LocSec Lowdown

Volume 32, Issue 10 November 2015

Hello, fellow Mensans! Here is it again – fall and almost winter! I love all the fall tree colors, which seem to be especially vibrant this year – even better against the backdrop of Pikes Peak with a fresh layer of snow! The dogs, especially Kody Bear, enjoy the cooler weather. Now, if I can just keep Otis from eating leaves … Our group had a busy October! Between the normal events like GITBP, BurgerQuest and Ex-Comm, we also worked in an evening at The Greatest Escape Room! Wow – that was tons of fun! The clues were very clever and there were enough of them that everybody got to solve some riddle or puzzle and contribute to the solu-tion! Our group actually went just a bit over the allotted hour due to a glitch with a latch, but the hosts still gave us “credit” for escaping! We went to the place on South Tejon (The Greatest Escape), but there are a couple more “escape rooms” opening up here in town. If you enjoy puzzles and finding clues – you need to try one of these out! Great fun! We’re kicking November off with a trip to Triple S Brewing, which not only features beers, but also has coffees and craft sodas! Triple S is one of the latest additions to the growing number of breweries here in Colorado Springs; Sean is hav-ing no trouble finding new places for us to visit (while re-visiting some of our favorites!). Please keep in mind, you don’t have to be a beer drink-er to enjoy these breweries. Many, like Triple S, are brewing up ciders, sodas and other non-alcoholic drinks like root beer! Yummy! Are you a breakfast person? Why not start off your weekend with a good breakfast at the No-vember ExComm Meeting at Wade’s Café on North Academy? Wade’s Café dates back to 1953, when “Shorty” Wade opened a small café here in town, serving quality food – especially the pancakes! Although the location has been changed, the current owners of Wade’s ensure

the quality and service remain up to “Shorty’s” standards! (BTW – Mike and I go to Wade’s a couple of times a month. Their food is great!) Are you a whiskey person? Wayne and Jennie-Jo White are hosting a unique event this month: Whiskey Tasting! You’d be surprised at the varie-ty of whiskies out there – and how different they can be! Here’s your chance to sample a few, learn the difference between whiskey, bourbon, and scotch and find out the proper way to serve and drink these delectable libations! Check out the November calendar for details! Do you like to dance? Chris Cooper is getting together a group for a Line Dancing party in November! We’ll be meeting up at Dancemas-ters for an evening of dance lessons, boot scooting and stomping! Check out the calendar for details! Coming up in December – mark your calendars now if you haven’t already done so – our annual Holiday Gala party! We’re getting together on the 5th of December for our holiday drinks, din-ner and White Elephant Gift Exchange at the newly refurbished PJ’s Stagecoach Inn. This is our biggest event of the year (last year we had 41 people) and it’s a great chance to meet and visit with fellow Mensans! See the article and flyer in this month’s PlainsPeaking newsletter! Don’t forget to RSVP!! I have a couple of requests for good thoughts and healing energy. Our RVC7 Greg Kontz re-cently had some serious medical problems – three really bad blockages in his heart which required stents. Greg’s a great supporter of the local groups and doing a bang-up job as RVC! Get well soon, Greg! And, please keep Rent-A-Mike in your thoughts. Mike will be undergoing a knee replacement in November – something he’s probably needed

http://www.plainsandpeaks.us.mensa.org/

The Newsletter of Plains and Peaks Mensa, Southern Colorado

In This Issue

Meet the Mensan………...……….…..2

Plains and Peaks Officers…….........2

Welcome & Farewell…………….…….2

Plains & Peaks Patter....................3

Birthdays……….….……….............…..3

Mensa-versaries...........................3

Trivia………………………………...……...4

White Elephant Exchange………….4

Cryptogram.………………….....…..…..4

BurgerQuest 2015………….…………..4

Plains&Peaks Holiday Party………..5

November Events………………......…6

November Calendar……………….....7

Trivia/Cryptogram Answers…......7

MERF Scholarship………………….…..7

for some time now! And, as his caregiver, I’ll be needing your good thoughts, too! That’s about all I can think of for now. As always, if you have an idea for an event, let me know and we’ll see about putting it together!

