The Quadrangle Times April 2019 Newsletter of The Quadrangle Residents Association Written and Produced by The Quadrangle Residents Pete and Julie Stern working in the Cave UNSUNG HEROES Preparing for the Activities Showcase, set for Sunday, May 19th, has reminded us planners of the vast array of opportunities to be engaged, entertained, enlightened, and improved that are offered to those of us fortunate enough to live at The Quadrangle. It has also made us stop and think about the people we call unsung heroes---fellow residents whose quiet, behind-the-scenes contributions make life more attractive, smoothly- functioning, and convenient for the rest of us. Some of these are players in a more complex system: Six evenings a week, Channel 78 Team Members enter “the Cave” — an electronics closet in the Craft Room — to produce the power point display of menus, schedules, upcoming events and more that appears in blue on your TV screen. 1 Working in teams of two, these volunteers serve four times each month. Dave and Mary Manuszak, Fred and Marion Schindler, Marilyn Arnott and Edith Frumin, Gary and Deana Rigg, Pete and Julie Stern, Judy Clifford, Lee Reich, Sandi Savage, and Diane Drott are all regular visitors to the Cave. Twice each year, the Quadrangle Book Sale raises hundreds of dollars to support the Library. For the other 363 days, the real work goes on behind the scenes. When residents donate their no-longer-wanted books, they generally bring them to the Library. Steve Floreen and Gary Rigg push the heavily laden cart to the book sale storage room on the third floor of Building 7. Otherwise, Pete Stern goes directly to the donor’s apartment and collects them. Once the books are collected, Judy Clifford performs the Herculean task of sorting them, pricing them, and planning the layout of the Sale. Six days a week, puzzle-minded residents can pick up copies of the latest Sudoku, Crossword, Cryptogram, and Jumble from the daily Philadelphia Inquirer. For years this service was provided single-handedly by Pete Ridgway, who went to the copier early each morning. Now he is helped by Mary Manuszak, and Ruth Rothman, thus allowing him to sleep later on some mornings. Bruni thanks them! There is a special crew of “tall people” who hang the pictures for every art show, as well as the ones that line the hallways permanently. Pete Ridgway has hung over 600 pictures, receiving help along the way from Dave Manuszak, Rick Jacobs, and Murray Gerstenhaber, to name a few. The Audio-Visual closet may be closely related to the Augean Stables in terms of the tangle of incompatible wiring it contains, but Don Verrier and his stalwart cohort of Tom Gasper, Pete Stern, and Steve Phillips struggle with it manfully nearly every day, providing sound for concerts, lectures, current events, movies, literary groups, and more. If you could hear the words, you can thank an audio-visual guy. Other unsung heroes include Joan Wallick, who tidies the central bulletin board (along with the individuals who do so in the individual buildings); Marilyn Loos, who maintains the Memorial Table outside the elevators; Lois Gasper, who writes letters of condolence; and Barbara Gadegbeku, who takes photos of all the new residents and also finds photos for the Memorial Table. And above all, since you are reading this article in the QT, you can thank Joe Hocky and his pals for stuffing it in your box, and you can especially thank Helen Gindele for putting the newsletter together, month after month after month! — Julie Stern 2 EVENTS IN APRIL 2019 THURSDAY NIGHT LECTURES 7:30pm in the Auditorium Apr. 4 James Krippner, Professor of History, Haverford College: “A History of Mexican Populism: From the Revolution of 1910 to the Election of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.” Apr. 18 Nancy Weiss Malkiel, Professor of HistoryEmeritus, Princeton University: “Keep the Damned Women Out: The Struggle for CoEducation.” May 2 Elizabeth Mosier, novelist and essayist: “Excavating Memory: Archaeology and Home.” MUSIC Saturdays, 7:30pm, Auditorium Apr. 6 Astral presents a piano trio: Katie Hun, violin; Zlatomir Fung, cello; Ronaldo Rolim, piano. Apr. 13 Joy of Singing Annual Spring Sing with Judy Verrier at the piano. Apr. 27 Cellist Gwen Krosnick performs sonatas by Beethoven and Poulenc. SUNDAY OPERA Sunday, 1:30pm, Auditorium Apr. 28 Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, starring Eric Owen and Laquita Miller. READERS GROUP Tuesday, 3:30pm, Auditorium Letta Schatz will present Daughter of Fortune, by Isabel Allende. POETRY GROUP Tuesday, Apr.23, 7:30 p.m., Auditorium Selections from A Season in Purgatory, a collection of poems by Henry Morgenthau III. SCRIPT-IN-HAND DROP-IN PLAY READING Sunday, Apr. 28, 3:30-5:00pm, Conference Room Love Letters by A.R.Gurney. GREAT CONVERSATIONS Thursdays, 10am, Club Room April 4 Accomplice by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum. April 18 Screenwriter by Charles D’Ambrosio. 