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Welcome to Tampa Bay Mensa!......................................................3September Birthdays.............................................................................3LocSec Column........................................................................................ 4As I See It.................................................................................................... 5RVC Column for Region 10................................................................6Stuck in the Middle with You..........................................................7The Primitives.......................................................................................... 8A Travel Report: China, again..........................................................9Calling All Young Folk........................................................................ 10Letters to the Editor............................................................................ 10September Mensaversaries............................................................... 11Calendar of Events................................................................................ 12September 2014 Calendar.................................................................. 13Cryptopoem............................................................................................ 16Suzaku™ #85........................................................................................... 17
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Vol. 39, No. 8Vol. 39, No. 8
September 2014September 2014
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Tampa Bay Sounding is in need of a new editor who willcompile items for publication so that our crack TLCcrews can prepare it for mailing. As editor, you will alsohave the opportunity to network with other member ofthe chapter, especially the Board members, and evenwith editors from other chapters.
We ask that you consider taking on this responsibilityfor one year (12 issues). At the end of that time, you maychoose to "pass the torch," but realistically, this wouldbe unlikely because being editor is rewarding enoughthat all members who have served in this way for a yearhave chosen to continue!
Please inquire with Ronan Heffernan, [email protected]
Page 2 Tampa Bay Sounding
A Publication of
Tampa Bay MensaTampa Bay Sounding (USPS 305830)
Tampa Bay Mensa9091 St. Andrews DrSeminole, Fl 33777
Mensa is an international society whose sole qualification for membership is a score at or above the 98th percentile on a standard IQ test. Mensa is a notforprofit organization whose main purpose is to serve as a means of communication and assembly for its members. All opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors, and not necessarily those of the editors or officers of Mensa. Mensa as an organization has no opinions. Tampa Bay Mensa serves Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, andSumter counties.
Tampa Bay Sounding is the official newsletter of Tampa Bay Mensa, American Mensa local group number 10335. © 2014 Tampa Bay Mensa. Allrights reserved. All material in this issue not copyrighted by individual contributors may be reprintedin other Mensa publications, provided that credit is given to the author or artist and to Sounding. Prior written consent of the editor is required for any other reproduction in any form. Any Mensa publication reprinting Tampa Bay Sounding material is requested to send a copy to the editor.
SUBSCRIBE!: The subscription cost for local members is partially remitted from annual dues paid to American Mensa Ltd. Tampa Bay Sounding is available to other Mensans and to nonMensans at an annual subscription cost of $12.00. To subscribe, send a check, payable to Tampa Bay Mensa, to the Treasurer: Kathy Crum, 7164 Quail Hollow Blvd., Wesley Chapel, FL 335442525.
ADVERTISING POLICY: Sounding offers free classified ads to Tampa Bay Mensa members for services, items for sale, jobs wanted/available, personals, etc. Ads should be no longer than 50 words. Classified ads need to be renewed on a monthly basis if you wish them to appear in consecutive issues. Tampa Bay Mensa and Sounding are not responsible for the content of ads. Allcommercial ads are subject to the following rates: Full page $60; Half page $30; Quarter page $15. Members of Mensa pay half these rates.
Submission GuidelinesTampa Bay Sounding encourages submissions from all members. Submissions must be signed,but names may be withheld or pseudonyms used if requested. All letters to the editor will be subject to publication unless the author specifically requests otherwise. All material submitted will be considered for publication, but nothing can be guaranteed. Everything is subject to editing. Please keep the following guidelines in mind:• Articles, casual essays, opinion pieces,
poems, short stories, puzzles, and artwork are all encouraged.
• Personal attacks and bigoted, sexist, hateful, or otherwise offensive material will not be published.
• Email submissions are preferred, either embedded or in Wordreadable attachments. Computer printouts and typewritten pages are fine. If you submit hard copy, please make sure your printer has enough toner or your typewriter has a freshenough ribbon. Legible handwritten submissions will be considered (but not given preference).
You may send your submissions by either of thefollowing means:Email: [email protected] (Please indicate “TBM” in the subject header.)U.S. Mail: Ronan Heffernan, 27504 Breakers Dr,Wesley Chapel, FL 33544
Unless otherwise specified in the calendar, the deadline for unsolicited contributions is the fifth day of the month.
Visit American Mensa at: http://www.us.mensa.org
For full instructions on how to join tbmgm andtbmdiscussion, our twoYahoo! groups, visit TBM at
http://tampa.us.mensa.org
Welcome to Tampa Bay Mensa!
