Once & Future Meetkings

A good time was had by those souls brave enough to venture to frosty Brookline on a steamy day... them what didn't crack from the temperature extremes were greatly entertained with intermittent highlights of the Sox/Indians debacle (notably the drop zones around 2nd and 1st), in between the funky fresh animations from MassAhts, all on mind-numbingly brilliant 142-inch (diagonal) movie screen. My eyenozzles are still adjusting back to normal reality.

So if you missed it, tough noogies. Nyah nyah de nyah nyah. And in answer to your question: No, that is not my sammich. It is Piderman's.

The May SANE meetering will be - not in May, as many might suspect, but -- in June! Take that, May! On Tuesday, the Twoth of June, to be precisionable. What will we do, and where will we do it, you might ask? Well, this will serve as (even more) proof that I don't know everything! Please submit your answers (proposals, suggestions, opinions, smorgasborgies), in words or pictures (smoke signals no longer allowed, thanks to silly city ordinances), and the mo' soonah the mo' bettah. Something we've done already before? Or something brand-spanking-new? All suggestions will be gladly entertained. The cute ones might be wined&dined.

Rumor of a summer fandango is once again surfacing... The fabled Gloucester Lobster/Clamster/Cornster could be Saturday Aug 1, or it could be Saturday July 25. Or neither, if they're problematical. Let's put it to a votish thing. I will get out my votive candles, and you'all can write and float me votes about your preferences, as well as your absolute cannot-possiblies, and then I will cast the mystical dice and select a date. I tingle in anticipation. Or tinkle. Sometimes it's hard to tell.

Weechard

P.S. Sumvul Open Studios are this very weekend, Sat-Sun May 2-3, 12-6pm, for interested souls in search of weary soles (could be a lotta walkin').

Animation Fest 28 April

Come see what Flip has been doing at MassArt for the last 127 years! Marvel at 32 animated films from the last 6 years of MassArt Animation's annual screening, "Squealing Pegs." The name derives from traditional animation peg-bars, a local pub, and (I think) the movie Deliverance. They are are wonderfully well done and creative and goofy and serious and bubbly and slightly wobbly (every one of them is all these things) and a good time should be had by all, as we stare in rapturous splendor at the 14-foot video screen! Hmm. Perhaps I should have let Flip write his own introduction. Tough beanz! They are all good, and beggar my pitiful attempts at description!

We'll be gathering at Flip's humble igloo at 7pm on Tuesday 28 April 2009. Map & directions were sent with e-mail.

Warm weather is predicted for Tuesday, but as Brookline is north of the Arctic Circle, you may wish to bring spare warm clothing items, anyway.

See youse there/then!

Next meeting 28 April

Young Mary M. from S.B. writes to ask:

When is our next meeting?

A very good question, and one that all SANEsters will want to know the answer to. As always, thanks for writing.

As reported in the meeting report from 11 March:

The next meeting is slated for after school vacation, on Tuesday April 28, where we will hie to the wilds of Brookline and watch a DVD of the quite impressive Animation show recently shown at the MFA. Admission is free, but the charge for popcorn, Goobers and Chuckles will be, as usual, exorbitant. Perhaps we can sneak in snacks under our coats. More details as they become available.

I'm so happy to see this again, as it reminds me to re-Scotch-Gard the pockets of my overcoat, as chocolate and popcorn "buttah" are hell to get out of beaver fur. Although the old joke of the "beaver" coat "pooping" out Goobers will always amuse me, by golly.

Reminder to Web-snurflers that the largely official SANE blog (http://sanester.blogspot.com/) is always available on the InterNets, and contains a goodly percentage of the missives and epistles sent out to SANEsters lo these few years since it went online. Keep it on your list of Faves/Bookmarks, and turn to it for fond reminders of events past, even leave comments (if you've crafted some sort of nom-de-Web in the Google community - a nom-de-Goog? a name-with-a-hundred-zeroes?) that I might delete or relentlessly savage with my powers as Editor (nyah ha hah!). Why plug in a book if you have world-class entertainment like the SANE blog at your keyboardtip?

Bucky Goober

SANEsters in the news...

International Herald Tribune

THE GLOBAL EDITION OF The New York Times

12:05 PM ET 1 APRIL 2009

Mother & Son Escape Serious Harm in Prank Gone Wrong

By HELENE KOOPER

GRENOUILLE — A mother and her son are spending the night in the l'Hôpital du Sacré-Nez after a scary morning in their hotel, when a supposed April Fool's joke took a dangerous turn, but both are expected to make a complete recovery.

Tim Nard, a New York City leather-worker and his mother, Elisabeth Webler, part of a Sit&Knit tour of the Alps, were staying overnight at the famed Auberge Grenouille when the electrical adapter on Webler's hair dryer overheated, filling the third floor with acrid smoke. The antiquated fire-detection equipment had been disabled, and precious minutes ticked by before anyone took action.

"I thought it was a joke," remarked Nard. "She's a real kidder." He had been the target of his mother's jokes for the last 15 years, and he was fully expecting some sort of prank on this trip as April 1st neared. He had smelled the smoke, but was "waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Webler, bandages covering her head and torso, was still smoldering. "He's such an idiot," she remarked, her voice straining from the smoke damage. "This was a fire. Smoke. Flames. What was he thinking?"

Nard recounted a list of pranks, including a suggestive doll in his college locker room, a letter of induction from his local draft board, "forbidden" chocolates laced with laxatives, and a romantic rendezvous proffered by a mysterious online model.

"The 'romantic rendezvous' thing had nothing to do with me," Webner barked. Nard nervously picked at the dressing around his leg, noting, "I was lucky to escape with my wallet that night."

"His picture is right next to 'gullible' in the dictionary," Webler said. "Frankly, I am concerned about him living alone."

"They were very lucky," said Dr. Pantalon of the hospital's surprisingly large Burn Ward. "The danger of the American hair dryer is well-document[ed], and all tourist should [be] aware." Many nearby patients mumbled assent.

The two will rejoin their tour in 4-6 days, once the bandages come off. Dr. Pantalon expects the skin damage to be minimal, and predicts that 90-95 percent of their hair will grow back.