Lifelong Learning - Lifelong Doing - Lifelong Friends

WELCOME TO ESCOM NEWS & CLUB NOTES

Summer 2024



Editor: Ellen Breazeale....breazeales@comcast.net

CLUB NEWS

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The ESCOM Council wants to thank

Walt Campbell

for his role as the Great Courses Club's

Discussion Leader for the last six years.



Walt's knowledge of history, the arts, and recently engineering amazed club members every week.

His trivia questions were

tricky and fun. We all wish him well. 

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CLUB NOTES

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No matter what your interest, there’s an ESCOM club that’s ‘right’ for you. 

Review the list below. See what’s being offered and

contact a club leader to join the group!

Most of the ESCOM clubs are continuing to meet via ZOOM but some

meet in person. Please access the ESCOM Club List for complete details.

Arlene Stark 

Philosophy of Science Club – Zoom

1st, 3rd & 5th Monday

10:00 am - noon

This club continues as a tribute to its esteemed late leader, Arlene Stark.

Discussions and programs focus on Science and Philosophy.

The group is finishing a series -- “What Darwin Didn’t Know” -- which examines the developments of Darwin’s theory since its formulation.

When this series ends, the group will be studying 'Medical Myths, Lies and Half-Truths'.

Ongoing for 24 lectures. People can join anytime.

Contact: Jay Conner greatferm@email.com

Photo Caption: Some common 'truths' about health.

NEW CLUB

Arts and Crafts Creativity Group

2nd & 4th Thursday

3:00 - 4:30 pm

IVC ESCOM Center

Here's how Club Leader, Kari Thompson, describes this new club:

This group is open to everyone -- women, men, and COM students.

We'll bring our own art projects and work on them in the company of other artists.

We'll be creating art and cultivating new friendships.

Think in terms of an Amish Quilting group or a sewing circle.

Our first meeting....Thursday, July xx



If you have any questions about the group, please call or e-mail me.

Contact: Kari Thompson KariThompson1963@gmail.com 415-720-0130

Astronomy Club

2nd Monday

10:00 am - Noon

IVC ESCOM Center

The ESCOM Astronomy Club is engaged in learning about and discussing the (non-mathematical) current knowledge of the structure of the universe and its components.



This includes the different kinds and lives of stars, planets and planetary systems, asteroids and comets, galaxies and galaxy clusters. 

We follow the contemporary discoveries of numerous active spacecraft

and earth-based and space-based telescopes which use the range of

the electro-magnetic spectrum. 

We learn and discuss about the hunt for exo-planets and the conditions for and

against the possibility of life existing elsewhere. 

Our format is roughly an hour of discussion and presentations of book reviews, contemporary space exploration events, and what

to look for in the current night sky. 

We are now engaged in the lecture series from the Great Courses titled “Radio Astronomy: Observing the Invisible Universe” and will view the following lectures:

Jul - 'Radio Telescopes and How they Work'

Aug - 'Mapping the Hydrogen Sky'

Sep - 'Tour of the Green Bank Observatory'

After each lecture, we'll discuss the material covered and any contemporary

discoveries that provide insights to the lecture.

Contact: Michael Patrick mdpatric@pacbell.net 415-456-2778

Photo Caption: What: Artist impression of the atmosphere of star Antares. As

seen with the naked eye (up until the photosphere), Antares is around 700 times larger than our sun,

big enough to fill the solar system beyond the orbit of Mars (Solar System scale shown for

comparison). But ALMA and VLA showed that its atmosphere, including the lower and upper chromosphere and wind zones, reaches out 12 times farther than that.

Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello

Where: Constellation Scorpius

Distance: 550 light years

Magnitude: +1.0, with variability between +0.6 and +1.6.

About 76,000 times as luminous as Earth’s Sun.

Book Club Forum



4th Monday 1:00 - 3:00 pm

IVC ESCOM Center

Jul 22 - 'Madam President' - William Hazelgrove

Aug 26 - 'Lady Clementine' - Marie Benedict

Sep 23 - 'Lost Girls of Paris' - Pam Jenoff

Contact: Shirley Genetin



genetin@sbcglobal - 415-717-5138

Photo Caption:  After President Woodrow Wilson suffered a paralyzing stroke in the

fall of 1919, his wife, First Lady Edith Wilson, began to handle the day-to-day responsibilities

of the Executive Office. Mrs. Wilson had had little formal education and had only been married to President Wilson for four years; yet, in the tenuous peace following the end of World War I, Mrs. Wilson dedicated herself to managing the office of the President, reading all correspondence intended for her bedridden husband. Though her Oval Office authority was acknowledged in Washington, D.C. circles

at the time--one senator called her "the Presidentress who had fulfilled the dream

of suffragettes by changing her title from First Lady to Acting First Man"--her legacy as

"First Woman President" is now largely forgotten.

