Category: Fourre-tout

A little bit of everything

Annual Business Meeting

I suspect that the Villa Inn in San Rafael will be remembered someday as a historical site. It is the venue that, through Mireille Di Maio, has frequently been the site of our club’s reunions.

On Saturday, December 15, 2018 the club met again at this site for its Annual Business Meeting. About 30 of our staunchest club members turned up to show their interest and support.

Mark Shirkey

In the absence of our president, Mark Shirkey, the club’s vice-president, chaired the meeting. He started by recognizing and praising the leadership of Christine Cragg, our actual President. Then Monique Bricca read a message from Christine, who due to medical complications and impending surgery, could not attend that meeting.

Monique Bricca

Mark took over again to mention what has been accomplished, what remains to be done and the need to revitalize our aging membership. Every effort should be made to attract a younger crowd, and in my opinion, monetarily rewarded for signing in anybody under the age of 30.

Mark mentioned the state of our finances and the very helpful newfound cooperation with the county. He then recognized the movers and shakers of our club and gave them a verbal accolade.

He mentioned by name Sandra Shirkey, Mike O’Leary, Charlie Davantes, Jacques Gautier, Brigitte Moran, Noel Marcovecchio, Akira Okawa, Mireille Di Maio and little old me for my photographic contribution.  In addition, Henry and Calvert were also alluded for their hard work and devotion to the club.

Pressed by the audience, Mark reiterated that he did not wish to be president and was happy with his current status.

Finally, for 2019, the Board will remain as is with the following people:

Christine Cragg – President
Mark Shirkey     – Vice President
Noel Marcovecchio – Secretary
Mike O’Leary – Facilities Director
Evan Falcone – Public Relations Officer
Bart Zachofsky

Mark did an excellent presentation and deserves to be praised for his efforts and valuable leadership.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all!

Alain

Complaining is easy

“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The realist adjusts the sail.” William A. Ward

A complainer is often somebody who carps about various things but never proposes a solution. To some, complaining is just a second nature, particularly among the direct descendants of the Fronde.

Charles de Gaulle noticed it a long time ago.

How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese? Charles de Gaulle

To complain is easy and that’s probably why we have so many adherents of that practice. It does not require any talent or training, and that lofty occupation (often regally compensated) can be practiced anywhere.

As proven many times by history, many successors often prove worse than the person they opposed and replaced.
Are we better off today than when we were under Obama’s watch?

Complaints often turn into unpredictable mobs. For some, joining a demonstration is like crashing a party. They were not invited and probably not welcome, but by George, they will enjoy themselves. And why not seize the occasion to appropriate a few necessities like iPhones or Rolex watches?

Mobs don’t think, otherwise, there would never be riots and destruction. Any individual would think twice before shattering a storefront window and stealing its contents. When in the anonymity of a group, he relinquishes his thinking to listen to the hooligans’ drumbeat.

Any decision has many unexpected consequences. President Emmanuel Macron thought that he would balance the budget when he decided to implement a “carbon tax”. He didn’t expect the bloody confrontations that resulted. But he showed more resolve than many world leaders (including our “very intelligent” president) to combat global warming.

In a perfect world, balancing the budget should be easy.

Everybody would contribute his fair share, with the wealthy contributing substantially more than the less fortunate.
In France particularly, many elite’s privileges should be abolished, but at the same time, so should many ridiculous subsidies.

“In 2016, France spent €714.5 billion on social welfare which represents 32.1 percent of the country’s GDP compared to an average of 27.5 percent for the rest of the European Union.”

A coin always has 2 sides. It would be wise to look at both.

Alain

December 9, 2018

Yesterday, in the waning days of 2018, La Pétanque Marinière hosted its last Concours of the season. Such an event held in December is always iffy, but fortunately, it did not rain and we were able to proceed as planned.

It did not rain but the entire area was saturated by a dense blanket of fog that lingered for the entire day. It was not extremely cold, but the humidity in the air made the temperature seem much colder than it really was. Confined under a few layers of clothing, I played under par.
The ground was still very mushy and it took an extra effort to position one’s boule properly.

This situation did not prevent 28 players from all over the Bay Area to come to Marin to strut their stuff.

Mark and Sandra Shirkey, assisted by Noel Marcovecchio, oversaw the tournament and by 9:30 am, 14 doublettes were assembled and ready to compete.

The format of this contest was “a la mêlée” and I was extremely lucky (this time) to be paired with Nancy Jencks, the Petaluma southpaw wonder. Her pointing accuracy was remarkable and she contributed mightily to the outcome of this contest.

Three (1 hour) timed games were played in the morning to determine who would end up in the Concours or the Consolante. After winning 2 out of 3 games in the morning we qualified for the Concours.

Due mainly to Nancy’s supernatural pointing accuracy, we defeated all of our opponents in the afternoon and finally faced Donna Von Edelkrantz and young Steve Dudgeon in the Finals. Again, Nancy overwhelmed them with her magic touch and we emerged the winners of that concours.
A nice Christmas present for both of us.

Between games, I managed to take some pictures which reflect pretty accurately the mood and atmosphere of this contest; I certainly hope that you will like them.

While playing in the finals, I asked Noel to take a few pictures of me and you might notice a few seldom-seen shots of the photographer been photographed.

In the accompanying photo album, you will also see the winners of the Fall League, namely Liza Moran and Shannon Tracy for the first place, and Mark and Sandra Shirkey for the second place.
Jacques Gautier and Charlie Davantes took 1st place in la Consolante.

Alain Efron & Nancy Jencks

In the Concours:
1st place: Nancy Jencks & Alain Efron
2nd place: Donna Von Edelkrantz & Steve Dudgeon
3rd place: Mark Shirkey & Susan Wyatt

In the Consolante:
1st place: Tim & Larry

Alain

PS: Feel free to download any of my pictures, but when posting any of them on social media, please include photo credit (Photos by Alain Efron). Thank you.