18 • March 2014 • UPBEAT TIMES
Family Stories & More Just Chillin’:
... continued from page 5
“Do you know who I am?” I replied: “No… Should I?” His unending chuckle gave me a warm feeling of approv- al. “Do you like arithmetic?” he asked. To that I briskly responded: “No,” sighed, and added: “I guess I hate it.” His big grin was back and he said: “Zat’s all right. I don’t like arithmetic either!” Pulling a sharp pencil from his pocket he said he would just sign his name in the upper corner of one of my scrapbook pages for me to remember our meet- ing. He did that. And I did save it. ---March 14th 1879 was Einstein’s birthday so this year it’s Happy 135th birth- day, Albert! Two other
remarkable
people were born on March 14th: Sir Michael Caine, aka Maurice Micklewhite, in 1933 and Billy Crystal, in 1948.
Back in March, 1941, as a
newbie Girl Scout, I joined my whole troop in marching in the NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Our local hero was Captain Snow, a legendary New York City Policeman who led his large contingent of police- men on his huge white horse. Captain Snow had white hair and bushy white eyebrows. He was a great friend of my parents. Whenever he visited we would hear more outra- geous stories about mischie- vous leprechauns who zipped through the woods of his beloved Tipperary, Ireland. He claimed, in his rich, ring- ing voice, that “’tis true… fairy rings encircle the woods by my dear mother’s cot in old Ireland.” He insisted not all leprechauns are lucky, or dance and make merry. They are trusted with fairy treasure
but are far too mischievous and never should be trusted by humans who are all too gullible! Here is Captain Snow’s best, good wish: (I keep seeing his bright blue eyes twinkling while he said it with a grand smile) “May your
thoughts
be as glad as the shamrocks. May your heart be as light as a song. May each day bring you bright, happy hours, that stay with you all the year long!” Years later, a really mischie-
vous Irish friend taught me: “May those who love us, love us. And for those who don’t love us, may the universe turn their hearts. And if it can- not turn their hearts, may it turn their ankles, so we may know them by their limping!” ~ Slainte! …Ellie
The total history of almost anyone
would shock almost everyone. Mignon McLaughlin
Upbeat in Nicaragua
Eloise Tweeten of Santa Rosa overlooking the San Juan River at the Spanish fort in El Castillo, Nicaragua.
Festivals ... continued from page 14
A film festival is our “city”, and “all good things” are the works of others. If Pericles could be brought forward in time to witness such a happening I think chiefly he would be in complete shock, stricken by the wilds of technology and driven to mad- ness at the prospect of a human projected on a screen, but would eventually agree with the com- parison.
Sitting in a dark theater for a time surrounded people who know the labors one must endure to come this far, for a moment makes everything worthwhile.
Weird Facts & Trivia -6 As a research project at Stanford
University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page created a search engine that listed results according to the popularity of the pages, after concluding that the most popular result would often be the most
useful. After raising $1 million from family, friends and other investors, the pair launched the company in 1998. Google has since become the world’s most popular search engine, receiving more than 200 million queries each day.
Sonoma County Library Is Pleased To Announce A New Program...
Santa Rosa, CA. ~ Sonoma County Library is pleased to announce a new program, designed to teach kids ages 11-14 basic programming concepts. The Coding Camp for Kids: Minecraft Mods will begin at Healdsburg, Rohnert Park-Cotati, and Sebastopol Libraries in March through June, and will use the popu- lar game Minecraft to teach the basics of the programming language Java. Participants will learn object-oriented pro-
18 • March 2014 • UPBEAT TIMES
gramming principles by creat- ing modifications, or mods, in the game during the week- long workshops. The work- shops are in such demand that enrollment is at capacity, and Sonoma County Library is looking to create additional sessions this summer. School Library Journal covered the program, which is the first of its kind at a public library:
http://www.thedigitalshift. com/2014/02/k-12/minecraft- sonoma-library/
Language is the dress of thought. ~Samuel Johnson
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