The Program - Crosswords!
Chip Vogan introduced the speaker, The Honorable Judge Victor Fleming, a Davidson grad like Chip and a member of the Little Rock, Arkansas Rotary. The presentation was by ZOOM, as Fleming is a district court judge in Little Rock. After briefly mentioning some unexpected statements he had witnesses in his court, Judge Fleming started his crossword presentation by singing a song he had written about crosswords. Fleming explained that crosswords got their start at the turn of the 20th Century by a New York newspaper editor who sought to add something to the Sunday paper. In time, the crosswords became an everyday paper entry, and they became so popular that they even helped publisher Simon & Schuster get its start. Eventually, crosswords could be found in many, many papers.
Fleming mentioned that there had been a documentary on crosswords called “Wordplay.” The documentary was successful and for a time could be found at theaters. Judge Fleming’s song about crosswords was at the very end of the documentary. That it was there, resulted in a short story about Judge Fleming in the monthly Rotary magazine, which in turn led to a monthly crossword replacing what had been a joke section. The crossword has been a staple of the Rotary magazine ever since, with one month always featuring the new president and another the site of the annual international convention.
Judge Fleming said that in 2017 he teamed up with President Bill Clinton to produce a crossword that had a hidden message about Bill Clinton’s time as President. Fleming also mentioned that while President Clinton loves to do crosswords and can do them fairly quickly, he is not as fast as champion crossword persons (yes, there are Crossword Tournaments).
In response to a question, Judge Fleming said his process for creating a puzzle was to:
A. create two long answers
B. construct a grid that also uses black spaces
C. fill in the blanks with words
D. write the clues.
He also stated that from time to time, puzzles he produced have been used in the New York Times. Fleming also confirmed that there are rules used by the New York Times for all puzzles it produces, such as the grid pattern must be symmetrical.
The Meeting
Guests for the January 16th Meeting were:
- Ina Diepold - she moved here from Germany and is considering joining the club
- Julian Facenda - guest of Hank Thompson
- Susan Girois - guest of Jeff Wells
The music was by Pam Tubbs and Sigur Whitaker.
Club Business
Abby Van Voorees got her blue badge.
Jeff Wells reported on a Rotary event in Smithfield, the BOB Fest, which was a sell-out. BOB stands for "Bloody Marys, Oysters and Brunswick Stew. He also said that dues statements are out and due by the end of January. All members are reminded that there will be a raffle next week during the Annual Meeting.
Barbara Lipskis said that an email had just been sent to all members about the application for non-profit grants for the coming year and that all applications were due by 5:00 PM on February 15, 2024. She also mentioned that in response to the recent poll of members, grants would be limited to certain types of non-profits, as detailed more in the email that had been sent to all members.
Jeff Wells said that there would be a vote on a change to the bylaws creating an Emeritus status for certain types of members. President Jeff will explain at the next meeting and a vote is expected to occur then.
