From Near and Far - More New Members

The calm before the storm of new club members.

News About the 'Café Metropole Club'

Paris:- Saturday, 15. April 2000:- Last Thursday's meeting of your club in Paris racked up four new 'real' members. This was not a record, but it was a big improvement over the past several weeks - without forgetting that the previous week's Jerry from Brooklyn nearly amounted to three members in one.

Linda Thalman, the server-lady, who is a long-time 'real' member herself, showed up for the meeting too. Many 'virtual' and most 'real' members are also subscribers to her 'Paris In Sites' newsletter, so she gets to wear two hats when she comes to club meetings.

We went into the café La Corona together, and found Carmel McKenzie and Alan Savage waiting for us. The couple said they'd sat in airplanes for 26 hours to get to the meeting, and we would have called this the 'Flight of the Week' if it were a usual club distinction.

But it is not, because flying from Australia or New Zealand is about as long as it takes. If flight times were given any 'Weekly' status, then the next thing would be non-human beings coming in from the Moon or someplace.

Membership qualifications, as everybody knows, restrict membership to human beings. If Elvis were alive, as club secretary, I would not object to his membership - but he is not; so he's not eligible.

Alan Savage also recently wrote, to clear up the controversy surrounding my erroneous notion that there are kangaroos in South Africa. This has all be settled now, but he presented both the server-lady and me with 24-carat gold-plated kangaroo pins so we don't forget it.

I think Linda always knew there are no kangaroos in South Africa, so she sort of got a 'free' pin because she has nothing to remember.

Marion Nowak wrote to me before the club meeting to say she couldn't come to it because she had to go shopping. Afterwards, she conveniently arranged to lose her shopping list, so she could attend the meeting and become a new 'real' member.

Stan Fleener didn't write at all, but just dropped coolly in from Leucadia near San Diego. Before coming he asked his wife if she felt like having a 'cheapo' stay in Paris. She said, 'No thanks!' - no doubt because they had had the opposite of 'cheapo' in Paris just before Christmas and the big storm.

It was sort of a 'dry' meeting; in the drinks department. The server-lady had a gin tonic without the gin and Stan had a 'Joker' orange juice, while most of the rest of us mostly had café.

It's not up to me what the 'Drink of the Week' is, but I don't think it does the club's reputation much good if it is 'Joker.' But it had to be because there was no gin.

If the sun is shining in Paris on club days, it is well over the yard-arm by 15:00. Last Thursday, at 17:00 it was so far past the yard-arm or whatever it is, that everybody left smartly right after five. Possibly to catch up.

I don't know. I left without hanging around - to get the contest prizes from a nearby trinket shop on the Quai du Louvre.

I still haven't got the date for the film-shoot in La Corona in May. The café will be occupied by a movie crew for a couple of days one week, so the club's meeting will probably be put forward to a Wednesday.

Also, I will be absent from two meetings - the last one in June and the first one in July, which are Thursday, 29. June and Thursday, 6. July.

Reminder: a special note should be made for the eve of Bastille Day, on Thursday, 13. July - which will be a regular club meeting day as far as I know at this time.

This will be the Bastille Day eve and may be somewhat extraordinary - Year 2000 after all! There should be a lot of dancing in the streets; followed by the biggest picnic in the history of the world on Friday, the 14th of July.

Next Thursday's club meeting will be held as usual in the same place at the same time, regardless of the weather.

I will recommend this - once more, with no particular emphasis - if you want to read last Thursday's original report, you can see the unofficial account of the weekly Club meeting - which has other details than above.

The one purpose of the Caf&eaute; Metropole Club is to provide a chance for readers of the online magazine 'Metropole Paris' who are visiting Paris to meet its 'Ed,' and each other and possibly the server-lady, at its weekly meetings in the club's Paris café.