Welcome to Tampa Bay Mensa!......................................................3December Birthdays..............................................................................3Ex-LocSec Column..................................................................................4As I See It.................................................................................................... 5RVC Column for Region 10................................................................6Stuck in the Middle with You..........................................................7Where are the Hungry?......................................................................8December Mensaversaries.................................................................9Book Review........................................................................................... 10Calendar of Events................................................................................ 12December 2014 Calendar................................................................... 13Book Review (cont).............................................................................. 15Cryptopoem............................................................................................ 16Suzaku™ #89........................................................................................... 17

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Vol. 39, No. 12Vol. 39, No. 12January 2015January 2015

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Page 2 Tampa Bay Sounding

A Publication of

Tampa Bay MensaTampa Bay Sounding (USPS 305­830)

Tampa Bay Mensa9091 St. Andrews DrSeminole, Fl 33777

Mensa is an international society whose sole qualification for membership is a score at or above the 98th percentile on a standard IQ test. Mensa is a not­for­profit organization whose main purpose is to serve as a means of communication and assembly for its members. All opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors, and not necessarily those of the editors or officers of Mensa. Mensa as an organization has no opinions.  Tampa Bay Mensa serves Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, andSumter counties.

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poems, short stories, puzzles, and artwork are all encouraged.

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Welcome to Tampa Bay Mensa!

January Birthdays01/01 Margaret Argudo, Jerry Merchant01/02 John Hamilton, Mary Muka01/04 Betty Taylor01/05 Lawrence Jay01/06 Rick Craig01/07 Federico Agnir, Brian Luther, Joseph Mohr01/08 Ronan Heffernan01/09 Stanley Pleban01/11 Helen Parramore, Robert Quinn01/12 Michele Mourer01/13 John Means01/14 Edwin Smith01/15 John Kane01/17 Marvin Ivey01/20 Jessica Ciccarelli01/21 James Perry01/23 Gregory Cowsert, Theresa Hohmann

01/24 Brett Husselbaugh, Victor Johnson, Darius Vunck, Carrie Webb

01/25 Louise Kelly, Michelle Kurtz, Joseph Robbio01/26 Melissa Stephens01/27 Jill Deen01/28 K Schneider

January 2015 Page 3

✹ Sophia Bajohr✹ Alexander Black

Andrew FordJohn GraceKenneth Kaplan

Gregg Provda✹ Zachary Schrader

Danny TaylorConstance Wallace

✹ Berkeley Wonder✹ New members.

Ex-LocSec ColumnSylvia Holt Zadorozny

Page 4 Tampa Bay Sounding

From Bunnies to a Boat to Margarita BayHello, Tampa Bay Mensa! Your new LocSec here. Those of you who’ve been aroundTBM a while might remember me, but for the benefit of our newer members, I’ll brieflyintroduce myself. I’ve been a Mensa member for 28 years now and have hostedmonthly games nights almost from the beginning. My first foray into the administra-tion side of TBM was when the group needed a new calendar editor. (I wanted to en -sure games night was listed properly!) I decided the calendar grid looked rather plainso, it being April at the time, I drew some cute little bunnies on it. (This was beforeautomation.) Not only was my attempt at whimsy tolerated, but my bunnies madepeople smile. Success! From the calendar, I hopped over to editing the Sounding,was elected to the ExComm, and I’ve been bouncing around filling various officer posi-tions ever since. I’ve found associating with this group fulfilling in a way I never ex-pected. I encourage each of you to try volunteering for some small job (or a big one, ifyou’re up to it) and join in the fun. You never know where it may lead. Now, on tothis month’s news.

Our winter social will take place Sunday, January 11. We’ve reserved space on the Ca-lypso Queen, a party boat, but to participate you need to sign up in advance. We’llcruise the intracoastal waterway and be treated to a delicious island-style buffet mealwith complementary beer, wine, and rum punch. We can relax in the air-conditionedenclosed deck, or venture out to an observation deck to look for dolphins. You areasked to contribute towards the cost of this event, but most of the cost of the cruise isbeing paid for out of the TBM treasury, as a benefit of your membership. To register,send $10 to Treasurer Kathy Crum, 7164 Quail Hollow Blvd, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544, orsee Ronan Heffernan and he can use a nifty app on his phone to get you registeredwith your credit card. See you onboard!

Setting our sights farther out, we’ve also been busy organizing Margarita Bay, TBM’sRegional Gathering in May. This annual event is Memorial Day weekend and attractsMensans from all over Florida and beyond. Jack Brawner is lining up lots of great pro -grams—the zoo animals are my favorite—but I’m told there’s room in the schedule formore. If you know a good presenter, please let us know. Besides programs, there’ll be24-hour Hospitality for snacking and chatting, competitive tournaments and casualgames, frozen margaritas (and non-alcoholic slushies), a kids’ track on Saturday, and allmeals (except Saturday dinner on the town) included with your registration. To regis-ter for Margarita Bay, visit the TBM website http://www.tampa.us.mensa.org/ and clickon the owl. We also have an RG Facebook group - Mar-garita Bay (RG for Tampa Bay Mensa) - which will provide up-to-date information on pro-grams and where you can ask questions or offer suggestions. Last year’s RG got ravereviews, and this year’s promises to be even bigger and better! (We’re taking over theentire hotel! How cool is that?)

I look forward to sharing more adventures with you in future columns. Have a won-derful 2015!

As I See ItDuke Mader

January 2015 Page 5

Nineteen-eighty-two is history and onceagain it's time for new years resolutions.You know what those are, don't you? Res-olutions are promises you make that youdon't plan to keep, but they sound goodTake my father for instance, he smokestwo to three packs of cigarettes a day anddrinks way too much, but he says if hedidn’t smoke or drink he wouldn’t haveanything to give up for his new years res-olution.

