The Clubhouse Star ~ September 2019 A look inside our Clubhouse www.howardlevinclubhouse.org A Publication of the Sally and Howard Levin Clubhouse
The Sally and Howard Levin Clubhouse A Program of Jewish Residential Services 2609 Murray Ave. Suite #101 Pittsburgh, PA 15217 (412) 422-1850
Newsletter Staff:
Jim McKenna Joe Herbick Jan Harris Delaine Swearman Nancy Passantino Kadidja Macina Heidi Morris Mike Hogan Dean D. David K. Hannah Eric Sc. Mary Beth Straka Jon K.
SHLC Art of the Month 1
Upcoming Events 2
Bargain Bin Record Review 3
My Favorite Things 4
Oglebay Article 5
My Cars 6
David K. Poem 7 Photograph by Delaine Swearman Model Building 8
Wendell asks the Questions 9 Rosh Hashanna Art 10 Still Words 11 Page 2 The Sally and Howard Levin Clubhouse
Upcoming Events
EVENT DATE TIME
Rosh Hashanah September 30 Closed
PLEASE REMEMBER TO SIGN UP FOR EVENTS, come in and see what is going on this month!
You can find the sign up sheets for these events in the sign up book on the green table!
Clubhouse Menu—August 2019
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
2 Labor Day 3 Kugel 4 Mexican 5 Tuna salad 6 Lunch: Thai Picnic Clubhouse burrito bowl bar wraps coconut soup open from: Dinner: turkey 10:00 am to 2:00 meatballs (m) pm Spaghetti 9 Grilled cheese 10 Black bean 11 Squash and 12 Strawberry 13 Pizza and tomato soup skillet casserole eggplant parme- chicken salad (m) san
16 Baked potato 17 Chicken soup 18 Latkes 19 Quiche 20 Lunch: veggie bar and veggie with rice (m) lasagna chili Dinner: Fish tacos
23 Broccoli mac 24 Shepherd’s pie 25 Black bean 26 Falafel wraps 27 Salmon Burg- and cheese burgers ers
30 Rosh Hasha- nah Clubhouse closed
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BARGAIN BIN RECORD REVIEWS BY: Mike Hogan
Country music is always looking for the “next big thing.” Most of buzz these days is for “Bro country.” It is heavy masculine music made by guys—people like Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, and Eric Church. But great country music is made by women as well. The leading light of this movement is Miranda Lambert. She is the Platinum album, platinum blond, award winning bombshell.
She broke into the scene in the early 2000’s. Country was looking for a “tough chick.” Lambert fills the bill in spades. She has definitely broken the Patsy Cline/Tammy Wynette mold of women who lament their former lovers or stand by their good timing/two timing men.
Miranda Lambert burst on the scene in 2005 with Kerosene. It is a scorching indictment of love gone wrong. Moreover, it is Lambert’s fierce reaction to this outrage. On it, she declares her independence from her unfaithful husband/lover. She’s going to go as far as her car can take her, and as high as her old guitar with a set of new strings can boost her career. She takes no crap from anyone.
Lambert continued this trend on Crazy Ex-girlfriend, her follow up album. It generated several hits on the Billboard Country charts. It is also a worthy follow up to Kerosene. The CD followed her policy of writing her own songs, a rarity in country music.
So there you have it. Miranda Lambert is Texas’ gift to female country music. Next month, I will write about her recent work. So keep watching this space.
AS ALWAYS: KEEP ON TWANGIN’!
Page 4 The Sally and Howard Levin Clubhouse
My Favorite Things
By Kenny Rawlings
Hello! My name is Kenny Rawlings and I am here to tell you some of my favorite things. I
like to play all sports, but track is my favorite. The Texas El Paso Miners are my favorite col-
lege track team. My favorite hockey team is Winnipeg Jets. My favorite female wrestler is
Ember Moon, and my favorite male wrestlers are Mark Henry & Chavo Guerrero. I love the
Texas El Paso Miners who are a college basketball team. The Houston Oilers were my favor-
ite NFL team, but they are no longer a NFL franchise. My favorite baseball team is the Hou-
ston Astros. I love all sports, as you can see, and soccer is included, my favorite men’s soccer
team is the Houston Dynamo and female soccer team is Houston Dash. The Waco Texas Bay-
lor Bears are my favorite womens college basketball team. The Dallas Wings are my favorite
women’s WNBA basketball team, and the Dallas Mavericks are my favorite men’s team.
Houston Cougars are a college basketball team. I like a lot of Texas teams because I love Tex-
as, and I was also born there. I love listening to music and my favorite female group is Desti-
ny’s Child. My favorite female singer is Letoya Luckett. My favorite rappers are Scarface,
Slim Thug, Paul Wall and Lil Flip. My favorite male groups are H-Town and 112. Usher and
Khalid are my favorite male singers.