~Sandy

Page 2 PlainsPeaking

Plains and Peaks Mensa Officers

Sandy Halby (LocSec/President) 6066 Del Rey Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80918 719-528-5483 mandshalby@comcast.net Chris Cooper (2nd Vice Pres. for Membership) 1105 Bowstring Rd. Monument, CO 80132-8595 (719-646-4456)

Shedonist@Cooperplace.net George Cooper (treasurer) 1105 Bowstring Rd. Monument, CO 80132-8595

719-646-4456 Srikant Mantravadi (Gifted Youth Coordinator) 6433 Jules Drive Colorado Springs, CO 80923 (719) 352-5074 srikant_mantravadi@yahoo.com Betsy Ogan (PlainsPeaking Editor) 1061 Hummingbird Ct. Colorado Springs, CO 80921 719-481-1199 Bogan54@aol.com Windy Adoretti (Webmaster) 1465 Stella Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80921 719-201-4743

windy@adoretti.com Al Ackerson (Past President) 5102 Galley Road, #430AW Colorado Springs, CO 80915 719-465-3747 Alackerson@msn.com

WELCOME: Geoffrey Mooney, who moved here from Indiana! Welcome!

Welcome

&

Farewell

Meet the Mensan This is a new column for our newsletter – every month we will feature some of our Plains & Peaks Mensa members! We’ll start with intro-ducing you to the officers and “regulars” so when you come to an event, you’ll recognize a few of your fellow Mensans. Additionally, after reading the biographies, you might find out you have something in common with one of the featured Mensans – what an icebreaker! SRIKANT MANTRAVADI – Gifted Youth Coordinator. Srikant Man-travadi is the Senior Air Force Consultant, Solutions Architect for Technica Corporation and the Pikes Peak Mensa Gifted Youth Coordi-nator. He is a Certified Information Security Systems Professional and has a Master’s Degree in Information Systems and Computer Science from American University and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from

Duke University. Srikant is the father of Genesis, Selah and Solomon. The two girls and a boy are all future MENSA mem-bers. He is really excited about being the GYC and has sched-uled monthly events to stretch the Mensa Youth while allow-ing them to have fun. His hob-bies are reading, running, sports, and public speaking. Srikant believes that all learn-ing is fun. If you have any ques-

tions about the Mensa Gifted Youth Program, contact Srikant Man-travadi at skmantravadi@comcast.net, or call him at 719-352-5074.

BETSY OGAN - Newsletter Editor. Betsy joined Mensa in 1984 while living in the DC area and is a Life Member. Betsy’s been the Plain-sPeaking Editor since September 2007. Before moving here in 2011, she designed computer forms for DARPA and previously for NASA. Betsy mostly does volunteer work in graphic design and choral groups. She’s also an avid photog-rapher who has won a few awards including First Place in the 2012 American Mensa contest and Best of Show at USAFA.

WINDY ADORETTI – Webmistress. Windy has been a member of Mensa since 1998 and Webmistress for the local group since 2007. Windy works at University of Colorado - Colorado Springs (UCCS) as the Assistant Dean in the College of Business. She’s lived in Colorado Springs since 1989, earning her BA in Economics at Colorado Col-lege and MBA at UCCS. Windy enjoys domestic pursuits like baking, canning and making homemade soap as well as outdoor activities including camping and hiking 14ers.

Volume 32, Issue 10 Page 3

Plains & Peaks Patter

Judy Sikes November 1 Jeff Gauer November 3 Teresa Head November 7 George Cooper November 8 Alexis Young November 13 Marcia M Carroll November 21 Blanton Combs November 21 Rochelle Nutting November 29 William T Jones Jr November 30 NOTE: If your birthday isn’t here, it’s prob-ably because that information is marked “non-releasable” on our rosters. To check your personal information release status, please contact American Mensa (1-800-66-MENSA) or www.us.mensa.org and under Member Resources, select the PDQ section.

