Ned Luce

You’re in a volunteer charitable group around here and you need to raise some money. At least part, or maybe all, of the answer may be in some pancakes. The SBCA, known officially as the South Bay Community Association, offers you the opportunity to put on a pancake breakfast at the Bay Club to fund your project. Fifty percent of the net proceeds go directly to your charitable organization whilst the remainder is retained by the SBCA as a credit against future space usage costs at the Bay Club. It is my understanding that the credit may even be transferred to another organization for their use. The next chance for you to support these efforts is a week from this coming Saturday on Feb. 8 at 9 a.m. supporting an international project by the East Jefferson Rotary Club. (These events usually start earlier but since it is Saturday, well you get it.) The one after that is on Friday, March 6 at 8:30 a.m. put on by the Ludlow Village Players. This one features French toast!

Unfortunately for those without tickets, this Saturday’s tribute to Roy Orbison performance by “The Lonely’’ is sold out so I won’t encourage you to get out there and buy one. However, like several folks here in Port Ludlow, I spend way too much time down at Active Life trying to regain the strength, flexibility, and ability to endure the stress of our younger years. The folks administering the therapy that will “help us get through the night,” (as Willie Nelson and many others plea), are really great practitioners of the trade. However, ask them about somebody like Roy Orbison and their faces go blank. I accuse them of being naïve but the real problem is that they are young! l then tell and demonstrate my skill with “op” language, taught to me in 1962 by Leslie Schimpf, the younger sister of my then-girlfriend. You see, you insert “op” in front of every vowel as you speak. For example, Ned Luce becomes “Noped Lopuce.” Not very exciting, right? The fun one though is Leslie. Go ahead, say it out loud, “Lopeslopie Schopimpf.” And of course Leslie became notable in my life as she claims to have thought Roy Oribson’s song, “Only the Lonely” was really entitled “Only Baloney.” You wondered what the point was, didn’t you. With those skills I am sure that Leslie is running a Fortune 500 company now!

As NFL Hall of Famer Art Donovan once said, “I’m a light eater. As soon as it gets light I eat.” Welcome to the Fifty-Fourth Super Bowl, also known as “Super Bowl LIV”, between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers this Sunday afternoon. Readers from last week will remember that BJ and I are fans of the Chiefs and look forward to cheering them on to their second Super Bowl victory. They also won number 4, known more humbly then as the NFL Championship. I was pleased to hear this week from Port Ludlow locals Wendall and Jean Johnaningsmeir, former KC residents and loyal Chiefs fans. They confess to spending cold Sundays attending Chiefs games at the old Municipal Stadium and then moving out to Arrowhead Stadium after Municipal was demolished. BJ and I arrived in KC in 1979 and Municipal was long gone although Arthur Bryant’s BBQ was and still is down the street!

NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana had a long career for the San Francisco 49ers and then a couple of years for the Chiefs. When asked whom he thought would win this weekend’s game he is reported to have said, “my team.”

Love a curmudgeon and Go Chiefs!

(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive who says ixnay to igpay atinLay.)