September Birthdays09/02 Bruce Mesnekoff, Thomas Thomas09/03 Anthony Shun09/05 Ian Ippolito09/06 Charles Brackx, Timothy McCorkle09/07 Kyle Lai09/08 Kurt Goebel, Carlos Hernandez09/09 William Mc Nally09/12 Leo Oladimu, Dennis Wilcoxon09/13 Tom Penkethman09/15 Kenneth Berg, Mona Cafone, Chris O'Connor09/16 Charles Godfrey, Jordan Offutt, Kurt Weber09/17 Cynthia Fisher09/18 Walter Clough09/19 Shahram Shams09/20 Delphine Jenness09/21 David Palmer, Julianne Pasco09/22 Constance Miller09/23 Margaret LaChance09/24 Thomas Vena09/25 Jackson Daugherty, Forrest Ford09/26 Jay Hines09/27 Sharon Baugher
September 2014 Page 3
✹ Isaac Dieter✹ Emily Hollinger
Talida IancuPranav Kambhampati
✹ Aaron ScheinerScott Schlimmer
✹ George Wetzel✹ Emma Youngblood
✹ New members.
LocSec ColumnRonan Heffernan
Page 4 Tampa Bay Sounding
One of our newly-elected ExComm members, David Schwartz, is starting a Gen-Y SIG. Ifyou are interested in joining, please read his announcement on page 10.
LOOKING FORWARD
Our new ExComm (as mentioned last month) sits in October, on the 5th.
Mensa Testing Day is October 18th, and we are trying to put together a large testingspace for that day. If you have any friends who have been thinking about testing, thatwould be a great time. If they sign-up as prospects on the American Mensa website(http://us.mensa.org), they will be contacted about future testing opportunities.
Our Fall Picnic is coming up on October 19th. See details on page 11.
Executive Committee MeetingsThe next meetings of Tampa Bay Mensa's Executive Committee will be held:
October 5th, 2014 at 1:00pm, hosted by Barbara Loewe University Village 12401 N. 22nd St., Tampa .
All members of Tampa Bay Mensa are invited to all Executive Committee Meetings. For more information contact our LocSec (Officer contact info is on page 19).
Dolores Puterbaugh, Ph.D, LMFT, LMHC, PALicensed Mental Health Counselor
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
801 West Bay Drive, Suite 436Largo, Florida 33770
The Wachovia Bank Building
727-559-0863puterbaugh@mindspring.combalancedlifestylecoaching.com
Services Include:• Individual counseling• Family & couples counseling• Anxiety, depression, grief, stress, anger• Children’s behavior problems• Personal growth/development• Consulting/Coaching services• Presentations for organizations
Memberships:Clinical Member of American
Association for Marriage & FamilyTherapy; American Counseling
Association; Mensa; TNS
As I See ItDuke Mader
September 2014 Page 5
l certainly would enjoy having a more orless ‘normal’ week come and go. It hasbeen a week that started with a conven-tion in Washington, D C. and ended witha massive confrontation on a personallevel. These personal conflicts take a lot ofenergy out of me. l can work 12 to 14hours a day a lot easier than I can spendtwo hours in emotional conflict. Why inthe world do male-female relationshipshave to be so darn complicated? I recentlybought a component system, it had allkinds of little wires and clips and doo-dads. I am not electrically or mechanicallyadept, but I know what a screwdriverlooks like and I can read and follow direc-tions. After figuring out which nuts wentwhere, I managed to put the unit to-gether. I would enjoy putting a relation-ship together as simple as that.
Now considering myself to be at leastaverage, I spent some restless momentsevaluating my position on womanhood sothat if I had a personal guideline I couldat least look for a woman whose patternof manhood matched mine and perhapsthis could prevent some problems. I thinkbecause of strong influences from mymother and having‘ much respect and ad-miration for her, I have a tendency to putwomen on a pedestal. Now if my under-standing of today’s modern women iscorrect, women want to be on an equalbasis with men. Equality is great, I canlive with this, however, putting a womanon a pedestal is my way of saying to theworld, “Look at this great woman in mylife,” and I show her off, so to speak. Iguess this is why I could never have an af-fair with a married woman. Sneakingaround and meeting in dark corners tohave a few minutes of sex isn’t my idea ofcompatability, besides I wouldn’t want itdone to me.
I like women who are feminine, who areneat dressers, smell good and know thebasics of homemaking. I suppose this isthe traditional picture of womanhood,but I believe a woman should be treatedlike a lady. I realize this is an idealisticpoint of view and that I will probablyhave to settle for less, however if you aimhigh and fall short you're bound to dobetter than it you aim low and fall short.
I have always been people oriented, and ifpeople were as easy to understand andanticipate as pets are, life would be a loteasier. I was once told “Even a blindgroundhog will find an acorn once inawhile if he roots around long enough.”
One hard to live with aspect of personalconflict is the emotional trauma of reliv-ing the incident in your mind over andover trying to sort out who was right andwho was wrong, and why. When ego isinvolved in any situation, the situation isautomatically complicated.
I have the personal privilege of speakingto the B.P.W. this week. I am looking for-ward to meeting these goal oriented, ca-reer minded women; it is going to be agreat personal challenge. There are nochallenges in life if there are no chal-lengers.
Think about it.
This column originally appeared in the BayCounty Journal.