Book Club Marin County – Zoom



4th Tuesday 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Note: While all meetings are scheduled to end at 3:00 pm, the ending time is flexible.

Planned reading - always subject to change!

If you prefer not to purchase any of the books to be discussed, you may wish to try the Marin Library (they have curbside service).

 If you are a library member, you also have access to Hoopla which has audio books. As in the past, we welcome suggestions for future readings! 



Jul 23 - Arthur Miller play: 'The Price' [Dramatists Play Service edition [Inexpensive-less than $5.00 used; various other editions may also be available online via Internet Archive].

Aug 27 - 'The Awakening', Kate Chopin - and selected stories -

Dover Thrift -1993 PUB][120PP]

Sep 24 - Friedrich Nietsche Essay - 'In Truth, Lies and Moral Sense' - (To Be Mailed)

Contact: Norman Nayfach normansn@hotmail.com 415-499-3173

Julio Burroughs Julioburroughs@gmail.com 415-927-1488

Photo Caption: Years after an angry breakup, Victor and Walter Franz are reunited by the death of their father. As they sort through his possessions in an old brownstone attic, the memories evoked by his belongings stir up old hostilities. 'The Price' was nominated for two Tony Awards, including best play.

Chess Club

Every Friday - 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Deedy Lounge - Kentfield



Contact: Spencer Star

spencer.star@gmail.com



This long-time ESCOM Club has a new leader -- Spenser Star. Here are some of his thoughts about the club and about chess.

Before the regular chess play starts, we often have a 1:30 to 2:00 pm review of a famous historical chess game on the big screen tv in the ESCOM room. Moreover, we don't limit ourselves to Friday chess. On the first Friday of the month, we meet for lunch

before playing chess.

We also play occasionally at the Aroma Café in San Raphael during the week. This summer we are planning to play from time to time on Sunday at the Mill Valley Plaza where they have outdoor chess tables. Our hope is that we can attract people to join the chess club once they see us enjoying chess outdoors on a warm summer day.

Afterwards, we'll all have dinner at a local restaurant and talk over the chess games

and how to solve the world's problems. 

Unfortunately, we don't offer lessons for people who have no chess experience. We recommend going online to chess.com or lichess.org to learn how the pieces move and to get some experience playing games. Once someone has played 10 to 20 games, then they are ready to join the club and have some fun playing chess with us.

Current Events and Issues – Zoom

2nd & 4th Thursday

10:00 am - noon



Current Events club has no agenda.

Because…once you write it down, it is no longer current.

From Jay Conner, the club leader: Before the meeting begins each month, we each have time to turn to our morning news source of choice for a nugget of news or concern we can present for the consideration of our assembled fellows.

I remember members who claim we have been doing this longer than anyone, that the memory of ESCOM runneth not to the contrary.

Perhaps it runneth not to the affirmative either,

but who haveth the burden of proof?



We welcome all fresh, new, informed opinions, civilly presented and argued.

Contact: Jay Conner greatferm@email.com 415-858-3297

Photo Caption: The Lincoln-Douglas debates consisted of the incumbent Douglas accusing Lincoln of being an abolitionist while Lincoln accused Douglas of wanting to nationalize slavery. These main topics were reflective of the major issues that the country was facing at a national level with both sides battling for what they thought would better the Union. Learn more...

Digital Camera Club

1st Monday - Field Outing  

3rd Monday Club Meeting

10:30 am- 12:30 pm

IVC ESCOM Center

Open to anyone who would like to expand their photographic capabilities by learning from others on how to capture images.

Our club meetings are held in-person at the IVC Campus.

Our next club Field outings are:

Jul 1 - Marina Park Pathway in Emeryville with shooting theme of "Wide Open Spaces" 

Aug 5 - Hidden Forest Nursery in Sebastopol with shooting theme "Up Close" 

Sep 9 - (2nd Monday) Ft. Point in San Francisco with shooting theme of "Symmetry"

Feel free reach out if you would like to join with our group to explore locations you may not think of going to...then getting together to share the experiences of photography.

Contact: Harvey Abernathey

ndimages6@gmail.com 415-385-0054



Photo Caption:  Photo by Harvey Abernathey - Group outing on June 3rd to McNears Beach, shooting on the theme of "Water in Motion".

Friday Film Night - Zoom



4th and sometimes last Friday - 5:30 pm

Club members watch a favorite film every month and discuss it afterwards.

Running time for films is approximately

120 minutes allowing for plenty of time for everyone to mimic Roger Ebert.

Jul 26 - 'Wilde'

Stephen Fry and Jude Law. The story of Wilde’s destructive relationship with Lord Bosey. Superb acting and based on the definitive biography of Wilde by Richard Ellmann. Award winning film. 1998.

See IMDB Overview...

