Main Street

Weaver of tall tale wins Toastmaster award

By Mary Ann Cook

SILVER-TONGUED: Los Gatan Robert Mascarotti won first place in the Toastmasters Area B2 Tall Tales contest, besting entrants from six other clubs. Mascarotti's tale, "New York, New York," had him a gunshot victim while vacationing in New York. The grim events have a happy ending when it's discovered that he really stumbled onto a movie set.

A native of Switzerland, Mascarotti is the owner/director of Esprit Healing Center, an alternative wellness clinic specializing in holistic care. He says his Toastmaster training has helped him become a better communicator.

Mascarotti has been a member of the Los Gatos Silver Tongued Cats for nine years. The club meets every Thursday from 7:57 a.m. to 9:04 a.m. in the Fireside Room of the Los Gatos Methodist Church, 19 High School Court. Newcomers are welcome. Silver Tongue president is Bob Reid and his work phone is 408.378.2407.

IRONMAN/WOMAN: Los Gatans Jack and Lynne Rosser completed the Subaru Ironman Canada marathon in just over 14 hours, "which exceeded our expectations and pre-race goals," they report. "This event will be remembered as one of the major highlights of our lives."

The Ironman involves 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking and 26.2 miles of running and was held in Penticton, British Columbia, in August. Lynne won first in her age group of 55-59.

The dedicated couple has competed in shorter triathlons for the past 15 years, but decidedly revved up their training for this longer event by biking 100 miles on Saturdays and running 20-mile jaunts on Sundays.

Jack has been an orthodontist in Almaden Valley for the past 32 years and Lynn works in the front office. The world championship is held in Hawaii in October yearly and the Rossers have served as volunteer staff there three times.

FROM ALCATRAZ: Here's news of two other hardy souls, both town employees, who completed the Alcatraz Invitational Swim, a 11Ž3-mile trek with 300 others swimming from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park.

The two hearties are Regina Falkner, community services director, and Orry Korb, town attorney. Both live in Santa Cruz. "I swim one to four times a week," Falkner says. "I've always loved to swim. When I was a kid my nickname was Fish. I don't like to sweat, so swimming's for me."

She swam the distance in 39 1/2 minutes and came in first in her category--40- to 49-year-olds. She got pointers from Korb, who has participated in this event five times. The race was scheduled at slack tide, the time between the tide changes.

"It was quite a thrill. The Golden Gate Bridge on my right, the Bay Bridge on my left, Alcatraz behind me and the city in front of me," Falkner says. Her family cheered her on--husband David Reetz and daughter Aleksandra.

Korb didn't fare as well. He was struck in the face by another swimmer early on and hadn't trained as much as usual, but managed to make it in 41 minutes.

CANCER DONOR: Los Gatos dentist Howard May is donating $200 to the Community Breast Health Project in Palo Alto for every $350 teeth-whitening job he does through the month of October, breast cancer awareness month.

GATSBY EVENING: "Best ever," says Mary Tomasi-Dubois, a v.p. of the board, about the Community Foundation's annual fundraiser. The garden party raised $20,000, a record. The Royal Society Jazz Orchestra played, and even though there was no place set aside for dancing at the Larry Arzie/David Stonesiefer estate, the music was too toe-tapping not to dance.

Grant recipients were Live Oak Senior Nutrition Center and Adult Day Services, Art Docents of Los Gatos, Los Gatos Museum Association and West Valley Federated Women's Club. Models included town officials such as Dave Knapp, Jan Hutchins and Larry Todd and family. Others were Adu Bagley, Emma Vargo, Jan Morris, Carol Musser, Ellen Graff, Teri Hope, Beth Smith, Teresa Scagliotti, Susan Sedgley, Diane Sotir-Holland, Katie Giordano, Emily Holt, Tracy Miller, Matt Frisbee, J.R. Langer and Steven Wahl.

OPERA: San Jose Opera Guild hosts a lecture on Lucia diLammermoor by Donizetti on Oct. 7 at 10 a.m. at the Los Gatos History Club. For more information call 408.395.8936. On Oct. 21 the lecture will cover The Tale of the Nutcracker, of particular interest because the composer of this opera is Los Gatan Craig Bohmler. The lectures are better than the opera, says Elle Stern.

SOLAR TOUR: A solar home tour of 14 South Bay homes that employ solar energy will be held on Oct. 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Two of the homes are in Los Gatos-- the Barbara Ott home, whose design harvests heat from the winter sun, and the Brendan Eich home, which converts sunlight into electricity via solar panels.

The Northern California Solar Energy Assoc. is the sponsor; registration deadline is Oct. 7. The number is 510.869.2759; the website at www.norcalsolar.org.

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