With the Franklin Inn Club closed temporarily because of COVID-19, Innmates can stay connected through Zoom Quarterback Roundtables. Bill Untereker sends out email invitations with all the information you’ll need to “meet on Mondays” using Zoom, the video conferencing application. Thursday Roundtables may be available with Zoom in the future.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED to participate: A good Internet connection, and video and audio access by computer (either Mac or PC), by tablet (iPad or similar device), or by smart phone (an iPhone or Android-based phone). Computers or tablets are preferable because of their larger screens. You will also be able to use your regular phone for audio if your device doesn’t have a microphone or speaker, or if you’re having trouble with audio.
Note: General instructions for Zoom participants will be attached to the invitation emails from Bill. On Sundays, he will send out additional Zoom guidance, along with the Quarterback notes.
Zoom along with us, and stay connected with your fellow Innmates!
* * * UPCOMING EVENTS * * *
April 13, Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Palmer Hartl is our Quarterback
April 20, Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Michael Brooks is our Quarterback
April 23, Thursday FIC Zoom Luncheon Roundtable, – 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Menu is BYO food and any beverages of your choice!
Dr. Anthony Fauci has been on our minds in these days of disruption. Today, Innmate Bill Untereker will moderate a discussion of Dr. Fauci’s role in managing the response to COVID-19 and more broadly, his impact as a leading figure in infectious disease research since 1984, when he became head of the NIH Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Please read the attached article by Michael Specter, “How Anthony Fauci Became America’s Doctor,” from the April 20th issue of The New Yorker. This discussion dovetails well with last Thursday’s Roundtable session in which Stuart Shapiro focused on lessons learned from the public health response to the AIDS epidemic.
April 27, Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Dick Goldberg is our Quarterback
April 30, Thursday FIC Zoom Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Menu is BYO food and any beverages of your choice!
Join Innmates Ruth Morelli and Palmer Hartl for a discussion on coping with fear and depression during a pandemic, with reference to the articles attached. Two articles by David Brooks deal with the impact on mental health. Others focus on behavioral methods for coping with the impact—how to manage psychological effects of social distancing and quarantine, how to keep quarantine from ruining your relationships, and how to engage in virtual pleasurable activities. Palmer will address those “what if” questions that can loom ominously in the middle of the night. Ruth will discuss the linkage of thoughts, emotions, and behavior and will focus on behavioral techniques to cope with emotions likely to emerge during a pandemic. She will also demonstrate deep breathing as a way to calm a racing mind and anxious body.
Ruth is a licensed psychologist who has been in private practice since 1983. She received her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Temple University and is a founder and diplomate of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.
Palmer has been a pastor, pastoral psychotherapist, and organizational consultant. While calling himself a retired Episcopal priest, he remains in service at Christ Church.
May 4, Zoom Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Bill Untereker is our Quarterback
May 7, Zoom Thursday Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Speaker is Nancy Moses, Chair of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission and author of Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds.
What’s real? What’s fake? Why do we care? In this time of false news and fake science, these questions are more important than ever. Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds goes beyond the headlines, tweets, and blogs to explore the nature of authenticity and why it means so much today.
The book delivers nine fascinating true stories that introduce the fakers, forgers, art authenticators, and others that populate this dark world. Examples:
- Shakespeare—How an enterprising teenager in the 1790s faked Shakespeare and duped London’s elite literary circles.
- Rembrandt—How art history, connoisseurship, and science are reshaping our view of what Rembrandt painted and how his canvas changed over time.
- Jackson Pollock—How do experts pick out the real Pollocks from the thousands of fakes?
May 11, Zoom Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Basil Talbott is our Quarterback
May 14, Zoom Thursday Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Innmates Denny Faucher, Dick Goldberg and Avi Eden will discuss the civil liberty implications of the governmental restrictions by the States and Federal Governments due do COVID? Can citizens act to enjoin the restrictions.” Are these restrictions a “taking” under the 5th and 14th amendments which require governmental compensations?
May 18, Zoom Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Ruth Morelli is our Quarterback
May 21, Zoom Thursday Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Precision of Archaeology: The Inside Story of the Architecture, Design, and Upkeep of the Masonic Temple of Pennsylvania
Speaker: Innmate Walton Van Winkle. Walton Van Winkle was one of two full-time tour guides at the Temple. He is a certified tour guide, a member of the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides, a writer, and a former instructor of literature and writing at The Cooper Union and Pratt Institute in New York City.
Built in 1868-1873, there are only two other Masonic temples in the world to match the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia: the Temple in London, England, and the Temple in Stockholm, Sweden. Sadly, it is not known how long the Temple in Philadelphia will remain closed, especially for tours. This virtual tour of the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia will focus on the architecture of James H. Windrim and the decorative art of George Herzog and the ongoing work to maintain this prominent though hidden gem in the center of Philadelphia.