RVC Column for Region 10Thomas George Thomas
Since my previous column, several things have happened right on top of each other onthe National front. The minutes of the March 29 Board of Directors meeting wereposted on the American Mensa website, having been approved at the July meeting,then the minutes of the July meeting were posted, having been approved unanimouslyvia email vote. This should bring us up to date, but it’s too much information to coverin a single monthly column, so I’ll point you to the minutes on the website and hopethat will suffice: Log in to http://www.us.mensa.org/meetingreports, then choose themeeting from the dropdown and click “Minutes”. You can also select the Septembermeeting in Grapevine, TX to see the upcoming Agenda, which is short but promises toengender a lot of discussion.
The main points in the upcoming Board meeting include:
H2. Restoration of a Nominating Committee rule pending a vote on a Bylawamendment,
H3. Increasing the AG Registration discount for members,
H4. Setting a new dues rate (revised since the July meeting),
H5. Approval of the Local Group Revitalization Program and pilot project,
H6. A consolidated Bylaws amendment that addresses both housekeeping and sub-stantive changes which apply to all fourteen articles of the Bylaws.
I expect that many of you will have feedback on several of these topics, as well as onthe motions that were passed in our previous two meetings. A good place to start isthe Region 10 Discussion list. Most local group officers are already on this list, and ifyou’d like to join you can subscribe at the following link:http://lists.us.mensa.org/mailman/listinfo/region10. Discussions are also taking place onthe Mensa Region 10 Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/641128319231852/
and the AML Community Forums, particularly the “Mensa Matters” Forum:
http://community.us.mensa.org/forums/19.aspx
In Regional news, Southwest by South Florida Mensa is once again holding their Bikersvs Brainers trivia event in Fort Myers on October 26. This has been a good public pub-licity magnet, with proceeds going to their scholarship fund.
Speaking of Scholarships, the 2014-2015 Mensa Scholarship Program has launched, withDr. Laura Peralta once again serving as our Region 10 Scholarship Chair. I hope thatyour group is participating!
I also hope your group is participating in Mensa Testing Day this year on Saturday, Oc-tober 18. Let your friends and acquaintances know, and contact your Local Group Test-ing Coordinator or Executive Committee (ExComm) if you can help with testing sites,logistics, or even training to become a proctor.
Page 6 Tampa Bay Sounding
Stuck in the Middle with YouDonna Hamel
September 2014 Page 7
Today, I was at the Post Office and heard awoman complain to the postal clerk aboutthe price of her mailing. “I know why theprice is higher than you’d like,” I told her.The answer shocked her. It occurs to methat most people haven’t been followingthis issue to the extent that I have, so Ithought I’d share it.
In 2006, the Republican Congress passedthe Postal Enhancement and AccountabilityAct, which was subsequently signed byPresident Bush. This Act forced the postalservice to hold 75 years of retirement ben-efits for every postal service employee, areserve that is not matched or required byany other corporation or Government en-tity in the US. The purpose of this Republi-can-passed Act is to force the PostalService into bankruptcy (thus providingevidence of the Republican meme thatGovernment can’t do anything right). ThePostal Service can then be reorganizedinto a non-union organization. As you mayknow, Republicans typically fight veryhard against either public or privateunionization. This has taken place all overthe country. Huge demonstrations re-sulted from these efforts in Wisconsin. InTennessee, the VW corporation actuallywanted a worker organization with whichto collaborate; Republican Tennessee offi-cials used taxpayer money to lobbyagainst the unionization vote. These com-munications included the falsehood(which VW later said was indeed false)that VW would not build additional vehi-cles in Tennessee if the vote was success-ful. The vote subsequently failed.
As you may know, when unions negotiatefor workers, the workers have higher pay,more protections, and better benefits. Onemight assume that this would induce non-unionized workers to organize together
for their mutual benefit, but employersuse many means at their disposal to dis-suade workers from coming together fortheir common benefit.
Republicans tend to play on this disparityto cause the resentment of non-unionizedworkers against the better conditions forwhich unionized workers have bargained.What the resentful non-union workers donot recognize (but certainly the ownersof the companies and the local politiciansthat do their bidding know) is that schol-arly studies show that in areas where aunion exists, all workers benefit. Non-unionized workers suffer worse workingconditions than unionized workers inthese cases, but the mere existence of aunion and union wages in a given geo-graphic area lifts all boats.
Therefore, the existence of any strongprivate, or even public, employee union isa threat to the ability of employers to dopretty much what they want, pay prettymuch what they want, discard pensions,not match 401K contributions, graduallylower the bar for time off with pay, sickleave—all those benefits that once wetook for granted but which have becomefar more rare. These are middle classpocketbook issues, and the middle class isnot faring so well. The loss of unionmembership has contributed to this morethan most probably realize.
What happens to the Postal Service mat-ters to the rest of us, too.
