Recent Events (2009)

Our current calendar of events is on our home page and in our newsletter.

When What
Friday, December 25th Annual brunch at Pacific Buffet & Grill, 20 Ives Road, Wallingford. Link to map of Pacific Buffet-Grill restaurant location.
Monday, December 21st Annual Meeting, Elections, and Solstice Party

We started with a pot-luck dinner at 7:30 PM. The annual meeting started at 8:00 PM, and was followed by our solstice party including a silent auction. This year a special feature of the evening was a short talk by P.J. Deak entitled "Observations of Hope: Charles Dickens in America, 1842." P.J. told us about the impact of the author's famous visit to this country on his frame of mind, noting that "A Christmas Carol," with its optimistic message, was written the following year.

Saturday, December 19th “Sumerian Texts And The Book Of Genesis”

POSTPONED DUE TO SNOW. Rescheduled for January 23rd, 2010

Saturday, December 12th

Humanist Conversations: "Trio"

Steve Boshi brought us an unusual movie, Trio. Introduced by W. Somerset Maugham himself, this 1950 movie is a compilation of three of his stories, “Mr. Know-All,” “The Verger” and “Sanatorium.”

Monday, December 7th New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location.
Sunday, November 22nd November board and standing committee meetings.
Saturday, November 21st
cover of 'Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America' by Steven Waldman Pot-luck and book discussion on Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, by Steven Waldman. It's available at many public libraries as well as at bookstores and online. (The paperback version has a different subtitle but is the same book.)

We started with a pot luck dinner and then discussed the book.

Thursday, November 19th Hartford area social dinner at Imperial Caribbean Restaurant, 51 Shunpike Rd., Cromwell. Link to map of Imperial Caribbean restaurant location. (860) 613-0005
Monday, November 16th Monthly Meeting: "National Health Care Reform: Reconciling Justice And Liberty"

M. Barton Laws, Assistant Professor at Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine, was until recently Senior Investigator in Social Science and Policy at Latin American Health Institute in Boston.

He has received research funding from the Robert Wood Johnson and Kaiser Family Foundations, the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Research Program, the Charles Farnsworth Trust, and the Tufts/Brown/Lifespan Center for AIDS Research, as well as NIH.

He's also the author of the "stayin' alive" blog. This is a public health blog, and his point of view is informed by his training, professional experience and lots of good, solid peer-reviewed information. Join us for a provocative perspective on health care reform from someone who understands the intersection of public policy and healthcare delivery.

Saturday, November 14th “Sumerian Legends of Gilgamesh and the Great Flood”

Follow-up meeting series to our Bible Reading Group. David Schafer proposed approaching some of the same material from a slightly different slant. For starters let’s call our new series “The Bible from the Standpoint of Scientific and Historical Analysis.”Since the first people to write history, as far as anybody knows, were the Sumerians, we’ll start with them. It turns out that they wrote the first story of Noah and the flood—in Sumerian, of course. Not only that, it was imbedded in the first (and some will tell you the best) epic ever written, the heroic life story of Gilgamesh, who seems to have been one of the kings of the Sumerian city of Uruk, around 2700 BCE. We planned to begin our examination of these stories in their historical context in this session.

Saturday, November 7th

Humanist Conversations: "Capitalism Hits the Fan"

We watched and discussed the movie, Capitalism Hits the Fan, in which University of Massachusetts professor of economics Richard Wolff presented a historical background for the current financial crisis and proposed structural change to our economic system as a remedy.

Monday, November 2nd New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location.
Tuesday, October 27th Hartford area social dinner at Imperial Caribbean Restaurant, 51 Shunpike Rd., Cromwell. Link to map of Imperial Caribbean restaurant location. (860) 613-0005
Sunday, October 25th October board and standing committee meetings.
Saturday, October 24th
Eleventh and last meeting of the HAC Bible Reading Group. We read the last five chapters of our series reference How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, by James L. Kugel.
  • Chapter 32. Ezekiel, pages 599-616
  • Chapter 33. Twelve Minor Prophets, pages 617-634
  • Chapter 34, Job and Postexilic Wisdom, pages 635-643
  • Chapter 35, Daniel the Interpreter, pages 644-661
  • Chapter 36, After Such Knowledge, pages 662-689

We started with an hour-long video at 2 PM and the discussion started soon after 3 PM.

cover of 'How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now' by James L. Kugel
Monday, October 19th Monthly Meeting: Joe Gould’s Secret
cover of 'Joe Gould's Secret'

Our October meeting featured a film combining two sensitive New Yorker profiles, 22 years apart, of a unique human being, Joe Gould, by a great journalist, Joseph Mitchell, whom Newsweek called “the best reporter ever to write for the New Yorker.” It stared Stanley Tucci, who also directed the film, as Joe Mitchell, and acclaimed English actor Ian Holm as Joe Gould.