When I was a little fellow many years ago,I used to resolve that I would stop fight-ing with my sister, and try to keep myroom cleaner. But as some wise man (orwide guy) once said, resolutions are madeto be broken. When giving our word toone another, people generally try to havea good reputation by keeping our pledgesBut for some reason people seem lesslikely to keep promises they make tothemselves

It seems as though every year is a repeatof the last, that we will break old badhabits, and develop new good ones intheir place. I have thought of some newyears resolutions I would like to make forother people to keep.

I would like to see all the warlords of thisworld taken to the Superdome andhanded a club so that they could beateach other’s brains out, and then wecould charge admission and take. the pro-

ceeds to be distributed to the war ravagedareas of this world.

I would like to see all our elected officialsin Washington limited to just six years inoffice, that way they could not stockpilefavors, and we wouldn't have seventy-and eighty-year-old politicians represent-ing us. I would also like to see it manda-tory for all senators and congressmen tomaintain at least a 95% voting record, orbe suspended for nonperformance. Thiswould assure that we would be gettingour money’s worth. After all it’s a well as-sumed fact that Americans have the bestpoliticians that money can buy.

I would like to see all the children of thisworld go to bed at night with full stom-achs. As much foods as Americans wasteeach day on junk food, soda, and such, itwould seem as if there is enough food togo around.

I would like for everyone who wants ajob, so that they could support a family,would have one. lf we all make the samenew years resolution this year and vownot to give in, perhaps we can comecloser to realizing our goals.

Think about it

This column was originally printed in the Bay County Journal

Executive Committee MeetingsThe next meetings of Tampa Bay Mensa's Executive Committee will be held:

February 8th, location TBDAll members of Tampa Bay Mensa are invited to all Executive Committee Meetings. For more information contact our LocSec (Officer contact info is on page 23).

RVC Column for Region 10Thomas George Thomas

The American Mensa Board of Directors’ meeting last month was productive. Amongthe actions taken were:

Passed the update to the Avenues of Redress policy to cover online groups and forums

Approved allowing parental attendance at certain gifted youth events (includ-ing test sessions)

Kept the dues rate at current levels

Established an equity restoration level for the 2015-2016 budget of $25,000.

The motion to establish a national event attendance policy was postponed until theMarch meeting.

There was a presentation on risk management with a focus on determining proper lev-els of insurance and liability coverage. One of the takeaways of the meeting was forthe Risk Management Committee, of which I am a member, to go over our currentpolicies to determine if there are any shortfalls or even any areas where we may beover-insured. While it’s prudent to be prepared for major eventualities, it’s not wise (oreconomically feasible) to prepare for EVERY eventuality. This is an ongoing project, andI’m sure there will be more reports on the horizon.

Pam Donahoo gave a presentation on the programs that American Mensa currentlysupports, from programs that are growing in use and popularity (social media, Men-saForKids.org) and programs which have high value to our members but low growth(MindGames, CultureQuest); to programs which are decreasing in value to our mem-bers (Mensa Gift Guide, Community Forums). A couple of figures which I found inter-esting were that approximately 10% of our membership is now receiving the MensaBulletin online, while conversely only 96 members out of over 53,000 logged into Com-munity Forums over the past month.

During the first part of December the National Office moved to some new servers androlled out a new MensaForKids website, which is the first of Mensa’s websites designedto work on mobile devices. The website is sponsored by the Mensa Foundation andthe Library of Congress, which is an exciting partnership. These are great steps to-wards closing the technology gap identified at our September meeting, and I look for-ward to seeing their progress.

Keeping in mind that the main benefit of Mensa memberships remains other members,I hope that those who have the opportunity will attend the “Sun-n-Games” RegionalGathering in Central Florida Mensa on January 16-18 (go to sun-n-games.org for details).After the RG, Southwest by South Florida Mensa will once again host their “Bikers vs.Brainers” Trivia Challenge on the evening of January 18. If this event intrigues you, youmight be a candidate to join a CultureQuest team in the contest coming up in April.

Other events around the region include Tampa Bay Mensa’s Winter Social Cruise alongthe Intercoastal waterway on January 11, and a Party at Sea Cruise sponsored by Hell’sMs (the Party SIG) on February 8-14, departing out of Ft. Lauderdale. More details aboutthis can be found at groups.yahoo.com/group/mensa_cruise.

I hope you’ll take advantage of these, or one of the events being hosted by your ownlocal groups. Enjoy!

Page 6 Tampa Bay Sounding

Stuck in the Middle with YouDonna Hamel

January 2015 Page 7

I had many different topics under consid-eration for this month, but the recent re-lease of the Senate “Torture Report” is asubject I can’t ignore. Since 9/11, I’veworked at the Defense Intelligence Agency(DIA), the National Geospatial-IntelligenceAgency (NGA), CIA headquarters, FBI Head-quarters, and the Office of the Director ofNational Intelligence (ODNI) all in supportof analytics. So I guess I should havesome credibility in this area.

In the mid-2000s, I met a gentleman whocalls himself Willie Martin (a WWII pseu-donym). He had been a member of Spe-cial Forces in Vietnam and developedspecialization in interrogation. By the2000s, he was teaching tradecraft and in-terrogation to military personnel. When Iheard his specialty, I kind of gulped andasked about it. He told me that a good in-terrogator never needs to lay hands on thesuspect. He is able to use psychologicaltechniques and neuro-linguistic program-ming (NLP) techniques to get the informa-tion he needs without resorting towaterboarding or worse.

