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Men's Breakfast

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Jack & Fred prepare breakfast 3/11/06 Men's Breakfast 11/12/05

(Second Saturday of the month in the church dining room at 8 am)

~ John Thew, Men's Breakfast coordinator

At six forty five in the morning, on the second Saturday of each month, Fred Herzig, Rich Dann and I arrive at Battell Chapel dining hall and start preparations for what has become a new tradition and a great fellowship, The Men's Breakfast. By 8 o'clock the pancakes are done, the coffee is hot, the sausage is ready, the tables set, and ten or fifteen men have arrived. But we don't sit down to eat. All are so busy talking and exchanging ideas we can't bear to cut in.

Usually, by quarter after eight, one of us says "Gentlemen, let us ask a blessing and get started." Our speaker waits until most have finished eating and talks for 30 or 40 minutes. We have had a great variety of interesting speakers.

Men’s Breakfasts are held on the 2nd Saturday of each month at 8 a.m. in the Dining Room.

Getting together for a good meal and talking with our friends is a big part of the success of Men's Breakfast, but the best part is hearing stories of men's experiences and events that changed their lives.

February 9, 2008	Roger Robbins is the scheduled speaker.
January 12, 2008	Ross Burke was our speaker, and his subject was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Ross presented a clear case that was at odds with the Warren Commission's finding of a lone gunman, and opened a discussion by all of us.

June 9, 2007	Schuyler Thomson was our speaker at the June 9th Men's Breakfast. His topic was Northwest Regional 7 High School (he is board chairman, you know) and how it works. It was a very interesting subject and well presented.
May 12, 2007	At our May meeting, David Torrey gave us a slide show of photos he took in Kosovo in January. He was there on behalf of a client, and gave us a most interesting account of the country.
April 14, 2007	Twelve of us gathered for a breakfast of pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs and to hear our speaker, Greg Naylor. Greg, as you know, is Norfolk's Police force. He gave us some good tips on protecting our homes from burglars - lock your doors, place an alarm high up in the eaves, out of reach of wire cutters. Greg said speeding on our roads is the most prevalent problem. It seems to be a national pastime and often the person complaining about speeders is the first one caught by radar.
March 10, 2007	Ted Briggs spoke at Men's Breakfast.
February 10, 2007	Fred and Rich set up and cooked and Kirk Sinclair presented the workshop on preserving Norfolk's vistas.
January 13, 2007	West Lowe presented a program on the need for Norfolk to up-date its town plan.
December 9, 2006	At the December Breakfast, Kirk Sinclair presented a program of "Protecting Norfolk's Scenic views," complete with maps and diagrams. There wasn't time to present it all, but Kirk will return at another Breakfast.
November 11, 2006	Owen Oxley was our guest speaker. Owen lives at Meadowbrook now, but in the 1950s and on, he lived in Saudi Arabia and recorded with photographs its transformation into one of the world's richest nations, thanks to our thirst for petroleum. You can see and read of this in his book, "The Great Adventure."
October 14, 2006	At the October Breakfast, John Bourdeaux presented a great show of photos taken at Machu Picchu, Peru where he and his wife, Suzanne had hiked three days up into the Andes.
September 9, 2006	For the September meeting we had no one speaker, but thirteen. We had a general discussion that started off with " What should we do about the Mexico/USA border?" There was so much good thinking and mind stimulation, it has been suggested we have a discussion every three or four months.
John Bourdeaux August 12, 2006	John Bourdeaux was our speaker at the August breakfast. He had the rapt attention of seventeen men as he expounded on the ins and outs of fund raising. He speaks with authority, as he is the fund raiser for Hotchkiss School. Our cook again was Rich Dann.
David Torrey July 8, 2006	David Torrey spoke at Men's Breakfast on July 8, 2006.
Addison Quale June 10, 2006	Determined to do something worthwhile after graduating from Harvard, Addison went off to a remote village in Brazil and taught school for a year. In January of 2006, their summertime, he returned to teach baseball to 35 girls and 55 boys. He organized a Church school for the mornings and baseball in the afternoon. He projected a video he had made of the kids playing ball and ending with selected youngsters thanking contributing sponsors by name and in English. Very impressive. He is going back with even bigger plans to expand the program. If you would like to help support this venture, you can contact Addison through our Church. Call Rev. Olsen at 860-542-5721.
Ernie Sinclair May 13th, 2006	Fourteen men got together Saturday morning May 13th to talk, joke, greet friends, eat a good morning meal and most important, hear speaker Ernie Sinclair. Ernie took us through the steps necessary to get a building permit in Connecticut. Ernie is an architect, builder and presently, Building Inspector for Canaan and North Canaan Connecticut. He placed four fat volumes on the table., volumes of regulations that govern how buildings can be properly built in our state.
John Thew Apr. 8th, 2006	A kitchen crew of three showed up early on this spring Saturday morning. Fred Herzig, Rich Dann, and Jack O'Malley cooked up a treat for breakfast-- stacks of French toast, sausage patties, and special recipe scrambled eggs. After all hunger had been banished John Thew took a turn as breakfast speaker. John shared some of his studies on past and present discoveries about the universe, referring to Simon Singh's book "The Big Bang". John related how great thinkers throughout the ages (Einstein, Hubble, Leavitt, Galileo, Copernicus, Aristarchus, Eratosothenes, and others) have contributed theories and discoveries which lead to current understanding of the universe. John showed diagrams explaining how some of the historic calculations were developed-- sizes of the earth, moon, and sun, distance to the sun, etc. We learned that a light year is a distance of 5,865,696,000,000 miles. John refers to the "Big Bang" as the instant of creation.
Ross Burke Mar. 11th, 2006	On March 11th, at 6:30a.m., Fred Herzig and I arrived at the Battell Chapel dining room and started preparations for the 41st Men's Breakfast. Chef Fred was operating in the kitchen and I was setting up tables and chairs when Jack O'Malley arrived to make a team of three. Fred mixed up pancake batter and Jack scrambled eggs, while I made the coffee. By eight o'clock thirteen men had arrived and we sat down to a tasty meal. Our speaker, Ross Burke, took us on a verbal tour of measuring systems from ancient times to the present. He described such things as how the foot, the yard and the statute mile were established, and much more. A most interesting talk! (Report by John Thew)
Rich Dann Feb. 11th, 2006	Our speaker for the February get-together, Rich Dann, asked the blessing using words no one could understand. He was speaking Tongan. Co-director of the Norfolk Library, Rich explained in his talk how he had learned this language while serving in the Peace Core in Tonga. He asked if anyone knew where Tonga is. I'm sure we all did, but no one spoke up. Maybe we weren't so sure. Well it is a group of South Pacific islands east of Fiji, and west of French Polynesia. Rich's talk took us through teaching Grade School, hitchhiking across USA, Peace Corps, teaching again, Peace Corps a second time, travels all around the world, management jobs in corporate America (including The Torrington Company) and the Norfolk Library. There is lots more, but I didn't take notes.
Jack O'Malley Jan. 14th, 2006	Jack, a retired educator, shared some thoughts on arguments about evolution and intelligent design.
Kirk Sinclair Dec. 10th 2005	Kirk, an acomplished hiker has hiked the Pacific Coast Trail, the Appalachian Trail more than once, and the Continental Divide Trail at least once. He entertained us with an account of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. It was a case of sticking right to the trail going over the top of a very rugged mountain. It was a harrowing tale of injuries requiring medical help, the loan of the local doctor's truck, finding the other members of the hiking team, and time spent recovering from the injuries.
Bob Bumcrot Nov. 12th, 2005	Seventeen men met on the second Saturday of November for good talk, good food and to hear a well presented discourse on mathematics. With a few simple props and some interesting stories, Bob Bumcrot gave a peek into the workings of a mathematician's mind.