By Dee Richard
On Nov. 2, the Bayside/Whitestone Lions Club held its meeting in Paul Vallone’s law office on Francis Louis Boulevard. Those local Lions donated quite an impressive table full of non-perishable foods for needy families for Thanksgiving.
This particular group of Lions is a group of good guys and gals. They have recently reactivated the old Bayside/Whitestone club and they meet on the first Wednesday of every month in Vallone’s office at 7 p.m. If you think you might be interested in becoming a Lion or Lioness, come down on any first Wednesday and see what they are about. It’s a good group. Check them out and I am sure they would be delighted to have you join.
Last Thursday night, the Queens Democratic organization held its fall cocktail party/buffet at Antun’s in Queens Village. It was well-attended and many interesting conversations were exchanged.
Joe Crowley, who usually emcees all the county cocktail parties, was stuck in Washington. Michael Reich filled in with help from Carol Gresser and Archie Spigner, and a great job was done by all.
One of the announcements made was the fact that one of the evening’s guests, Tony Cominiti, was a former active Democratic member who is retired. He surely is entitled to retiree status, as he will be celebrating his 100th birthday before the end of the month. He was enjoying himself out partying for the evening. They just don’t make them like that anymore!
It’s always enjoyable attending the large events, as it gives you the opportunity to visit many friends at the same time in the same place, which makes for a great scenario to catch up on local gossip. This is a particularly busy time of the year, as all the parties are trying to encourage their members to get out and vote for the district attorney and judicial candidates. That’s a hard sell, as it’s tough enough to try and get them to come out and vote for their local legislators.
Audrey Pheffer says she enjoys her new county clerk’s position. Nettie Mayersohn says she misses not being an assemblywoman after so many years as one, but she is happy her Assembly seat is in good hands.
Ed Braunstein thanked me for the nice coverage I gave the Jefferson Democratic Club on its annual awards dinner. He is a nice and polite young man. How many times do people take a few minutes to say thank you? Good manners are becoming a lost art, although Carol did send a thank you note to me after the event, so I guess that makes her a well-mannered young lady.
Thursday nights are such busy nights. Everyone seems to designate Thursday as the night to hold events, which sometimes makes it necessary for active community members to run back and forth to attend, at least for a little while, several different events on the same evening.
A case in point: John Liu came in late when the party was almost over because he had so many places to go that evening. On the other end of the spectrum, Debbie Markell and Mathew Silverstein left early. I guess they had to stop by another event as well, as they did not say goodbye. I did not have the opportunity to take a photo of them. You know, with everyone running back and forth, it’s hard to keep track of everyone, but we try.
Kudos to the Queens Democratic organization’s dynamic mom and daughter combination of Mary Lu and Jamie Plunkett, without them the four big annual Democratic cocktail parties at Antun’s would never happen. Speaking of Antun’s, it performed its usual exceptional presentation.
On Friday night, Joe Kasper held a reception fund-raiser at the Old Mill Yacht Club in Howard Beach. For those of you who are not aware, Joe is campaigning for a judgeship in Queens County Supreme Court. Good luck to you, Joe. One of the guests at that event was Michel Niebauer of the Independence Party. I haven’t seen him in more than a year. He has lost a considerable amount of weight; keep up the good work, Mike.
We will apprise you of the election results next week.
That’s it for this week.
I like receiving your voice mails at 718-767-6484, faxes at 718-746-0066 and e-mails at deerrichard@aol.com.
Till next week, Dee.
