Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

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About OLLI E-News

OLLI E-News was created by Rod Zumbro, who served as its editor from 2005 to 2013.

Editorial Staff Chief Editor/Technical Editor: Irene Osterman Associate Editor: Weekly Editorial Team: Pat Bangs, John Nash, Paul Van Hemel, Sheri Siesseger, Leslie Vandivere

Proofreaders: John West, Gordon Canyock, Susan Van Hemel Backup Chief Editor: Sheri Siesseger Submissions. Members are encouraged to submit letters to the editor, letters to Ms. Ollie Ettakit (on etiquette matters), OLLI-related news items, articles and photos. Submit material to: ollienewseditor@gmail.com.

Deadline – 6:00 pm Tuesday for that week's issue (6:00 pm Monday for letters to the editor); early submissions are greatly appreciated. Please limit articles to about 250 words. Note: You can view past issues of OLLI E-News on the DocStore. To search the content of issues, use Search Our Site or put your search term in Google followed by "site:ollidev2.earthcare.com/" without the quotes.

OLLI E-News October 9, 2015
Print a condensed .pdf copy of this newsletter, two web pages per sheet of paper.

Fall Term 2015 Event: German Perilla, Director, Mason’s Honey Bee Initiative and Instructor, Presents The Importance of Bee Health, September 25

October 9, 2015


Editor of the Week: Paul Van Hemel
Table of Contents

Alerts & Notices

  • The OLLI Board of Directors will meet on Fri, Oct 16, 10:00 to 12:00 at the Reston Rose Gallery, Lake Anne; the meeting is open to all OLLI Members
     
  • Chili Cook Off, immediately following the Board of Directors meeting (see details in article below); sign up on line for Social Event 1102

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Special Board Meeting: Summary
October 2, 2015


By Irene Osterman, Secretary, Board of Directors



The Board met on Friday to consider proposals for a recipient for OLLI's planned 25th anniversary gift to Mason. Presentations were made by two programs at Mason - the Office of Military Services (OMS) and the Early Identification Program (EIP) for students who will be the first in their families to attend college. Board members Bill Reader and Martha Scanlon presented a proposal to provide funds to the Mason departments that support OLLI programming (in addition to the current scholarships). The Office of Military Services was selected to receive the funds raised for the anniversary gift. A resolution was also passed to use Friends of OLLI funds to make a donation to the EIP. Nonfinancial needs were also mentioned during the presentations. OMS could use good-condition furniture for the OMS student lounge as well as to help returning service members furnish their homes. OLLI members who are downsizing should consider making such donations. EIP could use volunteers to mentor students in the program.

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More LRI/OLLI Early Members

By Carol Henderson, Member, 25th Anniversary Committee
 
 
As we’ve researched the history of LRI and OLLI to help celebrate our 25th anniversary next year, we were impressed with how many key volunteers among our members have been the subject of features in LRI or OLLI newsletters. We’ve identified some additional early key people who were previously either overlooked or who should be highlighted.

Here are a few more early members who helped get the institute started.
 
Marion Burgett, whose husband had died in 1990, learned about LRI when a local news sheet said that classes would open to seniors at the Bank Building on University Drive. She joined, took classes and became a Board member. Her career was with the IRS; at LRI she was treasurer for two years, helped with budgeting, and taught tax classes and Great Decisions. She also did tax work through IRS with AARP and through Fairfax libraries. In 2000 she moved to Green Spring, where she continues to be active and brags of six grandchildren. She brought several friends to LRI, including Beverly George.
 
Laura Cambern was LRI’s fourth president, and the first to serve two terms in that position in 1994/95 and 1995/96. She is remembered as a calm and competent woman. An article in a 1996 Connection newspaper quotes her in a feature about LRI as saying that the common trait among all the students is a continuing desire to learn. “We’ve done all the shoulds, oughts and have tos and now are in the enviable position of being able to do things for our own interests.” She passed away in 1999.
 
Helene Layman thought “what next?” after her husband died in 1990. She knew Kathryn Brooks and Lilyan Spero and soon found LRI. She joined, ran for the board, and said “I will take care of music.” And she did! She organized classes, holding some in her home. When LRI moved to Tallwood, she started a chorus, the same one known today as Singing for Fun. Born in San Francisco, she was in the cast of Aida at 15. A graduate of Julliard, she sang opera in San Francisco and New York. She spent years overseas with her Foreign Service husband, and taught music at Langley Elementary School. Now at 98, she lives at The Virginian in an apartment large enough to hold her piano. She enjoys company and has many happy memories, including OLLI.

