the heroes
profiled in today’s story.
I for one feel pretty fortunate to have people like
Marie and Pierre Curie to look up to. I might add if any of our
readers have a hero of their own they would like to nominate, send in
their story!!
posted 03-28-00
Item
in the News
Gary Richardson
has shared with us this interesting story. An observer of Oklahoma’s
government sent him a tidbit regarding a demand made recently by
Oklahoma's "Textbook Committee". Apparently this same
committee achieved worldwide recognition last year when they got an
"International Bonehead Award", but the observer
tantalizingly failed to add what for.
The Textbook
Committee made it into the news again this time with their impassioned
demand that a sticker be inserted into all of the state's science text
books with the following paragraph:
"No
one was present when life first appeared on Earth. Therefore, any
statement about life's origins should be considered as theory, not
fact."
Apparently
the Oklahoma Senate denied this request. It seems a counter demand was
made that the same sticker be required in all bibles and religious
textbooks. This request caused so much hilarity and pandemonium that
both demands were thrown out.
posted 03-23-00
Sarah Milford and Brady
Pasemann Announce Engagement
This just in from Sarah Milford -
Not
sure if you remember us or not (Brady Pasemann and Sarah Milford)
but we recently got engaged (Feb. 14) and are due to be married in
August 2000. I just have to say that if I hadn't decided to
take C&W classes at SSQQ, then I never would have met Brady!
We met in August 1997 in a Ghost Town class and we started
'officially' dating in October 1997. (FYI, Dennis Taupo will
be one of his groomsmen.) Just thought I'd say 'thanks' for
the great classes and let you know of yet another couple who got
together at SSQQ!
(Editor's
Note - If I'm not mistaken, isn't Feb 14 "Valentine's
Day"?? That is the same day that Kenneth Parker proposed -
see shortly further down the page. Hmm. I guess that would be a nice
day for asking the question.
I
remember this couple very well. In fact, it was Brady who once told me
he taught SSQQ Instructor Dennis Taupo practically everything he
(Dennis) knew about Western Swing. I spoke to Dennis just last night
and he said it wasn't true. Dennis also said he wasn't engaged. The
reason I am printing this is that a young lady asked me just the other
day if Dennis was "available" since she thought he was cute.
But
that's another story - this writeup should be about Sarah and Brady,
so here goes: Congratulations!!)
posted 03-21-00
More Fabulous SSQQ Volleyball !
On Saturday, March 18, we had 19
excellent athletes square off for 5 1/2 hours of volleyball. Yes,
that's right...5 1/2 hours!! We played from 11 am till 4:30 pm.
To read more about the action-packed day, click
here.
Bizarre Death Stories !
Death of course can
happen at any time. No one could function if they spent their time
worrying about it. Hence we learn to ignore this ugly possibility as
much as possible. However, the following stories include some the most
unusual ways of dying imaginable. Some were just plain bad luck and
others were the result of incredible stupidity. Even more bizarre, I
know for a fact that several of these incidents are absolutely true
and I am fairly sure several more are true as well. However, I might
add that a couple are too far-fetched even for me.
Decide
for yourself...
posted 03-16-00
It's An SSQQ Population
Explosion !
Ben and Diane Liles are going
to have Twins !
Ben and Diane Liles are going to have
Twins ! I might add their story is pretty incredible. Last year
and the year before that, Diane was fighting for her life with breast
cancer. She bravely underwent chemotherapy, suffered a lot, and thank
goodness won her fight.
Last fall Diane and Ben got married
right before Halloween. Diane has a grown daughter, but Ben - till now
a confirmed bachelor - very much wanted children. Unfortunately this
would be much too risky for Diane to attempt. I was told the increased
estrogen from pregnancy would put Diane in too much danger of a
recurrence.
So together Ben and Diane decided on a
New Age solution - a surrogate mother. First they chose a
highly-praised specialist in Dallas. Then they chose a surrogate
mother. Then they chose an egg donor in addition to Ben's providing
the male half of the equation. Sound complicated?? It sure did to
me.
In the space of just a couple months,
Diane and Ben got the wonderful news that all their efforts were not
in vain. Not only that, but they will have twins!! Goodness
gracious.
Lest you think Diane is not involved,
guess again. Not only is she there for every doctor visit and every
tough decision, but she is working an incredible amount of overtime as
a nurse to help pay for this extremely expensive process.
I might add the joke is that Ben has
just begun to "show". Hmm.
What a remarkable story !!
Daryl and Joanne Armstrong are
going to have a Baby !
Yes, it is true. Popular instructors
Daryl and Joanne Armstrong are going to be first-time parents probably
some time this summer. I am very happy for both of them.
On a lighter note, Daryl has not yet
told me what the theme of the baby shower will be.
Rodrigo and Nelly Aranda have a
Baby Boy !
I have just been told that SSQQ Rodrigo
Aranda and his wife Nelly are the proud parents of Rodrigo Aranda-Roman
as of Wednesday, March 8th. Their son weighed 8 pounds and 7.4 oz and
he was 20.5 inches long at birth.
