Ed Buckner will give us, for our 11 August program, a quiz he made up just for the occasion, and AFS will award prizes to the top three highest scorers. Ed solemnly affirms that he has not revealed anything about this quiz (except that it’ll be devilishly hard or easy as pie, depending on what you know—and it won’t be about clichés) to anyone else—not to Laura, not to Diane, not to Michael, not to Dwight, etc. “If anyone has an advantage, it’ll be because they have knowledge, not because they know and love me (as everyone does, of course),” according to Ed. He also insists that it’ll be the sort of quiz where wild guessing may well help, and where everyone (or at least Ed) will have fun. Ed said, “I’d say, ‘Come prepared,’ except who really wants to memorize and show off her knowledge of the exact size, in hectares, of all the state capital cities in the US, when the quiz might turn out instead to be about the most popular models of foreign cars sold in the US in the 1930s?”
Ed Buckner is a long-standing life member of AFS (and of other great organizations) and is married (happily for decades) to Diane and is a parent (Diane had something to do with it) to Michael—also for decades (all of Michael’s life, in truth). He (Ed, that is) likes to read, likes to show off, likes to make stuff up (but not this time, he promises), and likes for people to laugh (even if it’s at him instead of with him). He even encourages the inimitable wit of Laura Ross at the beginning of our meetings. Ed’s 5’9” or maybe a shade taller. He’s generally pretty loud (but we plan to make him use the microphone anyway). He has a beard (that’s what he calls it, anyway.) Ed knows his time tables up to 12 x 12, he can spell pretty well, and he knows how to count in foreign languages (up to 10 in Spanish; 3 in French or German). Recently Dwight Lyman beat Ed at chess online—not unusual; just thought you’d want to know. Ed’s held various jobs but has had to retire, for various unpublished reasons. (This has happened before.)
AFS programs nearly always include a speaker, usually on religion, freethought, humanism, atheism, philosophy, science, mud-wrestling, or history. We sometimes have internationally renowned speakers, sometimes local academics or others with particular expertise, and sometimes we take what we can get.
Come early—despite it being squarely in the dog days of August, the program may be so well attended that seats are scalped for outrageous amounts. If not, the meeting will be free and open to the public. One of the 20 questions (now, see—there’s a hint: think of something someone could ask 20 questions about) will be a designated Jack Egger question. (Something Jack will like, even if he may not know the answer.)
Ed is the chair of the speakers’ committee, and therefore he gets to decide who’ll introduce the speaker and say flowery, grand things about said speaker. Ed’ll ask Jack to introduce him.
There will be a potluck lunch right before the meeting at noon. Bring food according to your last name: A-G: Bring a dessert; H-P: Bring a side dish; Q-Z: Bring a main dish. AFS will provide drinks, plates and silverware.