December 2012 PARROT PRESS Vol. 20 No 12

METRO PHC NEWSLETTER

NY – NJ – CT metrophc.com

Mele Kalikimaka Hi METRO s!

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Hawaiian Christmas Day and our members and their families who were, That's the island greeting that we send to you from and still are, coping with the hardships and the land where palm trees sway challenges brought on by Sandy were able to enjoy the day indulging too much with happy Here we know that Christmas will be green and thoughts of better times ahead! Keep those fins bright up! Also hope the numbers on your scales are The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night getting smaller by now…no such luck here. Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say "Merry Mele KaIikimaka is the thing to say Christmas to you". We have approximately 7-8 METRO couples or individuals who incurred extensive damage to their homes and/or cars as well as incurring significant loss of personal belongings. I forwarded a Paradise Charitable Foundation Disaster Relief Application to all those folks to be considered as candidates. As mentioned last month, a “PHiN Fund” was established by the great folks at PHIP. Bob Heffelfinger is the Director of this wonderful Foundation and he…they all…deserve a shout-out!

In true PH-fashion, many METROs stepped up to the plate and offered their assistance, hospitality, volunteer efforts, and kindness within our own METRO phlock, their local and extended communities and did what they could to help with the numerous relief efforts. I’m sure everyone will agree that the generosity and immeasurable support we are seeing throughout all the areas that were affected is truly inspiring and heart-warming. (Continued…somewhere)

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HANUKKAH! HAPPY FESTIVUS! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

12 Days of Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rhum

Holiday Cheer Santa's stressed out as the holiday season draws & Good Will near He's been doing the same job now going on two thousand years He's got pains in his brain and chimney scars cover his buns

There are many ways to spread good cheer and help others during the He hates to admit it, but Christmas is more work holidays….a few suggestions: than fun

He needs a vacation from bad decorationsU and

1st Day – Donate toys to children in need. (Ed & Tara Kelly’s toy collection snow MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HANUKKAH! for Nana’s HouseHAPPY in Mastic NEW& Bosco YEAR! & Nancy’s Holiday Party toy Mr. Claus has escape plans, a secret that only he collection for St. Ignatius Human Services in Hicksville, LI are 2 options.) knows Beaches and palm trees appear night and day in 2nd Day – Visit the sick or elderly. (The latter would be any of your his dreams METRO Board members. Bring rum.) A break from his wife, his half frozen life The elves and that damn reindeer team. 3rd Day – Donate to animal shelters…pets without homes need love & care especially after Sandy. (Al & Marianne Straaik’s Wrapped With Love is always open for donations!) Ho ho ho and a bottle of rhum Santa's run off to the Caribbean 4th Day – Donate clothing, blankets, winter coats, etc. to homeless shelters He thinks about and fun in the sun and coat drives. (We probably all have a few extra tee-shirts.) Ho ho ho and a bottle of rhum.

5th Day – Donate to your favorite online charity. (Alzheimer’s Plastic creations and crass exploitations aren't www.alz.org, Pancreatic Cancer Cure www.curepc.org, Red Cross good www.redcross.org, etc.) He wants to go back to simple toys made out of

wood 6th Day – Take a gift tag (or more) from a Salvation Army tree and add an angel or 2 to your shopping list. Just for the weekend he'd like to be Peter Pan Get out his long johns and dance with a sword in 7th Day – Bake something…cookies work!…and bring them to your fellow the sand. Metros who are too busy recovering from Sandy to even think about holiday baking…together with your best smiles & hugs! Ho ho ho and a bottle of rhum Santa's run off to the Caribbean 8th Day – Call an old friend and/or a distant relative you don’t see Marimbas, calimbas, he's playing steel drums often…this also includes # 7 folks as above. (E-mails & texts are ok, but a Ho ho ho and a bottle of rhum. call is better )

