Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Scientists

Science with Pride since 1979….that means this organization has been around for 30 years!

At first it didn’t have a name. It was an idea that a gay botany professor and some of his friends had in November of 1979: an open-invitation pot-luck dinner on the second Wednesday of the month for all local gay scientists. The first meeting was a huge success. To paraphrase one attendee: “I hardly even know other people in my field of study, let alone GAY people in my field, and tonight I’ve met many!” The idea became a regular event, and Los Angeles Gay Scientists was born. In just a few years, LAGS leadership tried to demonstrate inclusivity to lesbians by inserting “And Lesbian” into its name, and got a new acronym: LAGALS. After hearing the organization referred to one too many times as L.A. Gals, the group decided to decapitalize the conjunction and omit it from the acronym. Hence, LAGLS. We say it “\’la·gəlz\”. The first syllable rhymes with tag, wag, and hag. Interestingly, a whole bunch of regional LAGLS-type groups sprouted up across the nation around the same time. Their first syllables were TAG, WAG, and HAG for Triangle Area Gay, Washington Area Gay, and Houston Area Gay….and Lesbian Scientists.

Of course, we know that LAGLS welcomes people of all persuasions, proclivities, and personalities — even engineers, technology hobbyists, naturalists, and technophiles. Many of our current members were at those meetings in the first few years, and many of us have made LAGLS folks our extended family. That we’ve grown up together and grown older together is cause for celebration it itself. We hope you all — old and new — will join us in November to celebrate LAGLS’ 30th Anniversary at a very special venue: Ciudad, the Downtown restaurant of Chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, Food Network’s “Too Hot Tamales”.

Date: Wednesday, November 11, 7:30 pm

Where:

Ciudad Restaurant
At the Union Bank Plaza
445 S. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90071
phone: 213.486.5171
Directions: www.ciudad-la.com/ciu_dir.htm

Self-Parking in the Union Bank Garage: $5 flat until 12 midnight with Ciudad validation

RSVP to the LAGLS Office by Sunday November 8: 626 791-7689 or by email form

Cost: $27 per person, payable to LAGLS by check or cash. Alcoholic Beverages & parking are extra.

Menu: (make your choices at the restaurant)

Starters:
Assorted Flatbreads and Spreads
Spinach Empanda with pine nuts, raisins, manchego cheese, salsa verde

Entrée: choice of
Pollo Ciudad (grilled chicken served over Cuban rice with cilantro sauce, pickled tomatos) or
Roasted Poblano Chile Relleno (stuffed with potato rajas, cotija cheese served with quinoa salad, trio of salsas)

Dessert: choice of
Barcelona Chocolate Cake or
Goat Milk Cajeta Flan

Beverages: soft drinks, iced teas included

Summer Event:
Sunday July 12, 3pm

Museum of Neon Art
136 W 4th St,
Los Angeles, CA 90013
Admission $7 ($5 for 65+)

Just when you thought we’d explored all museums possible, we come up with yet another one! This should appeal to both sides of our brains, as neon art is a blend of aesthetics and technology. Join us for a leisurely exploration of this small museum, followed by an early dinner at a local restaurant. No need to RSVP. Just meet us in front of the museum by 3pm, or catch up with us inside. For more information about the the museum and parking suggestions, point your web browser to www.neonmona.org

Data + Art:
Science and Art in the Age of Information

Join us for a leisurely exploration of the Data + Art exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, followed by an early dinner at a local restaurant. No need to RSVP. Just meet us in front of the museum by 3pm, or catch up with us inside. For more information about the exhibit and the museum, point your web browser to www.pmcaonline.org

Pasadena Museum of California Art
490 East Union Street
Pasadena, CA 91101
626-568-3665
Admission: $7

4th Quarter 2008 LAGLS Event:

29th Anniversary Gathering
Friday November 7, 7:30 pm

Cafe at the End of the Universe
Griffith Park Observatory
lower level between the Gunther Depths of Space exhibit hall and Gottlieb Transit Corridor
2800 East Observatory Road
Los Angeles, CA 90027

Join us for an informal light dinner at Griffith Observatory’s Café at the End of the Universe, preceded and/or followed by self-guided enjoyment of the exhibits and shows. The Café offers an assortment of a la carte soups, salads, wraps, sandwiches, sweets, and beverages. Menu can be reviewed on-line at www.griffithobservatory.org/pdf/cafemenu.pdf for budgeting how much cash to bring.

Cost: Admission to the Observatory is free; bring cash to pay the Café directly for your meal and to purchase Planetarium tickets

Link to Griffith Observatory for directions etc.

