1800 Wednesday Nights – August 31, 2016

Scheherazade had 1001 nights of fabulous stories to entertain her husband-king
Primarily to stop him from doing her in
David and Diana Nicholson have had 1800 consecutive Wednesday Nights
To enthrall the rest of us… What’s the buzz…it is because…
That claim to fame is simply momentous?

Who knew when Wednesday Night began…that some of us we’d still be here
Listening, learning, chatting, snacking on the nuts…the vegan kind…that is
For the other type of nuts that gather round the table, are more than able to hold their own
Which brings me to the OWNs themselves…the fabled Order of Wednesday Night…its cadre
The true devotees…bright and beautiful, sharp minded and astute,
People of low and high and middling repute…well prepared, first-rate arguments bared
All have been here on one Wednesday Night or another
Brother and sister, father and mother, we all become one big family when gathered at the discussion table…willing and able to hunker right in and begin…whatever the subject of debate.

Doctors, medical and not, teachers, historians, politicians, economists, engineers, IT geeks, Professors, brokers, analysts, researchers, journalists, architects and clerics, poets, authors, Artists, musicians, statesmen and women, students, housewives, office workers, strategists, You get the gist…the list is inexhaustible, young and old, many are the tales that have been told…some serious, others tongue-in-cheek, some outrageous, others…just plain weird…
Bearded, smooth-cheeked, mustachioed…divinely dressed or merely stressed
We’re all here to exchange ideas and spout our stuff…until the Chair, man or woman shouts ‘enough!’ and the subject changes…and far and wide the debate ranges.

Too many and too numerous to mention here tonight…have gone on ahead
Some to that everlasting sleep, while others have just crawled, late and plastered to their beds
With myriad thoughts and theories dancing in their bedazzled, befuddled heads.

The arguments and long discussions, the dos and don’ts, the repercussions
Of the global economy and wars, world sores, the market ups and downs, all the disasters
Both natural…and man-made….the cavalcade of ideas, theories and at times, opposing views
All that talk of those who walk the walk and those that don’t
Have kept us going through the years…often amused…at other times, simply bemused.

And the dues for all these weekly hours of fun and repartee?
A bottle of red or white, or if it’s hot…a beer, iced water or some canned iced tea
The fees paid thus for 1800 Wednesday Nights would probably stock a large-sized SAQ.
For when it started who knew…we’d still be here 1800 consecutive Wednesdays later?
Still hooked, still going strong, still up for it and all the greater for being part of it…
Our very own Nicholson’s Wednesday Night fabled extravaganza… How many stanzas will there be of it? Just rest assured…we won’t be stopping our tales like Scheherazade did…
For our stories of the world we live in…haven’t begun to fail us yet,
That being said I won’t bet…on the eventual stopping date…for that’s in the hand of fickle fate.

©Wanda Potrykus – WSP 2016