Ho ho ho and a bottle of rhum 9th Day – Gather kids’ letters to Santa and drop them in the Macy’s Santa Mailbox. They donate $1 to Make-A-Wish for every letter received. Santa's run off to the Caribbean A week in the tropics and he'll be all right 10th Day – Perform as many random acts of kindness as you can every Sporting a tan as he rides out of sight day…even if it is just buying a round! (Where we meeting??) Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

11th Day – Donate food to a food bank such as Island Harvest, Long (/Ross Kunkel/Roger Guth/ Island’s largest hunger relief organization: www.islandharvest.org. Peter Mayer)

12th Day – Send a Christmas card to a soldier overseas (Sponsored by the Red Cross: Holiday Mail for Heroes, PO Box 5456, Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456) ******************************************

Every Day – Keep in mind our METROs who are going through a hard time post-Sandy. Dinner invites, meet-ups for a hot toddy, errand-running, bringing in a pizza, etc. would all be much appreciated I’m sure! Some lost Christmas & holiday decorations due to basement flooding. Sounds like this calls for a few new tree-trop decorations .

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HANUKKAH! HAPPY FESTIVUS! HAPPY NEW YEAR! MY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HANUKKAH! HAPPY F

Happy December Birthdays!!

Sandra Batorsky 1 Jennifer Mintzer 1 A Pirate Looks at 40 Lawrence Comella 2 Surfing in a Hurricane Jose Guevara 3 Margaritaville

Bob Scalia 3 Bob Robert’s Society Band Terry Muldoon 6 All of Them Victoria Riess 6 Tin Cup Chalice Larry Sullivan 11 John Everett 14 Growing Older But Not Up Toy Collection Info – Part I Maureen Farrell 15 Hey Good Lookin’ Art Markart 15 METROs Ed & Tara Kelly have been Brad Bute 17 Volcano collecting new, unwrapped toys for families Carol Pohorylo 17 Scarlet Begonias in the Mastic area who were affected by Andrea Beatty 18 Southern Cross Sandy. They are almost at their goal of 200 Jackie Pineiro 18 Desperation Samba toys! Great job guys! Please contact Ed via the METRO PHC FB page, Ed’s FB page, or Saralyn Bute 22 me and Ed will make arrangements to pick up Jimmy Buffett 25 ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ any toy donation. Richard Gibbs 26 Changes in Latitude

Jeff Leslie 26 One Particular Harbor ************************************* Ed Travers 29 A Pirate Looks At 40 Toy Collection Info – Part II

Bosco & Nancy’s Holiday Party With A Purpose - Toys For Kids (See flyer in this PP)

From Lorraine Rosen:

For the last 2 years the toys collected at Bosco

& Nancy’s Holiday Party have been given to

St. Ignatius Human Services in Hicksville.

They serve about 1,000 underprivileged

families and the toys are distributed at a party

in January -- along with toys that are donated

by the Kiwanis Club.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HANUKKAH! HAPPY FESTIVUS! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

REMINDER!

December 15th – Running of the Santas

Phlocking event in NYC Linda Masten has coordinated the day’s events for us. Meet-up will be early in the a.m. on 12/15 at Penn Station. Time and place of the Santa Run has not been announced yet by the organizers. Come in your Santa suit (if you don’t have one maybe Mitch can order one for you. Just be sure to tell him this item is color-specific), Mrs. Claus, elves, trees, etc. -- use your imagination! After the “Santa Run” we will be crawling to Bryant Park for the Holiday Shops, ice skating for the more adventurous, and of course Celsius for hot chocolate. Or whatever. There will also be a few METRO Santas running in Philly on the same day. Have fun!! Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do! www.santacon.info

Beware of this Santa!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HANUKKAH! HAPPY FESTIVUS! HAPPY NEW YEAR! MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HANUKKAH! HAPPY FESTIVUS! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HANUKKAH! HAPPY FESTIVUS! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Metro North Happy Hour

Takes place on the 2nd Tuesday of each month (with the exception of summer months) at 6:30 p.m. @ East Side Café in Norwalk, CT. Contact Carol Pohorylo at [email protected] to reserve table space.