Saturday, October 10th

Humanist Conversations: "Arguing the World"

At this meeting we watched and discussed a fascinating PBS documentary film about four New York intellectuals (Irving Howe, Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer and Irving Kristol) who came from poor, working class Jewish families and attended City College of New York in the 1930s.

cover of 'Arguing the World'
Monday, October 5th New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location.
Saturday, October 3rd
cover of 'The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream' by Barack Obama Book discussion on The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, by Barack Obama. It's available at many public libraries as well as at bookstores and online.

The discussion was held at Doug Peary's home in North Haven.

Thursday, October 1st

Ig Nobels Webcast

We hosted a live webcast of the 2009 Ig Nobels in the library at USNH.

"The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology.

In a gala ceremony in Harvard's Sanders Theatre, 1200 splendidly eccentric spectators watch the winners step forward to accept their Prizes. These are physically handed out by genuinely bemused genuine Nobel Laureates."

This was the same show you could travel up to Harvard to watch live, or watch on your computer at home.

Wednesday, September 30th Hartford area social dinner at Szechuan Tokyo, 1245 New Britain Ave., West Hartford. Link to map of Szechuan Tokyo restaurant location
Sunday, September 27th September board and standing committee meetings.
Monday, September 21st Monthly Meeting: Two American Non-Violent Social Activists

Our featured speaker for September was P.J. Deak, who presented a discussion of the roots of the American anti-slavery movement, focused on the non-violent activism of Benjamin Lay and Samuel Joseph May

Monday, September 14th Oue New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location was held a week later than usual to avoid the Labor Day holiday.
Saturday, September 5th

Humanist Conversations: Modern Times

For this month's meeting we watched and discussed the Charlie Chaplin classic "Modern Times," which, appropriately for a Labor Day weekend event, was inspired by the Great Depression.

Wednesday, August 26th Hartford area social dinner at Szechuan Tokyo, 1245 New Britain Ave., West Hartford. Link to map of Szechuan Tokyo restaurant location
Sunday, August 23rd August board and standing committee meetings.
Monday, August 17th
Monthly Meeting: The Missing Years in the Evolution of Humanism

When we Humanists are asked for a short history of our movement, most of us are likely to begin with the Age of Enlightenment (ca. 1700-1800 CE), or perhaps somewhat earlier, with the European Renaissance (ca. 1300-1600 CE). But after the Enlightenment, it’s quite likely that we’ll skip over a century or more and move directly to the Humanist Manifesto of 1933, when modern Humanism, at least modern American Humanism, took what was arguably its first concrete shape.

But what about the nineteenth century, and the first third of the twentieth? Didn’t anything worth mentioning happen then?

Our featured speaker for August was HAC program chair, Dr. David Schafer, who answered this question.

Saturday, August 15th
cover of 'Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson' by Jennifer Michael Hecht Book discussion on the second half — starting at page 216 — of Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson, by Jennifer Michael Hecht. It's available at many public libraries as well as at bookstores and online.
Sunday, August 9th
Tenth meeting of the HAC Bible Reading Group. Readings included the following from our series reference How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, by James L. Kugel.
  • Chapter 28. Solomon's Wisdom, reread pages 506-514
  • Chapter 30. The Book of Isaiah(s), pages 538-568
  • Chapter 31, Jeremiah, pages 569-597

And the following:

  • We started with an hour-long video at 2 PM and the discussion itself started soon after 3 PM.

  • cover of 'How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now' by James L. Kugel
    Monday, August 3rd New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location.
    Saturday, August 1st

    Humanist Conversations: Robert Reich on Lobbyists and Healthcare

    For this month's meeting we watched and discuss the June 12, 2009, episode of Bill Moyers Journal, in which former Labor Secretary Robert Reich sat down with Bill Moyers to talk about the influence of lobbyists on policy, the economy, and the ongoing debate over health care.

    Wednesday, July 29th Hartford area social dinner at Szechuan Tokyo, 1245 New Britain Ave., West Hartford. Link to map of Szechuan Tokyo restaurant location
    Sunday, July 26th July board and standing committee meetings. All members are welcome to attend.
    Monday, July 20th
    Monthly Meeting: 1776 (The Musical)

    To celebrate Independence Day, we showed the movie based on the original Broadway musical production of "1776".

    This proved to be a popular event, with people staying to the end of the nearly 3 hour film.

    cover of '1776' movie of original Broadway musical
    Saturday, July 18th Potluck picnic at Bill & Kathy Lyons' home in Cornwall, Connecticut, including:
    cover of 'The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God' by Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Book discussion on The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, by Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan. Attendees were asked to bring a quote from the book, no longer than one paragraph, to discuss, preferrably from the "Editor's Introduction," "Author's Introduction," Chapters 1, 6, 7, and 9, and "Selected Q&A."
    Saturday, July 11th

    Humanist Conversations: Medical Insurance & the Healthcare Debate

    For this month's meeting we viewed and discussed the second of two recent PBS Frontline episodes focusing on healthcare: "Sick Around the World." (We watched "Sick Around America" last month.)

