2008-2009 Schedule
Date:
Alexander Phillips – Oct 31, 2008 – "Keeping Time"
Holidays – November, 2008
Dick Dimond – Dec 5, 2008 - "Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers in Hancock County"
Mike Hayes – Jan 30, 2009
David Hales – Feb 27, 2009
Don Cousins – Mar 27, 2009
Bill Dohmen – Apr 24, 2009
Jim Clunan – May 22, 2009
Location: Birch Bay Village Inn
Time: Lunch 11:30; Lecture 12-1:00
Description:Check back for updates and details!
Clockmaker, Alexander Phillips to speak on “Keeping Time,”
Date: October 31, 2008
Location: Birch Bay Village Inn, Hulls Cove
Time: Lunch (by reservation) 11:20; Lecture (by reservation) 12:00
Description:Local clockmaker, Alexander Phillips will speak on “Keeping Time,” the evolution of man’s fascination to measure the passage of time for domestic purposes. His talk will include the various inventions and national styles of clocks and watches.
Mr. Phillips says, “I started fixing timepieces at 10 years old. My curious collection of clocks drove everybody crazy in my house with all of the ticking and striking. My mother finally told me to keep them in a closet in my bedroom. Studying to become a concert pianist, I was sent to a music conservatory in New York City but spent most of
my time in clock shops. I was the protégé of pianist Earl Wild but preferred being the apprentice to clockmaker Norman Steinkritz and eventually traded-in my tuxedo for a shop apron. Steinkritz enabled me to hone my mechanical skills but most importantly, taught me how to make a living in this business.”
After 20 years of running a clock shop in New York City, Phillips and his wife Eileen moved to Bar Harbor in 1989. Mr. Phillips provides a “real clock shop” to the Bar Harbor area. He has work shipped to him from all over the country as well as from local folks. Repairs and restorations include clocks, watches and barometers with an occasional curious mechanical invention coming across his bench. Phillips has one of the few businesses open year ‘round on Main Street, Bar Harbor.
Erika Shriner: "Living in the Real World"
Date: September 26, 2008
Location: Birch Bay Village Inn, Hulls Cove
Time: Lunch (by reservation) 11:20; Lecture (by reservation) 12:00
Description: For most of our history
, we Americans have lived as if resources were infinite. We prided ourselves in refusing to acknowledge limits. When one geographic area became too crowded or the natural resources were exhausted, we simply moved on. But no matter where we lived - in the desert, in the far north or the deep south - we expected to live with ample food, water and cheap energy.
The real world is changing for Americans.
The real world is increasingly finite, crowded and resource depleted. We can either continue to ignore reality or learn to survive and hopefully find a renewed sense of pride and purpose by preparing ourselves for a world with new rules and very real limitations.
J. Erika Shriner
spent twenty years working in the financial services industry in both sales and marketing. Since 1995 she has worked on numerous environmental issues including farmland preservation, Zero Waste, and sustainability. For the past year she has written the "Sustainable Living"
column in the Bar Harbor Times. She is currently the coordinator of ROOTs - an organization whose members pledge to make a 30% reduction in their consumption of resources. Erika is also a certified energy auditor.
Steve Perrin: "Mixed Messages, Chapters from a Visual Autobiography"
Date: May 30, 2008 (Note: this is the final Lunch and Learn of the season. Sessions will begin again in September.)
Location: Birch Bay Village Inn, Hulls Cove
Time: Lunch (by reservation) 11:30; Lecture (by reservation) 12:00
Description:How might living alone on an undeveloped 30-acre island for two and a half years affect one’s life? For writer, photographer, and naturalist Steve Perrin, living on such an island in Franklin, Maine in the 1980s, “was the most profound educational experience of my life. Not as my finishing school, but my beginning school, where, through direct observation, I gained a sense of the workings and beauty of Maine in the wild.”
During that time Perrin became a founding member of Frenchman Bay Conservancy, Friends of Taunton Bay, and River Union. He then wrote on watersheds and worked at Acadia National Park for five years. He both wrote and illustrated four books meant to open eyes to the natural wonders of Acadia and MDI. He has been active in horseshoe crab research in Taunton Bay, and monitored indicators of estuary health and integrity. He has offered a range of courses through MDI adult education and Acadia Senior College. This past winter he made a dozen PowerPoint presentations based on slides he made during his island sojourn twenty years ago. He
now focuses on watershed and coastal issues. He posts a blog on sea level rise on the website of a local newspaper. Steve is a former teacher with an Ed.D. from Boston University. He has lived in Bar Harbor since 1993.
Perrin’s talk on Friday, May 30, will feature a PowerPoint presentation of images featuring text and graphic elements. He says, “My father was a writer, my mother a painter, so I'm going to concentrate on images combining those two influences. Only upon reflection did I realize I was paying homage to my childhood grasp of my parents' different styles of expression.”
Sheridan Steele: "No Child Left Inside"
Date: April 25, 2008
Location: Birch Bay Village Inn, Hulls Cove
Time: Lunch (by reservation) 11:30; Lecture (by reservation) 12:00
Description: Acadia National Park Superintendent, Sheridan Steele will speak on the program - "No Child Left Inside."
Spencer Ervin speaks on: "Guantanamo Gulag," The Struggle for Legal Rights for Detainees
Date: March 28, 2008
Location: Birch Bay Village Inn, Hulls Cove
Time: Lunch (by reservation) 11:30; Lecture (by reservation) 12:00
Description: Spencer Ervin will consider the establishment of the prison at the US Naval Base on the island of Cuba. He will then look at legal challenges to the indefinite detention without charge, particularly those decided by the US Supreme Court.
Ervin is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He later returned to his home state of Pennsylvania to practice law. As a member of the US Naval Reserve, he saw active duty in the Caribbean, Arctic, and Antarctic in the mid 1950's with a brief visit to Guantanamo in 1953.