Win a Prize - Attend our next meeting
Cathy Adams, a personal trainer, will be giving away a special prize worth more than $90.00 at our next luncheon. She will speaking about physicial fitness. This is a great opportunity to bring a friend, co-worker, relative, or red-headed step child.
Our annual luncheon honoring the men and women of the S.J.P.D., Santa Clara County Sheriff's Dept. and the California Highway Patrol, a.k.a. the Blue & Gold Banquet, is set for Friday February 27th at noon. We have received some truly generous donations and expect a large turnout. If you have not already made your reservation, contact Phil Griego.
The next committee meeting will be Thursday February 19, which is the 3rd Thursday of that month to get closer to the event in case we need any last minute changes. Contact Phil Griego for more information.
It is the responsibility of the One-A-Month Sponsors to bring in a new member this month.
Upcoming One-A-Month Sponsors:
March - Lori Formusa / Roger Brandon
April - Lynda Brown / Jose Posades
May - Rob Nuddleman / Phil Griego
June - Jerry Hall / Bernie Mille
Match Game Anyone?
Any one familiar with the popular Match Game on TV will want to do this. The City Lights Theatre is hosting a fundraising event that will be lots of fun. Buffet meal, wine and beer, silent auction, a chance at prizes and competition in a Match Game and DANCING AFTERWARDS TO PHIL'S BAND "OFF THE RECORD."
We need teams of 6 at $300 a team. Phil is willing to sponsor a team for up to $150 if you all will pony up the remaining $25. That's $25 for a fun game filled competition, dinner, drinks and dancing and entertainment. You can't beat that with a stick.
The event will take place on April 25, 2004, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. at City Lights Theater on South Second Street.
Who will join Phil's team? Contact Phil at pgriego@mindspring.com
Exchange Club Social Planned for May 22 at New Almaden Valley Quicksilver Mines Park. A van excursion throughout the wonderful hiking trails, see old ruins, ghost town, old school house, abandoned mines, and enjoy a picnic lunch.
Cost $5.00 plus what you bring to eat and drink. Lots of picnic area. Exact time to be announced.
The meeting speaker May 18 will be from the Park and will tell us all about what we're going to see. Call Lynda Brown for more details.
You older members will recall Bill and Marian Staupp. Bill has been a member
since 1953 and Marian joined in the 70's. They've been loyal supporters of Exchange
all along. Well, Bill is not feeling too well and Marian has been with him daily
at the hospital and needed a night out. So a bunch of us Exchangites got together
and took her to the Blue Pheasant in Cupertino and what a great dinner we had.
Marian had a great time.
Join Exchange Today (J.E.T.) runs between February 1, 2004 and April 30, 2004. The new member and the new member's sponsor could win a gift certificate worth up to $100 off your next airline ticket. Just have your new member fill out a membership application and ask your Club Secretary to place a "J.E.T." sticker on the application before he sends it in. You'll be "leavin' on a jet plane," in no time. Ask Membership Chair, Phil Griego, for more details.
Covenant of Service
Accepting the divine privilege, of single and collective responsibility as life's noblest gift, I covenant with my fellow Exchangites:
To consecrate my best energies to the uplifting of Social, Religious, Political and Business ideals;
To discharge the debt I owe to those of high and low estate who have served and sacrificed that the heritage of American citizenship might be mine;
To honor and respect law, to serve my fellow men, and to uphold the ideals and institutions of my Country;
To implant the life-giving, society-building spirit of Service and Comradeship in my social and business relationships;
To better serve in Unity with those seeking better conditions, better understanding and greater opportunities for all.
Top
Captains On Deck!
Date
Captain
Invocator
Finemaster
Speaker
Topic
2/17 Brown Griego Nuddleman Cathy Adams Personal Trainer 2/24 NO MEETING 3/2 Griego Mowbray Radunich Ted Marfia Safe Task Force 3/9 BOARD MEETING 3/16 Hall Radunich Rahimi Pat McMahon Proudly We Hail Recipient 3/23 NO MEETING 3/30 Mowbray Pluff Rensen John Font Troubled Kids 4/6 Nuddleman McReynolds Webb Dawn Spears Black Legacy - Images Seldom Known 4/13 BOARD MEETING 4/20 Radunich Hall Brandon Steve Walker Rail Safety 4/27 NO MEETING 5/4 Rahimi Brandon Nuddleman Keith Ducote Beware of the New China 5/11 BOARD MEETING 5/18 Webb Jeffrey Griego John Slenter New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum 5/25 NO MEETING
Beware of Friday the 13th?
A Brief History of Friday the 13th
By: Joe Nickell & Matt Nisbet
Only one thing can be predicted for this Friday, the 13th of November; it will be an anxiety-filled day for friggatriskaidekaphobes. The label, with its origins in Nordic mythology and ancient Greek, identifies those afflicted souls who possess an overwhelming fear of Friday the 13th.