At the FBI, I was quite impressed with thepeople I met there, who had specialtiesand expertise in areas I did not previouslythink that the FBI was expert. I recentlysaw an interviewer with Ali H. Soufan (au-thor of the book Black Banners), who wasthe interrogator for Abu Zabaydah, thefirst high value target we captured. AliSoufan was able to obtain Abu Zabaydah’scooperation, and he gave us the first infor-mation that Al-Quaida was responsible forthe 9/11 attacks, gave much information onthis terrorist organization’s internal work-ings, and identified Khalid Sheik Mo-hammed (KSM) as the mastermind behindthat attack. This was done without layinga hand on Abu Zabaydah. After this coop-eration, CIA contractors came in and

started torturing the guy, and he shut up—never gave any good information afterthat. If they were in a hurry to get infor-mation from Abu Zabadah, then why puthim in solitary confinement for 47 daysbefore asking him any questions?

I knew people at the CIA who admiredJack Bauer from the series “24” and wereall for the techniques this fictional char-acter used to obtain information, butthose people were not directly involvedwith interrogating, they were IT folks. Ithink it was a good move for the Senateinvestigators not to interview people in-volved with the black sites, because whatthey said would have been very self-serv-ing. The report mentions that CIA folkslocated at black sites begged headquar-ters to transfer them out. When one de-scriptive cable was received, CIA officerscried. Ali Soufan says—not because ofsympathy for the terrorists, but from “thereal tears of patriotism.”

George Washington had the opportunityto torture captured prisoners and chosenot to do so, leading by example the restof our countries’ history. The “enhancedinterrogation techniques” were torture.Stuffing hummus up someone’s rectum israped. The United States raped prisoners.

The CIa did not go to knowledgeable in-terrogators from the Services or from theFBI to develop their program. They wentto a couple of psychologists who trainedpeople to resist torture to develop thisprogram. There was no real interest inexploring how to effectively get informa-tion from human beings. It was drivenfrom top down, and did not leverage theknowledge of experts who actually didthis work.

I knew another friend who in Vietnamwas a member of Marine Reconn, and af-ter being threatened with court martial,

Continued on page 18

Heroes, Bigots, and ScoundrelsRonnie Dubs

Page 8 Tampa Bay Sounding

It's not an American trait, but a universal one among civilized people anyway, that he-roes the good guys we want to win in life, we want to root for, who if only in the veryend posses those certain qualities we all find admirable, that truth triumphs over men-dacity, and honesty wins out over dishonesty, that the hero can distinguish the moralright from wrong to sort out the good from the bad and then to put themselves oftenat great personal risk to stand on the righteous side of the moral good.

The facts of the Brown shooting in Ferguson aren't in dispute, We know from courtrecords Brown was a felon and from videotape evidence that he robbed a conve-nience store and choked a clerk on his way out. We know from toxicology reportshe had drugs in his system, and we know his hands were in officers patrol car and onthe officers gun because his blood was found there. We know he was facing the officerand that his hands weren't up in a gesture of surrender from the testimony of severaldifferent medical examiners and forensic pathologists.

But the last and most important piece to this short apologue is that we know 6 foot 4inch 292 pound Michael Brown under police orders to stop, put his head down andcharged this smaller police officer as if to run him over like a bulldozer or a linebackertackling a quarterback, and that we know this because half a dozen brave, honest, ethi-cal and commendable African American residents of Ferguson did their civic duty, putaside their own racist sympathies, and risked ridicule and even their personal safety togo before the grand jury and testify truthfully as to what they had seen that night.

Now notice how not one good word has been spoken of them anywhere, for these arethe real moral American heroes, and no White House visits will be in their future, likethe 61 times the Reverend Al Sharpton has already been in there with Obama plottingracial discord, demonstrations, and riots. No morning talk show interviews awaitthem, no Lincoln Town cars squiring them around the best hotels in Manhattan to telltheir story on Oprah, Good Morning America or The View because the media doesn’twant to hear what these brave, honest, ethical, African-American heroes who wit-nessed this event have to say about it, even as riots end demonstrations continue off ofwhat was always was a fraud and a lie.

How sad it is for these people, how sad it is for this country, that frauds, liars, bigots,and racist instigators wallow in the adulation of a corrupt, divisive, morally depravednews media, while real American heroes honest, brave, and loyal, who remained trueto themselves and true to the attributers most of us so admire, must remain in theshadows of anonymity afraid that if they become known their own community turnon them and quite possibly harm them.

January Mensaversaries

January 2015 Page 9

47 years Mary Sanchez41 years Daniel O'Neal37 years Lee Miele35 years Benito Enriquez, Bruce Perry31 years Bonnie Wilpon30 years James Bailey28 years Grant Logan23 years Karen Hamlin21 years Ron Austin19 years Darius Vunck18 years Patrick Bastien, Steven Graves, John Turnbull17 years Dave Bryant14 years Devlon Buckner13 years Ruby Agnir, Alvin Bedgood, Thomas Thomas, Thomas Vena12 years Susan Gardner, William Schneikart10 years Chris Lettre, Robert Pressner, Jean Waters9 years Elizabeth Hapner, Jay Johnson, Corey Merenda8 years Ethan Hall, Stephen Morrill7 years Hillary Miller, Anitha Reddy, Thomas Sawyer

6 years Samuel Brandon, Jordan Cash, Maureen Collins, James Gamble, Rebecca Sinnreich

5 yearsTerry Delia, Hunter Keslar, Harrison Keslar, Jim O'Neill, Frankie Prather, Andre Salomon, Paul Sutcliffe, Doug Wilcock

4 yearsDelaney Grootwassink, Kelly Hallisey, Alexandra Hamwey, Kelly Matera, David Schwartz, Carrie Webb, Daniel Williams

3 years Aaron Dennis, Dennis Lowman, George Martin, Frances Pool­Crane, Lawrence Schear, Ian Wells

2 years Garrett Gross, Thomas Mooser, Elizabeth Rafaloski, Kathryn Scofield

1 years

Lane Augusta, Beau Blessing, Geoffrey Davis, David Dockery, James Eddy, Sara Green, Shannon Harp, NaTashia Jurman, Pranav Kambhampati, Krysten Manley, Malvika Menon, Don Ridgway, George Zadorozny

Note: Years are for continuous membership.  Members who let their membership lapse start from the date of reinstatement.

