Record New 'Charter' Member Day

Light-deprived photo shows only six of ten
new club members.

News from the 'Café Metropole Club'

Paris:- Thursday, 23. December 1999:- I come huff-puffing into the café La Corona from the Quai du Louvre about five minutes late. No time for café shots today so I pop off at the expresso machine a couple of times. I think this is full of symbolism. La Corona is a café which is also French for coffee.

Monsieur Ferrat is dealing with the machine, but is blurred by the slow shutter speed, ending up as an express-phantom. Club members are waiting for the meeting to start, he says.

The café is busy today, with the entrance to the small 'salle' blocked off. In the club's area at the rear of the big 'salle' I find the Maginniss family waiting; Bertha, L. W. aka 'Scoop' and their son, James. James is from Los Angeles, and his parents live in Aldie, Virginia.

I perform the usual ceremony and induct Aldie into the club's growing list of - no, not city, but - 'Village of the Week,' after Bertha tells me it has 389 inhabitants. The 'ceremony' involved is getting the spelling right.

Savannah, Georgia does not make it. Frankly, I do not remember why Savannah is in my notes and I have nothing against Savannah, but if we have a 'Village of the Week' we are not going to have a 'City of the Week' too no matter how much merit it has.

Oh. Here it is. This is where Susan and Doug Fuss come from - when they aren't living in Paris; where they live for a part of each year. Savannah is only part-time, so Aldie gets it.

Susan and Doug Fuss live in Paris part-time because they lived here full-time for a long time, and after a time they decided to come back, possibly because living the other part-time in Savannah, Georgia is close enough to Florida to not want to live there.

After giving the club a skip last week, Kathleen Bouvier zooms into the club's area. You may remember she lives in Paris, and sad as I am to write it, Paris is not going to get to be 'City of the Week.' Savannah will get another chance though.

Whoeee! Joanne Fischer and Paul Smith arrive from Houston, Texas.

Metropole has had a lot to do with Beaumont, Texas lately - with Jerry Stopher writing in this issue about riding around Paris in a 'Traction' without a gas cap, Harry 'finding' one, Adrian Leeds bringing up 'N'Awlins' gumbo last week, and a friend of Jerry's being a Jay who knows Adrian, and pretty near the whole lot of them are now exchanging Louisiana-Texas hot food email recipes, which may not be strictly legal in certain states..

This is not exactly off the point, because today Jan and Dana Shaw, who were not just club members but very regular ones, are not with us so there is no club 'Food of the Week' and La Corona - which is not named after a Mexican beer - does not have any gumbo other than onion soup.

Joanne tells me she lived in Houston for months before meeting anybody who wasborn there. While I'm trying to think up a snappy answer to this news, she hauls out her travelling companions, Gumby and Pokey, for everybody to admire.