Phil Callan
Former radio announcer and club member
"Vignettes from the Past"
May 19, 2026

Replacing a presentation on Panama by an ailing Dave Grodzicki who had to cancel his talk the preceding evening due to illness, club member Phil Callan with several hours’ notice provided a program on DVDs on May 19 to 32 attending Y’s Men. 

First up was a medley of song and dance routines, especially featuring Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby and Billy DeWolfe performing “Blue Skies, Shining On Me,…”. And then “Putting On the Ritz” with Fred Astaire showcasing a remarkable tap dance routine.  

Prohibition in America inspired ”I’ll See You In C-U-B-A” (where alcohol was available) starring Bing Crosby. Other DVDs depicted famous numbers including “A Couple of Song and Dance Men” featuring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, “The Memphis Blues” performed by Brian Donleavy and Jack Teagarden, and “Wait ‘Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” with Mary Martin and Bing Crosby.

Fred Astaire

Bing Crosby

Mary Martin

Jack and Barbara Brooks
National Park travelers
"National Parks and Missions in California"
May 12, 2026

Travel with us to California to see two National Parks, a National Monument, and a National Seashore. We’ll see one of the largest gatherings of elephant seals on the California coast.

The trip will also include five of the old Spanish Missions, with unique stories behind each of them, and how most are utilized differently today.

The presentation will conclude with a 10-minute slide show of pictures of the 51 National Parks that have been visited by Barbara & Jack.

Big Sur, California coastline

Elephant seals, Vista Point, San Simeon, CA

Point Montara lighthouse, Montara, CA

Cathryn Prince
Author
"For the Love of Labor: The Life of Pauline Newman"
May 5, 2026

Twenty-eight Y’s Men of Meriden heard an illustrated presentation on May 5 by author Cathryn Prince regarding her newest book “For the Love of Labor: The Life of Pauline Newman”. This narrative traced the origin of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) in the early 1900s, the first large labor union in America powered into existence by a woman.

Newman was born into a poor family in Lithuania in the late 1800s (the exact date is unknown) and was denied public education because of her Jewish heritage, although she was eventually allowed to go to a boys’ school run by her father where she was allowed to “attend but not participate”. But tens of millions of Jewish immigrants came to America during the period 1870-1920 and Newman, then age nine, was among them, being separated from her mother at Ellis island to live with her older brother who already resided in New York City. She immediately had to seek work; jobs were plentiful (e.g. clothing sweatshops or hand-rolling cigarettes), but paid little (e.g. 35 cents/day), required long hours (dawn to dusk), and all while working in squalor.

But a thirst for education led her to study the English language, and she was reading fiction by Charles Dickens by her teens and soon began writing. And an activist characteristic within asserted itself, causing her to lead a renters’ strike by 400 people at age 16 y/o and earning her the title “East Side Joan of Arc” in the N. Y. Times in 1907; this action became the precursor to rent control. In 1909, the first general strike in a women’s garment factory was mobilized by Newman; at that time, women and children made up the great majority of workers, but management remained fixed in male hands. Workers  received lower pay than men in comparable positions and had no tenure, often working 70-80 hours weekly. Striking women were often beaten by police and sometimes imprisoned. But the ILGWU ultimately prevailed, providing many benefits for women in the industry.

Overcoming sexism in the public, Newman soon became a driving force for voting rights for women, as well as organizing health care workers. She became a lifelong partner of Freida Miller (whom she met in 1910 and who also was a labor activist). And Newman became a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, another champion of women’s rights. In the end, Newman’s greatest characteristic was her “grit”, developed by age 16 on the picket line.

Pauline Newman, sometime in 1911

Child laborers working in a Lower East Side sweatshop

Women who were arrested for striking were often made to wear signs labeling them as prisoners

John Zesk
Retired Cardiologist, Avocational Carpenter -
"Bowls to Wine Cellars"
April 28, 2026

It’s in the blood. John Zesk, retired cardiologist (1977-2009) and Y’s Men member, relayed with a photographic slideshow to 38 attending club members on April 28 his avocation since retirement – expert carpentry. He noted his father had been a carpenter (building many houses from scratch) and Zesk himself began creating hatchets and tomahawks while in school, selling them for 10c. each to friends.

