ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION
PO Box 10235
State College, PA 16805-0235
|
| ________________ |
|
BRANCH HOME PAGE
ABOUT THIS WEBSITE
This is the website of the English-Speaking Union, Central Pennsylvania Branch. We are centered on State College, and the great majority of our members reside within 10 miles of the Penn State Campus. We will use this site as a mode of communication with our members. The display of such communication will round out the picture of who and what we are. For the convenience of our members (and the webjack) things will be simplified.
The Branch Home Page will be devoted to occasional news items, always added at the top. The Calendar of Events page is the most useful page, and will be kept (fairly) up to date. The remaining pages are of only occasional interest; we'll call them the timeless pages. The membership page will tend to show signs of life when member poems are available after our poetry evenings.
All that stuff about reverse time order and time labeling is consigned to the dust bin; if the webjack's frequent confusion is any indication it must be hell for the readers.
| NEWS; LATEST IS ON TOP, HISTORY ON BOTTOM .
[For scheduled events see Calendar of Events page.]
NEW WEBSITE UPDATE SCHEME -- SEE ABOVE
[[4/16/10]]
FLASH! STOP PRESS! ESU SPELLING TEAM WINS XII MSLC SPELLING BEE
The twelfth annual Mid-State Literacy Council spelling bee was held on April 14, 2010. Our branch team consisted of Helen Warren, Donald Jackman, and George Lang. It's called "ESU Spell Binders" and was again sponsored by the Hamilton Square Shopping Center. Twelve teams were in competition and, as in the past, the general level of performance was very good as the words progressed from almost easy to darn near impossible. The "Stellar Spellers," captained by John Dickison, were again our strongest competition. Helen and Don got us through some tough ones as George stood nearby trying to look wise, having never heard of many of the words. One memorable mystery word was "lagniappe." Fortunately it was in Helen's mental lexicon and we survived. For the curious reader:
lagniappe (say lan-yap) - a small gift given with a purchase to a customer, by way of compliment or for good measure.
In a later round the Spell Binders took a hit on the word "kieselguhr." Don and Helen had settled on kieselgur, while George had written kieselgurh on his pad but had no confidence in it and didn't think it would be productive to add it to the collective pot. That may have been a mistake because Don is fluent in German and probably would have put the h in the right place. But there is very little time allowed for consultation. For the curious reader:
kieselguhr (say key-soul-grr) - a fine siliceous earth composed chiefly of the cell walls of diatoms: used in filtration, as an abrasive, etc.
Fortunately, a team stays in the running until knocked out by a second error. Our team survived until only three teams were still standing and we went to the sudden death mode. Each team was given a white board and they all dealt with each word, displaying their answers when time was called. All teams got the first few words, but the word "ytterbium" was our salvation. George wrote yterbium on his pad and was wondering if it was short one t. Helen only needed to see the initial y to cue her axons and dendrites, and we were home free as the other teams missed out. For the curious reader:
ytterbium (say uh-tirr(as in stirr)-bee-um) - a rare metallic element found in gadolinite and forming compounds resembling those of yttrium. Symbol: Yb; atomic weight: 173.04; atomic number: 70; specific gravity: 6.96.
Again, the Spell Binders were lucky, having made it to the s, d, mode with one error, while the Stellar Spellers had an unblemished record at that point. But it wouldn't do to say they are supported by feet of clay. Having won three of their four outings (-07, -09, -10) through some close calls, our team can claim at least feet of rabbits.
-George Lang, webjack
[[4/16/10]]
[[11/18/08]]-
NOVEMBER 2008 POETRY EVENING EQUALLY SUCCESSFUL
At our recent poetry evening we were favored by the presence of guests who have been studying poetry under Helen Manfull's guidance. We all enjoyed
having a number of found and original poems recited for us. Members Gloria Thompson and William Toombs brought impressive original works, as did guest Margaret O'Brien. We aim to post all these on the membership page. The poem by Bill Toombs is there now; it was written when he was Dean of Men at Drexel and is a good lyric for a drinking (but not on campus) song. We await the contributions from Gloria and Margaret. The poetry evening wound up on another high note, the delicious refreshments. For these we thank Christine Bailey and Linda Gardner.
-[[11/18/08]]
[[6/4/08]]-
POETRY EVENING A BIG SUCCESS; YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE MISSED IT
Although attendance was a bit light, all present at the May 14 branch poetry evening clearly enjoyed it and several members thought it the best meeting of the year. Original poems were presented by Wes Glebe, Christine Bailey, E-Tu Zen Sun, Bob Brand, Karen Blair, and Jean Brown Forster. Lisa Herzog presented a poem written by her granddaughter at age 12; it seems that poetry runs in the family. Quite a few found poems were also presented; all were well-chosen and well received. We thank Jean Bemis and Barbara Lee for the delicious refreshments. These combined with a lot of lively discussion to make for a socializing time longer than at most of our regular meetings. The original poems are posted on the Membership Page. When I asked Jean Forster to submit her poem she said that it should be heard, not read. Since our branch webjack doesn't know how to put sound bytes up on the site and doesn't want to learn, I persuaded her to submit in writing. A note arrived today (5/20), with a beautifully written poem, and in only about two hours I was able to type a copy that came close to imitating it. The poem describes her struggle to write something fitting for the May 14 event. I noticed she didn't get round to writing a title for it, so have contributed a title without her permission. This is no problem since she won't be aware -- computers are her bugbear. Mum's the word.
-[[6/4/08]]
[[5/9/08]]-
SHAKESPEARE CONTEST NEWS - NATIONAL
The final of the 2008 English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition was held on April 28th, 2008 in the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City. The winners were
Bronwyn Reed, first-place winner from Los Angeles, California;
Deon Pressley, second-place winner from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Christian Pineda, third-place winner from San Diego, California.
The full story of the competition will be posted soon on the national
site www.esuus.org .
SHAKESPEARE CONTEST NEWS - LOCAL
Central Pennsylvania will be represented at the English-Speaking Union's National Shakespeare Competition in New York on April 28 by Tara Shilling, a senior at Northern Cambria High School. Tara will recite a monologue by Constance from "King John" (3.4.23-36) and Sonnet 17.
The second-place winner, our alternate for the National event at Lincoln Center, was Amanda Sapio, a junior at Carlisle High School. Her monologue character was Phoebe in "As You Like It" (3.5.109-117, 119-129); her Sonnet, 29.
We had a wonderful competition March 8, orchestrated by host teacher Marilyn Knoffsinger at Bellefonte Area High School in Centre County. This was our 21st. Central Pennsylvania has participated ever since the New York ESU competition went nationwide.
The ESU doesn't have a monopoly on 21-year-old Shakespeare opportunities. Another will be held in two months! This one -- the 21st Annual Central Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival for Secondary Schools -- is scheduled for Big Spring High School, Newville, Thursday, May 22, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Each school group will present a 30-minute scene. For information, contact Bob Hankes or Sue Biondo-Hench
.
Thank you to all who held preliminary school contests and sent winners and runners-up to the March 8 competition program. If you couldn't join us this year, think about next year!
-Nadine Kofman
-[[5/9/08]]
|
|