    Monday, July 6th New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location.
    Wednesday, June 24th Hartford area social dinner at Szechuan Tokyo, 1245 New Britain Ave., West Hartford. Link to map of Szechuan Tokyo restaurant location
    Sunday, June 21st June board and standing committee meetings.
    Saturday, June 20th

    Annual Picnic at Bob and Joan Raffords' home in Middlebury.

    Monday, June 15th
    Monthly Meeting: Mark Twain, Humanist Hero

    HAC vice-president Doug Peary presented the latest in his series of inspirational biographies of famous humanists. The subject this time will be Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.

    cover of 'Humanist Heroes' by Doug Peary
    Saturday, June 13th Memorial service for Walter Wells, followed by a reception hosted by HAC.
    Saturday, June 6th

    Humanist Conversations: Medical Insurance

    For this month's meeting we watched and discussed the first of two recent PBS Frontline episodes focusing on healthcare: "Sick Around America." We'll watch the second, "Sick Around the World," at a later meeting.

    Monday, June 1st New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location.
    Saturday, May 30th
    Ninth meeting of the HAC Bible Reading Group. We read the following from our series reference How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, by James L. Kugel.
    • Chapter 27. David the King, pages 474-492
    • Chapter 28. Solomon's Wisdom, pages 493-518
    • Chapter 29. North and South, pages 519-537

    And the following:

    cover of 'How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now' by James L. Kugel
    Thursday, May 28th Hartford area social dinner at the Bombay Olive, 450 S Main St, West Hartford. Link to map of Bombay Olive restaurant location
    Sunday, May 24th May board and standing committee meetings.
    Monday, May 18th Monthly Meeting: Peking Man: Anatomy of an Unsolved Mystery

    Dr. Kenneth L. Feder is one of our favorite speakers, and we were thrilled to have him speak for us again this year! (He's professor of archeology in the anthropology department of Central Connecticut State University.)

    Peking Man: Anatomy of an Unsolved Mystery

    The tale of the discovery, excavation, and sadly, the disappearance of the Peking Man fossils is one filled with serendipity (both good and bad) intrigue, war, and torture. When discovered and excavated in the 1920s and 1930s, the fossils found in a cave some 40 miles outside of Beijing reflected the most substantial accumulation of human ancestors ever found at a single site, representing more than forty individuals and about a dozen nearly complete crania. Housed for years at the Peking Union Medical College, the specimens fell victim to a combination of stupendously bad luck, tragedy, and human stupidity. All of the precious Peking Man fossils disappeared in the 1940s and none have been seen since.

    Were the fossils destroyed? Probably. Were they irretrievably lost, never to be seen again? Likely. Then again, might they be ensconced in a packing crate in a warehouse in China or a royal palace in Japan? Even more interestingly, are they currently hidden in an attic or basement here in the United States?

    Saturday, May 9th
    cover of 'Tuesdays with Morrie' by Mitch Albom Book discussion on Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom. It's available at many public libraries as well as at bookstores and online. (Albom also wrote a play of the same title.)
    Saturday, May 9th
    We showed the Emmy award-winning video of Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom prior to the book discussion. cover of video of 'Tuesdays with Morrie' by Mitch Albom
    Monday, May 4th New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location.
    Sunday, May 3rd Our team walked in the Connecticut Food Bank's New Haven-area Walk Against Hunger at East Rock Park in New Haven.
    Saturday, May 2nd

    Humanist Conversations: The Big Sort

    In the last thirty years, America has sorted itself into like-minded “tribes.” What are the consequences of this? For this month's meeting we watched and discussed a video that introduces the concept and process that led to the book, "The Big Sort," published in May of 2008 by Bill Bishop and Robert G. Cushing.

    Wednesday, April 29th Hartford area social dinner at Szechuan Tokyo, 1245 New Britain Ave., West Hartford. Link to map of Szechuan Tokyo restaurant location
    Sunday, April 26th April board and standing committee meetings.
    Monday, April 20th
    20th Anniversary Meeting: Making Humanism Relevant

    Our speaker this month was Fred Edwords who, as the then executive director of the American Humanist Association, was our inaugural speaker at our organizational meeting in the spring of 1989.

    Fred's introduction to his talk was as follows: “Humanists have gotten good at critiquing traditional religion. But we didn’t become humanists merely to make such debunking our focus. Humanism offers a larger view that takes us in positive new directions. And many of those directions include vigorous activism toward social change. There is, in fact, a long history of humanist and freethought social action to inspire us. Putting our values to work is thus a central part of our tradition. Though we've sometimes had to do this by going against the grain of popular religion, at other times we've been able to leverage our influence through common cause with religious allies.”

