Early Edition PRESIDENT'S CORNER - October 1, 2016

A brief report this week…odds and ends…

• The fall term has started. It’s great to see more of our members in the halls and classrooms pursuing new ideas.
• Autumn itself has arrived, and with it, cooling temperatures, the first falling leaves, a little wind and some rumbles of thunder.
• In a week, the new Met Opera in HD series will get under way at the Regal Hollywood cinema. First up is Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde,” that will begin earlier, at noon, to account for the nearly 5-hour length. It sounds like it will be special.
• Health. I only mention this as a cautionary tale… I have a touch of walking pneumonia but have NO symptoms…none. I wouldn’t have known I had it if I had not gone to the ER for something else last Monday and it showed up at the bottom of my head CT scan! That was fine but I came home with a 5-day course of antibiotics and cautions. So, make sure you have had your pneumonia shot (every 5 years), and your flu shot and regular checkups. Men, especially, can sometimes be a little too cavalier about their health so, guys, I’m talking to YOU!
• How about a very short story for autumn? 

Autumn Leaves: a very short story for a friend by Judith Baller-Fabian

"So, Joan," I said, the phone tucked between my shoulder and ear, "it's such a great fall day and now the leaves have changed, how about we go out and look at the foliage, maybe gather some colored leaves to decorate with." It was one of those crystal clear autumn days that Massachusetts rewards us with after a hot summer: blue sky, a few clouds like white blossoms and the leaves hitting their peak. An hour later we were heading out past Weston and into the countryside. All around us the air shimmered with the first touch of crisp fall air. "What about after the baby comes," I asked.

"What, what?" Joan turned and looked at me, "I'll just stick it in a back pack and off we go." She looked back out her window, pointing out orange and gold leaves as we passed.

“Wow,” I said, “look at those red leaves, now THOSE are really neat. Let’s get a bunch of those.” By the side of the road, scarlet leaves climbed up a phone pole: huge bunches like red flags, swaying in the breeze. I pulled over and we piled out, hauling our baskets with us and soon we had armloads of those beautiful red leaves, scarlet and glossy, piled in the back seat of the car.

“Perfect,” I said.

“Lovely,” Joan said.

The next morning I called Joan, tucked the phone between my shoulder and my ear as I furiously scratched my left arm.

“You know those beautiful red leaves?” I said. “The ones we brought home? The ones I decorated my apartment with? Hanging off the mantel and around the doorframes? Filling pots and baskets?”

“Yeah,” Joan said, “They’re poison oak!”

Be careful out there, folks!

Jim Held, President