Welcome to Tampa Bay Mensa!...................................................... 3 April Birthdays......................................................................................... 3 Spring Picnic Photos............................................................................. 4 Mensaversaries........................................................................................ 5 Calendar of Events................................................................................. 6 April 2016 Calendar................................................................................ 7 It Never Snows In April...................................................................... 9 MaRGarita Bay 2016 Schedule........................................................ 10 MaRGarita Bay Games Schedule..................................................... 11 Member Book Review......................................................................... 12 Cryptopoem............................................................................................. 17 April A Publication of Tampa Bay Mensa A Publication of Tampa Bay Mensa Tampa Bay Sounding Vol. 41, No. 3 Vol. 41, No. 3 April 2016 April 2016 A Publication of Tampa Bay Mensa A Publication of Tampa Bay Mensa Tampa Bay Sounding Games Weekend is April 15 – 17 !! Coming soon: MaRGarita Bay 2016 (May 27 – 30)
Transcript
Welcome to Tampa Bay Mensa!......................................................3April Birthdays......................................................................................... 3Spring Picnic Photos.............................................................................4Mensaversaries........................................................................................ 5Calendar of Events.................................................................................6April 2016 Calendar................................................................................ 7It Never Snows In April......................................................................9MaRGarita Bay 2016 Schedule........................................................10MaRGarita Bay Games Schedule.....................................................11Member Book Review......................................................................... 12Cryptopoem............................................................................................. 17
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Vol. 41, No. 3Vol. 41, No. 3
April 2016April 2016
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Games Weekend is April 15 – 17 !!
Coming soon: MaRGarita Bay 2016 (May 27 – 30)
Page 2 Tampa Bay Sounding
Visit American Mensa at: http://www.us.mensa.org
For full instructions on how to join tbm-gm andtbm-discussion, our twoYahoo! groups, visit TBM at
http://tampa.us.mensa.org
A Publication of
Tampa Bay MensaTampa Bay Sounding (USPS 305-830)
Tampa Bay Mensa5001 Terrace Palms Cir Unit 101
Temple Terrace, FL 33617
Mensa is an international society whose sole qualification for membership is a score at or above the 98th percentile on a standard IQ test. Mensa is a not-for-profit organization whose main purpose is to serve as a means of communication and assembly for its members. All opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors, and not necessarily those of the editors or officers of Mensa. Mensa as an organization has no opinions. Tampa Bay Mensa serves Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, andSumter counties.
SUBSCRIBE!: The subscription cost for local members is partially remitted from annual dues paid to American Mensa Ltd. Tampa Bay Sounding is available to other Mensans and to non-Mensans at an annual subscription cost of $12.00. To subscribe, send a check, payable to Tampa Bay Mensa, to the Treasurer: Kathy Crum, 7164 Quail Hollow Blvd., Wesley Chapel, FL 33544-2525.
ADVERTISING POLICY: Sounding offers free classified ads to Tampa Bay Mensa members for services, items for sale, jobs wanted/available, personals, etc. Ads should be no longer than 50 words. Classified ads need to be renewed on a monthly basis if you wish them to appear in consecutive issues. Tampa Bay Mensa and Sounding are not responsible for the content of ads. Allcommercial ads are subject to the following rates: Full page - $60; Half page - $30; Quarter page - $15. Members of Mensa pay half these rates.
Submission GuidelinesTampa Bay Sounding encourages submissions from all members. Submissions must be signed,but names may be withheld or pseudonyms used if requested. All letters to the editor will be subject to publication unless the author specifically requests otherwise. All material submitted will be considered for publication, but nothing can be guaranteed. Everything is subject to editing. Please keep the following guidelines in mind:• Articles, casual essays, opinion pieces,
poems, short stories, puzzles, and artwork are all encouraged.
• Personal attacks and bigoted, sexist, hateful, or otherwise offensive material will not be published.
• E-mail submissions are preferred, either embedded or in Word-readable attachments. Computer printouts and typewritten pages are fine. If you submit hard copy, please make sure your printer has enough toner or your typewriter has a fresh-enough ribbon. Legible handwritten submissions will be considered (but not given preference).