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ON JULY AT OGLEBAY PARK BY: Christy G.
I went to Oglebay Park in July. It took a little over an hour to get there. When we got there, some of us went to Walmart. We had a cookout that night and roasted marshmallows.
The next day it rained most of the day. Nonetheless, I fitted in miniature golf and had a paddle boat ride. We also had another cookout.
The next day we left. Before arriving at the Clubhouse, we went to Sarris Candy. It was good.
Overall, it was a great trip.
It was my first trip away from my family since High School. This was a big accomplishment.
Here are some of my goals for the trip:
1.Collaborate with others to work together as a team 2.Learn new skills 3.Utilize supports that are available 4.Be friends with colleagues 5.Have a word to say 6.Operate as a work ordered day 7.Unify with community 8.Speak up my ideas 9.Adhere to motto that “everyone is equal”
I feel that I accomplished these goals on the trip to Oglebay Park.
Page 6 The Sally and Howard Levin Clubhouse
THE HISTORY OF MY CARS—PART 1 By: Mike Hogan
I have found that cars are a lot like former lovers. Many years later, you have regrets about them. They can bring fond memories. Or, they can be painful to recall.
My first car was a lot like my first flame. Each was a headlong rush into a bad decision. I have regretted Joanne for decades. Much like my first car—”the LGSB.” (Since this is a family publication, I won’t go into what the acronym means).
My first car was an unfortunate choice. It was a 1973 Ford Pinto Hatchback. It was bile green, thus the “L” and the “G” in its name. I was goaded into buying it by my father. I wanted a BMW 2002. But, I gave into his arguments, particularly because he was buying the car for me.
It caused me no end of troubles. The first time I used it for a long distance trip, the water pump broke. It seems that the radiator had rusted out, and the previous owner had not had it boiled out.
Later, I smashed it into a guard rail. The work was done by Maaco, who conveniently deleted the driver’s side splash panel under the driver’s side door. This led to the driver’s side door hinges rusting through due to the harsh winter we had in Maryland. The door then sagged about 6 inches when opened. I had to enter and leave through the passenger side. This was highly inconvenient.
For some reason, I wiped out the motor. It probably didn’t get enough oil to the overhead cam followers. I was forced to buy a used engine, but it was similarly broken, I was livid. The transmission was similarly flawed. Ford had under-engineered it. They had a band for the second gear, which glazed over. I never repaired it, so the car would go from 1st gear to 3rd gear without going through second. I imagine that the transmission would eventually break, but I didn’t have it for that long.
I gave it back to my parents after a couple of years. My brother used it, climbing through the driver’s side window. I don’t know what became of the LGSB. It likely met a cruel fate at the hands of a car crusher. Doing so may have saved several lives.
In one sense, I was fortunate. Pintos were notorious for exploding in rear end collisions. This led to a gruesome fate for their drivers and passengers. Fortunately, no one ever came up behind me to do an endo. As far as I know, everyone who had ever been in the LGSB lived to complain about it. Thank God for that.
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FALL HAS ARRIVED BY: David K.
Changing seasons is just like changing clothes The change is all around us You can see the leaves on the trees change colors The drop in temperature makes Us put on warmer vestments. The transition between summer and winter Shows us that autumn fits right into place Fall has arrived, Right on time! The Indian summer gives way to Colder temperatures The cycle starts all over again One year is almost finished One year is yet to begin. We wait eagerly for everything to start anew.
Page 8 The Sally and Howard Levin Clubhouse
BUILDING MODELS BY: Mike Hogan
A couple of months ago, I wrote about the plastic model building hobby. After toy trains, it is my favorite hobby. I have built planes, trains and automobiles over the years. I’d like to talk about my most recent project. I hope that it is the start of a new series; One which will en- courage people to try new things and promote the plastic model hobby.
Recently, I did a model of a 1957 Ford station wagon. This kit is sold by Revell models of the USA. The kit is meant for advanced modelers. Revell uses a 5-level system for rating the dif- ficulty of its models. This ‘57 Ford was rated at +3. It is moderately difficult for an experi- enced modeler. I do not recommend it for a beginner.
The kit can be built two ways, either as a dragster or as a stock station wagon. I chose to build the dragster version. I really like competition cars, and this drag racing version intrigued me. Oddly, the stock version would be more difficult to replicate.
The build-up was straight forward. I followed the kit instructions, and the assembly was easy. It required a lot of patience. The kit is molded in white styrene plastic. Every part needed to be painted, and this is time consuming. This is not a kit for those who want to speed build. The car had over a hundred parts.