Mensa-versaries Steve Trolander Kathie Schmidt Gerri J Duke Kevin M Powers Geoffrey Mooney Nicholas Sol Ryan P Mielke Christopher M Root Thomas Barlow Mike Halby (aka Rent-A-Mike)

Jane O'Connell Cosper Caroline Mellow Don Erickson David Niedringhaus Tyler Prescott Gregory Williamson Sean Biddle Alexis de Young Ty Hadley Adams Hughes

BLOGS AND WEBSITES: If you have a blog or website that you think might interest other Mensans, send the link to Betsy at bo-gan54@aol.com so she can put it here. GET PUBLISHED! If you’d like to contribute to the PlainsPeaking news-letter, submit your article, poem, photo, puzzle, whatever to Betsy at bogan54@aol.com . WORDS WITH FRIENDS PLAYERS: Can’t get enough Words with Friends? Look Sandy up on Facebook (Sandra Lynn Halby) and start a game with her!

ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER: If you’re receiving this via “snail mail”, please consider changing your preferences to electronic newsletter and correspondence. Your PlainsPeaking will not only be in full color, but it’s interactive too! Either contact American Mensa (1-800-66-MENSA) or go to the American Mensa web-site (http://www.us.mensa.org/) to change your preferences! If you have an announcement or news item, please forward it to PlainsPeaking Editor Betsy Ogan (bogan54@aol.com) for inclusion in PlainsPeaking! And, don’t forget, you can advertise your business in PlainsPeaking. The current rates are: business card size $6, quarter page $10, half page $25 and full page $50. TRIVIAL PURSUIT RESULTS! Once again, Plains & Peaks Mensa Trivial Pursuit players faced some tough completion at the monthly Trivial

Pursuits in October (Carlos was playing) – but our own Jim Hunter won the overall game (Again!!! No surprise there!!) coming in 1st at the Buffalo Wild Wings location.

Winners of the individual rounds were: Warm-up – Al; Countdown – Jim in second place; Category Round – Mark Berte; Lightening – Mike Halby in 3-way tie; Pyramid: Jim Hunter in 4-way tie and, as already noted, Jim Hunter won the final showdown! For the other final scores - Mark Berte came in second; Mike Halby, third and Al Ackerson in 8th place! Well done, fellows!! Go, team!!

GAMES & POKER NIGHT! Poker/Games Night at the Coopers’ was another success. Al, Sandy, Jeff, Susan and George played poker. A whole lot of verbiage was heard from Sandy [My poker face! – S]. The games must have been quite exciting [They were! – S]. The big winner was Susan. Linda, Doug and Chris played Quirkle, a fun game that is not so intense that it forbids socializing. The cream puffs with dark

chocolate dip seemed to go over very well. A raspberry chipotle dip with chips was also well enjoyed. Susan brought delicious Rice Crispy treats decorated with pumpkins. Thank you, Susan. If you’re not coming to Games Night, you’re missing a lot of fun.

HELP WANTED! Do you have a Media or Publicity background? May-be that’s something you’d like to try? If so, consider helping Plains & Peaks Mensa with Admissions Testing publicity! We’re looking to in-crease our testing numbers and really need a hand with the publicity – ideas, contacts, someone to take this particular bull by the horns and wrestle around with it! And, bonus – this would look good on your resume or annual job appraisal! If you’d be interested in volun-teering to be our Publicity person, contact Sandy at manshal-by@comcast.net! JOIN PLAINS & PEAKS MENSA ON FACEBOOK! See photos of recent activities and meetings and get to know some of your fellow Mensans via this popular social site! It’s a “closed” group so you have to ask to join. Search FB for “Plains & Peaks Mensa.”

Cryptogram

“EH QS SRKASHH XGA VAEWFWGMS,

QS CGHW TSUSA DXAVSW WJEW WJS JFVJSHW

EKKASOFEWFXT FH TXW WX GWWSA QXAMH,

YGW WX LFUS YN WJSC.”