    We started the evening with a pot-luck dinner.

    Fred Edwords bio photo (head and shoulders shot of Fred wearing a suit and tie with a building immediately behind him)
    Saturday, April 18th
    cover of 'Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson' by Jennifer Michael Hecht Book discussion on the first half — the Introduction and Chapters 1 through 5 (through page 215) — of Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson, by Jennifer Michael Hecht. It's available at many public libraries as well as at bookstores and online.
    Monday, April 6th New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location.
    Saturday, April 4th

    Humanist Conversations: The Bailout, again.

    For this month's meeting we watched and discussed the March 27 segment of Bill Moyers on the Bailout.

    Friday, April 3rd

    Pizza & Video: What are President Obama's Views on Religion?

    We watched two speeches in which Barack Obama talked about his religious views (total running time is 49 min).

    Thursday, March 26th Hartford area social dinner at the Bombay Olive, 450 S Main St, West Hartford. Link to map of Bombay Olive restaurant location
    Sunday, March 22nd March board and standing committee meetings.
    Saturday, March 21st
    Eighth meeting of the HAC Bible Reading Group. The assigned from our series reference How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, by James L. Kugel, was:
    • Chapter 24. The Other Gods of Canaan, pages 417-435
    • Chapter 25. Samuel and Saul, pages 436-457
    • Chapter 26. The Psalms of David, pages 458-473

    As well as:

    cover of 'How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now' by James L. Kugel
    Saturday, March 14th
    cover of 'Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion' by Dale McGowan
    Monthly Meeting: Parenting Beyond Belief

    Our speaker this month was Dale McGowan, author of Parenting Beyond Belief, who also held a seminar at USNH earlier the same day.

    Monday, March 9th New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location.
    Saturday, March 7th

    Humanist Conversations: George Lakoff on "The Obama Code"

    For this month's meeting we read and discussed this linguist's analysis of president Obama's national address.

    Thursday, February 26th Waterbury/Danbury area social dinner at Lisboa, 19 Lafayette Street, Waterbury. Link to map of Lisboa restaurant location (203) 754-0789 for directions
    Sunday, February 22nd February board and standing committee meetings.
    Monday, February 16th
    Monthly Meeting: Cancer as an Evolutionary Phenomenon

    Our speaker this month was long-time cancer researcher at the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Dermatology, and the Yale Cancer Center, Dr. John Pawelek, PhD, who shared with us a theory of cancer metastasis whereby cancer cells spread throughout the body when they fuse with white blood cells.

    Saturday, February 14th
    cover of 'What Evolution Is' by Ernst Mayr Book discussion on What Evolution Is, by Ernst Mayr.
    Friday, February 13th First Annual Darwin Day Dinner at the Continental Manor, 112 Main Street, Norwalk Link to map of Continental Manor location, sponsored by the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Fairfield County and other organizations: http://www.darwindayct.org.
    Saturday, February 7th

    Humanist Conversations: The Civil Rights Movement

    We watched a video on some of the unreported activities behind the civil rights movement.

    Monday, February 2nd New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location. Call the restaurant at (203) 933-0002 if you need directions.
    Thursday, January 29th Christopher Hitchens was a panelist in a discussion on "god" at the Connecticut Forum, at the Bushnell Theater, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford Link to map of Bushnell Theater location.
    Sunday, January 25th January board and standing committee meetings.
    Wednesday, January 21st Hartford-area dinner at Taste of India, 139 South Main Street, West Hartford, Link to map of Lemongrass restaurant location. (860) 561-2221.
    Monday, January 19th
    Monthly Meeting: The Humanist Code Of Ethics

    Our speaker this month was Paul Gobell.

    Saturday, January 17th
    Seventh meeting of the HAC Bible Reading Group. The corresponding reading from our series reference How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, by James L. Kugel was:
    • Chapter 22. Joshua and the Conquest of Canaan, pages 365-385
    • Chapter 23. Judges and Chiefs, pages 386-416

    Supplemented by the following:

    cover of 'How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now' by James L. Kugel
    Friday, January 9th Movie night at Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor Street, Hartford Link to map of Real Art Ways location. We caught a showing of Tia Lessin's "Trouble the Water", a documentary about surviving Hurricane Katrina.
    Monday, January 5th New Haven area social dinner at Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven Link to map of Turkish Kebab House restaurant location.
    Saturday, January 3rd

    Humanist Conversations: Manufacturing Dissent

    For this month's meeting we watched and discuss the 2007 documentary "Manufacturing Dissent: Uncovering Michael Moore".

    Click here to see some other events we've enjoyed over the years.