Root Beer Float April 2020 Root page Beer 1 and Checker Club Established 1944 Root Beer Float April 2020

IN THIS President's Message ISSUE

Schedule of Events RB&CC President letter April 2020 Club News Strength Training Journeys Beyond I was reviewing my March letter for the Float and Genocide cannot believe so much has changed in such a short Aquincum period of time. Virtually all activities have stopped. We all are being strongly urged to stay at home and Flying Fighter Jets stop interaction, even with friends and extended Tales from the Bunker family. Business Bulletin Bd. After listening to our Governor and the thoughts of the Club’s Board Members, it was decided at the Board meeting on the 7th of April to suspend Club functions OFFICERS until further notice. The monthly publication of the Float will continue, and President periodic updates might be emailed to the members as needed.

Hunter Corbin The Spring Cocktail Party at the Beacon Golf Club on Wednesday, May 13th has Vice President been cancelled. Depending on the virus situation, it may be rescheduled for later Bruce Eagleson in the year. Treasurer Your Board continues to meet, not in person but by virtual means, using a Richard Huff program called Zoom. Also, we have set up a “health committee” so we can take immediate action on situations created by the virus affecting the Club and its Secretary members. Tim Sullivan is Chairing this ad hoc committee and Hunter Corbin, Charlie Blatchley Richard Huff, Charley Shay, Bill Tice and Bruce Eagleson are the members.

The Board has discussed what the role of the Care Committee should be at this A publication of the time. It was agreed in order to keep all our members abreast on what is Root Beer and happening with RBCC, we would like to ask that you refer to your 2020 RBCC Checker Club annual Membership Directory booklet and if you feel it is appropriate, give a call P. O. Box 6121 to those members who you sponsored. This is nothing more than a gentle method of keeping in touch and seeing how everything is going for them and how they are Fair Haven, NJ 07704 coping with the situation. www.rootbeerclub.org If you have any questions regarding the Club and what we are currently doing, Editors please feel free to reach out to me or other Board members. Jim Powers Stay safe and healthy, and we will get through this. I must admit I find it hard not Bill Tice knowing how long this will last.

Issue 163 Hunter Corbin, President

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Club News

Schedule of Events: Root Beer and Checker Club

As Hunter mentioned in his President’s Message, club events have been postponed until further notice. The monthly publication of the Float will continue, and periodic updates might be emailed to the members as needed.

Also, please note in Hunter’s message the Board’s recommendations for keeping all our members abreast on what is happening with RBCC.

Our Birthdays This Month

Ray Veth 8 Bill Armstrong 15 George Morris 15

Lew Anderson 20 Ralph Wyndrum 20 Jim McGuiness 20

Ed Plaza 21

<< New Club Member January 2020

>> March The Cake that never was

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Club News (cont.)

Footsteps in the Sand - Ocean Grove 4/5/20

* * * * * We’re a very tough bunch of “Checkers” Staring down a bad viral foe We know not to sneeze Stay apart if you please And hope the damn thing will soon go!!

We’re bone tired of being so lonely While some just look at the Dow Let the doctors decide When we go back outside But I sure as Hell wish it was NOW!!! Hal Redden

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Club News (cont.)

Members of the Root Beer Board in virtual action … but who’s that on the beach Zoom bombing ?

Tales from the Bunker (An ongoing feature of member inputs - see also pages 15-18) Colleagues, I’ve talked to some of you, but not enough of you. Emails a bit more efficient. I’ve been doing work around the house and some bigtime cleanup (full garbage can and recycle for three weeks), which is about over, and all the spring yardwork that we used to have the fellows who looked for jobs at Wawa do. In the rain I did genealogy research. Give me a call if anyone needs help at home. I’m good at fixing things, wiring, etc. and would be pleased to virtually assist you. It beats sitting around bored, and maybe is useful. Phone is 732-219-0005. Keep well, wear your masks, etc.……. Thanks …. Ralph with Meta

* * * * * * We pray you all keep well. We are still in Florida . We swim every A.M. for about 1 and one half hours then lunch, reading, and TV. Some shopping about 2 times a week. Keep Well ….. Frank Haftl