I Am a Cancer Survivor!Vicky Foust

Page 10 Tampa Bay Sounding

I am told a cancer survivor is cancer-free...but I disagree with that because every daythat l wake up, I feel l am a cancer sur-vivor. You see, I have Stage IV cancer, andl have been told I will never be cancer-free. But I am a survivor. In fact, l am sobusy surviving and living that I don’t havetime to worry about having cancer.

Where did this all start? When I was 67, Ifelt a sharp pain in my left breast. Ichecked it out in the mirror and saw adimple and immediately thought – thiscan't be good! Even though there was nohistory of breast cancer in my family, Iwent for a mammogram, and that wasimmediately followed by a biopsy.

While waiting for the biopsy report, myhusband, Ken, and I arrived home fromwork to see a beautiful rainbow in ourbackyard. It was on the grass, not up inthe sky where rainbows are usually found.The rain was coming down like the del-uge Noah saw before he got on the ark,and immediately, I said to Ken, "It’s a sign!Everything will be okay!”

Then we went to the doctor's office forthe results of the biopsy. Everythingwasn't okay. We heard the dreaded word"cancer”... then "stage two," "aggressive,"“invasive”. The surgeons gave us options.but we chose the complete radical mas-tectomy. The doctor said he could do it intwo weeks. Ken asked, "Can you do it Inone?" The doctor agreed, and the day be-fore my 68th birthday, I had my leftbreast and seventeen lymph nodes re-moved.

During the night, the nurse asked if Ineeded a pain pill but explained shecouldn't give it to me until 5a.m. I said, “Ihave no pain. Whatever the anesthesiolo-gist gave me must still be working." Thenurse replied, "There was no pain killer inthe anesthesia." When 5a.m. rolled around

I said, "I'm still not feeling any pain. Idon't need a pill.” During the entire timeof my recovery, even though we filled theprescription for the pain pills, I nevertook even one. The bandages were un-comfortable at times, but there was neverany pain.

When it came time to go home from thehospital, my husband and son, Charlie,came to get me. Charlie asked the doctorif he could take me home on his motorcy-cle. He told him he had brought two hel-mets! They all laughed at him. I have twowonderful men in my life!

We each had a different philosophy whenit came to my recovery. My husband'sphilosophy was this: Stuff the bra, andkeep the party going! My son’s was: Youare not 16 and looking for a husband! Minewas: I just want to look normal. After all, itwasn‘t an arm or a leg taken off. Thatwould have. been much harder to getused to.

A LONG ROAD AHEAD This was just the beginning of a long,hard journey The first problem we en-countered was the fact I seem to havesensitivity to prescription medications...and l was on a lot of them. As two yearswent by, I was on Tamoxifen, then Arim-idex. then Aromasin, then Exemestane.

Then they found out the cancer hadmetastasized to my left hip, and they tookme off all my meds. I started radiationtherapy on my left hip. and we found ithad spread to my right hip... more radia-tion. It then started up my back and theradiation treatment followed close be-hind.

Doctors then found it had spread to myliver and adrenal glands. and l was put onthe chemotherapy drug Abraxene for sixmonths. Following a PET/CT scan they

Continued on page 17

Book ReviewJim Perry

January 2015 Page 11

John Lanchester’s I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Every-

one and No One Can Pay

John Lanchester grew up in Hong Kong“at the time when it was the most unbri-dled market economy in the world. HongKong was the economic Wild West. Therewere no rules, no income taxes, no wel-fare state, no guarantee of healthcare orschooling…and it was impossible not tonotice that this devil-take-the-hindmostfree-for-all system was something peoplewere risking their lives to try.” (p. 13)“With Ronald Reagan in power in theUnited States and Margaret Thatcher inpower in the United Kingdom, a HongKong-ite version of free market capitalismtook over the world.” (p. 14)

That’s a pretty big picture of what hap-pened, and Lanchester connects the dotsin an illuminating, engaging, and frighten-ing way. He starts by explaining how Ice-land destroyed itself economically after itsbanks were privatized in 2001, and goeson to show, and explain, how much worsethings got after that. While there does to-day exist a country where the banks aresafe and behave responsibly—that wouldbe Canada, #1 in the world compared tothe U.S.’s #40, “two places behindBotswana” (p. 211)—the world’s banks havecreated a toxic culture that will in hisview probably have to fail again beforegovernment rises at last to its responsibil-ity to regulate the madness.

Lanchester’s book was published in 2009,with material added in 2010, so events ofthe past four years aren’t discussed. Theyare, however, predicted pretty accurately.The people running the biggest bankshave gone rogue, seeking to circumventany form of regulation—Citizens United de-cision, anyone?—while they strive to in-

crease their personal wealth and powerwithout limit. Value, in Lanchester’sview, has been trumped by money (p. 218),and there is no such thing for bankers to-day as enough. (I recall a friend tellingme once that a Democrat is someone whothinks it’s possible to have enough money.Warren Buffet’s book, Enough, notwith-standing, I fear my friend is closer to thetruth than he may have realized.)

