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Volume VI, Issue III January 2008

Greetings to all for the New Year! 2008 will prove to be a year of increased maturity for our Emeritus organization when we become 6 years “young” in November 2008. 2007 saw the departure of dear Emeritus members Laura Fong, Mike Holway, and Virginia Wales from this world to better places. In their honor, we have established a memorial fund in each one’s name. More about these funds, along with funds in memory of Nancy Aoki and Cathy Scheiter, appear in this January 2008 newsletter.

In 2007, the Emeritus organization came out in support of JROTC by signing a petition to reinstate JROTC and speaking before the Board of Education on the subject. Thanks to Linda Miles, Camille Morishige, Tom Swartz, and Tony Ramirez for impassioned speeches at the meeting, to Reuven Jaffe and Marcia Parrott for ‘being there’ at the meeting, and to all of you who signed the petition which was given to each board commissioner and Superintendent Carlos Garcia. JROTC has a one year reprieve as a course with PE credit, but the fight continues into 2008 to reinstate JROTC. If you missed out on signing the petition, a copy of one is enclosed in this newsletter.

At the December 6, 2007 Holiday luncheon/meeting, Emeritus members signed the Social Security Fairness Act Petition which has been sent to Sacramento. If you wish to sign one, a copy of the petition has been enclosed in this newsletter.

2008, by Lunar New Year reckoning, is the year of the Rat on February 7, 2008. We will celebrate the Lunar New Year, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents’ Day, and Valentine’s Day at our annual Spring Emeritus luncheon/meeting at King Wah Restaurant in Daly City on Tuesday, February 5, 2008. (Look for Sam Louie’s designed flyer announcing this luncheon/meeting in this newsletter.)

Jennie Horn – President – UASF Emeritus, jenniehorn@aol.com

Spring Emeritus Luncheon/Meeting

on February 5, 2008!

Where else can you celebrate Lunar New Year, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents’ Day, and Valentine’s Day than at our annual

spring luncheon/meeting at King Wah Restaurant in Daly City? For $25, you can have a fabulous 10 course luncheon banquet, Marian Seiki’s “to die for” table favors, and great company with fellow Emeritus colleagues, spouses, and friends. Look for Sam Louie’s famous flyer in this newsletter and sign up before January 30, 2008.

Linda AndersenLinda AndersenLinda AndersenLinda Andersen new member

F. Allen SmithF. Allen SmithF. Allen SmithF. Allen Smith renewed member

Return to Sender – Email Addresses – Update Request

We need new email addresses from: Paul Dees (address too!), Tom Latham, and Philip Lum. Please contact Jennie Horn at jenniehorn@aol.com

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– A Report

Several memorial funds received donations recently. To send a donation in memory of, in honor of, or in general, please write a check to “UASF-Emeritus”, with a notation at the bottom of the check designating the purpose of the donation, and send the check to: UASF-Emeritus, PO Box 31940, San Francisco, CA 94131.

The following summarizes recent donors for each fund:

In Memory of Nancy Aoki ($1375): Jeff Aoki, Gregg Bender, Gwen Chan, Mayme Chinn, Helen Hatcher, Steve Hirabayashi, Ruby S. Hong, Nancy Mayeda, Camille Morishige, Marian Seiki, Kathleen T. Shimizu, and Jeanne Villafuerte.

In Memory of Laura Fong ($250): Ruby S. Hong, Sam Louie, Nancy Mayeda, Camille Morishige, and Myrna Tsukamoto.

In Memory of Mike Holway ($3318): Pat Aramendia, Gil Archuleta, Tom Aspell, Gwen Chan, David Fong, Bennett & Deanna Fonsworth, Matt Gaffney, Helen Hatcher, Carolyn L. Hee, Ruby S. Hong, Jennie Horn, George Hsu, Nora P. Haymond, Reuven Jaffe, Louise C. Jones, Judith M. Kell, Dorothy N. Lathan, Brian Lee, Annette Lim, Sam Louie, Nancy Mayeda, David Monasch, III, Camille Morishige, Shirlene Nakano, Marcia Parrott, Gerald Pelletier, Carlos Ruling, Dan & Sally Ryan, Susana M. Scheiter, Marian Seiki, Richard Smith, Myrna Tsukamoto, UASF, and UASF-Emeritus.