I decided to paint the body in the colors of my imaginary racing team—the Bad News. This is a medium blue body with yellow trim. Getting this effect required masking off the body with masking tape to paint the roof yellow. I had never tried this technique before. With patience and a sharp hobby knife, I was able to get the two-tone effect that I was looking for. A few well-placed decals completed the blue and yellow “Bad News” look.
I really like the “Bad News Ford” gasser. It is among my best work, and I am proud to display it. It proves with time and patience, a master modeler creation can be made with a straight - from-the -box build-up.
Next time I will build a snap together kit. These are good entry level models that do not re- quire gluing or painting. I will try to show that a fine display model can be made from such a basic kit.
Good luck on your new hobby!
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WENDELL ASKS THE QUESTIONS; JIM ANSWERS BY: Mike Hogan
Jim McKenna has been a member of the Clubhouse for almost nine years. He sat down with me to reminisce about the SHLC and how it has changed.
When we were at the old clubhouse, people complained that it was too cramped. How do you feel about the new clubhouse’s open architecture? I’ve never worked in a large room before, and honestly I have never wanted to. I’m doing my best to get used to it, and it does have its advantages. For one thing, it is much easier that eve- rything is on one floor. It is noisier, which is probably the greatest adjustment that I have had to make.
How has the membership changed? I can think of two changes—we have been bringing in more young people, which is a very good thing. On the other hand, we also have more members that we can call “clubhouse vet- erans.” By which I mean members who have stayed for long periods of time.
What do you see as the new mission of the Clubhouse? I think that overall mission is the same, but our efforts need to be regularly tweaked to keep up with the changing world. Right now we are focusing on increasing our attendance and that has involved the use of social media, such as Instagram to attract younger members.
Where do you think the Clubhouse movement is headed? Clubhouses are facing some serious challenges, one of which is the perpetually uncertain sta- tus of government funding. One big challenge is for everybody to let people know what a clubhouse actually is. For as long as I have been here, I’ve had a hard time explaining that we are not a drop in center or a social club.
What can the SHLC do to keep its status as a leader of the Clubhouse movement? I don’t think that becoming a “leader” is a useful way to look at things. I don’t care as much about our status unless it provides a meaningful benefit to our membership.
Page 10 The Sally and Howard Levin Clubhouse
Some artwork by one of our colleagues in celebration of Rosh Hashanah.
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Still Words by eric the redologist
This article tells of one of Arthur C. Clarke’s fictional forays to the nearby but difficultly bridged celestial body of the moon. It is a collection of short stories entitled “Venture to the Moon.” The participants in this endeavor channel their minds and crunch the numbers to reach this challenging destination. These fictional stories were written in the 1950s, a decade before the feat was in fact accomplished. A notable difference in the method, which also appears in many other early Clarke stories, is that materials and pieces of space craft are brought up into orbit, and then assembled or refueled once in orbit, rather than launching a finished spacecraft aboard a single rocket. Another difference to what later transpired in actuality, which may be depressing to Clarke’s vision in retrospect, is that in this story his homeland of England takes part in the journey to the moon with its own dedicated ship. He however correctly predicted that America and Russia would be the other two world powers taking part in the venture, though together, albeit operat- ing separate spacecraft. The collection follows the endeavor from the initial landing through episodic difficulties or dis- coveries. For example, in one episode, supplies are left stranded on an inaccessible cliff while they descend to the surface of the moon. The astronauts must use the laws of force and their newfound athletic prowess under the lower gravity of the moon to retrieve the important ship- ment. An example of a discovery is when a botanist making the trip to the moon experiments with plants that will survive even in the vacuum of the moon. He conducts his work in secret, and unfortunately this dangerous activity turns out to be his downfall upon the mortal coil of the moon, but not to his lasting legacy as a life giver. The accumulation of knowledge can be both a boon and setback to another scientist specializ- ing in the formation of diamonds. Unfortunately for him, his earthbound private research yields the same ecstatic results as the public lunar expedition, canceling out his claims. Towards the end of these short stories, the attention shifts to how the moon can be commercial- ly exploited for its resources and unique vantage point. The group of astronauts finds ways to reap rewards by writing about their experienc- es in their down time, which will be published upon their return in periodicals. Advertising stunts are also pulled, unbeknownst to the as- tronauts. In these stories, Clarke proves himself to be a good storyteller of concepts, offering innova- tive surprises in each one. He still manages to paint a fairly realistic portrait of the charac- ters’ emotions and mood. His written lan- guage is very eloquent, describing the elegant solutions to problems in an easy to understand way. He manages to capture the exhilarating moments on paper in jewel-like fashion.
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