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Fun Facts to Celebrate OLLI’s 25th Anniversary
 


By Ray Beery, Member, Board of Directors

 
In 1992, LRI was listed in the Elderhostel directory of learning in retirement institutes throughout the country. In early 1993, George Mason University’s new telephone book recognized LRI for the first time.
 
OLLI will celebrate its 25th year of classes for seniors in 2016. We’ll be publishing fun facts and interesting milestones about the Institute each week that OLLI E-News is published from now through the end of the fall term, 2016.

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Attention: Teaching at OLLI


By Kathryn Russell & Russell Stone,
Program Committee Co-Chairs

Are you interested in teaching a course during the spring, 2016, term (March 21-May 13)?
 
Are you able to organize a course and arrange for an instructor?
 
Now is a perfect time to submit your course proposal. The due date is October 15.  
 
The form is available on the website — ollidev2.earthcare.com — under Main Menu/Our Program/Instructor Resources.

If you wish to discuss your ideas with a program planner, names are listed on page iv of every course catalog.

Program Planning Committees are meeting soon. Be sure your ideas are included.

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Help Us Honor OLLI's Veterans


By Martha Powers, Member, Board of Directors


Join us on Veterans Day, November 11, from 1:45-3:45 in TA-1 for this special event. We will begin with the Fairfax Police Honor Guard and our national anthem, followed by a screening of the documentary Honor Flight. This award-winning film follows four veterans as they fly from the Midwest to our area and take a whirlwind tour of our nation’s capital and the World War II Memorial. Joining us for this event are three OLLI members who volunteer with Honor Flight at Dulles International Airport, and can answer your questions about this wonderful nonprofit program. Space is limited, so please sign up online for Special Event 978, A Veterans Day Tribute: Honor Flight.
Photos by John Nash

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Chili Cook-Off


By Elizabeth Lambert, History Club (and Chili!) Coordinator

Don’t forget the Chili Cook-off on Friday, Oct 16 from 12:30-3:00 at the Rose Gallery at Reston Community Center in Lake Anne. This is your chance to share your favorite chili, corn bread, salad, or dessert recipe with an appreciative group. The Cook-off will follow the Board of Directors meeting held in Reston that morning, so you can mingle with Board members as well as with OLLI friends from all campuses. Don’t forget to sign up on line under Social Event 1102.

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"What Now, Cuba?"


By Johnnie Hicks, OLLI Member and Instructor


Have you ever traveled to Cuba—or had experiences working with or for the Cuban people? If so, we would like to know! In collaboration with George Mason University, OLLI is planning to offer courses related to the opening of relations between Cuba and the United States. In particular, we are interested in covering topics on Cuba’s social, political, economic, and cultural developments as well as learning more about Cuban arts and society.
 
If any of these things fall into your range of interest or expertise, please contact one of the OLLI members listed below, or leave a message in the OLLI office marked: “What Now, Cuba?”
 
Walt Carlson – Phone: 703 385-8866 or email:  wcarlson1@cox.net
Johnnie Hicks – Phone: 703 455-5536 or email:  johnniehicks@earthlink.net

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Computer Club



By Paul Howard, Program/Publicity Coordinator, OPCUG: OLLI PC User Group


Third Saturday, October 17
Expert Panel: Computer Questions Answered
Learn 30: Home Automation

The Computer Club (OLLI Personal Computer User Group, or OPCUG) will meet with its partner, the Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society (PATACS), on Saturday, October 19 at Tallwood. Join us at 12:30 for soft drinks and socializing in the social room. Presentations will begin at 1:00.
 
Oct 17- Third Saturday—Expert Panel—Computer and Technology Questions Answered
 
The October PATACS/OPCUG meeting will offer an extended Q&A session hosted by a diverse panel of experts who will either have immediate and correct answers to your questions, know where to find such answers, suggest who else to ask those questions, tell creative stories about how they once wondered about these questions, or answer entirely different questions at such length that you'll forget what you asked.
 
More seriously, this is a great opportunity for extended discussion of problems, questions, current technology news and issues, or resources/programs/apps/gadgets you've discovered and love (or hate). Come ready to ask, answer, and discuss.
 
Panel members will be Gabe Goldberg, Tom Gutnick, Nick Wenri, and Henry Winokur.
 
Learn 30:  Locks, Thermostats, Lights and Drapes??  Presented by Roger Fujii
 
Roger will offer a brief overview of current options in home control, including X11, Z-wave, Micasaverde VERA, Nest, Insteon, Wemo, etc.
 
Roger has repaired the computers of three OLLI Executive Directors, upgraded our network to accommodate videoconferencing, and solves problems for club members at the twice-yearly PC Clinics.
 
