October Newsletter The TAPING RECORDER October 2007 News from & about Sight into Sound Celebrating forty years of Turning Sight Into Sound http://www.sightintosound.org GOLF EVENT RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER! Your opportunity to support Taping as well as knock a little white ball around a pasture isn’t far away. The Taping golf event hosted by Bill Brown & Jerry Hanlon will be Friday, November 2, 2007, at the Longwood Golf Club. It isn’t too late to sign up, so go to the Taping website (address given above) and enter. The event begins at 7:30 a.m. with breakfast, followed by golf, and followed by lunch and silent auction (and possibly a noisy auction). We will have celebrities playing on several holes and a great day for golfing, so get out of the office and join us! It promises to be an extraordinary event! MAKING A DIFFERENCE Recently I received a note from a friend who has been taking advantage of description services while attending TUTS productions. I want to share his words with you: “…Lately Helen and I have been attending the musicals of the Theater Under The Stars. I wanted to thank your organization for the narrations. While the narrators do not identify themselves, they do identify Houston Taping. Their narration adds a great deal to my enjoyment of the shows.” Thanks to our describers for making this a wonderful service! ROAD TRIP Our volunteers do so much of interest. Diana Mitchell traveled to Russia this year for a gathering of her very extended family. She reported that the vodka was excellent and the trip was memorable for many, many reasons. Another volunteer traveled to Vietnam and we asked him to recap his experiences. Here is Tom Milburn’s report: “Thank you for allowing me to briefly share thoughts regarding the trip my wife and I made to Vietnam during August. We traveled this almost-1,000 mile-long country , with population of almost 82 million people, from tip to top. I found Vietnam to be a country of great contradiction, struggling to connect to the 21st century global economy while still a very poor agrarian country with most people still cultivating rice and other crop fields in the ancient way, with their water buffalo and hand plows. The population is streaming from the countryside to the major cities, especially Hanoi and the former Saigon, now known only officially as Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi, the capital , in the north, is a French provincial city with fine architecture from the colonial period, as well as the best French bread and pastries outside of Paris. Saigon, in the south, is about three times the size and population of Hanoi and is an exciting sprawl of a city, with people still carrying goods via shoulder yokes, while speaking on international cell phones. Rising in the suburbs of Saigon are high-tech industrial parks, built by many of the familiar companies like Cisco Systems. A short time ago, these were rice fields. The Vietnamese people are the real gems of the country, more than the magnificent beaches, the wonderful jungles and mountains. As a professor at Dalat University said to me, the Vietnamese do not bear any resentment about the war. They are "practical" and want to "provide great service at a great price" for the developed world, including the USA. In the process of developing, they have a long way to go. Cars are rare, with millions and millions of motor bikes streaming down all streets. The average Vietnamese live on less than the equivalent of $500 per month, and those who earn that much have educations and technical jobs. There is so much I want to share and so little time and space to do so. I hope this has given a taste, however small, of this wonderful country.” Thanks for the report, Tom! Sounds like a very educational trip, and we are glad you are back! NEW GRANDCHILD Bob and Victoria Bartlett are pleased to let you know that their son, Paul, and his wife Barbara are the proud parents of Rowan Harold Bartlett born on Friday, October 19, 2007, in Austin. Rowan weighed in at 7 lbs., 4 ounces and is 20 inches long. He was born at 11:58 a.m. on his Dad’s birthday­quite a birthday gift, and a beautiful little guy. You may want to avoid Bob as he will probably be trying to show you pictures…grin. LIGHT THE CANDLES Birthday greetings to the following Taping volunteers who celebrated in October: 10/01 Polly Clark; 10/04 Monica McHam; 10/05 Mary Farish Johnston, Jo Marks; 10/10 Marcie Corder, Ada Fay Peters; 10/11 Ellin Royds; 10/14 Kathy Osman; 10/20 Joe Brown; 10/21 David Herfort; 10/22 Robert Hargrove; 10/23 Donna Colson, Pat Pilkington; and 10/30 Lyndon Joslin. PONDERABLES Just a few thoughts to leave you laughing: The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity. ***** How can there be self-help groups? ***** If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain whales? ***** Show me a man with both feet firmly on the ground, and I'll show you a man who can't get his pants off. ***** Is it me, or do buffalo wings taste like chicken? RLB