~ZXJT DFWBVSAELM ISTTSMN

Page 4 PlainsPeaking

Another successful quest went into the books on October 11th at Bubba’s 33 Pizza Burgers & Beer. This place was similar to Buffalo Wild Wings—lots of TV screens showing sports events, a great beer selection, and noise. But Bubba’s also had some great food. This place might give Crave Burgers a run for their money during the end-of-the-year voting for Best of 2015. The results from Caitlin, Chris, Ellen, George, J.J., Mike, Sandy, Sean and Wayne were: Burgers 4.5 Sides 3.5 Service 4.5 Value for $ 3.5 Cleanliness 4.0 Ambiance a solid 2.0 (Ratings are 1—5 with 5 being BEST except for Ambi-ance where 1 means “very casual”, 5 means “classy”." Comments: “Great beer selection, superior onion rings.” “Loud. Great service. Burger with 33% bacon grind was awesome. Best beer selection to date.” “High noise level, hard to hear [conversation], good onion rings.” “Noisy”. Your host arrived early for a change, and a good thing, too. The place took no reservations, and was packed with Broncos fans there to watch a game. However, we got on a list at 12:30, and about the time all nine of us had arrived, the table was nearly ready. In September, Al hosted BQ in George’s absence, and a suspiciously high number of attendees suggested Crazy Otto’s for a future Quest. Clearly somebody wanted to go there (Al?), so let’s all go. The original Crazy Otto’s was a diner started by Otto Lindsel after he quit his job in the far northwest cooking for lumberjacks and moved to southern California. He used to throw people out of his diner who only ordered a cup of coffee, took too long to eat, or complained about the food. The diner was so close to a railroad track, the building shook when trains went by. Otto used to spin a numbered wheel each time a train passed, and the person sitting on the seat whose number matched the wheel got a free meal. The website says this tradition continues today, but as far as I know, there are no railroad tracks anywhere near the strip mall at 4423 Centennial Blvd (just southeast of the intersection with Garden of the Gods), where Crazy Otto’s is located.

BurgerQuest 2015

Trivia by RC Timm 1. How many countries have an Atlantic and Pacific

coastline?

2. Who said "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way

out."

3. The president of which country lives in the "Blue House"?

4. What is the fastest speeding ticket issued?

5. Operation Bernhard was Germany's plan for what?

6. The dromedary camel has one hump, what camel has two humps?

7. Tyrone Power & Redd Foxx have what in common?

8. What do you need to be able to chew gum in Singapore?

9. What is the world record for a paper airplane flight?

10. Which country's flag is not a rectangle?

Remember that tacky “gift” you got last year at your office party gift exchange? Or the unidentifiable and utterly artless “sculpture” your cousin presented you with on your anniversary? Here’s your chance to get rid of that unwanted, or White Elephant, item. A White Elephant Gift Exchange works like this: Find something you don’t want any more (valued between $15 and $25 and in working condition), wrap it up nicely in holiday paper, bring it to the Plains & Peaks Mensa Holiday Party on December 6th at the Stagecoach Inn (in Manitou Springs) and stack it with all the other gifts.

Everyone bringing a gift draws a num-ber. Person number 1 selects one gift from the pile and open that gift. Per-son number 2 can choose a gift from the pile or take the gift from person number 1. If person number 2 chooses to take the gift from person number 1, then person number 1 gets to choose another gift and open it. Then the per-

son who holds number 3 will choose a gift or exchange that gift with person 1 or 2. Again, if person number 3 chooses to take one of the opened gifts, the person whose gift was taken can choose and open another present. This progresses until the last person has the final choice among all the opened gifts or the last gift on the table. Then, as the final White Elephant exchange, the poor person who got num-ber 1 gets to either keep his/her gift or take one of the gifts eligible for grabbing. (A gift can only be exchanged three times. After that, the person who has it is stuck with it!) Participating in the White Elephant Gift Exchange at the Plains & Peaks Mensa Holiday Party is entirely optional. But, keep in mind, it’s a lot of fun – and you never know what you’ll end up with – you might even like what you got! Some of the past years gifts have included: a stuffed toy chicken, an indoor waterfall machine-thing, bottles of wine, puzzles, books, CDs and videos, and lots of other neat (and not so neat!) things! It’s all in the spirit of the holiday – so join in!!

White Elephant Gift Exchange

Volume 32, Issue 10 Page 5

PLAINS & PEAKS MENSA HOLIDAY PARTY

Saturday, December 5th

At the historic PJ’s Stagecoach Inn, 702 Manitou Avenue

Cocktails at 5:00 pm Dinner at 6:30 pm

Reservations are required for this event!