You may send your submissions by either of the following means:E-mail: [email protected] (Please indicate “TBM” in the subject header.)U.S. Mail: Ronan Heffernan, 27504 Breakers Dr,Wesley Chapel, FL 33544
Unless otherwise specified in the calendar, the deadline for unsolicited contributions is the fifth day of the month.
April Birthdays04/02 Tanya Stay04/03 Paul Smith 04/04 Ted Carrier, Kenneth Kline, Shoshana Shay 04/05 Thomas Reesor, Virginia Ryan 04/07 Marilyn Freeman, Sylvia Zadorozny 04/08 John Bailey, Bruce Bohnker 04/09 Mary Lou Clark, Donna Hamel, Phoebe McCann, Bradley Price04/10 Gerald Thackham 04/11 Bruce Perrin 04/12 Robert Carpenter, Peter Cohoon 04/14 Lana LaForest 04/15 John Coppedge, James Gamble 04/16 Scott Kurland
04/17 Timothy Caddell, Robert Chiasson, Michael Guilfoyle, Chris Lettre
04/19 Michael Becker 04/20 William Ragains 04/21 Catherine Dazevedo 04/22 Kerry Lawson, Jay Myers 04/24 Michaela Hayward 04/25 Gary Blais 04/26 Patrick Garrabrant 04/27 Barbara Stetzko 04/28 Michael Sampson 04/29 Peter Grarup, Thomas Myers 04/30 Joseph Estaling
Apri l 2016 Page 3
* Jaydin Danco Anthony DiAngelus Debra Faulkner
James Hernon Harsha Setty Sydney Smith
* New members.
Spring Picnic Photos Sylvia Holt Zadorozny
Page 4 Tampa Bay Sounding
Ronan Heffernan and Bryce Blair were our master grillers
Chatting while waiting for the burgers to cook--Dave Bryant,Bruce Toy, Te Bill, and Elizabeth Rafaloski
Continued on page 13
Mensaversaries
Apri l 2016 Page 5
50 years Irv Frankel 44 years Kathleen Robinson 43 years Barbara Ray, Francis Wellman 42 years Peter Profiro 41 years Martha Mallak 40 years Rush Miller 38 years Federico Agnir 37 years Keven McGinn 36 years Gerald Lundquist 35 years Jane Pattison 34 years Phillip Geisinger 32 years Pat Winne 31 years Barbara Loewe 28 years Robert Bullard 24 years Lawrence Jay, Kathleen Montemayor 22 years John Crandall, Gerard MacDonald 19 years John Kincaid, Erin Wells 18 years Danielle Wingate 17 years Linda Raymond 15 years Robin Burngasser, Robert Chiasson 14 years Howard Berry 13 years Dina Schlauch 12 years Chris O'Connor 11 years Robert Hupp, Robert Kellenberger, Thomas Szubka 9 years Sheryl Brock, Maran Fulvi, Steven Shapiro, Sara Thames
7 year Austi Critchfield, Linda Garrison, Kristina Soderstrom 6 years Lance Meyerson, Rachael Moore, Gregory Pitts
5 years Charles Arant, Victoria Black, Jennifer Clark, Joseph Estaling, Daniel Jenkins, Brian Luther, David Woolley
4 years Walter Conrad, Don Delehant, Bruce Mesnekoff 3 years Stephanie Adelson, Robert Summers 2 years Deborah Duvall, Zachariah Lima, Ryder Yarbrough
1 year
Jake Atkinson, Michael Davidson, Jackson Dolan, Patricia Farnum, Jude Lester, Stephen Marcinek, Sara Neave, Ronald Olesen, Karen Sweeney, Bruce Thompson, Alysia VanDerHart, Robert Waltz
Note: Years are for continuous membership. Members who let their membership lapse start from the date of reinstatement.