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Strength Training - Mark Lisky - March 6

On Friday, March 6th Mark Lisky came to RB&CC and give a talk on the benefits of strength training. Hal Redden did the introductions. Mark works with students at various fitness centers, for example Ozone Fitness in Tinton Falls on Shrewsbury Avenue. His background includes: 1) having been a personal strength coach for members of the Russian, French, and Israeli Olympic figure skating teams, and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, 2) an exercise structure editor/writer/ghost writer, and 3) a professional speaker. As such, Mark speaks frequently to groups at The Riverview Medical Center, The Jersey Shore Medical Center, Meridian Health, Orthopedic, Mirage, and Golden Rehabilitation. Mark also teaches unarmed self- defense including martial arts. He’s also a First-Degree Black Belt. All told, that’s quite a background!

Hal and Mark spoke about Mark giving a talk to the folks at RB&CC. Mark asked, “about what, what do you want me to talk about?” He decided to talk about something he knows about. Among his many skills Mark is also a close quarter combat (CQC) instructor.

Mark began his talk by explaining that he works with many young people including many young girls who are oblivious regarding self-protection. He just doesn’t train his students in the classroom. He takes them out into different real-world environments such as on the streets and in back alleys. On one outing he was with his group training them on a wall. One of the girls took started to take a dive off the wall and he grabbed her and pulled her back but lacking counterbalance (he) landed on a boulder and cracked a number of ribs. Mark is very active physically and trains seven days a week. But, being injured limited him. He couldn't do anything. Anybody who has broken a leg or ribs know what it's like. But, by being immobile something started to happen. It's called sarcopenia. It happens to all of us starting about age 29. It’s when you lose lean muscle mass. Astronauts in space suffer from this also. The Soviets were the first to recognize it. When you spend time in space in zero gravity, you lose bone mass 20% to 10 days. It's like rapid aging. That's why nobody's going to go to Mars until they figure out how to retain muscle mass.

Pharmaceutical companies work with NASA to investigate this problem. There are even studies involving bears. They're semi hibernators and roam around and then go back. They shiver as a form of exercise. They recycle their waste to produce amino acids which helps to keep their muscle mass. The Japanese are all over this. There’s a lot of money in cracking that code. (cont.)

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Strength Training - Mark Lisky - March 6 (cont.)

Mark explained that strength exercise is the only positive way to maintain muscle mass without side effects. Another problem with losing lean muscle mass is that you lose the mitochondria powerhouse of the cell. They're all over your body but they massed in your skeletal muscles because they provide the energy in their power. When you lose mitochondria because you're losing muscle mass your reaction times are slower.

As we age you may fall because you're losing mitochondria related to muscle mass loss. You can't generate the power to stop yourself from falling. NOVA recently had a show on how the loss of muscle mass that affects the brain cells more than a lack of a good night’s sleep. Loss of lean muscle mass may also play a role in concentration and dementia. Michelangelo was one of the first to notice loss of muscle mass when he performed autopsies on cadavers to study the human body so he could create more realistic drawings and sculptures.

Muscle fibers used by marathon runners are different than those used by sprinters. Fast-twitch fibers favor speed and power activities like sprints and throwing events that take only tens of seconds at most. Slow-twitch fibers favor endurance competitors like marathoners and triathletes. People don't sprint today, they don't do plyometrics (a.k.a. jump training or short bursts of high intensity muscle use). Kids can stand on their heads and jump out of trees but as we age, we don't “sprint”. Looking at a marathon runner sometimes they don't appear healthy. But then look at a look at a hurdler. Hurdlers are very muscular. If you watch the Olympics and watch the hundred-yard hurdles, the runners are big because they’ve developed that muscle fiber that helps them perform well while the marathon runners lose that muscle strength while building endurance fibers. (cont.)

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Strength Training - Mark Lisky - March 6 (cont.)

