Spellcheck in Crisis Trying to Make Sense of LivingHelp Center
Mari in Zoom action! - - Big Cheese Mari Wingate with LivingHelp Center let us know about all the good things her organization is doing. The only Hub Bub complaint is that the organization's name throws my spellcheck into trauma by using LivingHelp as one word, and makes people think the editor is incompetent. Even though he is. (Getty Images)
This Past Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Last week marked the 30th week in the Downey Rotary fiscal year, and for those that follow important milestones for the club, week 30 means - well, absolutely nothing!
As a fitting response to an unimportant week, Greg Welch handled the invocation duties, and Raul Lopez did his Cuban version of the Pledge of Allegiance.
It’s predicted that, one day, President Willy will learn to mute all Zoom participates during the pledge so that 20 people are not repeating the pledge two-to-three seconds after the primary person. As it stands, with the Zoom audio delay, the collective sound of 20 Downey Rotarians and guests sound like they are reciting a pledge to Albania, and in some tortured Navaho dialect.
Feel the Bern - - Vermont senator Bernie Sanders took up a spot in Rotary right between Jeese Vargas and Lorine Parks to prevent the two from antagonizing either other. Sen. Sanders was a welcome voice of reason and humility. (Getty Images)
A number of announcements were, well, announced, and they included:
Semi-Rotarian Jessica Cantos, pursuing her Ivy League education remotely from the confines of Southern California, invited her friend Jazlyn Acabel to join the Zoom meeting. Jazlyn was welcomed by all but Tom Hutchinson.
Joyce Yasumura at Desert Reign let us know there was a food giveaway at their church parking lot the following day. Feigning hunger, several Downey Rotarians showed up, asking for Steak & Cheddar Hot Pockets.
Raul Lopez announced that Downey Federal Credit Union was setting up music scholarships in honor of long time Rotarian, Board member, and pianist Dr. Ed Potter. Rotarian Larry Graces, neither a student nor a musician, has already applied for one of the scholarships.
Ronnie Fernandez and Luz Perez separately took time to thank Rotarians for their generosity to their respective organizations during the holiday season.
Our speaker for the Tuesday meeting was Mari Wingate, the Executive Director of the LivingHelp Center in Downey. LivingHelp is a faith-based organization whose mission is to address the needs of women with unplanned pregnancies. They appear to be doing wonderful work, and Lorine’s article below talks in more detail about their operation.
Next Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Program chair Mel Sanchez reports that she has grown tired of the recent trend of “serious” programs, and has opted to move in a new direction for this Tuesday’s Rotary program. Sammy “The Pant Salesman” Duncan will host us, and share his story of selling pants from his small shop here in Downey, just off of La Reina Ave.
His understated website www.justpants.com states it bluntly. “No shorts. No leggings. Just Pants.”
Mr. Duncan lacks access to a PowerPoint presentation, so he will be using a chalkboard to talk about differences between pants, trousers, slacks, breeches, and dungarees. In an attempt to keep everyone awake, Rotarians are encouraged to have several cups of coffee prior to the meeting.
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Oh No!
The Name Says It All
The massive construction site on the south end of the Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Center featured the sign above. A closer look at the fine print on the OHNO Construction site indicated the company is a joint venture of premiere Downey Rotarian contractors Larry McGrew and Dale Self. So why the choice of name for the merged firm?
“Well,” says Dale, in an exclusive Hub Bub interview, “anytime Larry or I present a bill to a customer, ‘Oh No!’ is the response we generally hear.”
Larry chimed in. “Hey, make sure you tell them it’s not about the quality of the work. Just the price we charge.”
Duly noted, Larry.
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What's the Point?
Dogoodery At the District
During Bette Hall’s stint as the District Governor of Rotary District 5280, she has fostered the concept of "Dogoodery." This idea has grown to the point of including a lengthy article in the latest District newsletter.
I think I speak for most Rotarians in the District when I wonder about this weird obsession with a dog’s odor. I’ve owned dogs for most of my adult life, and while both the chow chow and the husky never smell particularly bad (especially after a bath with Miss Mabel’s Dog Love), having a District focus on how a canine smells seems, well, a little misguided.
And since we’re talking of a dog’s odor, maybe we can be a little more specific? Are we talking of a dog’s overall smell? What about the bad breath after eating the remnants of a Tommy’s Burger? Or the stench of the poop - after eating virtually anything? These are the focus points for our esteemed Governor and the District?
Maybe our Governor can redirect her energies on something, say, a little more relevant to the betterment of humanity? Maybe something involving doing good for others? Perhaps this can be a wake-up call for District leadership to prompt our Governor in a more productive direction. And let's leave the dogs out of it.
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Retiring Early...
Editor Wins Big Bucks, Baby!
It was a financial windfall that would make even Warren Buffett proud. While it wasn't the 3/4 of a billion that the grand prize winner took home, the ticket above is proof of a $4 WINNER for the Brown family in the latest Power Ball sweepstakes.