April 15 - 17 Games Weekend at Lake LouisaLocation: Lake Louisa
Back by popular demand, TBM will be having its 5th games weekend at Lake LouisaState Park, Friday April 15th thru Sunday the 17th. Spend a weekend playing gameswith your friends. We will be staying at the park in fully equipped cabins. The cab-ins have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, a fireplace and a largescreened-in wraparound porch. They sleep up to 6 people. The cost for a cabin is $120.00 a night. The total cost of a cabin for the weekend with tax is 266.40 to be split by all occupants of the cabin (see below). There are also camping sites for any-one who does not mind roughing it. Additionally there are RV sites at the park that cost about $24. For additional information about the park, go to: http://floridastateparks.reserveamerica.com/camping/Lake_Louisa_State_Park/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=FL&parkId=281108&topTabIndex=CampingSpot For more informa-tion on the event, contact the host, Art Schwartz at [email protected] or call in the evening 813-818-8109. DIRECTIONS: Take I-4 to exit 55 #US-27 N to-ward Clermont; go 15.4 miles to the park on the left. If you can't spend the entire weekend, drop by on Saturday. The park charges an entrance fee of $5 per car, for those that are not staying overnight. The park closes at sunset to those not staying
Apri l 2016 Page 7
Except for rare cases that hosts will make clear, all events listed in our Calendar ofEvents, whether hosted in private homes or public venues, are open to all Mensans,their spouses, and accompanied guests.
While kitty amounts are mandatory, hosts often spend far more than the specifiedamount. Donations in excess of the kitty amount will be appreciated. If you havespecial needs or restrictions, it is prudent to discuss them with your host before at-tending an event.
overnight. For nature lovers the park has hiking trails and inexpensive canoe/ kayak rentals. The accommodations in Lake Louisa are: Cabins sleep up to 6 peo-ple. Cabins Cost $120 a night plus tax – after tax a 2 night stay is $266.40. Cost per person depends on how many people are in the cabin. 2 bedroom cabins: 1 bed-room has a queen size bed and 1 bedroom has 2 singles – plus 2 bathrooms, full kitchen, Cost will be by room not person, once again the buddy system pays off. 1 person in the room alone would pay the entire cost of the room, 2 sharing split the cost. There is a limit of 2 cars per cabin, so please try to arrange to car pool. Art Schwartz 727-418-0172
April 20 7pm Reading Group
April 21 12:30pm Lunch Bunch@ Sweet Tomatoes
April 23 2pm TLCLocation: 18244 Collridge Dr, Tampa
It's time to Tape, Label, and Chat, as we prepare the next issue of Tampa Bay Sounding for mailing. Come help out and be one of the first to get the latest issue.
I’m sad to report the death of former ExComm member and dear friend Barbara Loewe. Barbara was active in Tampa Bay Mensa for many, many years, giving her time freely to our chapter. Over the years, Barbara hosted ExComm meetings, socials, games nights, card nights, and she had even co-honchoed TBM Regional Gatherings. She will be missed.
Sylvia Zadorozny
It Never Snows In AprilRonnie Dubs
Apri l 2016 Page 9
It was early April when me and three friends – already hanging out in the well-known party town of New Paltz, New York – decided on a trip up into the moun-tains. What little preparation there was centered on alcohol and fireworks, with littlethought to tents, sleeping gear, food, or much else for that matter.
The day started out with three of us – Greg, Jeff, and myself – dropped off at the footof a rather large mountain, and each of us taking a dose of mind-altering recreationalsubstances. What could possibly go wrong?
There was no trail up, only what the deer and other animals used, but the directionwas easy. Keep going up. You know when you reach the top of a mountain, becauseevery other vertical direction is down.
The night was a blast – one of those great guys' nights out that can never be dupli -cated. A roaring fire on a mountain top, plenty of whiskey and everything else. Welaughed until our bellies hurt and then we shot off the fireworks. We threw handfulsof rifle cartridges into the fire until they went off, and we ran for cover. Oh we hadsome fun.
Late in the night, we all agreed that we'd need some sleep, as tomorrow would be arough hike down. The multi-colored psychedelic wallpaper within our own mindsmade it hard to sleep, but we tried. It was more morning than night when Jeff heardthe call of nature and, instead of opening the tent's zipper, ripped open a side seamof the tent. That was when we first noticed the swirling snow coming in, along witha bitterly cold blast of air behind it.