Please choose one of the following dinners when you RSVP:

10oz Top Sirloin Steak ½ Slab Cajun Smoke Baby Back Ribs

Red Bird Farms Buttermilk Fried Chicken Rocky Mountain Trout Fish Fry

Fettuccini Alfredo with Seasonal Vegetables Chicken Fried Bison

All served with Whipped Potatoes, County Gravy and Seasonal Vegetables

$28.50 total for dinner, coffee, tea or soda

(price includes tax and tip)

All alcohol pay-as-you-go

RSVP to Sandy by December 1st, phone 719-528-5483

or e-mail mandshalby@comcast.net

Party favors

White Elephant gift exchange

Door prizes

Lots of good conversations

What a night we’ll have!

from Dancemasters. Please let Chris Cooper know if you’re attending by Thursday, November 19th. Shedonist@cooperplace.net or 719-646-4456. Saturday, November 21st, 6:30 PM, Dancemasters! We’re testing out a new event; one that will be good for winter because it’s held in-doors. LINE DANCE PARTY. It is held at The Carriage Stop, 2700 Robin-son Street, CS. Ron states that we should look for flashing red lights on Robinson Street. The party is within a white building 50 yards back. There is parking sur-rounding the building. Though the lessons begin at 7:00 PM, Ron suggests getting there earlier as the parking field fills up and the line to get in can get long. From 7:00-7:30 you’ll get lessons; from 7:30-9:30 you can “scoot your boots”. Homemade refreshments are offered but NO ALCOHOL. You can see more about it at www.roncounts.com. Adults pay $5.00. If you’re attending Dance-masters, let Chris know so she can save you a place at the table. Noti-fy Chris Cooper at Shedonist@cooperplace.net or 719-646-4456. Thursday, November 26th, 8pm: RSVP for USS! Call or e-mail Al (465-3747, alackerson@msn.com) to let him know you're coming to USS on Saturday! Saturday, November 28th, 6pm: Ultimate Saturday Supper. Put on your fur cap and grab your possibles bag! We're going to Trapper’s Rendezvous, 5905 Corporate Drive, in November. Colorado Springs’ newest concept restaurant is inspired by the Rocky Mountain fur trad-ing history when simple pleasures were not so easy to come by. Grab an appetizer like fire roasted green chili salsa and chips, wild game sausage with house made mustard, or pork wings! Follow that up with a trapper sandwich (ground chuck steak, hand-rolled and hot pressed, served on a Kaiser bun), or a camp fire Reuben. If you're feeling hun-grier, go for the Elbert Mountain sirloin, or the Continental Divide (chicken chicharones or fried shrimp served with beer-battered fries) or pork nonsense, seared pork belly served with green chili mac and cheese! As usual, let Al know (alackerson@msn.com, 465-3747) if you're coming. Advance Notice: Friday, December 4th, 5pm: Give In To Beer Pres-sure at Peaks n Pines Brewing Company! This is one of the city’s new-est breweries and it’s on the east side! Located at 4005 Tutt Blvd (near Sky Sox Stadium), four friends and brewing enthusiasts came together to create this exciting new brewery! Let’s check them out and see how they are doing! Remember, if you have an idea or new pub for Give In To Beer Pressure, let Sean know! By email: sean.mccormick.us@member.mensa.org, by cell: (719) 651-6706. ADVANCE NOTICE: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5TH, HOLIDAY GALA PAR-TY! 5pm Cocktails, 6:30pm Dinner. We’ll be getting together on Sat-urday, the 5th of December, to celebrate the holiday season, our friendships and our unique Mensa camaraderie. Our annual gala, featuring dinner, door prizes, White Elephant Gift Exchange, and a generally all-around GREAT time will be at the historic Stagecoach Inn in Manitou Springs. We’ll be meeting for cocktails (pay-as-you-go) at 5:00 pm, with dinner at 6:30 pm. Check your November PlainsPeak-ing newsletters for all the details! Mark your calendars now!!

