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NOTE: Please take a moment NOW to add yourself now to SCP2001,
next year's list. See http://www.scp.org/2000/list.html
and follow the directions to subscribe today! If you are
prompted for a password and do not know what your
password is, ListBot can e-mail it to you. The SCP2001
list will replace the SCP2000 list after the start of
the new year.
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CONTENTS: Limited Quantity of $115 Tickets Available
2 Days `Til Midnight Happy Hour at Carpool (12/29)
What? Even More Truth Groovin'?
Palm Readers to Foretell Your Future!
2d Annual "Day After" with The Velveteens (1/1)
Raise A Glass to 2,000 Years of Human History
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$115 TICKETS TO THE SCP FEDEWA NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY ON SALE NOW
We have a number of $115 tickets remaining---but when those are sold
out we are d-o-n-e and NO TICKETS WILL BE SOLD AT THE DOOR!
Don't listen to the New York Times; people in Washington are going to
New Year's Eve and there is no more time for you to delay!
Visit our Website at http://www.scp.org/2000/tickets/ or contact
your host or hostess to buy tickets now.
If tickets are still available, they will be sold on a non-refundable
CASH ONLY basis at the 2 Days `Til Midnight happy hour (see listing,
above).
The SCP is a 501(c)(7) volunteer-run organization and we keep our
ticket prices just above cost. Any proceeds we clear go to our
designated charity (see http://www.scp.org/2000/charity.html).
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2 DAYS `TIL MIDNIGHT HAPPY HOUR AT CARPOOL (12/29)
When was the last time the weather forecasters were right? Don't let
the snow coming later scare you: Join us in Ballston at Carpool,
Arlington's favorite pool hall pub, tonight, Friday, December 29th,
from 6:30 to 8:30pm, as we turn the key and start the engines for a
weekend of Real Millennium partying!
Come by and enjoy smooth microbrewed beer, great pool tables, good
music, and some of the best bar food around!
IF AVAILABLE, $115 tickets to our New Year's Eve party at the
Historic Lobby of the National Postal Museum will be sold on a cash-
only basis (see the next listing for more on ticket purchasing).
PREPAID TICKETS not already claimed will also be available for
delivery at this event.
Directions: Take I-66 or North Glebe Road to eastbound Fairfax Drive.
Carpool is at 4000 Fairfax Drive and will be ahead on the right, past
the International House of Pancakes---just a couple of blocks from
the Ballston Metro station.
Earlybirds can find parking at the tiny Carpool parking lot, but
street parking is limited and towing is strictly enforced.
We recommend using the subway or parking at the Ballston Public
Parking Garage at the Ballston Commons Mall, which is just two blocks
south of Carpool between Wilson Boulevard, North Randolph Street, and
North Glebe Road.
For more call the Social Club of the Potomac at 1 (703) 995-0383 or
send an e-mail to 70904-SCP@spamex.com. Please allow one or two days for a
response. All inquiries about this event should be directed to the
SCP (not to Carpool).
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WHAT? EVEN MORE TRUTH-GROOVIN'?
What do you get when you take a six-piece Truth Groove and add three
more instruments? More Truth-Groovin'! And that's what we have set up
for New Year's Eve---more horns, more strings, more fun---so get
ready for even more energy from this high-octane act!
See http://www.scp.org/2000/band.html for more on the band.
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PALM READERS TO FORETELL YOUR FUTURE!
As has been our tradition for several years, we have again retained
palm and tarot card readers for our guests. Jacy, Nina, and Sally
will be available at the party from 9:00pm until 1:00am to give your
readings!
Palm readings will be $10 and tarot card readings will be $20.
Psychic readings will be $25, and "full life" readings will be $30.
These prices are set by the vendor and the SCP receives no benefit
and accepts no liabilities for these services.
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2D ANNUAL "DAY AFTER" PARTY WITH THE VELVETEENS AT THE DUBLINER (1/1)
What? Ska at an Irish bar? Y-E-S! Join us for a little Ska, mon,
and funk, and soul, and R & B---along with Irish beer, Irish whiskey,
plenty of food, hearsay, and TVs with football playing from 3:00pm
on New Year's Day! And courtesy of the SCP and the Dubliner, there
will be no cover charge to this event.
Last year, while others were scaling back and cancelling events, we
added to and e-x-p-a-n-d-e-d our eclectic schedule of New Year's
weekend happenings to include this rendezvous with a band not many
had heard of.
What a difference a year and one CD make! Now the band is a fixture
in the local musical universe (for audio samples, see our page at
http://www.scp.org/2000/Hear_The_Velveteens.html).
This year, by request of the folks at the bar, our guests, and by
request of the band, we are repeating last year's very successful
and contagious jam.
