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Saratoga Sampler
Pen Women take time to honor 'celebrities'
By Mary Ann Cook
CELEBRITY LUNCHEON: The National League of Pen Women will honor one Saratogan and two Los Gatans, along with five other women in the arts, at its annual luncheon Feb. 9, 11 a.m., at the San Jose Elks Club. Maxine McGinnis of Saratoga and Marty Kendall and Merikay McKenna of Los Gatos have been cited as women of achievement.
McGinnis' work has focused on education: She helped write a career education grant at Mission Community College; and she was regional director of the state school board, overseeing four counties. Additionally, she served on the Santa Clara County school board, as well as the Saratoga Union School district board (15 years) and the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School district board (eight years).
Kendall is the author of 10 children's novels, the latest of which has been nominated for best children's book of the year by the National Library Association. She teaches language arts and women's studies at San José City College. McKenna is an artist who sculpts animal heads in varied sizes from papier-maché and fabrics, including manmade fur.
Money raised at the celebrity luncheon is awarded to high school seniors who excel in the arts. Entertainment is by Side by Side, led by Saratogan Rosalie Sogolow. Others in the group are Sarah Joelson and Maureen Schneider of Saratoga and Dahlia Blech, Kathy Sherman and Barbara Okun.
The sixsome sing and accompany themselves on piano, flute and guitar. Their tape is called On Wings of Song. The theme of the event is "In Order to Explore the Ocean You First Have to Leave the Shore."
RELIEF FROM PAIN: For those for whom pain is a problem and traditional remedies haven't worked, maybe acupuncture will, suggests Dr. Bina Moghaddam, whose office is in Saratoga. She specializes in the treatment of chronic and acute pain.
Fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, and tennis elbow are often treated with anti-inflammatories or steroids, both of which have potentially bad side effects. The evidence supporting these accepted therapies is no better than that for acupuncture, says a position statement from The National Institutes of Health.
People who have tried other treatments with limited success manage to find relief from pain with acupuncture, Moghaddam says. The World Health Organization has listed more than 40 conditions for which acupuncture may be indicated, and most insurance companies now have coverage for acupuncture treatments.
She also performs facial acupuncture, with the goal of enhancing skin tone and texture while minimizing wrinkles.
Moghaddam is also part of a Stanford research team that investigates the efficacy of acupuncture. Her doctoral dissertation was a combination of psychology and Chinese medicine. She holds a doctorate in human behavior and psychology from the American Global University in Iowa.
She holds two master's degrees--in human development from University of Kansas and in traditional Chinese medicine from the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences, Oakland. She holds two bachelor's degrees, in psychology and human development, also from UoK. She is married and has a 6-year-old son.
WINNER: Kenneth Tanemura has won the Ed Gomersall Memorial Scholarship for 2001, sponsored by Saratoga Sister City. He will use the scholarship for three semesters of Japanese language study at Soko Gakuen in San Francisco in order to gain a proficiency level that will enable him to translate poetry.
Tanemura is a staff writer for Nikkei West, and has applied to graduate school for an advanced degree in journalism. He hopes to eventually work in Japan as a teacher and foreign correspondent.
Applications are now being taken for the 2002 memorial scholarship. There is no deadline, since the scholarship is given whenever an appropriate applicant appears. The scholarship is open to anyone seeking further knowledge of Japanese culture through programs, classes or personal study.
For more information, call Reiko Iwanaga at 408.867.4525. Ed Gomersall was a past president of Sister City; his widow, Joan Gomersall, is current president of the group.
BYE, BYE BLACKBIRD: That's the old song title, but Saratogans are more apt to be singing, "Hello, Blackbirds, Hello." Noticed the proliferation of blackbirds this season? I asked local bird guru Jean Dubois if he could explain the population explosion. "Those are crows," he said, first off.
But he didn't know why the upsurge. Must be plenty of food around for them, he conjectures. But he did clear up the nomenclature confusion. Crows and ravens are birds that are black, but are not blackbirds. They're bigger than blackbirds, and ravens are bigger than crows.
Ravens have a rounded tail, and the crow tail is squared. Blackbirds found in these parts are the Brewers blackbird, smaller than a robin, and the red-tailed blackbird, spotted often at Vasona.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