A few hours later, when we awoke again, it was very cold and snowing hard, with ahalf foot of it already on the ground. The three of us, experienced sportsmen andstreet-wise kids, immediately knew the score. The situation had changed and wewere now in serious danger. Every stick of wood was wet by the snow. I had some ofthat pancake batter that used to come in a milk cartons; it was frozen solid, but Ignawed at it, knowing I would need the energy. The deer trails and landmarks we'dused to ascend were now obliterated by the snow, and we picked a direction out bychance, not knowing if we would find a road or a river and another mountain in ourway. The only direction we really knew was downward, and we started.
It was one of those blinding storms where you couldn't see very far ahead, and afterjust a few miles, Greg and I looked around and couldn't see Jeff. We backtracked andfound him face-up, spread eagle, with the snow already covering his face. He said"Just leave me here, just come back and get me." We set Jeff up on a log, shook him,and made him face the significance of our situation. We told him he had to eithercome with us or die here – and he followed along for at least a few more miles, be -fore falling behind again. We set him up on a log again and slapped him hard acrosshis face, making his options clear, and he again reluctantly followed along.
After a while we came to a series of small shale cliffs, each about 40 to 50 feet high,with a small plateau under each of them, and then another cliff. The three of usstopped at the first one, looking down and weighing our options. Greg looks to meand says "What do we do?” Together we moved Jeff to a relatively smooth area of thecliff and pushed him off of it, the few supplies he still carried spewed across theground. Three more times we had to do this.
Continued on page 18
MaRGarita Bay 2016 Schedule
MaRGarita Bay, Tampa Bay Mensa's annual Regional Gathering, is comingsoon! May 27 – 30 at the Tampa Stadium Hotel on Dale Mabry!
Online Registration is now available: http://tampa.us.mensa.org/regform.php
While there are excellent scheduled events planned for the entire MaRGaritaBay 2016 weekend, there are always games available too!
Mix and match your weekend between games and events.
The tentative RG Games schedule:
Apri l 2016 Page 11
Member Book Review Jim Perry
Page 12 Tampa Bay Sounding
Micah Zenko’s Red Team: How To Succeed By Thinking Like The Enemy
Most people begin every morning planning to do as they have always done. Some willact on instinct and impulse. Others will act out of habit, or on authority. Both kindsof people are liable to find at any moment that their instincts, their impulses, theirhabits, and even their most trusted authorities, have failed them. Yet in that sameworld there is an institutionalized force anticipating and defending against such fail-ures: it’s called Red Teaming.
In the Department of Defense, the Red Team is the military unit assigned to play therole of the opposing force. (Red = Communist; get it?) The Blue Team is our side, and agroup of referees is assigned to oversee the exercise, to determine any weaknesses inthe Blue Team’s strategy and tactics. The idea is to anticipate problems in order toavoid them.
Every successful attorney, every successful coach and entrepreneur, has an assistantquestioning the situation from the perspective of the opponent: these questioners aredoing the work of a Red Team. In government, in business, in the military, Red Teamscan be found, appointed to find the flaws in plans before those plans are implemented.Micah Zenko’s book is an expert insider’s view of the state of the art of Red Teaming. He’s a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and has spent many yearsstudying the subject. It shows.
This is not about the normal progression through the ranks of an organization, wherethere are always decisions being made that are “above your pay grade.” Every promo-tion brings the bearers a higher security clearance, and a bigger picture of the worldand of the mission, until finally they arrive at the rank of Commander-in-Chief, whohas staff providing the biggest picture available to them, including science and eco-nomics.
Red Teams work where the biggest picture available within an organization isn’t the big-gest picture possible. This book discusses the practices, wise and otherwise, of RedTeaming within the CIA, the U.S. Marine Corps, the FAA, the NYPD, and an assortmentof corporations, as well as several governmental and military organizations outside theU.S. It even exposes the failure to use Red Team resources that led to 9/11 and to thebotched invasion of Iraq.
The book also compares and contrasts the type of personality required to be an effec-tive Red Teamer. Red Teamers are “analytically fearless, excellent writers, and deeplyknowledgeable about history and world affairs.” They are also “individuals with thecharacteristics of ‘playing well in the sandbox with others,’ checking their rank andego at the door, being bureaucratically savvy, and having the ability to laugh at them-selves daily.” (p. 92) Red Teaming is “a mindset, approach, and a set of specific tech-niques that can improve business performance by challenging untested assumptions,identifying strategic blind spots, simulating competitor responses, and uncovering se-curity weaknesses.” Some of the stories the author relates are hilarious, not to sayoutrageous, as when one Red Team ‘spy’ handed out Starbucks gift cards to any secu-rity personnel who challenged him, congratulating them for their alertness, but thencontinuing into secured areas unimpeded.