The PrimitivesRonnie Dubs
Page 8 Tampa Bay Sounding
Last week in the news I saw a previously uncontacted tribe in Brazil reveal themselvesto the world and many are of the mindset, oh don’t touch them, don’t corrupt them,don’t give them anything of a modern nature so they will go on keeping their primi-tive ways, and I thought to myself how dare we deny them the convenience of a localWal-Mart. Do we deny them the wholesome goodness of 2 all beef patties, specialsauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, on a sesame seed bun for their benefit or to appease ourguilty conscious of how the modern world turned out.
It is always interested me this antediluvian fantasy of the Left, that people were some-how how better off before the age of the Bible, Columbus, and before the modern eraof science and knowledge. That of the happy aboriginal savage in Australia, the Ameri-cas and the sub continent of Africa living peacefully at harmony with nature, enjoyingthe bounty of the earth while dancing happily around the campfire each night, under aflaming limbo pole, to the rhythmic beat of the tom-tom drums, until the White manshowed up and spoiled the party. I swear some Liberals really do believe this nonsense,but let me tell them the actually reality of a life spent fending off heat and cold, wildanimals, bugs, disease, infections, starvation, and the rigors of childbirth in a truewilderness area is quite different than living for a year on the edge of Walden pond.Life in these circumstances was generally short, hard, and brutal.
The Left acts as if there were no wars, no raids for food stocks, no rape, cannibalism,and no slavery either as if these were all inventions of modern man i.e. the RepublicanParty. That there were not then thieves, pirates, and charlatans like the priests whowould demand tribute and favors anytime the earth shook or the climate changedpromising to fix it all with just a few virgins thrown down a volcano, little differentthan the modern scheme of Man Made Warming I might add.
Many minorities who support the Democrat party buy into this fantasy as well, some-how believing their lives would be better had civilized man not interfered with them.They still resent this interference to this day, ignorant of the brutal realities of primi-tive life, and refusing to even look at the current lives of those who were generally leftbehind by civilized man to fend for themselves. With knowledge, thought and a betterperspective they would appreciate their current circumstance even more, rather thanto wallow in self-pity and to curse their current lives.
To live up to our ideals as kind compassionate people we should not let this tribe suf-fer and wallow in filth, hardship, and ignorance but rather to help them embrace themodern world maybe get them some I pads, television sets, science books, and givethem each a small stock portfolio to help them get started.
A Travel Report: China, againPhillip Geisinger
September 2014 Page 9
Overall, one word describes what is goingon in China today… Impressive! This wasour fourth trip there in as many decades,and the progress and change is amazing.Our purpose was to finance a youngwoman who owns an English languageschool. She already has over a hundredthousand students taking “on-line” cour-ses. She is growing rapidly and needed amuch larger office building, hence ourvisit. Dealing with banks is time consum-ing and expensive; It took a week to closethe deal. The other two weeks we werewined and dined and “touristed”. The pop-ulation of China is now close to1,400,000,000 and 20% are under age 16.The people in general are educated, dis-ciplined, and hardworking, a proven for-mula for success. As in most countries, alarge income gap exists. It will probablyincrease substantially in China. Roughly95% of Chinese will spend their entirelives “working hard for their money”, es-pecially in the rural areas. They don’t getany of the “freebies” available in the U.S.The other 5% will make their money“work for them.” One very importantchange:.it is no longer a “sin” to be ambi-tious or to make money in China. Thosenumerous government controlled andsponsored “experiments” in capitalismand free enterprise worked out well, anddefinitely paid off. The smart ones whohave figured this out take full advantageof it. A lot of Chinese get their businesseducation in the U.S. these days, then re-turn home for the countless opportunitiesawaiting them. Keep in mind that evenonly 5% of one and a quarter billion is abig number. Millionaires are a dime adozen there, and soon the number of bil-lionaires will outnumber those in the U.S.
The government and markets: The an-cient “Golden Rule”, (he who has the gold,makes the rules), in consort with wide-spread corruption is alive and well inChina, especially in bureaucratic and gov-
ernment circles. Nothing new there, butthings obviously still get done! The gov-ernment keeps close tabs on everything,especially the people and the Internet, butgives commerce and the free markets,such as they are, much-needed slack sincethe bureaucrats admittedly know littleabout either. Businessmen and the gov-ernment are both “reasonably” cautiousand respectful in their dealings with oneanother. An ancient Oriental conceptionencourages “moderation” in everything.It works. They have a quaint way of deal-ing with crime. Every so often the gov-ernment cracks down on some, or even awhole bunch of corrupt local politicians,businessmen, or individuals of interest,just to prove that they can, and to keeptheir jobs. It tends to keep everyone inline…somewhat. They handle sticky issuesefficiently, with the help of stiff jail sen-tences, and without a lot of lawyers. Lotsof executions solve lots of problems. Theterm “repeat offender” is seldom heard inChina. The current combination of astrong One-Party Central Government,and a booming “market economy” is awe-some to witness. It appears to work, in anice balance. No one seems to pay muchattention to, or cares about, the fact thatit is a Communist government, or evenwho is in charge. The leadership does itsown thing behind closed doors. Electionsare among themselves, and of course theirtwo-million-man army is a big help en-forcing all that. They consider our “twoparty plus” political system an ineffectualjoke. They get elected in more subtleways. But we can print U. S. Dollars andwe can make lofty campaign promises tolure the gullible. The successful U.S. candi-dates who promise the “most for theleast” get elected and re-elected. We stillhave millions around the world who be-lieve the U.S. dollar is worth a dollar. Sofar it is, and is working, not forever of
Continued on page 14
Calling All Young FolkDavid Schwartz
Hello! My name is David Schwartz and I'm starting a Tampa Bay Gen Y Special InterestGroup. I'd like to put together at least one activity a month for everyone to get to-gether and have some fun as well as meet our local members. If you're new in townand want to go to a low pressure event or someone who's just excited to meet otheryoung members inside Mensa and have a good time, this might be a good place tostart.
Generation Y, otherwise known as Millennials, covers anyone between the ages 18 to35, so I'd like to cater events to that age range. Events will range from Karaoke toTrivia nights at the bar. I'm also open to suggestions for events as well as anyone tohost an event as well. We will have our first event this month, trivia night at the bar.Stay tuned for more information!
If you have any suggestions for events or just want to chat with your fellow Gen Ymembers, a Facebook group has been started under the name Tampa Bay Mensa Gen Y.I hope to hear from quite a few of you soon!
Letters to the Editor
Page 10 Tampa Bay Sounding
On the one hand, we have every crediblescientist, dying coral reefs, melting icecaps, the disappearance of Glacier Na-tional Park, rising sea levels and the evi-dence of our own eyes.
On the other, we have the Koch Brothers,Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, the fossil fuelindustry and no end of quacks in theiremploy. And Ronnie Dubs.
One question. When will Mr. Dubs closethe circle, and start telling us that to-bacco is actually harmless? Because thearguments he is making now sound re-markably like the ones the Seven Dwarfswere making back in 1994. One in eightdeaths on the planet today traces back totobacco use. At some point, man made cli-mate change will pass it. One wonderswhen Mr. Dubs will notice the parallels.
Buck Beasom
By "every credible scientist " I assume Mr.Beasome means every Government paidscientist who agrees with him and thinksthe solution to this imaginary problem ishigher energy taxes and more govern-ment control over individual liberty?
Ronnie Dubs
September Mensaversaries
September 2014 Page 11
49 years Bruce Whiting46 years Leonard Nugent45 years Cornelia Biggers39 years Norman Urich36 years Douglas Bahringer, Sally Siegel27 years Tina Kay24 years Denise Chezek23 years Gary Blais17 years Lisa Blair, Louise Kelly16 years Peter Cohoon13 years Thomas Latus12 years Allison Jirsa, R Stamm11 years Tammy Hicks, Theresa Hohmann, Matthew O'Neil8 years William Dattisman, Linda Terrell7 years Eriq Breland, A Foran5 years Gladys Beck3 years Paul Happel2 years Sherri McGarryNote: Years are for continuous membership. Members who let their membership lapse start from the date of reinstatement.
Fall Fall PicnicPicnicOctober 19th starting at noonOctober 19th starting at noon
Lake Seminole Park Shelter #12Lake Seminole Park Shelter #1210015 park blvd N Seminole, FL 33777.
These popular events provide an opportunity for members to hang out and socialize,with the side benefit of some good food
Tampa Bay Mensa provides hot dogs, hamburgers, condiments, and supplies. Mem-bers are encouraged to bring a side-dish or dessert and drinks.
RSVP to Ronan Heffernan, [email protected] or (813) 732-2310.
Calendar of Events
Page 12 Tampa Bay Sounding
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September 2014 Calendar
September 3 7pm Reading GroupLocation: IHOP, 4910 West Spruce Street, Tampa
Read whatever you like and bring books you'd like to recommend, discuss, ex-change, or give away.
Ronan Heffernan 727-537-6626 [email protected]
September 4 12:30pm Lunch BunchLocation: Piccadilly Cafeteria, 11810 North Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa
We meet at Piccadilly Cafeteria (next to Barnes and Noble Bookstore), in Tampa. For directions, descriptions, and/or encouragement to attend, call:
Jim Perry 813-837-3473 [email protected]
September 10 1:15pm MHUNCHLocation: Charlie's Family Restaurant, 2614 Lakeland Hills Blvd, Lakeland
Join us for lunch. Your RSVP is important. MHUNCH events are subject to cancella-tion if there is a lack of interest by 8:00pm the evening before. Please either email or call me so we can save a seat the the table for you!