What are banks for? “Banks are necessaryto take deposits and lend money and cre-ate liquidity for individuals and busi-nesses.” (p. 250) Have you ever heard itexplained more clearly than that? Andwhy didn’t government act to stop thehousing bubble? “The housing bubbletranslated so directly into consumerspending, and the consumer spendingtranslated so directly into a growingeconomy, and the growing economytranslated so directly into a paradise ofraised government spending and relativelyunraised taxes, that the government…found it unincumbent …to act.” (p.178)

Bankers had no way of knowing whatwas going to happen to their mortgages,their Collateral Debt Obligations, theirCredit Default Swaps, except that theyknew they themselves were Too Big ToFail. As Lanchester put it,

“the huge bailout of major financial insti-tutions means that the Anglo-Saxonmodel of capitalism has failed. The resultwas “a huge, unregulated boom in whichalmost all of the upside went into privatehands, followed by a gigantic bust inwhich the losses were socialized. That isliterally nobody’s idea of how the world issupposed to work.” (p. 230) Except, thatis, for the bankers who were TBTF, forwhom this was exactly how the worldwas supposed to work, and did.

Continued on page 17

Page 12 Tampa Bay Sounding

TBM TBM WinterWinter Social SocialCome aboard for TBM’s Winter Social.

Sunday, January 11, 2015, at 1:00 PMThis year we will be having our Winter Social aboard the Calypso Queen outof Clearwater Marina. It sails in the intracoastal waterway. This trip includes a delicious island style luncheon buffet with a variety of cold and hot selections to satisfy everyone. Complimentary beer, wine & rum punchon this cruise!

You will need to make reservations Member Cost:

By 12/15/14 - $5.00After 12/15/14 - $10.00

If you need more info, please call (in the evening)

Art Schwartz 813-818-8109 or 727-418-0172

Please send payment to:

(Remember to tell her how many tickets you need.)

Kathy Crum7164 Quail Hollow BlvdWesley Chapel FL 33544813-907-0526

http://calypsoqueen.comHere is a description from the website:The captain comments on the history of the area and points our present day sights of interest. Relax in air conditioned comfort on one of our two enclosed decks or venture out to one of the open-aired observation decks for some soft breezes and warm sunshine. Keep a sharp lookout as dolphin are commonly seen in the area. Enjoy a delicious island style luncheon buffet with a variety of cold and hot selections to satisfy everyone.

Complimentary beer, wine & rum punch on this cruise! Full bar service and tropical frozen drinks are also available. The deck of the boat we will be on is handicap accessible

Pickup tickets day of the trip at the dock. Confirmation: 64702-1

Locations & Directions Clearwater Marina 25 Causeway Blvd, Slip #18 Clearwater Beach, FL 33767 (West end of S.R. 60)

From Gulf Beaches Take Gulf Blvd. North and follow it over the Sand Key Bridge. Take your first left onto S. Gulfview Blvd. Follow Gulfview Blvd. until you come to a stop light at Hamden Dr. Turn right on Hamden Drive. Almost immediately, turn left on Coronado Drive. The Clearwater BeachMarina will be on your right. Turn right into the Marina, before entering the roundabout. The Calypso Queen is on your right.

From Tampa & Clearwater, FL Take State Road 60 west (also known as: Courtney Campbell Causeway and Gulf-to-Bay Blvd.), follow S.R. 60 through Clearwater, over the Memorial Causeway to Clearwater Beach. As you approach the beach, look to your left and you will see the Clearwater Beach Marina. You will come to a roundabout. Go three-quarters of the way around and exit at the marina sign. The Calypso Queen is at the West end of the Marina behind Crabby Bills.

Calendar of Events

January 2015 Page 13

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January 2015 Calendar

January 1 12:30pm Lunch BunchLocation: Piccadilly Cafeteria, 11810 North Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa

We meet at Piccadilly Cafeteria (next to Barnes and Noble Bookstore), in Tampa. For directions, descriptions, and/or encouragement to attend, call:

Jim Perry 813-837-3473 philart@gte.net

January 7 7pm Reading GroupLocation: IHOP, 4910 West Spruce Street, Tampa

Read whatever you like and bring books you'd like to recommend, discuss, ex-change, or give away.

Ronan Heffernan 727-537-6626 ronansan@gmail.com

January 8 12:30pm Lunch Bunch

January 10 7pm Games NightLocation: 651 Timber Bay Circle West, Oldsmar

We play fun board and table games. Snacks and sodas provided ($2 kitty helps de-fray refreshment expenses). No smoking indoors.

Sylvia Holt Zadorozny 813-855-4939 sylviachocolate@gmail.com

January 11 1pm Winter Social CruiseLocation: Clearwater Beach Marina, 25 Causeway Blvd, Slip # 18, Clearwater Beach

This year we will be having our Winter Social aboard the Calypso Queen out of Clearwater Marina. See page 12 for details.

Art Schwartz 813-818-8109 or 727-418-0712

January 15 12:30pm Lunch Bunch

January 21 7pm Reading Group

January 22 12:30pm Lunch Bunch

January 23 6:30pm Fourth Friday DinnerLocation: Vito & Michael's Pizzeria, 7704 Blind Pass Rd, St Pete Beach

Each meal comes with HOMEMADE garlic bread, more like a focaccia. Soft, fresh roasted garlic! Awesome! And a GARDEN SALAD, NO iceberg lettuce or unripe tomatoes here! Cold fresh green romaine lettuce, shredded carrots, red cabbage and fresh ripe diced tomatoes with a red wine vinaigrette in separate container. Look for a Sounding on the table. No RSVP needed.