Aug 23 - 'Two Weeks' Notice'

Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. A lawyer decides that she's used too much like a nanny by her boss, so she walks out on him.

See IMDB Overview...

Sep 27 - 'Battle of the Sexes'

Emma Stone, Steve Carell. Very funny story of the tennis

match between Billy Jean King and Bobby Riggs. True event from the 1970’s.

See IMDB Overview...

Contact: Ellen Breazeale - breazeales@comcast.net 415-892-6546

Great Courses Group – Zoom

Every Friday 1:30 - 3:00 pm

This group is starting a new a video series, 'Music as a Mirror of History', a course consisting of 24 thirty-minute lectures.

Professor Robert Greenberg of San Francisco Performances presents a fascinating and provocative premise: Despite the abstractness and the universality of music — and our habit of listening to it divorced from any historical context — music is a “mirror” of the historical setting in which it was created.

Certain works of music do not just mirror the general spirit of their time and place but can even explicitly evoke specific historical events.

The course begins on July 25th.

You can 'drop in' and join us for these sessions.

Our meetings are fun and filled with lively discussions. 

Contact: Ellen Breazeale breazeales@comcast.net  415-892-6546

Photo Caption: In lecture 1 of this new series, Professor Greenberg has this to say...'Take account of how the magnified emotions stirred by human conflicts feed artistic creation, and how artists have managed to convert the most terrible of human experiences into transcendent art.'

Humanities Club

1st & 3rd Friday

1:00 - 3:00 pm



IVC ESCOM Center

Contact:Ruth King

ruthjjking@yahoo.com 415-898-5845

New Leader Needed...

This is a club which has as its main focus the study of history.

Current meetings are divided between two Great Courses series:

'London in the Time of Dickens', an opportunity to experience the British capital through the eyes of a literary master whose work is inextricably tied to the city and its rich history.

Throughout 12 lectures taught by Professor Lillian Nayder of Bates College, you’ll tour the city of London in a time of rapid transformation through the life and work of Charles Dickens, uncovering the history of the metropolis, while also witnessing the everyday experiences of Londoners from all walks of life as Dickens represents them.

'The World was Never the Same', a captivating course in which

Professor Rufus Fears—a master storyteller and one of the most popular instructors on the Great Courses faculty—provides viewers with 36 of the most important and

definitive events in the history of the world. 

History is made and defined by landmark events -- moments that irrevocably changed the course of human civilization. While many of us are taught that anonymous social, political, and economic forces are the driving factors behind events of the past, Professor Fears believes that it's individuals, acting alone or together, who alter

the course of history.

Photo Caption: In Dickens' day, London was an abyss of slums where large families crowded together in cramped back-to-back dwellings with poor sanitation and minimal food and where crime was rife.

Maj Jong Club

2nd & 4th Tuesday

10:00 am - noon

IVC ESCOM Center



On Hiatus for July and August

This club was formed to teach people how to play

Mah Jong and to offer a venue for

experienced players to meet.

This is not a club where you can 'drop in' with the expectation that you can join a game. You must contact the club leaders, so they can plan

on the number of people who need lessons

or just want to play.

Contact: Linda Henderson linda_h@peak.org

Pat Bailey... pbailey49@aol.com

Photo Caption: Mahjong was developed in Southern China in the mid-1800s toward the end of the Qing Dynasty, one of many male-dominated gambling games that emerged at the time.The word “mahjong” means “sparrow” in southern Chinese dialects, referring to the bird-like clacking sound

the tiles make during reshuffling.

Mindfulness Meditation Club

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Hybrid Meeting - Zoom option

Novato ESCOM Center: 1st, 3rd & 5th Tuesday



Kentfield ESCOM Center: 2nd & 4th Tuesday



This club brings us together to learn and practice mindfulness meditation in a supportive group setting.

Whether novice or experienced practitioner, we can always develop further, and community helps. Our emphasis is on mindfulness of the body, which many consider the most important form of practice. We take advantage of biological knowledge and draw from ancient wisdom traditions.

Our goal is to grow more familiar and comfortable with the basic features of life, including transience, interdependence, and the inevitability of challenges. We foster compassionate acceptance of current circumstances while building capacity to meet life with clarity, gratitude, generosity, and skill.

Contact: Will Meecham willmeecham@gmail.com 415-328-4294



Photo Caption: Mindfulness...a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.

Moral and Ethical,

Legal Roundtable – Zoom

1st, 3rd, and 5th Tuesday 

10:00 am – noon

 

The Roundtable is a long running ESCOM Club for discussions, explorations, and issues in our contemporary world. 

Stimulating discussions among and between the attendees and the facilitator are the primary mode of participation.

This club is currently studying 'Thoughts on Capitalism', a 36-lecture course taught by 

Professor Jerry Z. Muller, Ph.D. It is designed to help students think about capitalism, not only as an economic system, but in terms of its moral, political, and cultural effects.