In Memory of Cathy Scheiter ($1190): Linda Andersen, Reuven Jaffe, Vermuta Moore, Camille T. Morishige, and Susana Scheiter.

In Memory of Virginia Wales ($75): Jennie Horn and Shirlene Nakano.

Checks: Claudia Jeung sent the checks designated with a cover letter from our organization requesting that acknowledgements be sent directly to the donors shown on the checks.

Asian Women's Shelter $50 Casa de las Madras $25 Glide Foundation $135 Hanna Boys Center $75 Hilltop School Pregnant Minors Program $75 St. Anthony's $50 Numerous Wrapped Gifts: Angel Contreras has distributed the gifts to Laguna Honda, Glide Memorial, and Casa de las Madras.

Michael James Holway –

a Celebration of His Life

A celebration of Mike's life will take place, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2008, 1-4 pm at the Lincoln Park Clubhouse at 34th Avenue and Clement.

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Jersey Boys

– December 12, 2007

The latest Emeritus small group activity was a musical trip back to the 50’s and 60’s with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (actually great singers/actors who played them). 20 Emeritus members (Linda Andersen, Gil Archuletta, Jean & Quentin Baker, Audrey Davis, Marge Goody, Nora Haymond & friend,

Carolyn Hee, Jennie Horn, Cecilia & George Hsu, Linda Davis Jones, Jennie & Sam Louie, Shirlene Nakano, Marilyn & Tom Swartz, Jason & Jeanne Villafuerte) enjoyed fabulous songs such as “Sherry”, “Earth Angel”, and “Silhouettes” which brought back memories of our teen years. Watch for information on the next small group activity this spring from Audrey Davis.

– A Year in Retrospect

The following are highlights from the many holiday cards and email messages sent: Ron Cabral: co-author of a book soon to be published named San Francisco to Jonestown.

←←←← George Hsu: Received an award for excellence in education at a CACA (Chinese American Citizen’s Alliance) ceremony on October 12, 2007.

→→→→ Claudia Jeung: Claudia’s Momma Rose recovered well after two major hospitalizations. Momma Rose is the 2007 “poster child” for miracles.

Marie Lee: Marie is a breast cancer survivor and enjoying the life of travel. Her latest exploit is learning Spanish while staying at a timeshare in Mexico. Last year, in between travels and ballroom dancing, Marie worked as a consultant for SFUSD’s Child Development Program.

Sam Louie: In July of 2007, Sam’s son Scott married Herna Cruz. Sam & Jennie Louie also acquired their first grandchild, Maggie…a dog.

Continues on next page…

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Shirlene Nakano: Shirlene and husband, Randy, moved back into their remodeled home a year ago and have been busy merging households. Shirlene has been babysitting Roka, Courtney and Scott’s child, two days a week and looks forward to the arrival of another grandchild this January.

→→→→ Jean and Tony Ramirez: Among many of their activities was the arrival of their second grandchild, Shade Julien Jamison at 10 pounds, 7 ounces. Big sister, Aurora, is playing the role with panache! Tony lost his mother, Julieta, on October 25th, at age 96. The Ramirez’s also lost a mother-in-law on November 25th at age 102. Kudos go to Tony for accomplishing white-water rafting for seven days on the Colorado River and Jean for her 5th year of work in Bali.

←←←← Marilyn and Tom Swartz are proud of their two sons: Mark, who earned his gold wings to fly the F18 from Oceana Airfield, and Luke, a Lieutenant stationed on the Ohio submarine on Western Pacific Patrol.

(1) Downtown Grouch: I usually try to make a trip downtown to catch some holiday spirit. This year I started at the almost-new Westfield Center. So I hobbled up to the fourth floor via the twisty escalator. Did I find the fantastic Christmas decorations of last year and nice chairs to sit in order to suck up the ambience? No! I found a huge barrier that was in place of the “Neato” chairs which was blocking any real view of the rotunda. It was now a “special“area dedicated to a credit card holiday scam or, in their terms, “set of events.” One could get inside, receive a gift and partake in that day’s event, if you had their card. They had an actual schedule of events. (On the 28th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me—a credit card event in a discount tree! Whee!) All I could think of was an old Bible story about moneychangers. Instead of sugarplums dancing in my head, I left hoping for either a sigmoid colon “event” or a root canal to lift my spirits. Then I made the mistake of taking the escalator to the next floor. There was Santa’s Village. You could have your unspoiled child enter this workshop and get a picture of the event—for