Friday, November 6th, 5pm: Give In To Beer Pressure. We’re checking out another new brewery – Triple S Brewing, located at 318 E Colora-

do Ave. In addition to handcrafted brews, they serve coffee and craft sodas, which have about 1/3 the sugar of regular sodas! Remember, if you have an idea or new pub for Give In To Beer Pressure, let Sean know! By cell: (719) 651-6706 or by Email: sean.mccormick.us@member.mensa.org,

Saturday, November 7th, 9am: ExComm Meeting & Breakfast. Up and attem! Let’s check out breakfast at Wade’s Café, 3504 North Academy Blvd, after a short (very short) ExComm Meeting. Please let Sandy know you’ll be there by RSVP'ing by Thursday, November 5th, 8pm. Saturday, November 7th, 6:30pm: Whiskey Tasting! Whites are hosting a unique event this month: Whiskey Tasting! Please bring your favorite whiskey (or whiskeys) to share along with some munchies! If whiskey is not your thing, feel free to bring a libation of your choice! Whites have spare rooms/beds if your DD is compromised. Jennie-Jo and Wayne White live at 9908 Paonia Park Place, Colorado Springs, CO 80924-1214 (closest main cross-streets are Powers & Union/Briargate). Please RSVP if convenient: waynewhite@q.com or 719-495-0433. Sunday, November 8th, 1pm: BurgerQuest 2015-9. Today Burg-erQuest visits Crazy Otto’s Diner at 4423 Centennial Blvd, just south of Garden of the Gods. Be sure to see George’s article in this newsletter about the history of Crazy Otto’s – it’s quite the story! See you there

at 1:00. Bring a friend and your cookie-crumblers; BurgerQuest is a kid-friendly event! Please RSVP to George Cooper by 6:00pm Saturday, November 7th, (719) 418-6073 and leave a message, or e-mail gcooper@cooperplace.net.

Sunday, November 15th, 2pm: Scrabble®! Meet at Sandy’s house, 6066 Del Rey Drive (near Flintridge and Dublin, call 528-5483 or email mandshalby@comcast.net for directions) for an afternoon of just-for-fun Scrabble®. Sodas, wine and snacks provided. Adults only, please! Allergy alert – cats and dogs! Tuesday, November 17th, 5:30pm: Trivial Pursuits. We’re playing Showdown, a 6-stage trivia contest featuring a wide variety of topics, at Buffalo Wild Wings, 2905 Geyser Drive (at I-25 and Lake, next to Outback Steaks and Tinseltown) – they claim to have 45 players and Wi-Fi so everybody should be able to play this month! We’re drinking some adult beverages (if you want to) and noshing on wings and oth-er Buffalo Wild Wings specialty foods like burgers and sandwiches! The actual game starts at 6:30pm, but if you want a game player you

probably should get there earlier! Call or e-mail Al (465-3747, alacker-son@msn.com) to let him know you’ll be there!

Saturday, November 21st, 5:00 PM, Dinner at The Mason Jar. If you’re itchin’ to have some libations prior to line dancing (no alcohol at Dancemasters) or just wish to get together for dinner, let’s meet at The Mason Jar, 2925 West Colorado Avenue, COS, which is one mile