Diane 813-618-3383

January 29 12:30pm Lunch Bunch

Page 14 Tampa Bay Sounding

Except for rare cases that hosts will make clear, all events listed in our Calendar ofEvents, whether hosted in private homes or public venues, are open to all Mensans,their spouses, and accompanied guests.

While kitty amounts are mandatory, hosts often spend far more than the specifiedamount. Donations in excess of the kitty amount will be appreciated. If you havespecial needs or restrictions, it is prudent to discuss them with your host before at-tending an event.

January 2015 Page 15

Calling all writers, poets, bloggers, and scribblers ofall kinds. (I know you’re out there.)

At the most recent ExComm meeting, I found myself saying to David Schwartz, our Tampa Bay Mensa SIG Coordinator, “I’d like to start a Writers’ SIG.” Although I have been thinking of how to connect with other local Mensa writers, I was still a little surprised to find the words leaving my mouth with such conviction, as I usually need to mull and ruminate over ideas for quite awhile before they actually manifest. I guess it was time.Although “TBM Writers’ SIG” is a fine working title, I’m thinking that a group of wordsmiths ought to be able to come up with something with a little more dash and panache. So let’s make our first order of business “Name That SIG!” Due to how busy the holidays are for everyone, I’m not even going totry to plan anything for December, but I will be getting something into the calendar for January. Until then, send me an e-mail at fraser514@yahoo.com, message me on Facebook, or give me a call at727-543-2004 and let’s bounce some ideas off each other for how we’d like to see this SIG shape up.

- Kay Shapiro - www.soapboxbykay.com

xkcd.org

I need an extension for my research project because I spent all month trying to figure out whether learning Dvorak would help me type it faster.

Letters to the Editor

Page 16 Tampa Bay Sounding

Gee, I’m choking on the unfamiliar wordsput in my mouth by Ronnie Dubs’ com-ments on my response to his article.

My letter was a reaction to his article,“The Primitives” in a previous Sounding.Its premise was that those on the politicalleft fantasized that “people were some-how better off before the... modern era ofscience and knowledge" and that the(supposedly non-liberal) approach of "getthem some IPads, television sets, sciencebooks, and give them each a small stockportfolio to help them get started" wouldserve Brazilian tribesmen well.

My points were that we “liberals” in thePeace Corps did bring technology as weassisted people in developing countries tobecome more self-sufficient, and that Iwished someone would assist Americansas he suggested helping the tribes inBrazil. I asserted that many of our owncitizens struggle daily with the challengesof finding the money to heat/cool theirdwellings, eat nutritious meals and obtainenough money or insurance to fight offdisease and infections.

Ronnie took that as chiding him on beingunconcerned with Americans who strug-gle to eat nutritious meals daily; then hesegued into the low rate of death by star-vation in the U.S., comments on obesity,and his belief that there “is no hungerproblem in this nation”.

Thankfully far fewer people starve todeath here than in many other places.But there’s a vast difference between star-vation and eating nutritiously (thushigher rates of diabetes and other ill-nesses). Yes, as Ronnie says, we have WIC,SNAP and school lunch programs (thanksto government assistance). Trying tostretch very few dollars to feed a familyfor the month, however, will result inbuying lots of starches, cheap fast foodand the ever-popular Ramen noodles mar-keted in various salty forms. Fresh fruitsand vegetables, meat and eggs can’t find

their way onto those shopping lists veryoften. And that’s the situation for a hugenumber of families of four with one (oreven two) full-time working adults in ourcountry.

For those who like statistics and rankings,the Washington Post (and UNICEF)( http://wapo.st/1uLqLEn ) show that theU.S. ranks 34th (well under Estonia andjust below Latvia) in child poverty. “Thepoor U.S. showing in this data may reflectgrowing income inequality”, says the Post.According to ABC News( http://abcn.ws/1wCWn2R ) about 15 mil-lion children in the U.S. live in poverty.Ronnie, though, can’t find them and ap-parently wants some addresses.

“I've seen poor, hungry, starving peoplearound this world, but not here in Amer-ica”, said Ronnie. I’d suggest getting outof the car and talking to people in any ofmany local neighborhoods where thereare assisted housing projects, low-costmotels, day laborers, more rental housesthan owned ones, lots of Walmart asso-ciates, and people who live in their carsor trek from the home of one friend toanother because they don’t have theirown.

“Time for these people know the joy anddignity of meaningful work, self reliance,and earning one's own sustenance”, saysRonnie. I thoroughly agree. Let’s bringthose jobs home to America, raise theminimum wage so working folks can af-ford nutritious food (as well as clothingand shelter), invest in more job trainingand in improving the quality of our edu-cational system, and close corporate loop-holes in the tax code so that our dollarshelp more people get there.

Bonnie Wilpon

Book Review (cont)

Cancer Survivor (cont)

January 2015 Page 17

Throughout the world, adults understandthat when you have no way to know thelong-term effects of your action, it iswiser to proceed incrementally, the wayNASA did to land men on the moon andbring them back safely, Mercury, Gemini,and then ten prior Apollo missions, push-ing the envelope each time and watchingcarefully what happened during each mis-

sion. They took those baby steps! Whatwe have in global finance these days isnothing like baby steps: these people areshooting for the moon the day they start.And government is letting them do it.

This book explained the situation for mein an inspiring way. I recommend it en-thusiastically.

found two spots on my spine, so onceagain I began rounds of chemo.

I now attend the Livestrong exercise pro-gram at the YMCA. It is a twelve-weekprogram that is held two times a week.

Since 2007, l have felt terrific! If the doc-tors didn‘t keep telling me I have cancer, Iwouldn’t even know I have it. I do volun-teer work. I belong to twelve clubs andorganizations.