a fee. Where is the Santa from “Miracle on 42nd Street” that I was used to? Is Henry Potter the owner of the Westfield Mall? I did regain my holiday spirit when we went to a movie at the new Sundance Theater (the old Kabuki) as they have not only huge seats for my recently enlarged derriere but also reserved seats that can be purchased on the Internet at no additional charge. So next year I will not go to the mall but instead get a ticket to the Sundance Theatre and bring in my portable DVD player and my new smaller caboose and watch “It’s a Wonderful Life”!

(2) Parking Grouch: If you have been in San Francisco for more than10 minutes then you know that one must always drive in the middle lane when on a major thoroughfare. Is this because you have to be scared of some bicycle-crazy, demanding his lane or because you like the excitement of being hemmed in? No! It is because the chances of a truck or auto being double-parked are 150%. (Some of you math freaks may try to point out that 150% is impossible.)

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Grouch continues on next page…

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In New York and Chicago, double-parking only happens on the side streets and never on the main ones. We instead allow the large companies to pay some sort of monthly fee for bad parking, and then everyone who has anything to deliver or just wants to get lunch is encouraged to park in the middle of the street. Meanwhile, we combine this double-parking with saving most of the metered parking places downtown for deliveries. These spaces are always EMPTY!

Why? Because all the delivery guys are out in the street blocking my way. Uniformed Parking Scum (UPS) and other offenders beware! I received most of this gripe from a fellow “Emeritus”. So I have decided to name a dish after him. I have invented a Sam Louie. This would be lettuce spiked with Prozac and served between two huge delivery trucks.

(3) Children Grouch: When we visit our offspring at their digs, I am flummoxed by their living accommodations. I think that they must have some kind of special parent-visit training manual as there are no dishes in the sink, and the beds are either made or covered. I reflect on how mature they must have become. However when they arrive home for the holidays, they revert back to being teenagers. Within ten minutes of their arrival, the house looks liked a Hurricane Katrina neighborhood. Clothes everywhere, dishes in the sink, on the table, and on the floor. Milk is left out, beds in hurricane mode, and chaos a perfect word for everything else. Now, however, unlike when they were actually teenagers, I cannot

ground anyone or even have a temper tantrum. So I just mumble out loud to myself and pick stuff up. In fact due to my bedtime, I am the one who is grounded.

(4) Apnea Grouch: Last night I went to a clinic to have my sleep checked for this disorder. I was encouraged to do this by my supposed loved ones who claimed that the noises I produced were extraterrestrial. MY claims of ventriloquistic plots were ignored. So in I went to spend the night with Count Dracula who is dressed as a “sleep tech”. His job was to hook

me up and then wake me repeatedly to try on different facial torture devices that would help me to sleep better. I used all of my lunch duty training in order to stay calm as he repeatedly complained that they did not have any devices on hand big enough for my nose! In the morning they had me fill out a questionnaire. Did you dream? No, but I had a nightmare that I spent the night at a sleep clinic. I would write more but I cannot see the screen as my nose is bent and in the way!

More Grouch Funnies:

(1) From church bulletins: (a) The Fasting and Prayer Conference includes meals. (b) The sermon this morning: “Jesus Walks on the Water.” The sermon tonight: “Searching for Jesus.” (c) Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00PM – prayer and medication to follow.

(2) Baseball player Ron Swoboda after striking out five times in a game, “I ought to get my 38 and blow my head off.” His coach, “Don’t bother, you’d probably miss.”

(3) Some quotes: (a) Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor: “We don’t necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people.” (b) Brooke Shields as spokesperson for the federal anti-smoking campaign: “Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life.” (c) Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, D.C.: “Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.” (d) Lee Iacocca: “We’ve got to ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?”

(4) Some new “old” ideas: (a) A new fitness movie for dudes like me—“Pumping Rust” (b) Old age is when you still have something on the ball but you are just too tired to bounce it. (c) You know, I spent a fortune on deodorant before I realized that people didn’t like me anyway.