See full details on these meetings by clicking here. For information on the Computer Club, see the OPCUG website. OPCUG dues of $5 for 2015 will be collected at this meeting.
 
Can't make one of the meetings in person?  Dues-paid club members may attend via Zoom's cloud meeting service, beginning at 12:45. Send a message to webinarhosts@patacs.org if you plan to attend in this way. Join from PC, Mac, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/314668123

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Book Club


By Ceda McGrew, Book Club Coordinator


The OLLI Book Club will meet on Wednesday, October 14 at 1:30 at Tallwood. The book for discussion is The Things They Carried, a collection of short stories about a platoon of the 23rd Infantry in Viet Nam. It was named one of the best books of the past 25 years by the New York Times. The author, Tim O'Brien, was a featured speaker at this year's Fall For the Book Festival where he received the Fairfax Award for outstanding literary achievement.
 
All OLLI members are welcome.
 
The book for November is The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.

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Inside OLLI-Mason
The Poetry Workshop: A Quick Dose of Humility




By Jan Bohall, E-News Contributing Writer


OLLI’s Poetry Workshop is one of the longest-running classes at Tallwood, having begun in 1991. Today’s class is essentially the same. Each member somehow creates a poem a week during each term. Our liaison turns in each group of poems to the office for copying, and the office returns to us 18 packets of poems to be read by the poets at the following week’s workshop, two weeks after the poems have been submitted. One week before a term starts, we each send two poems to the OLLI office, either by email or hard copy, so that packets for the first two weeks are available at the first workshop.

We take the packets home to pore over and consider how we can comment to help the poet expand his or her ideas, and get a firmer grasp on the fine points of putting together a poem from a pile of elusive words. Each poem is waiting for 17 other pairs of eyes and comments ranging from high praise to suggestions for change (gasp) to just an edge of criticism, offered with kind words and a smile. Commentary is served up with a broad sprinkling of humor, usually pointed at ourselves.

Poets read their poems in the order they appear in the packet. The poet reads his or her poem with crossed fingers—hoping to find out why that section seems awkward (it may be), or why this line break is, um, unusual. The rest of the class, leaders included, chime in, in a somewhat orderly fashion.

Newcomers to the workshop are always welcome, and bring much variety to the group. We have had to set a limit of 18 members to ensure that everyone has time to read and hear comments. The two leaders, Mike Mc Namara and I, maintain that we learn much more from others in the class than we could possibly teach them.

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Poet's Corner
Courtesy of the Poetry Workshop

Summer’s End in Virginia
 
Summer’s heat fades the intensity
of colors, dulling them to drab versions
of what they once were.
 
Grass has the wan, weary look
of late August, washed out green
parched to straw in places;
hydrangea’s blue blossoms have dried to beige.
 
Like the first leaves of the poplar tree
to blanch and curl inward,
I waver in the breeze, in danger
of detaching and drifting away.
 
My body has grown awkward
and tremulous; stiff muscles groan
in protest when I stoop to tend a tangle of mint;
 
but the clean, bracing smell it releases
is balm to a withered perspective;
everything doesn’t fade at summer’s end;
 
The marigolds are still outrageously orange,
and mums are just starting
to fulfill their promise of glory.
 
                                        Sandy Myles

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Arts & Music at George Mason

Performances, next ten days

By Shelly Gersten, OLLI E-News Staff Writer

For tickets for either Center for the Arts (CFA) or Hylton, call 1-888-945-2468, buy tickets online through the event calendar (see links below), or visit the venue's box office. For more information see the CFA ticket page or the Hylton ticket purchase page.
At the Fairfax Campus Venues

Turtle Island Quartet with special guest Cyrus Chestnut: Jelly, Rags, & Monk
Sat, Oct 10, 8:00
Concert Hall
Pre-performance discussion: David Balakrishnan; founder and performer with Turtle Island Quartet
Concert Hall
Admission: $48, $41, $29.
 
Aquila Theatre: Romeo and Juliet
Sun, Oct 11, 7:00
Pre-performance discussion: Member of the company
Concert Hall
Admission: $44, $37, $26.

The National Circus and Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China: Peking Dreams
Fri, Oct 16, and Sat, Oct 17, 8:00
Sat, Oct 17, 2:00
Pre-performance Discussion: Ms. Deng, Baojin, artistic director
Concert Hall
Admission: $50, $43, $30.

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Mason Student & Faculty Performances
(see music.gmu.edu for additional student recitals)

Boleros for the Disenchanted - A Mason Fringe Performance
Fri, Oct 9, 8:00
Sat, Oct 10, 2:00
TheatreSpace
Admission: Pay what you can ($5 increments only).
 