Merrell Fortner 863-701-7109 [email protected]
September 11 12:30pm Lunch Bunch
September 13 7pm Games NightLocation: 651 Timber Bay Circle West, Oldsmar
We play fun board and table games. Snacks and sodas provided ($2 kitty helps de-fray refreshment expenses). No smoking indoors.
Sylvia Holt Zadorozny 813-855-4939 [email protected]
September 17 7pm Reading Group
September 18 12:30pm Lunch Bunch
September 24 1:15pm MHUNCHLocation: Abuelo's Mexican Foods Embassy, 3700 Lakeside Village Blvd, Lakeland
Join us for lunch. Your RSVP is important. MHUNCH events are subject to cancella-tion if there is a lack of interest by 8:00pm the evening before. Please either email or call me so we can save a seat the the table for you!
Merrell Fortner 863-701-7109 [email protected]
September 25 12:30pm Lunch Bunch
September 26 6:30pm Buffet FridayLocation: Hao Wah Chinese Buffet, 10454 66th St N, Pinellas Park, FL
Fourth Friday Dinner at a Festive Chinese eatery also offering Vietnamese fare, sushi and dessert in a spacious setting, with all-you-can-eat buffets. Happy Hour ends at 7 pm. Plenty of free parking.
Diane Campo [email protected] (813) 618-3383
September 2014 Page 13
Except for rare cases that hosts will make clear, all events listed in our Calendar ofEvents, whether hosted in private homes or public venues, are open to all Mensans,their spouses, and accompanied guests.
While kitty amounts are mandatory, hosts often spend far more than the specifiedamount. Donations in excess of the kitty amount will be appreciated. If you havespecial needs or restrictions, it is prudent to discuss them with your host before at-tending an event.
Travel (cont)
Page 14 Tampa Bay Sounding
ClassifiedsWeight Loss: SENSA appetitesuppressant. Worked for me.Still have 6 sealed little boxes but "expired" late 2012/Early 2013. $35 total.727-461-4979 9am-9pm.
Mirror: About 36" wide by 46" tall outside dimensionsof it's heavy black frame, 55 lbs. total. $20. 727-461-4979 9am-9pm.
Collector seeks picture postcards (old or new) in good condition (not badly bent, torn or stained). Also looking for any items related to circus sideshow people (giants, fat ladies,Siamese twins, etc). Will buy or trade. Bonnie Wilpon, [email protected], 813-249-8233
course, and the patient Chinese knowthat. Having said that, and as a result ofall this, we predict China will flex it’s fi-nancial as well as its military muscle inthe future and will no doubt team upwith Russia to solve various political andtrade issues. Their government has lots ofcash and gold. They’ll do whatever theywant to do with it. It will not include wel-fare checks, EBT cards and other “freestuff” that produces nothing, except votesof course, which they don’t need. By theway, It is not in China’s best interests, asmany currently fear, to sabotage or de-value our U.S. dollar. At least not rightnow. After all, we owe them over fourhundred billion of those things. Interest-ing times are ahead.
The culture: Over 5,000 years of Chinesehistory and culture (and it really is a cul-ture, not just a bunch of people doingtheir own thing) remains firmly in place.They’ve survived centuries of warfare, in-ternal turmoil and foreign occupations.And they are tough. With the fairly recentproliferation of computer and internetaccess, the young people are becomingaware of all the mouthwatering “goodies”and temptations that Western cultureshave, and offer. They want more of it,lots more! New cars and cell phones are#1. Designer clothes are close. These areoften “knockoffs” (like my $5.00 Rolexwatch) and made right in China, but theycould care less. “Currently” they have lit-tle respect for international patents. Thatmay change. They dress and behave mod-estly by western standards, and are politeand civil for the most part. Very refresh-ing. Unwise government policies, like thedecades long “one child per family” haveresulted in a current ratio of 108 men toevery 100 women. This created an obviousshortage of young women. Young peoplewait longer to get married or raise a fam-ily these days, and the divorce rate isquickly approaching that of the U.S. “Oldage”, for centuries a “respected and hon-
ored” status is also changing. It is fast be-coming “all about youth”, making money,and buying “stuff”. Those issues areslowly reversing the “Old China” maledominated culture. Is all that one of those“good news/bad news” things? Hmm-mmm. Time will tell.
