Post 3224 - Wednesday

10:18

I didn't write last night because my body pretty much shut down right after The Flash was over. My goodness, that show gets better every week. I never was that into Arrow. "DC's Legends of Tomorrow" nearly put me to sleep half way through the pilot episode. "Supergirl" is super dull. But "The Flash" just zips right along. I love it.

We had a very good Toastmasters meeting tonight. We had 9 members and 4 guests, a very good turnout. I did table topics, which is where you make up a 2 minute speech on the spot, with little or no preparation time. What I did tonight was take a Costco bag full of books here at the house, books I no longer wanted, and got participants to grab a book from the bag and do an instant book report. The understanding was that they hadn't read the books and had to improvise a book report to give us the impression that they had read it. And I also told them that they could keep the books in question.

AFAIK, the only one who took a book home was a guest, who decided to keep a book with "Toastmasters" in the title. The book has as much to do with the organization as kittens baked in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes have to do with biscuits. It uses "Toastmasters" in the generic sense, like "Joe was the Toastmaster at the banquet: he had to keep the meeting going from one person to the next, and that sort of thing."

I probably should look into this, but I have wondered for a long time whether this use of "Toastmaster" precedes the organization, which was founded by Ralph Smedley in 1924. If it came after the founding of TM, then I am guessing that the organization could sue other organizations that called the person who runs the meeting portion of a banquet a "Toastmaster". I need to research this. And I know you don't care, so never you mind.

I have been in TM for nearly 25 years. Nobody who is in a position of authority gives a flying frigmuffin about this, but I know quite a bit about how to run an effective meeting, how to make parliamentary motions, and so on. It is a good skill to have, and an awful lot of people who think they know this stuff, just plain don't. But they're at a higher pay grade than I am, so I say nothing.

Anyway, long day, and another one beckons. Think I will turn in.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy