Gentlemen.
Yesterday marked the 107th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion. This occurred when the French supply ship SS Mont Blanc (Gus says that means White Mountain) collided with the Norwegian-registered SS Imo in an area near what is now Tuft’s Cove. The Mont Blanc was loaded with TNT, picric acid, and other volatile liquids and caught file. 1,782 people fell off the list that day. Today marks the 83rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Enough history for now, let’s see what’s going on at the Club.
The cannon from the Mont Blanc near where it landed at the corner of Albro Lake Road and Pinecrest Drive. Every the revisionists, City Council demanded the name be changed as Mont Blanc, despite being French (as in the country), was too "colonial" and decided to have a name-change contest. As "The Long Dong Silver Memorial" overwhelmingly garnered the most votes, they reluctantly kept the old designation.
TGIF DRAW
Winner (or not)
The name selected in this week’s TGIF draw was Fred Myers. Unfortunately, Fred lost all his money in the Friday afternoon cribbage matches and didn’t have enough money to sign-in. And the prize was $174.00. Even if Fred wasn’t at the Club, a cool 87 bones would have come his way. Next week will be a substantial carryover. And if there’s no winner next week, The Moose Milk TGIF will see a pot exceeding $300.00! There were 31 signed in and $62.00 in the pot. Have a drink boys!
Fred Myers will not be seeing this money this week.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Sunday, December 8th
This Sunday morning the Club will be hosting a Formula-1 pancake breakfast courtesy of Joe Zareski. This is the last F-1 race of the season, and, as it is in Abu Dhabi, coincides nicely with breakfast time in Dartmouth. Pancakes are on the menu and President Gus will be providing maple syrup. As a full-fledged Quebecois, Gus knows two things, poutine and maple syrup. Breakfast commences at 8:00 with the race set for 9:00 am.
Pancakes and maple syrup are just 11 hours away!
Wednesday, December 18th
Speaking of Gus, the president’s reception gets underway with cocktails and mingling at 6:00 pm. Hors d’oeuvres and finger foods will be served at 7:00 pm. The dress is smart casual, so a reminder to the Club members and their guests that combat boots, Bermuda shorts, Hulkster tear-aways, and MAGA hats would not be appropriate. Casual business shoes, cotton pants, a tasteful button-shirt, and a sports coat would be a great ensemble. As for the ladies, they can wear whatever they think will make them look better than the other women. There will be a basket for cash donations to Margaret’s House at the event.
There are some exceptions to the dress code.
Friday, December 20th
“♫♫Sinatra was swinging. All the drunks they were singing. We kissed on a corner♫♫. Well, that better not happen (at least between Club members), but the TGIF that night will feature a venerable concoction of white rum, dark rum, vodka, Tia Maria, Kahlúa, vanilla ice cream, and milk. The most preeminent coven of witches couldn’t not conceive in their cauldrons the brew that bestows the membership. Bring a spare pair of underwear that night.
An Owl drinking moose milk.
Wednesday, January 1st
The last event of the Christmas season and the first event of the new year will be the annual Club levee. This is a member and their guests event that gets started at 12:00 pm and continues until 4:00pm. Food will be served.
The Month of January
The annual cribbage championship will once again be held in January. Leigh MacDonald will be organizing and running the tournament, and all the details will be forthcoming.
The annual cribbage tournament is a great start to the new year. This match from two years ago involving Jake Risk is still being played.
Thursday, January 9th
The Club’s monthly meeting will be held on the second Thursday of January as many of the members will be recovering from New Year’s Eve and Day. Some may even still be recovering from moose milk.
Don't forget to change your schedules.
Friday, January 10th
Haggis. To wit: the pluck of a sheep, including its heart, liver, and lungs. Fred Leafloor will be hosting the second annual Burns supper that evening and if the entrails of a gutted sheep doesn’t get your tummy growing, the neeps and tatties will. It’s weird. If it was served with neeps and titties, we’d have a line at the door up Oakdale Crescent.