As we all get older the workouts should be shorter. But they also should be more intense. He mentioned tennis where you're running to the ball constantly but if you haven't spread your muscle training out to stimulate those satellite cells, or lifted, it's going to take a while to move quickly. Again, if you look work out correctly you can activate those fast-twitch fibers and regain solid lean muscle mass, so that's about it.

Mark then answered a member’s question on “if you’re lifting weights what is the optimum amount of repetition that you want to do gain muscle mass strength?”

Mark answered the question in this way. “If you initially can lift 100 pounds for one rep, then that's your maximum strength and you should be able to work up to 80% of that weight for eight to ten reps. Marathon runners do the opposite and build endurance by using less weight for many more repetitions.

He created the system where for four weeks, you just do pure strength training and then for eight weeks you just do muscle hypertrophy to improve muscle definition. So, you're constantly training all the different muscle fibers.

Many thanks Mark (and Hal) for another great talk to the folks at the Root Beer and Checker Club! (wrt)

Photos by Jim Ingle and Bill Tice

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Journeys Beyond Genocide: The Human Experience - 3/10

On Tuesday, March 10, members of RB&CC visited Chhange (The Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education) exhibit in the library building at Brookdale Community College. We were met there by Dr. Sara E. Brown (Executive Director), Ally Evans (Administrative & Exhibit Coordinator), and Nicole Rizzuto (Program Manager). The visit began with overviews of what we were about to see. Many of the stories and artifacts are from the actual survivors and/or their descendants.

Left to right in the photo above are Bill Tice, Al Zager, Robin Zager, Dr. Sara Brown, Ally Evans, Sheryl Powers, Jim Powers, Nicole Rizzuto, and Ray Veth.

If you take a moment to browse the staff portion of the museum’s website https://www.chhange.org/ you’ll find that Sara, Ally, and Nicole have many accomplishments in the field of human rights beside their efforts there.

At some point Al was asked how did all this get started? What follows is his reply: “Chhange began in the late 1970’s when Brookdale Professors Seymour Siegler, PhD, and Jacob Needle, inspired by the NBC mini-series, “Holocaust”, held a campus lunchtime program on the topic. It was so well received that the professors, together with then Dean of Community Services Norma Klein, began providing more programs on the topic. After a while, they began calling their efforts, the “Center for Holocaust Studies” at Brookdale Community College. Early on, the programs of speakers, films, and commemorations included an annual Armenian Genocide remembrance program which garnered volunteers from the area’s Armenian community.

As time passed, local Holocaust survivors, now in the stage of their rebuilt lives when their children were on to college and adulthood, had the time and willingness to volunteer to “run” the “Center”, its library and many activities. Brookdale Community College has always provided “in kind” support for the Center, but volunteers ran it and raised the necessary funds. When Peter Burnham, PhD. became the college’s president, he challenged the Center’s Board of Directors (formed in the late 1980’s) to envision its long-term goals. Those long term “dreams” have become reality. Under the leadership of its first paid Executive Director, Dale Daniels, for 25 years, the Center (now called, “Center for Holocaust, Human Rights and Genocide Education” or “Chhange”) had many achievements. (cont.)

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Journeys Beyond Genocide: The Human Experience - 3/10 (cont.)

These included (among many others): its annual Colloquiums in May attracting 1500-2500 students and teachers from the State of New Jersey and beyond to hear a major speaker, attend multiple workshops, and view the results of the writing and art contest; a 12-week juvenile bias crime offenders court-ordered educational program; its law enforcement officers (“LEO”) 2-day training program/seminar which includes a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.; scholarships for teachers to learn how to teach this subject at a summer program sponsored by and held at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; an annual writing and art contest for middle school and high school students (a few years ago, the artistic creations of that year’s contest were displayed in the U.S. Capitol with the assistance of Congressman Chris Smith); and the “Building Bridges” program that is held in Forrestdale School, Rumson, Colts Neck Middle School and Highland Park Middle School.