The Velveteens are the latest great act from the fertile musical
soil of Williamsburg, Virginia, and the College of William and Mary
(see http://www.tribestock.com for more W & M bands). In less than
two years since relocating to the Nation's Capital the band has cut
their second CD, The Art of Compromise, and they have managed to
get themselves a backlog of gigs and are a staple at several of the
area's most popular venues.
Nine pieces strong, the Velveteens are led by the frenetic Wilson
Rickerson (vocals, jokes, "sexy, sexy dance moves"). Ben Miller
plays lead guitar alongside band members Julie Cleveland (keyboard,
flute), Todd Stevens (bass), Blake Surbey (drums), Timothy Shaw
(trumpet), Matt Larsen (trombone), T.J. Walls (trombone), and Ryan
Perry (baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone).
Just downstairs from our block of rooms at the Phoenix Park Hotel,
the Dubliner was established in 1974 and is a Washington institution
in a city where bars come and go with the latest fads.
Traditional Irish music by Pat Garvey will begin later in the
evening, from soulful ballads to rousing sing-alongs.
For more on the Dubliner, visit our Phoenix Park Hotel information
page at http://www.scp.org/2000/hotel.html. The Dubliner is located
at 520 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20001. For directions,
call the Dubliner at 1 (202) 638-6900.
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RAISE A GLASS TO 2,000 YEARS OF HUMAN HISTORY
Toasting goes back to at least the 6th Century BCE. Originally
adopted in Ancient Greece as as a way for hosts to assure guests that
their drinks had not been poisoned, the act of toasting has evolved
far beyond its pragmatic beginnings.
When the Romans came into prominence by conquering most of the known
world, they made a lot of enemies and prudently copied the tradition
of toasting like they copied so many other flowers of Greek culture.
But the Romans were as good at partying as they were at warfare, and
after one really long party, the details of which are long forgotten,
someone noticed that burnt bread made the cheap boxed wine they
bought at 7-11 taste better. They theorized that the toasted bread
lowered the acidity of the wine---but remember, these were the same
guys who accidentally burned bread in the first place and then
accidentally dropped it in wine, and THEN decided to drink it.
Nonetheless, the practice stuck and the association with the burned
or toasted bread gradually gave birth to the term "to toast".
Like so many other staples of today's formal attire and protocol,
toasting as we know it today comes from 19th Century England. With
Britain's swift guilty-until-proven-innocent legal code and a
population sedated by really long books by Jane Austen and others,
poisoning your neighbor was no longer cool. But toasting was more
popular than ever, having become more of a verbal tribute than a
practical matter. It was so prevalent in high society that it was
considered and blatant insult for the host not to host each and
every guest. It was a great social skill to be able to offer a toast
of great import or wit, and mastery of the spontaneous reciprocal
toast was even more admired.
It also became customary to toast beautiful women during this
otherwise repressed era, making them "the toast of the town". In
fact, men didn't seem to care if these women weren't hosts or even
guests of the party.
NEW YEAR'S EVE TOASTS, however, are of a different breed. For New
Year's Eve is a special occasion, symbolic of so much more than we
usually credit to it.
Each year, whether or not we know it, we gather in memory of what
we have left behind in the twelve months just past, and we bring
with us great optimism for the new year. We literally count the
seconds until the current year expires, yielding to the new. There
is no pause for recollection, no moment of silence, but rather
exuberation---and maybe even some relief!
New Year's Eve is an annual ritual of humanity that predates any
religious graftings. At its core lies our desire to renew, another
chance to navigate the roads we have chosen, and those paths we
find ourselves traveling.
We promise not to toast everyone individually. But you might think
of something you'd like to say to your friends this Sunday night, or
early Monday morning.
We close with some toasts for the occasion to stir your creative
juices. Please take a sip after reading each.
That we may be more than the sum of our good fortunes,
Lighter than the weight of our failures,
And never wont for friends indebted to us.
-Anon.
Old wood to burn,
Old books to read,
Old wine to drink,
Old friends to trust.
-Unknown
May you live all the days of your life.
-Jonathan Swift
May you live forever
And die happy.
-L. R. Fulmer
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind.
-"Walk On", Bono (U2)
May you be poor in misfortune
Rich in blessings
Slow to make enemies
Quick to make friends
But rich or poor, quick or slow,
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.
-Traditional Irish Toast
May light shine upon all that we do
And find nothing for us to hide.
-Anon.
May we have more and more friends,
And need them less and less.
-Unknown
That we not claim our good deeds
But receive their reward nonetheless
-Anon.
That we may be given the chance for greatness,
And live to an age of understanding.
-Anon.
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