PlainsPeaking

November Events

Page 6

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5

RSVP for

ExComm

Meeting/Dinner

6

5:00 PM

Give In To

Beer Pressure @

Triple S Brewing

7 9:00 AM

ExComm

Meeting/Dinner

@Wade’s Café

6:30 PM

Whiskey Tasting

@ the White’s

8

1:00 PM

BurgerQuest

@

Crazy Otto’s

9 10

11

12

13

14

15

2:00 PM

Scrabble®

@ Sandy’s

16

17

5:30 PM

Trivial Pursuit

@

Buffalo Wild Wings

18

19

RSVP for Dinner

at The Mason

Jar or

Dancemasters

20

21

5:00 PM

Dinner @

The Mason Jar

6:30 PM

Dancemasters

22

23

24

25

26

RSVP

For

Ultimate Saturday

Supper

27 28

6:00 PM

Ultimate Saturday

Supper

@ Trapper’s

Rendezvous

29

30

NOVEMBER

Volume 32, Issue 10 Page 7

Trivia

1. Ten - Canada, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica,

Panama, Columbia & Chile

2. Decca Recording Co., declining to sign the Beatles

3. South Korea

4. 242 mph in a 75 mph zone, May 2003, Texas

5. Ruin the British economy with counterfeit money.

6. The Bactrian

7. Both had heart attacks, on the set, while filming movies and died soon after.

8. A prescription from your doctor.

9. 226 feet, 10 inches, February 2012

10. Nepal

Cryptogram

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest apprecia-

tion is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Answers to Trivia/Cryptogram “The Mensa Education & Research Foundation college scholarship pro-gram is unique in that its awards are based totally on essays written by the applicants. There is no requirement for applicants to be Mensa mem-bers nor is consideration given to grades, academic program, or financial need.” (From the MERF Web page at http://www.mensafoundation.org/what-we-do/scholarships/) Applicant requirements are simple: The applicant must be a citizen or permanent resident of the US who resides in a participating local group's area; the applicant must be enrolled in a degree program in an accredited institution of higher learning during the academic year following the appli-cation date; and lastly, the applicant must submit an application and essay of not more than 550 words explaining their academic and/or vocational goals. (Entry deadline is January 15, 2016.) So, if you’re in a degree program or about to enter one, check out the MERF Essay Contest. There will be at least one prize of approximately $300 given out for our local area, along with the potential of winning up to $1000 at the national level. And remember, you don’t have to be in Mensa to participate, so if you have a friend or relative who would quali-fy, direct them to the MERF web-site http://www.mensafoundation.org/what-we-do/scholarships/ for the complete rules and application, or have them contact Sandy Halby, 528‑5483, or e-mail mandshal-by@comcast.net.

MERF Scholarships

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED TO:

PlainsPeaking AMERICAN MENSA, LTD.

1229 CORPORATE DRIVE WEST

ARLINGTON, TX 76006-6103

Mensa® is an international organization made up of people who have

scored in the top 2% on standardized IQ tests. Mensa is non-profit and

has no political or religious affiliations. The purpose of Mensa is to serve

as a means of communication for its members and to foster intelligence.

PlainsPeaking is the official publication of Plains & Peaks Mensa (#808).

Mensa itself has no opinions; any opinions expressed in PlainsPeaking, if

not otherwise designated, are those of the individual contributor or of the

editor. The appearance of any paid advertisement, should such an unlikely

event occur, in PlainsPeaking does NOT imply any endorsement of prod-

ucts, services, or anything else mentioned in said ad by either Plains &

Peaks Mensa, PlainsPeaking, American Mensa, Ltd., or Mensa International.

Mensa® is registered at the U.S. Patent Office as the collective mark of an

international membership organization.

PlainsPeaking is published monthly by Plains and Peaks Mensa Editor,

1061 Hummingbird Ct, Colorado Springs, CO 80921-5696. All material

within is copyright©2013 by Plains & Peaks Mensa, except where other-

wise indicated. Masthead photo copyrighted 2009 by Betsy Ogan. Sub-

scriptions are $6.00 (12 monthly issues) for non-Mensans and for Mensans

who are not members of the Plains&Peaks local group. Single issues are

available on a first-come, first-served basis at no charge (but please include

SASE).

Editorial Policy: We (deliriously) welcome your letters, articles, poems,

artwork, and puzzles. Items submitted to PlainsPeaking should be the

ORIGINAL work of the author, and should be emailed if possible. If

previously published, please include where and when. MS Word , RTF,

and plain text formats are especially encouraged for articles, JPG or GIF

for artwork. Equations should be typeset with MS Equation Editor. Type-

written work signed by the author and submitted by surface mail is also

welcome. Handwritten items may be accepted, but we cannot guarantee

accuracy in publication. The editor’s e-mail address is Bogan54@aol.com.

Please check with the editor about other acceptable media and formats.

Artwork will be reproduced as black and white or grayscale (drawings or

photographs). The Editor reserves the right to refuse to publish submitted

material and to edit as necessary.

Note to Contributors: By contributing material to Plains and Peaks

Mensa, you are giving permission for your material to be published in

both the newsletter and the web-based newsletter archives. You MAY

withhold your name, email address, or any other address from the web-

based version; simply request this from the Editor. Other Mensa publica-

tions may reprint PlainsPeaking material if the author/artist and PlainsPeak-

ing are credited and the material is not individually copyrighted. Letters

(and letter-like emails) to the Editor will be considered for publication

unless the author specifically requests otherwise.

Note to Reprinting Editors: a courtesy copy indicating the material

reprinted would be greatly appreciated. To: PlainsPeaking Editor, 1061

Hummingbird Ct, Colorado Springs, CO 80921-5696