Along with its many programs and services that are attended by 25,000± students, teachers and community members each year, Chhange is most proud of its permanent exhibit, “Journeys Beyond Genocide, the Human Experience” which focuses on the lives of victims of the Armenian Genocide, the Genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda, and the Holocaust before, during and after, and challenges visitors to respond to current issues. Chhange is now under the leadership of Executive Director Sara Brown, PhD. Complete information about the exhibit, programs, services, membership and volunteer opportunities is available on its website at “chhange.org” or from Root Beer & Checker member, Al Zager, who served as Chhange Board President for 20 years.”

Display items from the Genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda

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Journeys Beyond Genocide: The Human Experience - 3/10 (cont.)

Display items from the Armenian Genocide

“The folkloric image of the peacock > strength that has allowed then to couple we selected inspired us with continue to survive. What moves us the power that birds exude through most is the meaning that we have put their posture and stance, as well as behind the imagery: love, power, and the heart shape that their bodies rebirth.” - M. Imbro & H. Bouchama. create. We believe the culture of the The Rugby School at Woodfield. Armenian people has given them >

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Journeys Beyond Genocide: The Human Experience - 3/10 (cont.)

Display items from the Holocaust in WW2

>> The blouse in the lower cabinet is the actual one worn by the lady in the picture

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Aquincum—A Roman City in (Jim Powers)

In 2006 Sheryl and I travelled to on an Avalon river cruise. We had some free time and took a train to visit the Roman City of Aquincum which is about a half an hour from Budapest. The excavation of the city began in the late 1880’s and continues today. It was my first trip to Europe and I remembered being awed by the thought of walking on pavement laid down two millennia ago. The upper class Roman homes had running water and glass for the windows (the glass was opaque). The information below is from Wikapedia.

Aquincum was originally settled by the Eravisci, a Celtic tribe. Aquincum served as a military base (castrum), having been part of the Roman border protection system called . Around AD 41-54, a 500- strong cavalry unit arrived, and a Roman legion of 6,000 men (Legio II Adiutrix)[1][2] was stationed here by AD 89. The city gradually grew around the fortress, and after was reorganised by the Romans in AD 106, Aquincum became the capital city of the Roman province of [3], holding that position until the administrative reform of , more than a hundred years later.[4] Under , the city obtained municipal status, while under Septimius Severus, Aquincum became a colonia.[5]

Being the centre of operations on the Roman frontier against the neighbouring , Aquincum was occasionally the headquarters of emperors.[2]

The city had at least 30,000 inhabitants by the end of the 2nd century, and covered a significant part of the area today known as the Óbuda district within Budapest. Ruins from the old Roman settlement can be seen in other parts of Budapest as well, notably Contra-Aquincum. These Roman structures were, during the 2nd and 3rd century AD, the heart of the commercial life of the Pannonia province. The excavations show evidence of the lifestyle of this period. From the beginning of the 3rd century Christianity began to spread in the city.

During the middle of the 4th century, the territory of Aquincum was under constant Sarmatian attacks from the north.[6] The decline of the included Aquincum, and the ancient city was largely destroyed by 350 AD. Germans and the forces of Attila the Hun invaded the region during 409 AD.[7]

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Aquincum—A Roman City in Hungary (cont.)

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Flying Fighter Jets - Commercial Planes - Josh Zager

Josh Zager was not able to pay a visit to RB&CC on April 3rd as planned so dad Al Zager provided the following for us instead:

“Bill, This is in response to the request for content for the next Float. Josh was supposed to speak on April 3rd about the transition from being a fighter pilot to an airline pilot. In lieu of him talking on that that day he sends the attached pictures. One was taken a while ago of him standing in the engine cowl of a Boeing 757 (he's 6'3"). The other was taken a day or so ago (he now flies Boeing 777's on long distance trips) when he landed from a flight while on a 5 day trip from Newark to Hawaii (via Los Angeles) and back to Newark (via Los Angeles & Houston). That's him looking out of the cockpit. Doing his part to keep the "Friendly Skies" that way. Here's another photo of Josh in the cockpit of a fighter jet, an FA-18. Yes, that's him in the cockpit. So I guess you have some of the makings of his story of transitioning from military fighters to commercial airline "buses" through pictures. Certainly, the equipment is different. Finally, at the risk of overkill, here's a photo of the plane that Josh first learned to fly with passengers. In the military they call it a C12.” …. Al Zager