Where does this unnatural trepidition
of Friday the 13th originate, and is there any harm in staying home from work
for fear of a bad day or tragic accident?
As any reputable scientist or mathematician
will tell you, "luck" does not exist. Good fortune is randomly distributed
and not dependent on the day. The superstitious, however, will cite a long history
of misfortune associated with the number thirteen.
As the story goes, in order to understand thirteen, one has to understand the
history of twelve. The number twelve has traditionally represented completeness.
There are twelve months of the year, twelve gods of Olympus, twelve signs of
the zodiac and twelve apostles of Jesus.
Thirteen exists just one digit beyond
twelve, and is symbolic of the first departure from completeness or the initial
step towards evil. Judas Iscariot was the "thirteenth" apostle, the
thirteenth tribe of Israel was the only tribe left without land, and the ill-fated
Apollo 13 space mission was launched at 1313 hours (central time), from pad
39 ( the 3rd multiple of 13) and had to be aborted on April 13, 1970. Practitioners
of witchcraft will cite that the number thirteen equals the number of days in
the year divided by twenty-eight, the number of days in a woman's menstrual
cycle.
Friday has an equally colorful past.
According to the Bible, Eve gave the apple to Adam on Friday, the great flood
began on a Friday, the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday, execution
day was Friday in Rome, and Good Friday exists because it is the reported day
of Jesus' crucifixion. An English schoolboy allegedly proved mathematically
that thirteen, when examined over a 400-year period, falls on Friday more than
any day of the year . He was thirteen years old, of course.
But for all the infamy and credence
given to bad luck on Friday the 13th, there are many less publicized examples
of good fortune. In pagan times, Friday was the day of the love goddess, and
today, fittingly enough, Friday is the end of the work week. Many actors insist
on signing contracts only on Friday because it brings good luck. Novelist Charles
Dickens habitually began the writing of all his books on a Friday, the day of
his birth.
At the birth of our nation, thirteen
colonies formed the Union, a baker's dozen is considered a fortunate bargain,
and if you are Jewish, age thirteen is the time for a bar or bat mitzvah. For
some Christians, thirteen could be considered sacred, since it equals the Ten
Commandments plus the Trinity. And, as most sports fans know, Dan Marino, perhaps
the greatest of NFL quarterbacks, wears number thirteen.
Even with all the fuss over Friday
the 13th, the only reality that surrounds the date is that it remains nothing
more than superstition. Friday(today) is like any other day of the week that
happens to occur on the thirteenth of the month.
It might be easy to laugh at such
foolishness, but this same kind of superstitious thinking operates to support
beliefs that can be harmful. It is estimated that the 13th of the month costs
America a billion dollars a year through train and plane reservation cancellation,
absenteeism, and reduced commerce. One can see why philosopher Edmund Burke
proclaimed superstition the "religion of feeble minds."
Belief in Friday the 13th is no different
from belief in astrology, quack medicine, hauntings or UFOs and the crash at
Roswell, New Mexico. None of these claims are grounded in sound scientific evidence.
Unfortunately, the media often promulgates
and spreads superstition through uncritical presentations. Television programs
and films like the Unexplained, Friday the 13th, Psi Factor, Independence Day,
Unsolved Mysteries, Dark Skies and the X-Files need to balance their content
with scientific criticism. Otherwise, Hollywood producers, like modern-day PT
Barnums, are contributing to a society of believers in superstition and the
paranormal. It is when people make financial, political and personal decisions
based on these kinds of superstitions that we witness the true darkside of Friday
the 13th.
A healthy response to Friday the
13th comes from Paul Kurtz, chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation
of Claims of the Paranormal. "Our message is, you have nothing to fear
from superstition," says Kurtz whose organization routinely celebrates
Friday the 13th with a party at which mirrors are broken, umbrellas are opened
indoors, and other superstitious taboos are brashly challenged. Kurtz and his
fellow skeptics urge the public to approach life with rational-- rather than
magical-- thinking.
Dr. Joe Nickell is a researcher, investigator and columnist for SKEPTICAL INQUIRER,
THE MAGAZINE FOR SCIENCE AND REASON. He is the author or editor of over fifteen
books on the occult and paranormal.
Matt Nisbet is Public Relations Director
for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
(CSICOP.)
Dates for Your Calendar
President:Jerry Hall; Immediate Past President: Phil Griego; Secretary/Treasurer: Rob Nuddleman
Board of Directors for 2002-2004 Term: Jill Rahimi, Dan Webb
Board of Directors for 2003-2005 Term: Lynda Brown
Moving graphics from Animation Factory