FROM MARIANNE & AL STRAAIK

WRAPPED WITH LOVE

What can we possibly say? Once again our Metro Club has raised the bar and rose to the occasion. Although all were affected by Sandy (that bitch, that slut, that whore - oh no that was Lucille :-)), some sadly more than others....they thought of our furry friends who were also ravaged by life and Sandy.

Al & I wasted no time and put some money toward much needed supplies to get the shelters back and operational Sunday. Most animals are currently in Foster Homes until the shelters can pass inspection and have them return. We also have become acquainted with an organization called Almost Home Rescue which supplies dogs that are chained and live outside with food and shelter. Those blankets will come in VERY handy!!

Here is a list of things GENEROUSLY donated

$1580 cash/checks to date (This amount has gone up since Marianne submitted her letter!) Aprox $700 worth of dog/cat food 140 blankets/towels/sheets Aprox $150.00 worth of dog/cat toys Cleaning & grooming supplies

Thank you to all who could not make it but sent/dropped off checks, blankets and dog food......

Thank you to Steel Margarita for helping put us in an Island mood on a cold night....

Thank you to Kathi Berlin for her great Party Time Basket.....Can you say Tequilla????

Thank you to Lorraine Bosshard who guilted a woman out of a dog Shark Halloween outfit that she was buying for her dog...WAY TO GO!!! :-)

Thank you to Corrie Sanchez for her donation of a Myrtle Beach vacation.... Miles away in SC and still a very active Metro...proving you can take the Metro out of NY, but not the Metro out of Corrie!!!!

Once again from the knees of our hearts...Thank you

Paws & Fins Up, Marianne & Al

Note: Many thanks to Marianne & Al on behalf of all METROs for their wonderful hospitality! They opened up their lovely home to all of us and it was a fun night with great friends, great music, great food, great raffle baskets… and the Almost Home Rescue animals will now be warmer and happier! M&A humbly left the part out of their letter how much work they do for this organization!

Continued from front page…

I had the bittersweet privilege of reading E-mails circulating among PH Club leaders and members who wanted to help their fellow PHs. Among them was Latitude 39 PHC from the San Francisco Bay area. They did a 50/50 at their November General Meeting and "collected a few hundred dollars to send to a phlock in the east where it would do the most good." Parrot Heads rock! :-) We've had a grrrreat year METROs (except for that new President) and it will be challenging to outdo ourselves in the amount of charitable contributions, collections, hours of time & effort we put forth assisting community and environmental causes...but I know we will! And have a fun time doing so! Have a great holiday season and my best wishes for the happiest and healthiest New Year! ~ L

Good Boys & Girls

I’m asking Santa to bring an extra toy to lots of METRO boys and girls this year! In addition to many of the Board Members and Area Coordinators who are always working to help make METRO the great Club that it is, many of you have contacted me with offers to help with…pretty much anything that needs to be done. Thank you all for your support, ideas, cooperation, friendship, beer, and powder. Not necessarily in that order.

Dave Pohorylo has been very supportive in my Presidential “transition” stage. I’m asking Santa to bring him more space for his inbox to replace what I used up . Past-Presidents Joe Lombardi, Jimmy Martiello, and Al Straaik have provided much appreciated words of wisdom. Our Treasurer, Peter, has been very patient with all my requests and annoying E-mails. By the way, you know all those questions everybody has about how much Club money we have and what it’s used for? When you get to be President you find out all that cool stuff! Peter has our $ in an off shore account in Barbados…that is so cool! He said it’s collecting lots of interest so we have to leave it there. He & Lorraine have a business trip scheduled to speak with the Barbados bank manager in January…so dedicated! Ray and Ralph have been doing a fantastic fabulous! job coordinating our Happy Hours and events and Santa owes them big time! So do I. Bosco…he does everything and is METRO’s best kid! I’m not sure if he has room for any more toys but he deserves them…thanks for everything always Bosco!