This is the unfortunate aftermath of a Burns supper.
Tuesday, January 21st
Both the December and January Birthday Boys parties will be held that afternoon.
CLUB NEWS
Annual Christmas Party
Last Sunday the annual Club Christmas party was resurrected (probably a better term at Easter) and it was a tremendous success. There are many people to thank, and they likely won’t all get mentioned in this disquisition. Here’s the list (not that list!):
Joe Zareski and Chris Fourgnaud spearheaded the event.
Ashley Merrick provided the chowder.
Roger Kelvey tended bar.
Christine, Gary and the MacNeil clan did the decorations.
Seymour Wood oversaw the smores pit.
Greg Baker and David Zareski provided the hot chocolate.
Fred Leafloor did the dirty work in the kitchen.
Kim Conrad was the event photographer and supplied the 14’ tree.
David Zareski and Uncle Stumpy (he was a lion tamer) secured the tree.
And, last but not least, Gerry Pring who arrived by boat as Santa Claus and made the day for about four dozen kids.
Santa arrives in the traditional boat.
The event was sponsored by the following members and their families:
Gary MacNeil,
Bill McLellan,
Roger Kelvey,
Matthew Lohnes,
Seymour Wood,
Chris Fourgnaud, and
Joe and Tony Zareski.
Dennis MacDonald
This past Thursday, the Executive agreed that made Dennis MacDonald be made an honorary member of the Owls Club. Dennis has been with the Club since April of 1998, but his recent health has made it difficult for him to get to the Club on a regular basis.
Joel Coady
The Club’s bartender recently passed his servers’ course required by the province to serve liquor. It should be noted that Dr. Chester Wyman also completed the course earlier this summer.
Joel required a course to do this.
CLUB DUES
Members are starting pay their dues for the 2025 year. A reminder that the fee for 2025 is $450.00.
SPOTTED OWLS
Graham Whiteman was back at the Club yesterday after working the provincial election the past six weeks. He even brought a couple guests.
It was also nice to see Peter Bugden back at the Club at yesterday’s TGIF.
There were two spotted Owls at yesterdays TGIF.
THEY’RE OFF THE LIST (a long time ago)
Club Historian, Dr. Chester Wyman repeated an interesting story at the monthly meeting on Thursday. At Christmastime in 1948, a Club member, Leonard “Tiger” Driscoll flew Santa to the Owls Club in a Piper cub seaplane. Tiger is the great grandfather of Owl brothers Peter and David Driscoll. He also used to routinely fly Club members to far away locations to get away from their significant others. Unfortunately, after dropping a few members on a remote island one afternoon, his plane went down. There is still no word on the Club members that were left stranded on the island.
A MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT GUS
“Nos amis les Hiboux. Ne me mettez pas dans l'embarras lors de ma grande réception du 18 décembre ou je vous arroserai de sirop d'érable.”
CLUB BANTER
Ashley Merrick was asking about fixing his floors and wondered if Happy Harry’s had hard wood. Of course he does, that’s what makes him happy. Though a lot of people also go to Happy Harry’s for screws and knobs.
Last week was the American Thanksgiving and Joe Biden celebrated by pardoning a turkey.
ERRORS AND OMISSIONS
Club Grammarian Don Ellis was busy this week getting a puppy and didn’t have time to emend the text.
Don Ellis skirts his Club duties to acquire "Wally" the golden doodle.
REFERENCES
· Volatile liquids evaporate rapidly at ambient temperatures and at a rate even greater as temperatures rise.
· Volatile and ambient are cool words I got from the National Fire Code of Canada.
· Long Dong Silver was an adult star famous for...surely you can figure it out.
· “♫♫Sinatra was swinging. All the drunks they were singing. We kissed on a corner♫♫. Those are lines from the Pogues 1987 Christmas song Fairytale of New York. Though not in the regular Christmas season song rotation of older folks, the song is regularly named as one of the top five all-time Christmas classics.
· Happy Harry’s is a discount building supply store.
All for now.
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