PRESIDENT'S CORNER, OCTOBER 7
President’s Corner for 7 October 2016
If you were confused by my column last Friday, it’s because it was from a year ago…probably my fault. We sent out the right one a few days later. We’ll see if I can get it right this week.
There was quite a crowd at the Regal cinema on Wednesday for “Young Frankenstein.” What fun! I realized that nearly all the principal actors from that film have all passed away! Is this a regular part of getting old? You remember when? I still can’t believe it has been about 53 years since I graduated from high school and in only 3 more years, Bonnie and I will have our 50th anniversary!
Charleston: I’d like to give a special shout-out to our Charleston members for stepping up, planning a great fall line-up of classes and recruiting over 70 members. That is just terrific! So thank you to each and every one for your part in making OLLI a success in our capitol city. We charged our new director, Jascenna Haislet, to pursue this branch that was dear to the heart of our former director, Angela, but in order to achieve success, it seemed to me, the Charleston group would have to assemble a committee to, as it were, carry the water for the group, plan classes, recruit instructors and members, and work with us to make a success. It is obvious that great progress has been made, there’s plenty of enthusiasm, and we know there is plenty of talent in Charleston to provide more than enough classes to attract more members and establish a vibrant center for Lifelong Learning. Onward!
Books: I’m ever hopeful that you all will send me book ideas. I just finished State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, a wonderful novel about a rescue mission to the jungles of the Amazon, and not the one we order just about everything from. I added the Amazon jungles to the places I have NO need to visit! DO you do this? When I find an author I just love, I tend to work my way through all of their novels. I think it may have started with Thomas Hardy and Jude the Obscure back in college, when, one summer I took a course in the British novel from the great British poet Elizabeth Bishop—wow! So, now I have done 3-4 Patchett novels and am completely up-to-date with Ian McEwen, who’s latest book, Nutshell, is making me very curious to see how it will turn out. You see, there’s this fetus listening to its mother Trudy and her lover Claude plot the murder of his father…right out of the pages of Hamlet! And with poison, of course.
Opera Update: Don’t forget, opera fans, that the Regal cinema will be showing “Tristan and Isolde” tomorrow at noon in Morgantown. It is 5 hours long with 4 hours of music and two half hour intermissions. It’s Wagner, so of course it’s too long! The Times review was very good, so it sounds like it should be a fine way to spend the afternoon. Then, a couple of weeks later, we’ll have “Don Giovanni” with Thomas Keenlyside playing the Don—I can’t think of better casting!
OK, enough of my jottings for this week. Be well, learn a lot, meet someone new at OLLI and we’ll see you in class!
Jim Held, President