Join us to celebrate the 28th Anniversary of the first LAGLS meeting!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007
7:30 pm Appetizers on the table
8 pm Dinner is served

French Quarter, 7985 Santa Monica Blvd.,
West Hollywood, CA 90046 323-654-0898

Cost: $25 per person paid at the event to LAGLS by check or exact cash. Cost includes appetizers, entrée, dessert, soft beverage, tax, and tip.

RSVP: to the LAGLS Office (office-at-lagls-dot-org or 626 791-7689) by Sunday November 11th; be sure to state your entrée preference with your reservation. Please honor your reservation; we will hunt you down and make you pay the $25 if you make a reservation and don’t attend.

Entrée Choices (tell us your choice of entree when making your reservation by 11/11/07):

Fish:
Fish and Chips

Pasta:
Blackened Chicken Penne

Chicken:
Stir Fry Chicken

Vegetarian
Veggie Burger; or
1129 (sliced roma tomato, red onion, fresh spinach, 1/2 avocado, alfalfa sprouts and gouda cheese on 9 grain wheat bread); or
Grilled Veggie Wrap

Hi Protein:
Roasted half chicken or salmon served with fresh fruit, tomato slices, hard boiled egg and low-fat cottage cheese

Those of you who are long time LAGLS members know what this time of year means: Annual Meeting. But you also know that it’s simply an excuse to get together to chew the fat and fire up the grill. Let’s do it at lunch time on July 8, 1-3 pm. Barbara and Shelley host the gathering at their place in Pasadena. We’ll get the grill going about 12:45, so it will be nice and hot when you arrive. We’ll provide hot dogs, trimmings, and root beer. You bring a side dish to share and something else for the grill if you don’t want hot dogs. Don’t worry about the outdoor heat, because the house is air conditioned, and that’s where we plan to enjoy each other’s company and talk about our ideas for LAGLS for the coming year.

Whether you have ideas or not, whether you want to volunteer to help or not, whether you’ve been around for a long time or are brand new, we do hope you will join us for a few hours in show of support for the organization. Just in case you are inclined to be helpful, here are some ways you can do so:

• Become a member of the Steering Committee: This is a one year commitment to participate in a quarterly business meeting that we hold during a mailing party. As part of your commitment, you will be in charge of one LAGLS event for the year. You make the arrangements, write the article for the newsletter, and write about it afterwards for the following newsletter.
• Join the Mailing Party: This requires no permanent commitment. You look at the LAGLS calendar to see when the quarterly mailing party is, and you attend. If you tell us you’re interested in doing this on a regular basis, we will send you an email reminder a week prior. We all chip in for shared pizza, you provide your labor to help fold, stuff, label, lick, and stick the LAGLS and NOGLSTP mailing.
• Edit the LAGLS Bulletin: This is a one year commitment to collect the content and lay out the newsletter. It is currently done in Microsoft Publisher, but can easily be done in Word. If you are not an Adobe Acrobat (full version) owner, LAGLS will buy you the Pro version of CutePDF, so you can convert all the newsletters to a PDF version for digital printing at the on-demand digital printer of choice.
• Public Outreach: coordinate a Pride display or contingent; speak about being a GLBT scientist/engineer to the local college GLBT student association; represent LAGLS at a community event

This event is being held in a private home in Pasadena. For address and directions, please contact the LAGLS Office.

Hey Everybody. Let’s go see Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination at the California Science Center for our first quarter LAGLS event! This first exhibit of its kind combines costumes and props from all six Star Wars films with real-world technologies, video interviews with filmmakers, scientists and engineers, and two large Engineering Design Labs, where we can build and test speeders and robots. We can explore prototypes, learn about the engineers and designers who are creating new technologies, and discover intriguing similarities between how scientists and filmmakers think. That oughta appeal to our inner geek, don’t you think?

“What? The California Science Center…AGAIN?”, you whine. “Weren’t we just THERE last spring? Why don’t we go to the OBSERVATORY INSTEAD?”, you petulantly ponder.

Well, here’s a perfectly logical rebuttal. Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination is a traveling show that will only be at the Science Center this spring. And the newly refurbished Griffith Observatory is such a hot item that we would have to pre-purchase shuttle tickets to get on the premises, with NO GUARANTEE that we will be able to get into the planetarium. So we’ll go check out the observatory when things settle down some. Sort of like waiting for the Getty museum to cool off. Remember that? Yes. We knew you would agree to this strategy, even without the persuasive wave of the Jedi Master using the force to influence your perceptions.

To avoid the crowds and most of the screaming children at the Star Wars exhibit, let’s get an early start of it. We’ll meet in front of the Science Center for their 10am open time, and mosey through the exhibit. After, we’ll grab lunch at a local diner. You’ll have your whole afternoon free to do whatever you want — return for an IMAX film, explore more of Exhibition Park, or go home and do your laundry.