…Grouch Continued

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– UASF-Emeritus Executive Board

At the December 6, 2007 Emeritus luncheon/meeting, nominations for the UASF Emeritus Executive Board (2008-2010) were requested for the slate: UASF Emeritus Executive Officers:

President: Jennie A. Horn Vice-President: Angel Contreras Recording Secretary: Claudia Jeung Treasurer: Tom Aspell Membership Secretary: Mattie Walker UASF Emeritus Executive Board:

Lupe Arabolos Judith Kell David Monasch, III Marian Seiki Marilyn Swartz Myrna Tsukamoto Nominations of candidates continue to be open for any of the officer or board positions listed. If you wish to run or to nominate someone, please send your written consent or that of the nominee to: UASF-Emeritus, PO Box 31940, San Francisco, CA 94131 by January 31, 2008. Ballots will be sent in February 2008.

May 15, 2008 Conference

Osher Lifelong Learning

Center - SFSU

UASF-Emeritus will be one of the many sponsors of a one day conference on May 15, 2008 at the Westfield campus at 835 Market Street. Among the subjects to be covered: self-employment, meaningful volunteering, 2nd businesses or careers, continuing education, and other life fulfillment activities. More information is

forthcoming as the planning proceeds this spring. More immediately: On February 6, 2008, OLLI will present a conversation with Lillian Rubin, best selling author of Sixty on Up: The Truth about Aging in America. This is an excerpt from the release: “In a culture that insists that “sixty is the new forty”, “eighty the new sixty”, and that we’ll all live happily ever after, where seventy-eight million Baby Boomers are moving into their sixties and economists worry that they will break the Social Security bank, Dr. Rubin offers a clear and

compassionate analysis of the social and emotional problems facing older Americans and the children who care for them. The best hope, Dr. Rubin argues, is to understand the realities we face and to prepare – as individuals and as a society – for a long life from sixty on up.” 12 noon – 2 pm., February 6, 2008

San Francisco State University Downtown Cent

835 Market Street, 6th floor Served by MUNI and BART

Parking at the Mission Street Garage opposite Bloomingdales’ entrance.

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The California Senior Legislature concluded its 27th annual legislative session after having deliberated over 86 proposals. Their arduous task was to confer in committees and determine which would be the top 10 state legislative proposals and 4 top federal proposals that are currently being lobbied among our State Legislators for sponsorship. The sponsoring Legislator(s) will introduce them as bills and carry them through to passage.

Buoyed by our 70% success rate over the past 25 years, the CSL volunteer members are aggressively lobbying this years proposals that address:

• Nursing Home End of Life Privacy,

• Prescription Expiration Dating on Packaging,

• Hearing Aid Availability Over-the-Counter,

• Electronic Prescription Writing System,

• Acute Care Hospital Infection Screening and Disclosures,

• Elder Abuse Offender Registry,

• Affordable Housing Shortage Zoning Revisions,

• Property Tax Exemptions Increase,

• Oral Health in Nursing Homes,

and Federal legislative proposals:

• Home Capital Gains Tax Exclusion Increase,

• Medical Expense Tax Deductions for all Medical Expenses,

• Government Negotiated Drug Prices,

• Medicare Coverage to Include Oral Health.

These proposals and other information about

the CSL are detailed on our website, www.4csl.org.

All Senior Senators and Assembly members are volunteers. CSL is not state funded, but solely through voluntary contributions. Contributions can be made on your CA Income Tax form under Contributions: The California

Fund for Senior Citizens”. You can also make a tax deductible donation directly to The California Foundation on Aging, 1008 10th Street, #428, Sacramento, CA 95814-3502.

**HEALTH INFORMATION ALERT** I learned recently of a cancer diagnosis

organization called “The Second Opinion”. This service is available FREE to cancer patients wanting a second opinion about their condition and needing more information in order to make an informed decision about their treatment. It is available to anyone and the diagnosis is conducted in San Francisco. A team of volunteer doctors/specialists in many fields are assembled and review the medical records. Then, as a team, they meet with the patient, explain their findings and make recommendations for treatment options.

I initially heard about the program in a meeting, but later met a woman whose daughter used the service and praises it highly. If you know of anyone who might want to make use of this service contact www.thesecondopinion.org, The Second Opinion, 1200 Gough St, S. 500, SF, 94109, 415-775-9956.