Beachcombing

About 31 percent of Americans are overweight and I know why. The day after Thanksgiving our family went to a Big Bear eatery for breakfast and the chili and cheese omelet that I ordered was enough to feed all six of us. It was HUGE! Thanks to food-to-go packaging and doggie bags it was my breakfast for two more days.

Why am I overweight? It’s easy. There’s….

• 40-plus annual Rotary Club of Long Beach all-you-can eat luncheons on Wednesdays
• 40-plus annual Executives Association of Long Beach all-you-can eat luncheons on Mondays
• A dozen-plus annual fund-raising banquets with large portions of served dinners
• A dozen-plus annual family functions, such as birthdays and other special events at restaurants.

Total them up and it is about 31 percent of the total number of days each year.

My wife had a solution for being over fed: keeping sandwich bags in her purse. When we’d go to a banquet and get served huge portions of food – such as both fish and a meat item-- she’d put the extra entree in a bag for serving later to our dog.

Eureka, we invented the “Molly and Me” diet. I don’t have a purse since my wife’s passing, but I can keep a supply of plastic bags in the car for these special occasions.

At a recent Ronald McDonald fundraising function at The Westin, I asked the waiter twice for a to-go box and was ignored. A few weeks later at a Young Horizon’s fundraiser at The Grand, waiters were freely passing out to-go boxes.

As someone involved in planning numerous banquet events professionally in past decades, guess which venue gets axed in the early stages of the process.

Congratulations to the Executives Association of Long Beach on the observance of their 100th anniversary. A celebration was held Wednesday evening at the Petroleum Club with more than 120 persons in attendance.

As a recent past president of the club, I can vouch for the benefit of joining organizations such as this to increase business sales and broaden your number of referral sources.

I was introduced to the group in 1984 by Phil Lockwood, executive director at the time and a fellow Rotarian. In short order I met some movers and shakers in the community and greatly expanded my public relations business, making the cost of membership very worthwhile.

There’s a Business Networking ad on page 9 of this issue listing some of the open classifications for membership. If this would be something of interest to you, give me a call and I’ll arrange for you to attend a future meeting to check out the opportunity.

Please remember to add some holiday cheer to your Beachcomber carrier’s Christmas this year by sending along a token of your appreciation. See the ad on the opposite page for details.

Did you know that Santa’s helpers are known as subordinate clauses. Furthermore, he goes down the chimney because it soots him.

Happy holidays from all of us at the Beachcomber.

publisher@Beachcomber.news