Star Wars — Where Science Meets Imagination
California Science Center
Saturday March 17, 10 am
follow this link for more exhibit information and museum location

Meet a little before 10 am in front of the Science Center entrance.

Parking is $6/vehicle. Contact the LAGLS Office to carpool from Pasadena.

Admission is free to the museum and Star Wars exhibit. Bring some cash to experience the Millenium Falcon feature, which is a full-size cockpit replica of Episode IV’s Millennium Falcon. Visitors watch a 4.5 minute long multimedia presentation featuring imagery from the Hubble space telescope that explores what we know about our own galaxy in a breathtaking journey to the edge of the Universe. Millennium Falcon tickets are $2 per person.

If you plan on taking in an IMAX movie later on, you can purchase tickets for $8.00 on site. Here’s the IMAX movie schedule for February 11 through March 29, 2007

1:30 PM Destiny In Space
2:30 PM Deep Sea 3D
3:30 PM Hurricane On The Bayou
4:30 PM Deep Sea 3D
5:30 PM Destiny In Space

Join us at the Gazebo of the French Quarter, 7985 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90046 323-654-0898 for a banquet in celebration of LAGLS’ 27th year.

Time: 7:30 pm (appetizers) 8pm (dinner is served)

Cost: $25/ person; students please inquire about discounted cost. Bring a check payable to LAGLS; cash is also welcome, but please bring exact change. Cost includes appetizers, entree, dessert, beverage {soda, cofee, tea}, tax and tip.

RSVP: By Sunday November 5. Call (626 791-7689) or email the LAGLS office with your entree choice (see choices below). All other choices will be made at the table.

———————————–

Entrées (choose one):

Fish— Filet of Pacific Sole: Grilled and served with lemon caper
sauce. At the table you will choose potato or rice.

Pasta— Penne with Chicken, Spinach and Pine Nuts: Penne pasta ossed
with fresh chicken breasts, baby spinach, sun dried tomatoes, goat
cheese and pine nuts in traditional parmesan cream sauce.

Chicken— Roasted Cirtus Chicken: Half a chicken roasted with red
wine, whole grain mustard, citrus juices, honey, garlic, tabasco and
a little soy sauce.

Chicken or Salmon—HI Protein: Half roasted chicken or fresh salmon
served with fresh fruit, tomato slices, hard boiled egg and low-fat
cottage cheese (no soup or salad, no vegetables, no potato or rice)

Vegetarian—Veggie Burger: lettuce, tomato, red onion and 1000 dressing.

Vegetarian—1129: Sliced roma tomato, red onion, fresh spinach, half
avocado, alfalfa sprouts and smoked gouda cheese with a little
balsamic vinaigrette on 9 grain wheat bread.

Vegetarian—Grilled Veggie Wrap: Grilled vegetables, balsamic
vinaigrette, half avocado, white steamed rice on a sun-dried tomato
flour tortilla.

Beach Picnic and
Glider/Kite Contest

Saturday
August 19
11 am—2 pm

Cabrillo Beach
3720 Steven M. White Drive
San Pedro

It’s always breezy at the shore, so why not take advantage of the drafts and see what will fly? Make your high school physics teacher proud. Prizes will be passed out for the farthest flying glider and the coolest kite trick.

Bring your own picnic lunch, or bring something for the grill for yourself, and a side dish to share. We’ll bring the picnic supplies. Don’t forget your sunscreen!

Cabrillo Beach Directions:
110 Freeway South, to the end, which becomes Gaffey. Continue south to 22nd. Left on 22nd or 32nd. Right on Pacific Ave. Left on 36th. This becomes Stephen White Drive and ends at the Cabrillo Beach parking lot. mapquest map and directions

Parking costs $7. Look for us near picnic tables and/or a bbq grill. It’s a small beach, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find us. We’ll be flying a rainbow wind sock and a LAGLS sign.

12 pm Newsletter Mailing
Lend a hand to fold, stuff, stamp, and seal the newsletter

1:30-3 pm Barbeque and Business Meeting
Bring something for the grill and a side dish to share

This is your opportunity to join the Steering Committee and take your turn at the helm, edit the newsletter, write some articles, offer to host a meeting, offer to host a tour of your technology, give us a piece of your mind, or just give us a pat on the back. You’re welcome to come along for the party, even if you don’t want to volunteer to help run the show; we enjoy the company. Bring something for the grill and a side-dish to share. We’ll supply the glowing briquettes, the root beer, and the air conditioning.

Where: Barbara and Shelley’s place in Pasadena.