Extra toys also go to Doug Smith for recording the attendance and contributions/collections at our events. Linda Masten has been a great coordinator and initiated many recent PHlockings. Lisa & Jamie stepped up as Committee Chairs, Jodi Lawsky volunteered to investigate new merchandise and a METRO Cookbook, Ginny Markart has our METRO name tags ready to go, and Larry DeGennaro offered to get METRO Koozies. John Hartnett is busy right now siphoning the Atlantic out of his basement but when that’s done he is starting a METRO retiree’s group for all interested boys and girls. There are more of you but I am at the bottom of my already revised page and PP. Again…thanks to all who have been so kind & helpful! P.s. No METROs are on Santa’s Naughty List. LOL!

MEMBERSHIP DUES – 2013

Dues will be collected from everyone in January (this). Lisa & Jamie volunteered to be our METRO Membership Committee and they missed the fine print that said “dues collection.” Sorry guys! Lisa is mailing cards with your $ info…no simple yellow highlights…she means business! Amnesty program enacted so don’t be afraid to go to your mailboxes. When the discussion turned to “pro-rating” I went for a beverage…Peter was ahead of me by 10 mins. This will allll work out METROs…just go with the card.  JANUARY HAPPY HOUR Shooters, Wantagh Details will be sent via . See ya there! SAVE THE DATE!

Planning underway for the METRO PHC “FROSTED” Gala! March 9th @ Holiday Inn, Plainview

Ray & Ralph will be opening the sealed envelope to reveal the winning Theme any day now…stay tuned for more details!

Christmas Island

Let's get away from sleigh bells, let's get away from snow Let's make a break some Christmas, Dear, I know the place to go How'd ya like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island? How'd ya like to spend the holiday away across the sea? How'd ya like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island? How'd ya like to hang a stocking on a great big coconut tree?

How'd ya like to stay up late, like the islanders do? Wait for Santa to sail in with your presents in a canoe. If you ever spend Christmas on Christmas Island You will never stray for everyday Your Christmas dreams come true.

How'd ya like to stay up late like the islanders do? Wait for Santa to sail in with your presents in a canoe If you ever spend Christmas on Christmas Island You will never stray, for everyday Your Christmas dreams come true On Christmas Island your dreams come true.

~ Jimmy Buffett

Don’t tell Virginia…

President: Lynne Creamer 42-17 Corporal Kennedy Blvd., #3A Bayside NY 11361 (917) 687-1687 [email protected] ______Executive Vice President: Lorraine Bosshard 6 Mountainview Court Fort Salonga, NY 11768 (631) 757-4043 Treasurer: Peter Bosshard 6 Mountainview Court Fort Salonga, NY 11768 (631) 757-4043 Secretary: Marianne Straaik 25 Rhode Island Ave Massapequa, NY 11758 (516)795-4126 ------Parrot Press Lorraine/Eric Rosen 737 Highview Ave Westbury, NY11590 516-807-8191 [email protected] Banana Wind Sue Leudesdorff [email protected] LI Coordinators Ray Leudesdorff Cell 516-768-9348 [email protected] Ralph Wotruba 631-891-8006 [email protected]

Eastern LI Joe Lombardi (631)324-9354 [email protected] NYC Coordinator Terri Amundsen (718)956-5658 Upstate & Ct Coordinators Carol Pohorylo (203)261-1381 [email protected] Western Coordinators Larry DeGennaro [email protected] Linda Peters [email protected] Y NJ Coordinator o Tracey McGowan [email protected] u 732-668-1620 Ticket Liaison Tom Dalton c [email protected] a (631)-979-8337 n Webmaster Larry “Squid” Kiewra u [email protected] s e