A Bright New Boise - A Mason Fringe Performance
Sat, Oct 10, 8:00
Sun, Oct 11, 2:00
TheatreSpace
Admission: Pay what you can ($5 increments only).
 
Faculty Artist Showcase
Fri, Oct 9, 8:00
Harris Theatre
Admission: Free.
 
Rachel Bradner, Music-Ed Recital
Sun, Oct 11, 6:00
deLaski 3001
Admission: Free.

Mason Symphony Orchestra Concert
Wed, Oct 14, 8:00
Concert Hall
Admission: Adults, $12; seniors, $8.
 
New Sound Collective Concert (formerly M3E)
Sat, Oct 17, 8:00
deLaski 3001
Admission: Free.
 
Geoffrey Flolo, Graduate Clarinet Recital
Sun, Oct 18, 6:00
deLaski 3001
Admission: Free.
 
Purev Arslanbaatar, Music-Ed Vocal Recital
Sun, Oct 18, 6:00
Vienna Baptist Church, 541 Marshall Road, SW, Vienna, VA
Admission: Free.

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At the Hylton Center

Nature Visions Traveling Exhibition
Oct 5 - Nov 15
Buchanan Partners Art Gallery
The Gallery is open to the public Tue-Sat, 10:00 - 6:00, Thu, 10:00 - 8:00 and two hours before performances. Gallery Admission: Free.
 
CANCELED — Dr. Ralph Stanley with Nathan Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys: An Evening with an American Icon
Originally scheduled Fri, Oct 9, 7:00 at Merchant Hall
 
Aquila Theatre: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Sat, Oct 10, 8:00
Merchant Hall
Pre-performance discussion: Member of the company
Admission: $44, $37, $26.
 
Poetry Day!
Sun, Oct 11, 1:00
State Poets Laureate from across the Mid-Atlantic area are joining in workshops, open mic and more.
Hylton Center
Admission: Free.

Prince William Little Theatre: Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Fri, Oct 16, and Sat, Oct 17, 8:00
Sun, Oct 18, 2:00
Fri, Oct 23, and Sat, Oct 24, 8:00
Sun, Oct 25, 2:00
Gregory Family Theater
Admission: Adults, $20; seniors, $17.
 
Manassas Chorale: Princesses and Pirates
Sat, Oct 17, 7:30
Merchant Hall
Admission: $20.
 
The National Circus and Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China: Peking Dreams
Sun, Oct 18, 4:00
Pre-performance Discussion: Member of the company
Merchant Hall
Admission: $50, $43, $30.

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For further details on any of the above events, please see the CFA event calendar and the Hylton Center event calendar

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Meetings & Clubs


The following list covering the next two weeks is extracted for your convenience from the master online calendar maintained by the office, with direct web links added when available. The list is accurate as of mid-week but to check anytime for the latest information, please view the latest forecast of upcoming events on our website (News/OLLI Calendar). Note: All OLLI members are welcome at, and encouraged to attend, meetings of the Board of Directors, committees and resource groups, kickoff coffees, etc. (bolded below).
Sat Oct 10 10:30am Tai Chi Club–TA-3
Tue Oct 13 10:00am Knitting and Needlework Club–Panera, Herndon
Wed Oct 14  1:30pm
 1:45pm
 1:45pm		 Book Club–TA-1
Bridge Club–TA-3
Spanish Club–TA-2
Fri Oct 16  9:00am
10:00am
10:00am
11:00am
11:00am		 Recorder Consort–TA-3
Board of Directors Mtg–Rose Gallery Lake Anne
Craft and Conversation–Cottage
Classic Literature Club–TA-2
Homer, etc–Annex
Sat Oct 17 10:30am
 1:00pm		 Tai Chi Club–TA-3
Computer Club–TA-1
Mon Oct 19  1:15pm Executive Director Conversation and Coffee–Loudoun
Tue Oct 20 10:00am Knitting and Needlework Club–Panera, Herndon
Wed Oct 21  1:30pm
 1:45pm
 1:45pm		 Mah Jongg–TA-2
Bridge Club–TA-3
Paul Howard A/V Committee–Cottage
Fri Oct 23  9:00am
10:00am
10:00am
11:00am
11:00am
12:00pm
12:00pm		 Recorder Consort–TA-3
Craft and Conversation–Cottage
Classic Fiction Book Club–Cascades Library
Classic Literature Club–TA-2
Homer,etc–Annex
Photography Club–TA-1
Religious Studies Club–Cottage

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OSHER LIFELONG LEARNING INSTITUTE
AT GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

4210 Roberts Rd. Fairfax, VA 22032-1028
Phone: (703) 503-3384
Email: olli@gmu.edu

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