At the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Continued on page 18
Spring Picnic Photos (cont)
Apri l 2016 Page 13
Chris & Ginny Clement brought their new greyhound. It was very friendly.
Bocce ball was a hit, with David Fleming, Morgan Shuman,Jen Michel, and Tamara Cope Fleming
Spring Picnic Photos (cont)
Page 14 Tampa Bay Sounding
Beanbag toss tic-tac-toe
Sapir & Art Schwartz played badminton.
Spring Picnic Photos (cont)
Apri l 2016 Page 15
Molly tried bowling.
Spring Picnic Photos (cont)
Page 16 Tampa Bay Sounding
The championship volleyball team. Unbeaten, untied, andunscored-upon. (California never showed up.)
Our hamburgers were delicious! --Charles & Theresa Shadrick, and Tammy Hicks
CryptopoemSylvia Holt Zadorozny
Apri l 2016 Page 17
R G R U B N E X U S C T H O X H E D X G D I T R M M H W
U X E H U C R X U X G C T H I N C H W O R M M N W ,
U X W I N U R G R U B X U H N U P A T H W H
R U O H C W N W I T X W R U K N Q B H M N R W H ,
D X T H W H R D R C R U H Y C W N D H D D R X U
C X S R Z H E P O H W D X U N M R E O W H D D R X U .
C T H I N C H W O R M M N W , N D R C ’ D I N M M H B ,
R D X G C H U T N R W P , D H M B X E K N M B ;
R C M X X V D N D R G R C U H Z H W D T N Z H D ;
A T H U N D R C A N M V D , R C A N M V D R U A N Z H D ;
N U B G W X E C T H I W N B M H C X C T H I T W P D N M R D
R C ’ D Q C C H W M P D O H H I T M H D D , D X U S M H D D ,
A T R D C M H M H D D .
~ X S B H U U N D T , “ C T H I N C H W O R M M N W ”
Member Book Review (cont)
It Never Snows In April (cont)
Answer to the March Cryptopoem:
Page 18 Tampa Bay Sounding
When I get older, losing my hair,
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine,
Birthday greetings bottle of wine?
If I’d been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I’m sixty four?
~ John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Studies (UFMCS) in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, fifty-three methods and practices havebeen developed as of 2015 “to generate innovative ideas and break conventionalthought processes,” all based on “critical thinking, groupthink mitigation, cultural em-pathy, and self-awareness.” The UFMCS has also created a 240-page Applied CriticalThinking Handbook, formerly known as Red Team Handbook, in its seventh edition andavailable online, for free. Zenko’s book contains 32 pp. of notes and a 21 pp. bibliogra-phy.
On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle tragedy, itseems worth mentioning that a de facto Red Teamer named Allan McDonald, an ad-ministrator at Morton-Thiokol, refused to approve the launch, for obvious and statedreasons, but NASA administrators elected to ignore him. That was expensive.
We'd then climb down behind him and clean him up. Thankfully none of us had bro-ken anything.
After the cliffs, the slope of the mountain seemed to decline, and we made some bettertime. Jeff stayed with us for a while and only fell behind one more time, lying in thesnow until we went back and got him.
As I said, we had no idea of what direction we'd chosen – a frozen river and anothermountain in our way might be a distinct possibility. And then we heard it, a soundwithin the snowy silence of a forest, it was a car passing by on a nearby road, and wecheered it. We followed the sound, and hit a road with hardly a soul on it, other thanthe New York State Trooper who had been alerted to our predicament and was out inthe storm looking for us. He dropped us off at a diner where Jeff, bruised and cut,thanked us profusely for saving his life. And then I had the best breakfast of my wholelife.
Tampa Bay Sounding (USPS 305-830) is published monthly by Tampa Bay Mensa at 5001 Terrace Palms Cir Unit 101 Temple Terrace, FL 33617. Periodicals postage paid at Tampa, FL