Calls from well-wishers, long-lost family members, and several South Gate Rotarians have already flooded in, all looking for a financial assist in these hard times. Sadly, your editor is hunkered down, consulting attorneys, financial planners, and his Uncle Ernie for sage and sophisticated legal and financial advise.
The only public statement coming from the family is that, "Ray see's himself nattily attired in a brand-new purple velour suit, sometime in the near future!" Yippee!
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Letter From the Editor
So last week, I was pleased to include a brief article that Downey Rotarian Jorge Montero wrote exclusively for the Hub Bub. I use the word exclusively because Mr. Montero routinely writes letters that are included in the local paper, The Downey Patriot.
Jorge had originally sent in his Hub Bub article days earlier. But it wasn’t until late Sunday night, when my self-imposed publishing deadline was fast approaching, that I finally had a chance to do a final edit. A problem came in the final sentence, where Jorge indicated that he’d gotten even with a childhood Rotary affront by joining them once he became an adult. “That is my revanche,” he wrote.
Revanche? What he hell is a Revanche? Sounds like some type of cheap S & M magazine sold in liquor stores. Come on, it’s a typo for he word revenge, right? Right?
It was 10pm on a Sunday night, and there was no way I would bother Jorge with a phone call, or expect him or any Rotarian to respond to a late night text. So, I did what any half-ass editor would do. I Googled revanche and three different websites said the same thing: “Revanche - a foreign policy aimed at achieving the return of a nation’s lost territory.” Huh?
That was all I needed. I changed his last word to revenge, logged off, and went to bed, assuming all was well in the Hub Bub world.
Until the following day, when a polite email came in from Mr. Montero. It read:
Hi Ray,
Thank you for publishing my memory of my first Rotary experience. I wish you hadn't edited. I prefer the word revanche to revenge to state how I feel.
Ay, there is no winning. Clearly, I need to either brush up on my French, or Jorge needs to remember that his Rotary audience has an eighth grade reading level.
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SnapShot: Rotary Meeting & Bas-A-Ball Books
By Lorine Parks
The view from the LivingHelp Center is of clear skies and palm trees and the rooftops of surrounding Downey. The LHC is a spacious and welcoming place and it is reassuring to see that this is definitely no longer a back alley approach to an ages-old social problem.
Mari Wingate, the Executive Director, told us how the LHC started in 1987 when local churches needed help in dealing with the women who came to them with their unplanned pregnancies. LHC’s mission is to offer unconditional physical, spiritual, and emotional counseling, emphasis on unconditional, to women with unwanted pregnancies, whether the mother is married or not.
Free ultrasound pictures of the coming baby are offered, and then discussing options: abortion, or keeping the pregnancy until the baby is delivered. If the mother chooses to have the baby, then pre-natal counseling and nutrition are again free. Adoption procedures are explained, and parenting classes are given on-line. Abortion, with its physical and emotional effects is discussed as the alternative.
Since these are unplanned pregnancies, counseling about responsibility includes planning for the future. I heard the word “abstinence,” but I hope information about more effective methods of birth control is made available, or a referral to a group such as Planned Parenthood. This is definitely the “teachable moment.”
LivingHelp Center, a non-profit group, is funded by donations, and events such as a March Gala and a Golf Tournament.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Raul Lopez said a music scholarship in Ed Potter’s name will be established. “You know how Ed loved to play the piano,” Raul said.
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BASEBALL FANS, here are more of the books for the CASEY AWARD for best baseball book written this past year. Next time I’ll tell you the rest and my final ratings. Anyone want a good baseball book? Yours for the asking.
SWING KINGS - explains the how’s and why's of the return of the home run. Justin Turner turns into a power hitter, technology explained. The coaches did it.
TOM SEAVER - in 2019 when Tom Brady tried to patent the name Tom Terrific, the Patent Office nixed the request and ruled that Tom Seaver got there first. Seaver had a long and happy life after baseball, growing grapes and making wine in the Napa Valley near where he grew up. He died in late 2020. The big betrayal by the Mets could have been told with more drama.
BILLY BALL - follows Billy Martin’s career that led up to his by-then inevitable success with the Oakland A’s. They were made for each other.
ISSEI LEAGUE - well researched story of how baseball came to Japan and was taken up by university students in 1880 and eventually came back to California with immigrant workers – the Issei - in the 1890’s-1920’s. A piece of history that deserves to be better known. The conclusion – that baseball unified the local Japanese-American community here with a sense of identity and pride. Book would have been better if developed more than it is. A follow- up epilogue 20 years later, on the internment of American-born Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor - a stain on America’s conscience.
Editor's Note:yes, this one is a classic...and mine is autographed... RB Productions
BOUTON – one-third rehash his career as a starting pitcher for the Yankees; one-third, he writes the book, Ball Four. It was no secret, everyone knew he was taking notes all the time. They just didn’t expect what kind of book it would be. Final third, his life after that. Did Bouton suffer? Mickey Mantle didn’t speak to him for twenty years. He had a career as a commentator and writer. Ball Four was one of the explosive books of the century. Not this one.
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