Date: June 12, 2000

What about entering the Bolton Landing quartet contest? I am not talking to the registered quartet members here. I mean you! Yes, I know you haven't sung in a quartet before (or recently, or yet!) All the more reason to try your hand. I bet that our Music Team would be thrilled to have some new quartets formed and would help you with coaching and maybe even their voices. If you are at all interested, speak to Stan Kido, our quartetting Chairman, or Alan Kenley, our Vice-President, Music & Performance and they will be pleased to help you out. Quartetting will improve your confidence and even you chorus singing.

Do you know what it takes to form a quartet? One person. That's right. All you need to start is yourself and then one more person, and then one more person and soon there are four. Don't be shy about asking. If you haven't ever sung in a quartet, try it. You will like it.

Oh yes, the Bolton Landing Barbershop Quartet Festival Contest is the most non-threatening contest in the world. It is a place to try your hand at the quartet side of this great hobby. It will be held this year from September 1-3 in Bolton Landing, NY. In addition to the Sunday quartet contest, there is a chorus contest, and three shows with some of the best quartets in the world! Be there, and have the best time you can imagine.

Did you bring a guest tonight? Why not? This is an excellent time to invite someone that you know loves to sing and is able to carry a tune. We are one of the few singing organizations that does not quit for the summer. Invite people from your church choir, or other choirs that are on summer hiatus. They may like what they hear and want to stay, or perhaps they may want to join us for our Christmas sing outs.

Time for your Annual dues? Please pay NOW! Annual dues went up by $6.00 US effective with December 31, 1999 renewals. That makes our annual total $170.00 Canadian. NOTE: DISREGARD THE AMOUNT ON YOUR RENEWAL NOTICE! PLEASE if June is your renewal month, give Ray Watkins your cheque before the 15^th of the month! If you are late, there will be an additional $7.50 late payment charge.

Don't forget the easiest way to pay is in small instalments. The $14 Monthly payment hardly hurts. (Nor does the $42.00 quarterly payment.) All cheques are payable to "Island City Chorus."

Is that right! ED: This information has not been verified, but it sounds good!

1. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes; when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That's where the phrase, "goodnight, sleep tight" came from.
2. The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the alphabet (developed by Western Union to test telex/twx communications)
3. The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
4. When opossums are playing "possum," they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
5. The Main Library at Indiana University sinks more than an inch every year because, when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
6. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WW2 fighter pilots in the Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the 50- caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."
7. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law that stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
8. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
9. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, GP.
10. The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
11. Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
12. No NFL team that plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Super Bowl.
13. The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver."
14. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
15. In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.
16. It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.
17. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
18. There is an average of 178 sesame seeds on a McDonald's Big Mac bun.
19. The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.
20. The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
21. When Heinz ketchup leaves the bottle, it travels at a rate of 25 miles per year.
22. Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka.
23. On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
24. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
25. It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that, for one month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the "honey month" or what we know today as the "honeymoon."
26. In English pubs, ale is ordered by the pint and quart. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's."
27. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle," is the phrase inspired by this practice.

Practice is something we do at home, every day, between rehearsals!

Rehearsal is where we reinforce what we have been practising every day!