"If a person desires to be a humorist it is necessary that the people around him shall be at least as wise as he, otherwise his humor will not be comprehended."

Flamingoes are probably one of our oldest inside jokes, dating all the way back to 1989. For the first few years of our Autumn In New York RG, we always had a secret theme. That year's theme was "The vanishing species: Pink Lawn Flamingoes." Every person who attended got one, and the ones left over (or their kin) still show up occasionally at restaurants or events or in the newsletter. One member of our chapter even bought a 5' tall stuffed flamingo which he donated to Mid-Hudson Mensa. This flamingo, known as "Poobah," is typically given to the chapter president (though Betsy has delegated ownership of Poobah to her vice-president.) Other chapters, such as Delaware Valley Mensa, also hold flamingoes in high esteem, but we like to think we came up with the idea first.

Artemus Klipt is our fictitious artwork provider. Artemus was "born" in the September 1994 issue of Mid-Mensan. That year, we had been hopeful that we might receive a newsletter award nomination for artwork, due in part to the contributions made by Alan Hauck. We didn't that year (but did in future years.) Disappointed, we rationalized that perhaps the judges thought the artwork was soooo good, they must have thought it was clip art. From that, we also got the idea of having a "Bad Art" issue, in which we would publish artwork which was deliberately "not great". Alan created an impressive, though very eclectic, cover featuring as much diverse clip art as possible. Ironically, we never had room for other bad art in that issue. Artemus Klipt, however, still receives credit for any artwork we place in the newsletter which is actually (or at least partially) clip art.

The Chandelier Monster was created at a Creativity Corner event in 1995, when we decorated Bibi Sandstrom's and Eric Kollenberg's house for Halloween. The many globes on their hanging chandelier seemed fitting as large eyes for a monster, so we attached a huge jaw with gaping teeth and many tentacles (and of course antennae), and it looked like a monster bursting through the ceiling. We have several photos of the monster available for your viewing, and the monster has shown up on a couple of covers of the Mid-Mensan (including this month's.)

At her first Pizza SIG, Bibi Sandstrom warned that her sense of humor was the kind that made people look at her sideways. We tried looking at her sideways anyway, and she burst out laughing. Since then, the tactic has never failed to get her laughing again. Some of the pros in our chapter can even get her going with a mere 10° tilt of the head.

Trudy is a fictional character introduced to Mid-Hudson Mensa several years ago by Eric Kollenberg. However, you will only hear about Trudy at events and never in the newsletter, for Trudy is only discussed among mature audiences. Trudy is Mid-Hudson Mensa's queen of the double entendre; Mae West is her inspiration. At a Mensa event, if someone says something which might be a more interesting comment if interpreted in a "saucy" manner, the response, "That's what Trudy said" puts it in a whole new light.

In the October 1995 issue of the Mid-Mensan, Alan Hauck had an article giving tips on how to create and submit artwork for the newsletter. One of the topics he covered was the pitfalls of photocopying. Alan illustrated this with three versions of the same cartoon character: one as a line drawing, one with good shading, and one shaded to give a photocopier fits. Alan labelled these drawings as Fig 1, Fig 2, and Fig 3. Unfortunately, although the character depicted was indeed a cartoon fig, the joke was lost to us-- since the editor had helpfully expanded the captions to read Figure 1, etc. We had a good laugh at ourselves when Alan explained the joke we missed, and since then, Fig 1 has occasionally shown up in Alan's works.

About a year ago, getting to an event sponsored by Bibi was compared to the now-famous first action scene in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. Since Bibi came to our area from the Indianapolis area, she was dubbed Bibi "Indiana" Sandstrom for that event. Next issue, Bibi noted that she had actually been born in Virginia. So for a calendar event that issue, she became Bibi "Virginia" Sandstrom. Every month, Bibi is "somewhere else," relating to the event or its description if possible.

It started so innocuously. In December 1994, we had uncontested elections for next term's executive committee - 6 people running for 7 offices. Election statements were a bit more relaxed than usual. Eric Kollenberg's was the following:

"I have three goals if elected to the Board. First, to preserve the balanced, not-too-frivolous, not-too-serious attitude of the current board. Second, to increase participation in the chapter, especially by occasional attendees. Third, to put a live marmot on Bill Zigo's head. Okay, maybe two goals."

Bill responded in his January 1995 loc sec's column with, "I'm ready for you, Kollenberg." In March, Alan Hauck provided cover art of Eric about to put a marmot on Bill's head.

By that time, marmots were a popular topic. Editor Ron McMurdy thought it was time to get marmots out of our system, so the April Mid-Mensan was our infamous "Marmot-Free Issue." Eric's cover art showed two macho cigar-chomping hunters loaded with artillery, standing behind a large, smoke-filled hole in the ground, exclaiming, "Well, we've seen the last of those pesky varmints!" They were, of course, unaware that each had a marmot on his head, winking at each other. The inside of the "Marmot-Free Issue" had nine more marmots (plus one disgruntled marmoset).

Since then, marmots have been on many of our newsletter covers and referenced in many articles. We played "Pin the marmot on the loc sec's head" at one of our RG's. And of course, our web site has the obligatory marmot-free page, which shows many of Alan Hauck's illustrations of marmots, including an elegant Escher homagé of tessellated marmots and owls, used as a background image.

Has this fun gone to our heads? You bet! We've had a lot of fun putting those varmints all over the place. But please, when car pooling with Bill to Mensa events, if you see a groundhog, don't point and yell, "MARMOT!"-- it makes Bill nervous.

Marmots In The News(letter):

• 1995
  • March - Bill, Eric, and The Marmot (13Kb)
  • April - Marmot-Free Issue! (18Kb) ... and Marmot-Free Page!
  • December - The Third and Most Terrible of the Spirits (16Kb)
• 1996
  • January/February - The Search for a New Mhascot (18Kb)
  • September - CaveMensan and Saber-Toothed Marmot (23Kb)
• 1997
  • April - Cloning Breakthrough! (27Kb)
• 1998
  • October - The Big Hibernation (38Kb)
  • December - Aunt Mensa Enjoys a Night at the Opera (22Kb)

Several of Mid-Hudson Mensa's "RG Junkies" - most notably Bill Zigo and Merrill Loechner - are morning people to the extreme, while many of their friends are - to put it mildly - NOT. Unfortunately for these night owls, Bill and Merrill also have a habit of bouncing up to these people first thing in the morning, singing, "We're happy, we're perky. Our friends all think we're jerky..." (sung to the tune of the Tiny Toons™ cartoon show theme.) They've never had to come up with lyrics beyond that, though, because by that time they are in the process of running from all the projectiles flung at them.