I have twelve doctors looking after me.Every year. my company, R & R GarageDoors, Inc, hosts a cancer fundraisercruise to raise money for the AmericanCancer Society Hernando Resource Room.They give free wigs, prostheses, bras, andturbans to uninsured or underinsured pa-tients who can’t afford to buy them. Nextyear will be our seventh annual cruise.

When I found out I had cancer, I emailedmy relatives and friends to ask for theirprayers. Ken said I sent out so manyemails that I must have emailed the pope,but I didn't. I pray morning and night formy family, friends, other people who havecancer... and then for me.

I belong to a Cancer Support Group. It isso uplifting! (Get the pun?) What a fan-

tastic group of women! They are alwaysraising money for Hernando ladies whocan't afford to pay for mammograms andother good causes.

Since I lost my long dark hair from thechemo, l started wearing a short blondwig. Most of my friends don’t recognizeme. I have to say, “It is me, Vicky. I amhaving chemo. I am bald, and this is awig.” And boy, it is true! Blonds havemore fun! The men give me lots more at-tention... and their wives certainly don'tlike that.

I am 73 now. I have had cancer for sixyears and look forward to each new day.Like I said... when I saw the rainbow Iknew everything would be okay.

P.S. My biggest goal right now is to finishmy “chocolate cookbook.” It will be thegreatest chocolate cookbook ever! Theproblem is that the recipes are all hand-written, and I haven't learned how totype.

Vicky’s story appeared in the Lake County,"Healthy Living" Magazine January 2013 edition.

Stuck (cont)

Page 18 Tampa Bay Sounding

was reposted to South East Asia, where heand a colleague assassinated high valuetargets. If they were in a house, and theirfamilies were there, they’d be killed too.He told me about one big mansion—he re-members the wrought iron fence aroundit—and then said, “There were KIDS in thathouse.” Two weeks later, the colleaguewho went in with him committed suicideover what he had done. My acquaintancehad terrible psychological problems after-wards. He developed agoraphobia, whichwas much diminished to the point of, attimes, hilarity, when I knew him, aftermuch psychological counseling. When myhusband and I were selling a house, hecleaned up the backyard for us and took

out a lot of brush, for which he refused totake any money, though he was out ofwork at the time. I didn’t hear from himfor a while after that, and when he finallycontacted me, he told me he freaked outbecause he thought the crows were look-ing at him. It isn’t only the victims whohave lasting damage (if they survive). Thepeople who perpetrate these crimes areforever changed, and have to deal withtheir own terrible guilt and feelings ofdamnation.

Is this what we want? Is this our versionof the “shining city on the hill’? Does theshining city on the hill torture?

Dolores Puterbaugh, Ph.D, LMFT, LMHC, PALicensed Mental Health Counselor

Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

801 West Bay Drive, Suite 436Largo, Florida 33770

The Wachovia Bank Building

727-559-0863puterbaugh@mindspring.combalancedlifestylecoaching.com

Services Include:• Individual counseling• Family & couples counseling• Anxiety, depression, grief, stress, anger• Children’s behavior problems• Personal growth/development• Consulting/Coaching services• Presentations for organizations

Memberships:Clinical Member of American

Association for Marriage & FamilyTherapy; American Counseling

Association; Mensa; TNS

xkcd.org

Serial FillersTo round-out the page count for publication, here is some not-quite-random public do-main content. If you would like to submit articles, stories, etc. for publication, please see the Submission Guidelines on page 2.

January 2015 Page 19

The Fifth-Dimension CatapultBy Murray Leinster

FOREWORD

This story has no normal starting-place,because there are too many places whereit might be said to begin. One might com-mence when Professor Denham, Ph. D., M.A., etc., isolated a metal that scientistshave been talking about for many yearswithout ever being able to smelt. Or itmight start with his first experimental useof that metal with entirely impossible re-sults. Or it might very plausibly beginwith an interview between a celebratedleader of gangsters in the city of Chicagoand a spectacled young laboratory assis-tant, who had turned over to him a pecu-liar heavy object of solid gold and verynervously explained, and finally managedto prove, where it came from. With alsoimpossible results, because it turned“King” Jacaro, lord of vice-resorts andrum-runners, into a passionate enthusiastin non-Euclidean geometry. The wholestory might be said to begin with the mo-ment of that interview.

But that leaves out Smithers, and espe-cially it leaves out Tommy Reames. So, onthe whole, it is best to take up the narra-tive at the moment of Tommy’s first en-trance into the course of events.

CHAPTER I

He came to a stop in a cloud of dust thatswirled up to and all about the big road-ster, and surveyed the gate of the privateroad. The gate was rather impressive. Atits top was a sign. “Keep Out!” Halfwaydown was another sign. “Private Property.Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted.” On onegate-post was another notice, “Live WiresWithin.” and on the other a defiant plac-

ard. “Savage Dogs At Large Within ThisFence.”

The fence itself was all of seven feet highand made of the heaviest of woven-wireconstruction. It was topped with barbedwire, and went all the way down bothsides of a narrow right of way until itvanished in the distance.

Tommy got out of the car and opened thegate. This fitted the description of his des-tination, as given him by a brawny, red-headed filling-station attendant in the vil-lage some two miles back. He drove theroadster through the gate, got out andclosed it piously, got back in the car andshot it ahead.

He went humming down the narrow pri-vate road at forty-five miles an hour. Thatwas Tommy Reames’ way. He looked to-tally unlike the conventional descriptionof a scientist of any sort—as much unlikea scientist as his sport roadster looked un-like a scientist’s customary means of tran-sit—and ordinarily he acted quite unlikeone. As a matter of fact, most of the peo-ple Tommy associated with had nofaintest inkling of his taste for science asan avocation. There was Peter Dalzell, forinstance, who would have held up hishands in holy horror at the idea ofTommy Reames being the author of thatarticle. “On the Mass and Inertia of theTesseract,” which in the PhilosophicalJournal had caused a controversy.