Problems: cars and buses are everywhere,typically new, and clean. No junkers. Themillions of bikes are a different story.Amazingly these are not Chinese-designedcars. Japan, Korea and even Germany andthe U.S. dominate that market. In just thethree-city Shanghai area, with a combinedpopulation of over 60,000,000, they sellover 10,000 new cars per week. Accidentsare “fairly” rare and sirens are seldomheard. Public buses are often standingroom only. We took the Mag-Lev (that’sMagnetic/Levitation) train to the airportat 431 k.p.h. (that’s 267 m.p.h.) Wow!......andno wheels. Numerous fast and efficientelectric subways zip millions of unseenworkers under major cities. For some rea-son everything seems to move smoothly.but…., they will pay a big price for all that.Power + politics + petroleum = pollution.The air in Beijing is appalling. You can’tsee stars at night, and many people wearprotective masks. Dozens of cities withover a million occupants face a similarfate. My question is this. Why didn’t theyspurn the “internal combustion engine”cars and buses entirely, and go straight tobattery powered electric vehicles? Most oftheir millions of motor scooters are nowelectric. Big improvement. China went di-rectly to battery powered cell phones, soanything is possible. In my opinion, atsome time this will happen. After all….thegovernment could choose to mandatethat option. Very soon a cheap practicaland efficient battery will be developed,probably in China. Of course the oil indus-try will go nuts. Many young people whohave grown up in big cities are not visiblyconcerned with the rapidly polluting air,or even worse, may be simply willing
September 2014 Page 15
to accept it as an inexorable tradeoff. Alot of the young ones don’t really knowwhat clean air even looks or smells like.Of course the rapidly increasing “5%” arewell aware of it. Their number one aspi-ration, according to the ones we spokewith, is to make as much money as possi-ble in the “New China” entrepreneurialenvironment A.S.A.P. and then move withtheir families, at a young age, to a countrywith cleaner air, while they can stillbreath. The top choices? Canada and theU.S.
Interesting fact: over 300,000,000 Chinese(that’s almost our entire population) arecurrently taking part time or full timeEnglish lessons, in one form or another.These new “on line” courses that can betaken within the comfort of their condosor apartments are in vogue. Most of theyoung people are aware that English isthe universal language in business, hospi-tality, financial and aviation industries.Mandarin Chinese is still the most spokenlanguage in the world, but only by virtueof sheer numbers. We were amazed howmany store clerks and hotel personnel donot speak a word of English. They don’tseem to care…yet. Maybe they should. Ifthey anticipate getting a better paying jobor buying all those new goodies, they willultimately wise up. If not, plenty of otherswill. After all, most foreign visitors whogo to China have some rudimentaryknowledge of English, and use it. Englishis widely spoken in Hong Kong largely be-cause of the hundred year British pres-ence. That is partly why China used HongKong for its early and successful “experi-ments with capitalism”, before branchingout to many other “controlled” areas.Many anticipated Hong Kong would re-vert to communism/socialism after theBritish 99-year lease expired in 1997. Theywere wrong. Many fled, a big mistake,looking back.
Real estate: this is not an exaggeration. Onany given day in or around major cities,you can see hundreds (not dozens) ofcranes busily constructing hundreds (not
dozens) of 40 to 80 story condos andapartments. The government owns theland so if they choose to level a wholeneighborhood, and move the longtimeresidents into a newly built high rise,that’s exactly what they do. Lavish singlefamily homes are not as desirable, exceptfor that infamous “5%” of course. It’s be-coming a “high rise” culture for numerouspractical reasons. Some of these newbuildings are not even located close to themyriad potential jobs people will hope-fully and ultimately seek. Many are actu-ally vacant. This program could backfireon the government. But so what, they“may” be thinking. It’s a bureaucratic andpossibly a make work program anyway;like that amazing “wall”, built hundredsof years ago. Hey, it’s still there, and itstill works. Not too many Mongolians inBeijing.
Employment: good jobs are plentiful, butonly in the environs of big cities. That toowill change. However, the number ofworking-age Chinese, considered age 16 to60, is predicted to decline, not increase inthe next few years, partly because of thatoutdated one-child-only thing, which theyare rethinking as we speak. As a resultChina is currently looking south for morelow-wage workers. Countries like Myan-mar, Indonesia and Malaysia are urgingChinese factories to relocate or expandthere to create jobs for their untold mil-lions of low-skilled but hard-workingworkers. Wages are steadily going up inChina proper, to the point where someAmerican companies are actuallypacking up and returning home. China isquickly becoming a consumer market inand of itself, by virtue of sheer numbers,so no problem. Keep in mind that theyhave a long-term thinking culture, unlikeours. And once again, they are patient.Bottom line, China continues to emergeas a military force and culture to reckonwith. They will be around a very longtime. Best we stay friends.
CryptopoemSylvia Holt Zadorozny
Page 16 Tampa Bay Sounding
UNDO INVU UND PATH UNPAVEN UND SAAHI
IDLDRUO ODTPI TEA.
SDTUNDP TRH PTYR NTLD VRHARD YU TETYR,
TRH RAS OAV SAVWH RDLDP GRAS
UNDPD STI ARMD T XTUN UNPAVEN UND SAAHI
KDCAPD UNDO XWTRUDH UND UPDDI:
YU YI VRHDPRDTUN UND MAXXYMD TRH NDTUN,
TRH UND UNYR TRDBARDI,
ARWO UND GDDXDP IDDI
UNTU, SNDPD UND PYRE-HALD KPDDHI
TRH UND KTHEDPI PAWW TU DTID,
UNDPD STI ARMD T PATH UNPAVEN UND SAAHI.
