The Faculty Club Newsletter

March 2003

           Many thanks to everyone who attended our Valentine’s Day dinner and dance. It was a great success, and everyone had an enjoyable evening. We have more exciting events planned and I would encourage you to attend and support them so that we may continue to offer them. Once again, many thanks to the staff for doing a wonderful job, both at the special events and in our day-to-day operations. As you will learn at the annual meeting, the Club continues to do well and the Board and Management are working hard to get renovations to the building completed. We have installed new blinds in the Howard Room. Thank you for your positive comments and your suggestions. I continue to welcome them. Please let me know, if I can be of any help to you at the Club.

        On March 21st join us for a dinner with Chalk Hill winery. The reception will start at 6 p.m., with dinner at 7 p.m. Total cost for the evening is $60 per person, inclusive. At these events, wineries send representatives to plan a presentation of some of the finest wines they produce and offer members the opportunity to order at highly advantageous prices. Sometimes the wines presented are hard to find on the open market. If you’ve never been to one of these dinners, come and be amazed! Call Mark at extension 224 to make your reservations.

       Repeat of a grand event that gets more supporters every year. Come to the Club for the third annual dinner and evening of jazz on March 7th. Enjoy an evening of hot, foot-stomping classic jazz from the twenties by the fine international jazz band, the San Francisco Feetwarmers The cost is only $30 per person, all inclusive. Call ext. 224 for last-minute reservations.

        The spring Wine Committee dinner on April 11th is very special this year. The featured guest will be Narsai David, who will work in the planning of this special meal and share his ideas about the wines. This event is so special we are limiting reservations. Only members may reserve, and each member may bring only one guest. Reception at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7. Cost: $60 per person, all inclusive. Reserve now: ext. 224.

        On April 24th join us for dinner and lecture- discussion with Professor Fred Crews of the English Department. Fred is a distinguished scholar also widely known for his popular writings (The Pooh Perplex and his articles about Freud). His topic: “Who can tell you what your dreams mean?” Reception at 6 p.m., dinner at 6:30, and lecture at 7:30. Cost: $25 per person, all inclusive.

        The next meeting of the Golden Girlfriends will be held on Wednesday, March 12th.Members who attend these luncheons will receive notification in the mail during late February. For the March meeting, members are invited to write and read a paragraph recounting an event or incident from their lives that would seem completely alien to a modern 20-year-old. Readers will be available for the shy. We may have the a start for a small publication here–more fun than a cookbook! But don’t hesitate to come even if you’re not yet ready to share.

        Marion Brucker is a Berkeley artist, a graduate of Smith College who also studied painting and print making in Italy. “I draw because I like to,” she writes. “It is the actual drawing of a tree or a flower or a lake or a river that I love. My hand moves over the paper in a drawing dance – sometimes very fast and sometimes very slowly. For me, drawing is a meditation – soothing, center, focusing. Sometimes I also like the picture.”

        Arrive at the Club on any week night between 5 and 6:30 to enjoy a complete meal for the incredible price of $11.95! All meals include soup or salad, plus dessert. Reservations are recommended, especially on basketball game nights and dates when there are major events at Zellerbach. (Still, some drop-ins can usually be accommodated. ) Reserve at 540-5678 extension 0.

       January 14th was the 250th anniversary of the death of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, the namesake of our fair city. Except for a portrait of Berkeley given in the 19th century (now in the Bancroft Library?) there is no visible reminder of our eponym on the Berkeley campus or in the City. Berkeley was born in Ireland, of an Anglo-Irish family, in 1685, and is well known for his hypothesis on the nature of being, tied to the act of perception. But what ties him to our fair city is not his philosophy but his campaign during the 1720's to create a college in the colonies, originally intended for Bermuda. He spent two years in Rhode Island, promoting the project, but lack of financing forced him to return to England. While he was working on the college project, he wrote a poem on the subject, the final stanza of which was quoted by Frederick Billings during an 1866 discussion of suitable names for the new university campus and town. At a meeting of the trustees of the College of California, gathered near Founder’s Rock, Billings looked out to the Golden Gate and declaimed: Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time’s noblest offspring is the last. Later that same day (May 24th, 1866) the trustees voted to adopt Berkeley’s name for the new city and campus. There have been suggestions that the Club find some way to commemorate our eponym, a promoter of odd and inspirational dreams–surely the best kind of model for a great university. Suggestions have included a stained glass window–but any and all odd and inspired ideas would be welcome. Submit them to Steve Finacom (sfinacom@cp.berkeley.edu or care of the Newsletter at the Club). – Steve Finacom and Phyllis Brooks

       Members are invited to drop the burdens of the day, or gird themselves for the evening ahead of them, by coming to the bar for a break. Meet your friends over a drink between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Enjoy complimentary snacks and a changing offering of specially chosen wines (in addition to all the usually available libations, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic).

       At the beginning of March, the Nominations Committee will post on the bulletin board the list of candidates who have agreed to run for the vacancies on the Board of Directors. In the course of that month, members will receive ballots and background information on candidates. The results of the election will be announced at the Club’s annual meeting – at 12 noon on April 9th in the Howard Room (complimentary coffee and cake). We are fortunate that so many busy people agree to undertake the task of serving on the Board. Please take time to vote and participate in this effort.

        Our oldest member is still coming to the Club for dinner with his friends! Murray Emeneau celebrated his 99th birthday on February 28th. We send him all good wishes as he approaches the magic 100.

        Our Mother’s Day Brunch will be on May 11th. Reservations on the special form provided. The cost is $30 per person, plus tax and gratuity. On May 23rd enjoy our spring wine tasting on the Glade from 5 to 7 p.m., followed by dinner and dancing from 7 to 10 p.m. Cost: $30 plus tax and gratuity.

        Members are invited to pick up a sandwich and join the roundtable in the Lewis Latimer Room at noon on March 20th. Yu-Fang Cho, Bancroft Fellow, will talk on “Visions of Pacific Destiny: Culture of Western Expansion and American Women’s Work of Benevolence, 1880s-1890s.”

 
 

 
 
 

The Faculty Club Newsletter is published monthly by:  The Faculty Club  University of California  Berkeley. CA 94720-6050  Contributions and comments may be mailed to the Editor, Phyllis Brooks, at the Club, or by e-mail to pbrooks@vdn.com  Board of Directors, 2002-2003:  Bruce Bolt, President  Dick White, Treasurer  Dan Melia, Recorder  Jack Coons Joyce Kallgren  Bill Oldham    Phyllis Brooks  Club Manager: Felix Solomon

Club numbers:  Telephone:  510-540-5678  Fax:  510-540-6204  Reservations:  Kerr Dining Room:  Extension 0  Parties:   Extension 5  E-mail: info@berkeleyfacultyclub.com  Website: www.berkeleyfacultyclub.com  Kerr Dining Room hours Breakfast 7:30-10:00; Lunch M-F 11:30 –1:30; Dinner M-F 5:00-8:30  Bar hours: M-F 11:30-1:30; Happy Hours 4-30-6 30; closes at 8:30 p.m.  Buffet lunch: 11:30-1:30 M-F  Guest accommodations available:  Reservations may be made at 540-5678, ext. 3 or through our website.  Membership: Call Felix, at ext.  9.