The club is also discussing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and

Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT), Google Gemini (GPT),

and Synthetic Biology. All Parts of the Comimg Wave (Mustafa Solymen)

the impacts across society.



Join us with your ideas and opinions.

 Contact: Kevin Colgate 

kevincolgate@hotmail.com 415-624-4362 

Photo Caption: Warren Buffett...the greatest living capitalist? How did he make his money?

His fortune is largely tied to his investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, a publicly traded conglomerate that owns businesses like Geico and See's Candies and holds multibillion-dollar stakes in companies like Apple and Coca-Cola.

Opera and Beyond Club - Zoom

2nd Tuesday 1:00 - 3:00 pm

Note from Club Leader, Michael Sachs...

The operas that will be shown in July, August and September will be spectacular with singers, settings, the conductors, and of course the composers who knitted it musically.

Contact: Michael Sachs michahsachs@gmail.com 

415-298-1939 

Photo Caption: The San Franciso Opera announced its 2024-2025 Season and includes the ever-popular opera, 'Carmen'. Learn more...

Spanish Club – Zoom



Every Friday 1:00 - 2:30 pm

Intermediate level conversation

in Spanish on various topics.

Contacts:

Roberta Schwarz, 

reschwarz@sbcglobal.net 

949-922-3291

Paula Hammons

paulahammons@yahoo.com 

415-948-8451

Photo Caption: What was the first Spanish song to reach #1 on American charts? La bamba!

“La bamba” is a traditional son jarocho wedding song originating in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Famously adapted by Ritchie Valens in 1958, it was the only non-English song to be included in

Rolling Stones “500 Greatest Songs of All Time,” Listen...

Table Games Club

2nd and 4th Wednesday

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

IVC ESCOM Center



Games such as Scrabble, RummiKube, Mexican Train (Dominoes), and card games! 

We encourage fun and participation.

Game rules are followed but there maybe some

'wiggle-room' (so keep your rule-books at home!)

Contact: Sue Derana 

sderana@yahoo.com 415-987-1719

Photo caption: Amazon sold over 44K of the table board game 'Catalan' which it labeled the top 'entertainment' boad game of 2023. In it, adventurous settlers seek to tame the remote but rich isle of Catan by revealing Catan’s many harbors and regions: Pastures, fields, mountains, hills, forests, and desert. The random mix creates a different board virtually every game. The skills you need to play....clever trading, strategy, tactical skill, luck.

Travel Literature 

2nd Monday

1:00 – 3:00 PM

IVC ESCOM Center

This club was formed to share travel through the writings of talented authors and the experiences each member has had -- whether

extensive or limited.

Jul 8 - 'Notes from a Small Island' - Bill Bryson

Aug 12 - 'The Pillars of Hercules' - Paul Theroux

Sep 9 - 'A Walk in the Woods' - Bill Bryson

Contact: Deborah Patrick

debpatrick3@gmail.com

y 8

Photo Caption: 'Notes from a Small Island' is a humorous travel book on Great Britain by

American author Bill Bryson , first published in 1995. Bryson wrote' Notes from a Small Island when he decided to move back to his native United States but wanted to take one final trip around Great Britain, which had been his home for over twenty years. Bryson covers all corners of the island, observing and talking to people from as far afield as Exeter in the West Country to John O'Groats at the north-eastern tip of Scotland's mainland. 

"The Wednesday Detection Club" – Zoom

1st Wednesday

1:00 - 3:00 pm

Jul 3 - 'Murder on the SS Rosa' - Lee Strauss

Aug 9 - 'A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons' - Kate Khavari

Sep 4 - 'What Angels Fear' - C. S. Harris

  Contact: Diana Davis 

calekdiana@yahoo.com  415-897-4844 



Photo Caption: It's 1923 and war widow fashionista Ginger Gold

(a former British Secret Service Agent) makes a cross-Atlantic journey from Boston

to London, England with her lovable Boston terrier and good friend, Nurse Higgins. When the ship's captain is found dead in a most intriguing fashion, Ginger is only too happy to lend her assistance to the handsome Chief Inspector Basil Reed. Wearing her Italian T-strap shoes and pretty cloche hat she must outwit the killer before she finds herself in a deadly pickle!

"Who Done It?" Book Club – Zoom

3rd Wednesday

1:00 - 3:00 pm

Jul 17 - 'The Guest List' - Lucy Foley

Aug 21 - 'The Good Cop' - Peter Steiner

Sep 18 - 'Better the Blood - Michael Bennett

Contact: Diana Davis

 calekdiana@yahoo.com  415-897-4844 

Photo caption: On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people

joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star.

The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey.

Every detail has been expertly planned and then someone turns up dead.

For the complete ESCOM Club List, click here.

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