~PVHOTPH GYXWYRE, “UND STO UNPAVEN UND SAAHI”
Suzaku™ #85Thomas George Thomas
Suzaku™ (from Japanese sousaku: search) is a compound puzzle. The first step is tosolve it as a traditional sudoku puzzle, using letters instead of numbers. The secondstep is to search for words in the solved sudoku. Start from any letter, moving up,down, forward, backward or diagonally in any direction, changing direction as neededwithout reusing the same square for a word. Although there are nine letters in thispuzzle, words can be longer if you can find them. (There is a hint for this puzzle onpage 18.) For extra credit, score the words using their associated number values to tryto find the highest word points.
September 2014 Page 17
Suzaku™ (cont)Last month's puzzle con-tained the 13-length word"inconceivable", whichused all nine letters for atotal of 62 points. Thetheme for this month'sSuzaku™ also consists of 12characters, using all nineletters in the grid, for ascore of 53 points. Theshaded square is the start-ing position for the themeword. The solution will beprovided in next month'sissue of Tampa Bay Sound-ing.
You could also search for alist of words and phrasesand accumulate additionalpoints. What is the highestcumulative score you canachieve?
Answer to the August Cryptopoem:
Page 18 Tampa Bay Sounding
Answer to the August Suzaku™ (#84)
“You ought to have seen what I saw on my way
To the village, through Patterson’s pasture to-day:
Blueberries as big as the end of the your thumb,
Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drum
In the cavernous pail of the first one to come!
And all ripe together, not some of them green
And some of the them ripe! You ought to have seen!”
~Robert Frost, “Blueberries”
2013-2014 Tampa Bay Mensa Officers
September 2014 Page 19
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
➢Local SecretaryRonan Heffernan 27504 Breakers Dr. Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 [email protected]
➢Deputy LocSecArt Schwartz1909 Dover CTOldsmar, FL [email protected]
➢TreasurerKathy Crum 7164 Quail Hollow Blvd. Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 813-907-0526 [email protected]
➢Circulation OfficerArt [email protected]
➢EditorRonan [email protected]
➢Programs OfficerMelissa Stephens 2023 Blue Rock Rd. #301Tampa , FL 33612813-476-5405 [email protected]
➢Calendar EditorSylvia Holt Zadorozny 651 Timber Bay Cir. W. Oldsmar, FL 34677 813-855-4939 [email protected]
➢Membership [email protected]
➢Gifted Youth Coordinator
Melissa Stephens giftedyouth@ tampa.us.mensa.org
➢ScribeSylvia Holt [email protected]
➢Testing CoordinatorThomas George Thomas27647 Sky Lake Circle
Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 [email protected]
➢Volunteer CoordinatorHillary Miller1700 66th St NSt Petersburg, FL [email protected]
➢Publicity [email protected]
➢AuditorDan ChesnutP.O. Box 1839St. Petersburg, FL [email protected]
➢WebmasterRonan [email protected]
➢Scholarship ChairDan [email protected]
➢Members-At-LargeBarbara Loewe 12401 N. 22d St.Apt #C111Tampa, FL 33612 [email protected] Kay Shapiro349 Shore Dr. E.Oldsmar, FL [email protected]
OTHER OFFICERS
➢OmbudsmanEloise Hurst 3615 W Renellie Cir Tampa, FL 33629 813-839-2695 ombudsman@ tampa.us.mensa.org
➢SIGHT CoordinatorSusan Anderson 10733 Dowry Ave. Tampa, FL 33615 813-494-6517 [email protected]
➢SIG CoordinatorDavid Schwartz1909 Dover ctOldsmar FL 34677
➢Election SupervisorJay Johnson 5051 Cardiff Dr Holiday, FL 34690 [email protected]
➢PublisherSylvester (Les) Milewski 727-397-8483 [email protected]
➢ProctorsJay Johnson Kay ShapiroThomas George Thomas
➢Editorial BoardJay JohnsonMelissa StephensAudrey SilverThomas George Thomas
➢Election CommitteeJay JohnsonAudrey SilverEloise Hurst
ASSISTANT OFFICERS
➢Asst TreasurerDan Chesnut, Jay Johnson
➢Asst Programs OfficerArt Schwartz
➢Asst WebmastersArt Schwartz, Thomas George Thomas
➢Asst Membership Off.Art Schwartz
➢Asst Scribe, Asst Editor, Asst Testing Coordinator
Jay Johnson
REGIONAL CONTACTS
➢RVC, Region 10Thomas George Thomas27647 Sky Lake Circle Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 [email protected]: [email protected] Bay Sounding (USPS 305830) is published monthly by Tampa Bay Mensa at 9091 St. Andrews Dr., Seminole, FL 33777. Periodicals postage paid at St. Petersburg, FLPostmaster: Send address changes to: Tampa Bay Sounding, c/o American Mensa Ltd. 1229 Corporate Dr. W., Arlington, TX 760066103.
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