3 SPECIAL EVENT Thursday, Apr. 4, 2:00pm, Auditorium. Informal illustrated talk by Hope Aryatuha, Director of the “Forgotten Africa School” in Uganda. COMPOSER’S FORUM Thursdays in April (4, 11, 18, 25)4pm, Club Room . DVD lectures on “Shostakovich: His Life and Music” by Dr. Robert Greenberg, music historian, composer, and lecturer. ART AS CINEMA Tuesday, Apr. 2, 7:30pm, Auditorium Wendy Hiller stars in the 1945 film I Know Where I’m Going presented by BMFI Special Program Manager Jacob Mazer. CURRENT MOVIES Mondays/Tuesdays, 7:45pm, Channel 99 Apr.1/2: Lean on Pete, 2018 (121 min.) Not your usual boy and his horse story. Adventure and heartbreak. Apr. 8/9: Can You Ever Forgive Me, 2018 (107 min.) Based on the true story of a writer and his cat, who profiled celebrities and then began fictional accounts. Apr. 15/16: Burning, 2018 (148 min.) A Korean character study, a mystery and a revenge thriller based on a Murakami short story. Apr. 22/23: At Eternity’s Gate. 2018. (111 min.) A journey inside the world and mind of Van Gogh. Apr. 29/30: The Sisters Brothers. 2018. (121 min.) An alcohol-soaked Frontier road trip which constantly reinvents itself. CLASSIC CINEMA Fridays, 7:45 p.m., Channel 99 Apr. 5: Rebecca, 1940 (130 min.) Girl marries a British nobleman but lives in the shadow of his former wife. A Hitchcock drama. Apr. 12: Wag the Dog, 1997 (97 min.) A spin doctor and a Hollywood producer fabricate a war to distract voters from a presidential sex scandal. Apr. 19: The Red Balloon, 1956 (36 min.) The adventures of a boy who befriends a sentient balloon and follows it through the streets of Paris. 4 Apr. 26: Crimes and Misdemeanors 1989 (104 min.) A Woody Allen film of moral choices made in crumbling marriages. SATURDAY FILM FESTIVAL 1st and 3rd Saturdays, 2:00pm, Auditorium Apr. 6: The Dallas Buyers Club. Apr. 20: True Grit (a remake of the John Wayne version). TRIPS COMMITTEE NEWS This month plan on visiting the Newlin Grist Mill, a real working mill, on April 10. Good walking skills helpful (2 or 3 steps with railing). Accommodations made for those with walkers. Lunch nearby. And the Delaware Art Museum on Thursday, April 25, for a special exhibit of children’s book illustrations, their permanent pre-Raphaelite and American art collections,Chiluly glass, and more. Trip is limited to 12 residents; a recent Penn DOT regulation limited the size of our out-of-state trips. New York On Your Own Trip Alert Wednesday, May 8 – Important information: A minimum of 23 residents must sign up by Saturday, April 27, to avoid commercial bus cancellation. Drop off and pick up at the Metropolitan Museum and Theatre District. Plenty of seats for non-resident family and friends. Bathroom on board. Coming in June Trips to the Michener Museum on the 6th and the Bloom’s Day Celebration on the 16th. SCHEDULED TRIPS Wednesday, April 10 Newlin Grist Mill, a working mill. Lunch nearby. Wednesday, April 17 Bryn Mawr Film Institute. Rescheduled from second to third Wednesday. Four movies to choose from Thursday, April 25 Delaware Art Museum. Wednesday, May 8 -New York On Your Own. Wednesday, May 15- Bryn Mawr Films, rescheduled to third Wednesday. Wednesday , May 22-Lunch at Turning Point Restaurant in Bryn Mawr. Information on trips is posted on the main bulletin board outside the dining room, and on building bulletin boards. Ellie Hinsey, Chair, Trips Committee 5 QRA MATTERS The QRA website committee continues to meet and make decisions about both the technical aspects and the content of the site. As I mentioned last month, one of the most exciting features will be a place where you can find pictures and biographies of residents, including your own. We’ll get to know each other better and more quickly by using this feature. We already have a volunteer to take pictures to accompany the personal and professional information that each resident includes. Those who have fairly recent resident profiles in the QT archives may find these to be just fine for the website; others will want to make changes or create new ones. We plan to provide guidelines and support for these write- ups, so don’t be hesitant about participating if you feel you would rather have someone else revise your profile. Other projects that continue are these three: —We expect to have three bids for updating if not replacing our current A/V system soon. Lynne has been preparing Sunrise for this priority for which no money had been budgeted. —We are in need of a new Auditorium piano. I’ve been working with Dick Wernick to find an adequate replacement.