May 25, Zoom Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Roberta Kangilaski is our Quarterback
May 28 Thursday Zoom Roundtable 12:30 – 1:45
Speaker is innmate Chris Ketcham, on his book “Flowers and Honeybees: A Study of Morality in Nature”.
June 1, Zoom Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Gresham Riley is our Quarterback
June 4 Thursday Zoom Roundtable 12:30 – 1:45
Speaker is author Concha Alborg on her recently published book “My Mother, That Stranger. Letters from the Spanish Civil War”.
Over eight-hundred letters were written between the author’s newly-engaged parents during the time that her father was on the Republican war front fighting against Franco’s forces, and her mother awaiting the end of the war. Her father, Professor Juan Luis Alborg, would live to become a well-known literary historian and critic. Her mother’s life, on the other hand, was overshadowed by her husband’s academic celebrity. The letters were discovered whilst preparing for a symposium marking the centenary of her father’s birth, celebrated at the University of Malaga in 2014.
Concha Alborg www.conchaalborg.com taught Spanish Literature at Saint Joseph’s University. Since her retirement from teaching, she has focused on writing creative non-fiction. Her family memoir, My Mother, That Stranger. Letters from the Spanish Civil War has just been published. She has also published Divorce after Death. A Widow’s Memoir (2014), a novel, American in Translation: A Novel in Three Novellas (2011) and two collections of short stories: Beyond Jet-Lag. Other Stories (2000) and Una noche en casa (1995). Presently, she is giving a series of memoir writing workshops at The Atheaneum of Philadelphia, where she has also led a writers’ group, and serves on the board of Philadelphia Stories.
June 8, Zoom Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Michael Brooks is our Quarterback
June 11, Thursday Zoom Lunch Roundtable 12:30 – 1:45
Speaker is Gus Faucher, Chief Economist, The PNC Financial Services Group, who will discuss “Severe But Short Viral Recession”.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions on activity in place throughout the U.S., the economy is in the midst of steep contraction. PNC Chief Economist Gus Faucher will discuss the economic outlooks for the U.S. and the Philadelphia area, including expectations for a rebound later this year. He is senior vice president and chief economist of The PNC Financial Services Group. He is also inmate Denny Faucher’s son.
Prior to joining PNC as senior macroeconomist in December 2011, Faucher worked for 10 years at Moody’s Analytics, where he was a director and senior economist. He was responsible for running the firm’s computer model of the U.S. economy, edited a monthly publication on the U.S. economic outlook, covered fiscal and monetary policy, and analyzed various regional economies. Previously, he worked for six years at the U.S. Treasury Department, and taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Faucher is frequently cited in international, national, and regional media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He has appeared on ABC World News, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and Nightly Business Report, and is regularly featured on CNBC, CNN and Fox Business. In addition, he appears regularly on CBS Radio, NPR and Marketplace.
Faucher earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, with concentrations in labor economics and public economics. He also has a B. A. in economics from Cornell University.
June 15, Zoom Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Alina Macneal is our Quarterback
June 18, Thursday Zoom Lunch Roundtable 12:30 – 12:45
Speaker is William E. Williams, who will describe his book of photographs ”Party Pictures”.
For some years now William E. Williams has recorded the social life of Philadelphia. His widely-praised photographs show the rich and famous but also the lives of more ordinary people caught in a social whirl. He has a remarkable eye for the gestures and details that reveal a social world. These images have been exhibited at the Print Center and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He will show his photographs, also published and comment on them.
June 22, Zoom Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Dick Goldberg is our Quarterback
June 25, Thursday Zoom Lunch Roundtable 12:30 – 1:45
Speaker is Joshua Lippert, Floodplain Manager for City of Philadelphia and the chair of the City’s Flood Risk Management Task Force, on “The State of Floodplain Management, Philadelphia”.
This presentation will touch on the state of floodplain management in Philadelphia in the context of trends and flooding in the news nationally. Attendees will learn about Philadelphia’s approach to floodplain management, best practices near and far, and what to expect in the future in terms of climate adaptation and flood resiliency.
Josh Lippert is the Floodplain Manager for City of Philadelphia and the chair of the City’s Flood Risk Management Task Force. He also serves on the Pennsylvania Association of Floodplain Managers board as vice chair. His background is in landscape architecture and environmental planning, with work in the private sector as well as with the City of Pittsburgh.
June 29, Zoom Monday Quarterback Roundtable, 12:30 – 1:45
Alan Penziner is our Quarterback