Bitter Rivals?

Tuesday, April 24, 2007
12 Attendees
Word of the Day – Infallibility

For regular attendees to our weekly gatherings, you are well aware of an uneasy truce. Those who follow athletics know rivalry between schools is often heated and unreasonable at times – almost like living next door to the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s. Today’s presentations were another light-hearted glimpse into Paul Burke and Joe Simpson’s continuing Ohio State/Michigan banter.

After Invocation and Word of the Day, Guest Jennifer Gill delivered an interesting set of Table Topics. Jennifer asked participants to speak about a color that was chosen from a box of art pencils. Guests Dawn Williams and David Gold chose white and red respectively. Member Tony Li led off by talking about his ideal vacation.

Next, member Paul Burke followed with speech number seven (Getting comfortable with visual aids). His topic was an interesting visual tour of his wife’s home country, El Salvador. Contrasting its natural wonders and some of its critical issues, Paul delivered a much different speech than his normal high-energy fare. Very prepared with a good deal of facts and imagery, Paul received kudos from all in attendance on what seemed like a professional tour or travel show on television.

Next up was Joe Simpson (Vice President of Public Relations), presenting the third speech in the Advanced Communication Series entitled the Roast. The speech requires that you present three to five minutes of “jokes and anecdotes adapted from other sources that apply to the honored guest”. Paul Burke was a good sport serving as the subject of the Roast and Joe quickly dug in.

Quips about Paul came early and often – notes about his hailing from the town that invented Memorial Day (Waterloo, New York); Paul’s obsession with the school of his dreams led in elementary school into requesting they add Silver to the primary color wheel; his drive to add the word “THE” to all references to his Alma Mater Ohio State University (to make the school more distinguished and important); and his quest at Metro to add a Silver Line as a rail line name to go along with the Red Line (in keeping with his school’s colors).

The meeting was then closed with evaluations, announcements and an open invitation to our guests. See you next week.