Zesk with his wife undertook a major remodeling project in a cool damp part of their home during 2001-2002, creating a unique wine cellar, investing some 2160 hours over the course of a year. First came new walls, ceiling, lighting and shelving; the walls were lined with manufactured veneer stone which has the appearance of the original stone from which it was created; each “brick” was cemented in place with attention to exact fit, each carefully leveled.

The wood for the wine racks came from his uncle’s lot, cut into 15-foot lengths and dragged out by tractor, and then sawed into boards. Beams were then fashioned measuring 5” by 7” with varying lengths. These were secured with 6” lag bolts to ceiling and wall joists. “Character” was added to the beams with multiple chisel cuts, followed by staining and treatment with a penetrating oil (giving an antique appearance). Wine bottle racks were designed and built, and finally the room received an antique wine press and other antiques for character.

Zesk then switched to another favorite interest – fashioning wooden bowls. The process begins with a log which is then split in half and cut into “blanks” which are then pre-shaped for the bowl creations. Using a hand chisel and lathe, beautifully shaped bowls of varying sizes result. It is important to work with this wood while it is still green and wet, else risk an explosion with flying wood shrapnel. After completely drying (about a six month process), each bowl is sanded and finished with an inscription created on the base with a CO2 laser. And eventually a penetrating varnish is applied.

Can we create a Rustic Wine Cellar?

Yes we can!

From log

To lathe

To bowls

Jay Kaplan
Retired Physician - Retired from ProHealth Physicians
Y's Men club member
"Our Safari Tour of Africa"
April 21, 2026

On April 21, Jay Kaplan, retired physician and member of the Y’s Men of Meriden, took 31 attending club members on a safari in East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania), with photos and videos taken from his two week trip there in October 2025 (with about 14 other travelers on an Odyssey Unlimited tour). And what a display of wildlife they encountered!

Travel was in small open vans, each seating about five passengers, and proceeded along dirt roads through multiple national parks. Wildlife viewing was optimal during early morning and early evening hours; overnight stays and meals were at comfortable lodges in each park. Daytime temperatures were in the mid-eighties, with all days sunny except for a single rainy day, and virtually no encounters with mosquitoes of other insects such as tsetse flies.

Reticulated giraffes, water buffalo, zebras, gazelles, water bucks, ostriches, elephants, and lions were but a part of the flow around them in Amboseli Park in Kenya (the first major stop). The group visited a Maasai village, whose people lived in clay huts, dressed in extremely colorful clothing and were universally friendly toward the travelers (even dancing with them). Of note, the children in these villages all seemed happy and friendly. A favorite local was a 54-year-old blind bull elephant (who died shortly after this tour ended). Also encountered were hippos, wildebeest and large coffee plantations.

In Rhotia and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (a UNESCO World Heritage site) in Tanzania, the travelers encountered Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Great Rift Valley, and large numbers of lions sunning themselves along with hordes of baboons dashing across the road.  And at another lodge, a video showed a lioness with cubs coming right up to the van. Other images displayed a mama giraffe, additional wildebeest, and a leopard stalking prey from right under their vehicle.

On to Serengeti  National Park which featured water buffaloes, herons, hippos in the water, elephants, warthogs and hyenas in the wild, as well as crocodiles and termite hills. And finally back to Nairobi, where an additional three-day addon let the travelers see much of the country’s coffee manufacture in action, as well as visit the home Danish author Karen Blixen who penned “Out of Africa”.

Mother & Baby Elephant

Maasai Women Dancing

Bull Elephant

Lions sunning themselves on the rocks

Leopard stalking

Tower of Giraffes