I of course thoroughly enjoyed Nelly
knitting baby clothes while she watched her husband play Volleyball
here at my house on several different Saturdays. She had the biggest
smile on her face. I could tell this is one baby that was going to get
a lot of affection.
Congratulations to both parents !!
Bram and Katsumi Weisman are
going to have a Baby !
Bram and Katsumi Weisman report they
are expecting their first child sometime in late March.
Bram of course is a former fabulous
Whip student who met and married his lovely wife Katsumi last summer
as was reported in the "Grapevine". Congratulations to both
!!
Politicians take note, SSQQ is
preparing quite a voting block for the year 2020.
posted 03-16-00
Kathleen Alexander and Kenneth
Parker Announce Engagement
I heard a rumor that Kathleen Alexander
and Kenneth Parker are engaged. Apparently this important question was
proposed on Valentine's Day. I am just trying to figure out why it
took me a month to find out about this. Hmmph.
Kathleen, who assists me in my Wednesday
Night Western classes, tells me I have permission to reveal this
little secret to the world, so now we all know. Congratulations !!
Kathleen writes this :
Just a little
background - we met a year ago.
Carolyn
introduced us - they were in some classes together.
We just started off as friends because I personally was never
going to pay another man the time of day as long as I lived!!
However, he has turned out to be the sweetest, kindest man
(next to my late father, whom no one can ever hold a candle to) I
think I’ve ever met. So,
who could resist?
My favorite
SSQQ story about him happened in Death Valley last summer.
There was a really hard pattern that all the men were having
trouble with. When Gillian got around to Kenneth, she asked if he got it.
When he said. “No,”
Gillian said really loud with frustration, “Well, shit!
If you don’t have it nobody does!”
If getting married is one
of your goals, one of the world's most effective ways to accomplish
this is to join the SSQQ Staff ! In addition to Kathleen, Janet
Wukman as well as one-time SSQQ Staffer Suzy Kish have also gotten
engaged recently.
Last year it was Ben Liles, Renee
Risinger, and Rodrigo Aranda from our staff who got married.
Previously it was Daryl and Joanne
Armstrong, Heidi Collier Moynihan, Mary Collins Moore, Susie Allen
Merrill, Linda Rooks Decker, Beth and Allen Hentges, Jeff Heiber, and
David Baggesse. Coincidence ?? Nah, our teachers are pretty wonderful.
This is just more proof !!
Top
of Page
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posted 03-07-00
The Brand New SSQQ
Newsletter is Here !
At 1 am in the morning, Tuesday,
February 29th - the special Leap Year extra day no less (I've been
waiting for this opportunity for 4 years) - we launched the SSQQ
Newsletter.
Mind you, every organization on Earth
sends me newsletters. I get them from the Tango people, the Swing
people, the Scottish Dance Society, the Salsa Club, you name it. We
even have another SSQQ Newsletter dealing with the movements of the
SSQQ Insiders put out by Tom Flaherty (qqss@swbell.net).
The event that prompted the start of
the SSQQ Newsletter was our upcoming Career Day,
an event that I felt deserved a wider audience.
SSQQ has an active attendance of
perhaps 1,000 people a week, but our email list is close to 5,000. By
reaching the larger audience, I felt that at least I had done my best
to publicize this event whereby the SSQQ Community gets to make
business connections that have nothing to do with dancing.
However I too get between 30 - 50
emails a day. I know from first-hand experience how 5 or more
unsolicited and unappreciated emails pop up daily in my inbox from
people I have never heard of in my life. This is what we endearingly
call "Spam".
So my first duty was to apologize to
everyone for appearing unasked in their E-mailbox. I figured 20% of
the people would enjoy the Newsletter, 20% would tell me to get lost,
and 60% wouldn't say anything at all.
Well, I was sort of right. Maybe 5%
responded favorably, 5% wanted to be deleted, and the rest never said
a thing. In my college days, this was referred to as the "Silent
Majority". Plus a lot of emails came back as no longer in use
(10%-15%).
Many people think I am Mr. Computer
Wizard. Wrong. I am an amateur. Like an idiot, I loaded up 5,000
emails in my email message and hit send. No way. The message : Too
Many Recipients. So I sent 2,500. NO. 1,000. NO. 500. NO. 10. YES. Ah,
less than 500, more than 10. Eventually I discovered the magic number
was 99. Once I got started it was tough to stop. I cut and paste my
message 50 TIMES !!! I think I even sent it to the same group twice a
few times judging from the responses. It was an ordeal that lasted
from 2 am till 6 am. Then I had to sleep a while and answer 500
replies. Yuck.
Hopefully I will master the intricacies
of Bulk Email for the next try in March.
I added an interesting feature to the
Newsletter - Letters to
the Editor. It gives you an idea what the response was to our SSQQ
Newsletter.