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Tales from the Bunker

Given that we had just one speaker this month and with the daily concerns over the virus affecting the world we thought it might be interesting to see how members were coping with the safety measures we’ve been asked to incorporate into our daily lives until things return to “normal”. Here are their responses and best wishes to all our RB&CC family! (JP & wrt)

“Stationing in place has meant furniture repair and working through years of genealogical papers, which will make stationing in place more livable I suppose. Cheers!” …. Ralph Wyndrum

“Our next door neighbors organized a virtual neighborhood cocktail party. At 5 o’clock on Saturday either couples came out with their beverage of choice and waved from their front porches, or walked around the block maintaining social distancing. Weather permitting we’ll try it again next week.” … Tim Sullivan

Sal’s keeping busy, shining that mailbox ! … Ed Fenton

“Let’s step back and count our blessing in these crazy times - Stay safe!” … Dan Levine

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Tales from the Bunker (cont.)

“What are they? Are you looking down or are you looking up? It’s all a matter of perspective.” …. Bill Van Winkle

“ Jerry Mahood and (Dr.) Jim McGuinness elbow bump. Dr. McGuinness' hand sanitizer. An 'X-Ray' of his white-lightning-filled hand sanitizer. All good advice and safe dinning at The Nauvoo Grill.” …. Jim Ingle

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Tales from the Bunker (cont.)

“Bill - It’’s really good to hear from you and be reminded once again the excellent job you and Seamus are doing with the Float - and life in general. Life cooped up in the house is tedious, but of course we’re all more or less in the same boat. So we need to remain positive, and complete the minor household tasks we should be setting to keep active. I really do miss the camaraderie of RB&CC. It’s an excellent bunch of guys, and I think we are lucky to be a part of it. Give my best wishes to Lynne. ….. Hal Redden

“Bill, our extended family with 4 grand kids are doing well, practicing social distancing but not social disengagement. Except Nancy has had some backpain issues, but she seems to be doing better today. We hope you and Lynne and your family are doing well. And greetings to our RB&CC friends and their families. Here's some of our 'Tales from the Bunker”:

Attached is a photo from our family's Zoom video conference yesterday to celebrate our grand daughter's 11th birthday. We have 4 granddaughters ages 11, 9, 7 months and 2 and a half months. With the new born's frequent naps and nursing, it was impossible to get everyone on the screen at the same time. But no one was crying.

Our church (Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury) had its first worship service by Zoom video conference yesterday. We had a bigger turn out than usual and it was great to see our church friends doing well in their homes. But the audio was not great unless everyone was on mute except the pastor, which is the way it should be.Stay well!

Here's another photo. Looks like I have too much time on my hands.

Maybe too intense for the Float at this time.” ….. Rich (T-Rex) Vodhanel

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Tales from the Bunker (cont.)

“Paul Baeri here... because there are only about 4900 titles left on Netflix that we havent watched yet, we decided to tackle sorting through and digitizing the 3000 color slides we have from the 80's -Boy was I skinny then! (Thank you Ned Newland for the projector loaner)… At last count, at least 2000 are going in the trash (did I really think that bunch of bananas was an interesting picture?? Think I need lessons from Jim Powers!)

Everyone keep smiling...we'll all get through this.

And Bill.. not sure if this is worth a mention.. but the other day I was at Costco and decided to try out a Chromebook laptop .. it was $200, has a 14” screen, 4 Gb of memory, comes with a wireless mouse, a nice neoprene carrying sleeve, Costco’s 2-year technical sport ( and a 90 day return policy)... and even tho I am a confirmed Apple addict .. I love this thing.

Nice toy for sitting at the kitchen table with your cup of coffee.” ….Thx Paul Baeri

Suntans and rumors of bringing back 500 rolls of TP from the Caribbean! We got home last night and are staying in for 2 weeks to be safe. … Marty Torbert (editor’s note: it’s a tough life, but somebody’s got to do it!)

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Business Bulletin Board

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Business Bulletin Board (continued)