And there was one Mildred Holmes—of noimportance in the matter of the Fifth-Di-mension Catapult—who would have liftedbeautifully arched eyebrows in bored un-belief if anybody had suggested thatTommy Reames was that Thomas Reameswhose “Additions to Herglotz’s Mechanicsof Continua” produced such diversities...

CryptopoemSylvia Holt Zadorozny

Page 20 Tampa Bay Sounding

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Suzaku™ #90Thomas George Thomas

Suzaku™ (from Japanese sousaku: search) is a compound puzzle. The first step is tosolve it as a traditional sudoku puzzle, using letters instead of numbers. The secondstep is to search for words in the solved sudoku. Start from any letter, moving up,down, forward, backward or diagonally in any direction, changing direction as neededwithout reusing the same square for a word. Although there are nine letters in thispuzzle, words can be longer if you can find them. (There is a hint for this puzzle onpage 22.) For extra credit, score the words using their associated number values to tryto find the highest word points.

January 2015 Page 21

Suzaku™ (cont)Last month's puzzle con-tained the 15-length word"characteristics", whichused eight letters for a to-tal of 73 points. The themeword for this month'sSuzaku™ also consists of 12characters, but uses allnine letters in the grid fora score of 54 points. Theshaded square is the start-ing position for the themeword. The solution will beprovided in next month'sissue of Tampa Bay Sound-ing.

You could also search for alist of words and phrasesand accumulate additionalpoints. What is the highestcumulative score you canachieve?

Answer to the December Cryptopoem:

Page 22 Tampa Bay Sounding

Answer to the December Suzaku™ (#89)

Beneath the tree are many gifts

Both wished for and desired;

Wrapped with bows and ribbons

And things to be admired.

Beneath the tree are memories

Waiting to be born

When anxious eyes unwrap them

Early Christmas Morn. ...

One by one, the years go by,

Each one a memory

As we count our many blessings

Beneath the Christmas tree.

~ Clay Harrison

2014-2015 Tampa Bay Mensa Officers

January 2015 Page 23

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

➢Local SecretarySylvia Holt Zadorozny 651 Timber Bay Cir. W. Oldsmar, FL 34677 813-855-4939 locsec@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Deputy LocSecArt Schwartz1909 Dover CTOldsmar, FL 34677813-343-8850asstlocsec@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢TreasurerKathy Crum 7164 Quail Hollow Blvd. Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 813-907-0526 treasurer@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Circulation OfficerArt Schwartzdistribution@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢EditorRonan Heffernan 27504 Breakers Dr. Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 727-537-6626editor@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Programs OfficerMelissa Stephens 2023 Blue Rock Rd. #301Tampa , FL 33612813-476-5405 programs@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Calendar EditorArt Schwartzcalendar@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Membership OfficerSteve Shapiro349 Shore Dr. E.Oldsmar, FL 34677727-543-2004membership@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Gifted Youth Coordinator

Melissa Stephens giftedyouth@ tampa.us.mensa.org

➢ScribeDavid Schwartz1909 Dover ctOldsmar FL 34677

813-965-0370scribe@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Testing CoordinatorJen Micheltesting@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Volunteer CoordinatorHillary Miller1700 66th St NSt Petersburg, FL 33710volunteer@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Publicity OfficerDavid Schwartzpublicity@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢AuditorKevin Brawnerchesnut314@gmail.com

➢SIG CoordinatorDavid Schwartzdavidsdover@yahoo.com

➢WebmasterRonan Heffernanwebmaster@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Scholarship ChairRonan Heffernanscholarship@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Members-At-LargeBarbara Loewe 12401 N. 22d St.Apt #C111Tampa, FL 33612 813-968-3343bloewe@juno.com Kay Shapiro349 Shore Dr. E.Oldsmar, FL 34677727-543-2004kay@kayshapiro.com

OTHER OFFICERS

➢OmbudsmanEloise Hurst 3615 W Renellie Cir Tampa, FL 33629 813-839-2695 ombudsman@ tampa.us.mensa.org

➢SIGHT CoordinatorSusan Anderson 10733 Dowry Ave. Tampa, FL 33615 813-494-6517 sight@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢Election SupervisorEloise Hurst election@tampa.us.mensa.org

➢PublisherSylvester (Les) Milewski 727-397-8483 LesMiles@aol.com

➢ProctorsJay Johnson Kay ShapiroThomas George Thomas

➢Editorial BoardKay ShapiroMelissa StephensJen Michel

➢Election CommitteeEloise Hurst

ASSISTANT OFFICERS

➢Asst TreasurerKay Shapiro

➢Asst WebmasterKevin Brawner

➢Asst GYCKay & Steve Shapiro

➢Asst Programs OfficerArt Schwartz

➢Asst Publicity OfficerArt Schwartz

➢Asst EditorJen Michel & Kay Shapiro

➢Asst Membership OfficerKay Shapiro

➢Asst Circulation OfficerDavid Schwartz

REGIONAL CONTACTS

➢RVC, Region 10Thomas George Thomas27647 Sky Lake Circle Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 813-994-3981rvc10@us.mensa.orgText: RVC10@vtext.comTampa Bay Sounding (USPS 305­830) is published monthly by Tampa Bay Mensa at 9091 St. Andrews Dr., Seminole, FL 33777. Periodicals postage paid at St. Petersburg, FLPostmaster: Send address changes to: Tampa Bay Sounding, c/o American Mensa Ltd. 1229 Corporate Dr. W., Arlington, TX 76006­6103.

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