K- Greensheet For March 27 2008

PROMISE YOURSELF Optimist Club of Coronado Post Office Box 180251 Coronado, CA 92178-0251 March 27, 2008 “One may smile and smile and be a villain.” William Shakespeare (Hamlet)

Jim Alley, President Pres.08-09 Leslie Crawford VPs-Irish Flynn & John Bowen Stu Powell, Secretary John Freeman, Treas. USNA ’45 Publishers A group that’s too noble for fear www.sportsfiesta.net

Meetings at 7AM on Thurs at Coronado Yacht Club President Alley showed up looking like Joe Pesci in “Goodfellas”. He only wears a tie when a member of Congress is our speaker. And so today. Rich Thomas, tieless but in Optimist Yellow doublet, gave us a seasonal prayer. Then Ed Crow started the pledge with “Me Again?” And this on a day when we had guests. Phyllis McCambell came with Rich; Dave Martell invited Pat; and Jeanette Rodgers was with Jim. All of them sat at the same table—close to the buffet offerings. Zeke Zaludek invited his daughter Suzanne Brann. All this with Ledge Hakes too and looking pretty good. Jim Alley’s thought for the day came from charactercounts.org: Live your life as you climb a mountain—don’t look down. There was chatter at my table so maybe I lost something. Jim thanked Leslie for running the meeting last week. Then he let Bill Jepson make a plea for security at the Flower Show. Call Bill if you can sit, read, and look alert for a couple hours during the show. Bill will provide training. BJ reminded us that the concert is at the high school Performing Arts Center—that’s the one with the fly loft. The program is special—a virtuoso pianist from Israel. BJ needs a couple of ticket takers and music stand movers before and during the show. Things start at 3PM. Call BJ if you can help. The Spring Fling follows at the Golf Course. Steve Slack is in charge, and he is still taking reservations. Call Steve. John Bowen is taking a group of Optimists down to observe Seal Training next Thursday. This will probably be followed by several guys asking the VA to review their disability ratings. Be careful and don’t volunteer for anything. Mary Humphrey told us that her group of Junior Optimists at the Middle School collected 22,000 pennies. A couple of intrepid moms counted them. They will be bagged and sent to the Leukemia Foundation for childhood disease. What a special effort! BRAVO ZULU to these neat kids. Jack Couture marked his 28th year as an Optimist by staying in bed. Diane Drummey has eleven years and she came to take the attendance. We sang HBTY to Dick Rasmussen. He said that he had never heard anything like it. Jim Cartwright is looking for a few good Optimists to sit at the toll booth for our meetings. He has a sign up board. You have to get to the meeting early and sit at the table looking like a troll. Not really. You take attendance and make change. Easy and fun. Gil Gilliland won $43 in the drawing so Rose can get the Big Breakfast at McDonald’s tomorrow. Jim Alley reported on the fishing conditions at Clear Lake. It sounded like ice fishing conditions. Just shows how spoiled our SoCal sportsmen are. He caught his limit and returned to find that Teresa had cleaned out his closets. I noticed a lot of nice Aloha shirts at the Amvet’s thrift store last week. They must have come from Jim. Charlie Ahern introduced Congresswoman Susan Davis to speak to your Optimist Club this morning. He told us that Congresswoman Davis hails from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and UC Berkley. She started as a social worker and moved to government with nine years on the San Diego City School Board and three terms in the California Legislature. Congresswoman Davis mentioned that she reads the Greensheet so you know that this will be a favorable review. She spoke of three issues this morning in her prepared remarks: mental health problems of men and women returning from the wars, the real estate problems that are on everyone’s’ minds, and the spiraling health care costs. Optimist questions were typically parochial. John Bowen wanted to know when the tunnel would break ground. Carla Fargo wanted to know when we would start deporting illegal immigrants, John McKechnie wanted to stop drivers who use Orange Avenue as an alternate to Interstate V, and Irish Flynn wanted to know why the bridge tolls where not funding the tunnel. The Dingmaster recalled that the Comptroller General told us last year that a hard rain is going to fall if we don’t get a handle on unfunded liabilities. The Congresswoman agreed and called for leadership in Washington. Next week we have Oratorical Contest entrants who will give us some reason to forget the mistakes of the past.