Category: All Posts (Page 2 of 19)

An uncategorized listing of all posts.

February 15, 2023 – Chris Jones, “Helping Darien Seniors Live Independently and in Their Own Home for as Long as Possible”

December 30, 2022 /

Chris Jones, Executive Director with At Home In Darien, will speak with us about the unique services provided by this local non-profit organization, and its ongoing mission to help Darien’s seniors live independently, comfortably and with dignity in their own homes and the community for as long as possible. COVID-19 has affected everyone – perhaps nobody more than seniors who are especially susceptible to longer-term health issues resulting from isolation and loneliness. At Home In Darien, which often flies below the radar for many town residents, offers a variety of services designed to support seniors and foster an intergenerational community.

Chris joined At Home In Darien as the Executive Director in June 2022, after many years leading sales and marketing efforts at agencies that partnered with major national brands such as Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Nationwide Insurance, The Home Depot, General Electric, Ace Hardware, Nestle Waters North America, and Marriott. Born and raised in Weston, Connecticut, Chris is a lifelong Fairfield County resident and holds a bachelor of arts degree in communications from Quinnipiac University where he was a 2-year captain of the soccer team.

Outside of work, Chris is an unabashed Minnesota Viking and New York Yankees fan, and spends as much time as possible with his wife Jennifer and their daughter and son (when he’s not playing golf or fishing!).

Video Presentation 

Book Club: Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Dec 14, 2022 @ 2:00

October 4, 2022 /

THE SHADOW OF THE WIND

From the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series , Vol. 1

BY CARLOS RUIZ ZAFÓN & TRANSLATED BY LUCIA GRAVES ‧ RELEASE DATE: APRIL 12, 2004

The histories of a mysterious book and its enigmatic author are painstakingly disentangled in this yeasty Dickensian romance: a first novel by a Spanish novelist now living in the US.

We meet its engaging narrator Daniel Sempere in 1945, when he’s an 11-year-old boy brought by his father, a Barcelona rare-book dealer, to a secret library known as the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Enthralled, Daniel “chooses” an obscure novel, The Shadow of the Wind, a complex quest tale whose author, Julian Carax, reputedly fled Spain at the outbreak of its Civil War, and later died in Paris. Carax and his book obsess Daniel for a decade, as he grows to manhood, falls in and out of fascination, if not love with three beguiling women, and comes ever closer to understanding who Carax was and how he was connected to the family of tyrannical Don Ricardo Aldaya—and why a sinister, “faceless” stranger who identifies himself as Carax’s fictional creation (“demonic”) “Lain Coubert” has seemingly “got out of the pages of a book so that he could burn it.” Daniel’s investigations are aided, and sometimes impeded, by a lively gallery of vividly evoked supporting characters. Prominent among them are secretive translator Nuria Monfort (who knows more about Carax’s Paris years than she initially reveals); Aldaya family maid Jacinta Coronada, consigned to a lunatic asylum to conceal what she knows; Daniel’s ebullient Sancho Panza Fermin Romero de Torres, a wily vagrant working as “bibliographic detective” in the Semperes’ bookstore; and vengeful police inspector Fumero, a Javert-like stalker whose refusal to believe Carax is dead precipitates the climax—at which Daniel realizes he’s much more than just a reader of Carax’s intricate, sorrowful story.

The Shadow of the Wind will keep you up nights—and it’ll be time well spent. Absolutely marvelous.

WP Tutorial

August 15, 2022 /

Definitions:

  • WordPress: A free, open source, web application designed for blogging. It is very popular – about 25% of the websites are based on WP.
  • Post: A document – sort of like an email. For example, every speaker, event, and activity is a separate post.
  • Category: Posts are assigned one or more Categories to keep them organized. Sort of like a label in email.
  • Page: A document similar to a Post, but they are not assigned Categories. They are typically assigned to menu trees.  For example, the Speakers page is at the top of the menu and the Speaker Posts are under it.  The Activities Page is also at the top of the menu but underneath are other Pages such as Book Club, Hiking, etc.
  • Theme: the template that determines the general look and feel of the WordPress website. There are many, we use Hemingway.
  • Plug-In: WordPress has basic functionality. A Plug-in is a small piece of code that does some specific task.  For example, we use UltimatePostList to create the Table of Contents for speakers, TablePress allows data in tables – used to show Officers & Directors, A-Z Listing is used to show the Member Directory.  Most have their own admin dashboard.
  • Media: Images and PDF’s are stored in the Media Library. From there they are inserted into Pages and Posts.
  • BlueHost: the company that hosts our website.

wp tutorial

IDG, June 6, 2022

June 6, 2022 /

IDG Members:

 

Latest Agenda after member submissions:

-Macro Outlook- Jim
-Review of insider buying over the last 2 months (see attached)-Jim or anyone with insights into these companies
-Energy company update-Chip
-Technicals- What are they telling us-anyone.
-Europe- Any investment opportunities?-Linde (LIN)-Bert and Art
-Conviction buy ideas-anyone

Investment Discussion Group — May 2, 2022

April 30, 2022 /

On Monday, May 2, commencing at 10 am, Jim Phillips will host a virtual meeting of the Investment Discussion Group when members will discuss the macroeconomic outlook, investment in uranium and new energy sources for the next decade and the best stocks to buy now.

With the large sell-off in  the markets, there is much to discuss. The S&P is now off 13% from recent highs, the DOW is off 10% and the NASDAQ composite is off 23%. Some tech names are off 50%-70%! The retail investor is running for the hills with the most bearish views in over a year with recession mentioned in the news daily.

The Greed/Fear index is closing in on extreme fear and the .VIX is approaching 35 … usually a time to consider buying high quality stocks. Jim urges that you bring to the meeting your best stock ideas to consider.

Investment Discussion Group: Jan 3, 2022, 10:00

December 31, 2021 /

Investment Discussion Group Meeting, Monday, January 3, 2022, 10:00 a.m.

 

On Monday, January 3, 2022, commencing at 10 am, Jim Phillips will host a virtual meeting of the Investment Discussion Group. After a review of the macro-outlook, the group plans to cover the latest developments with respect to streaming/entertainment companies, with input from Dennis Leibowitz, and the increased interest in alternative investment managers, with remarks by Jim Phillips. As usual, members should feel free to present companies they view as “conviction buys” or long-term holds following a correction.

Mark Nunan, “The Presidency of Martin Van Buren,” March 9, 2022

October 25, 2021 /

 

The Presidency of Martin Van Buren  is the subject of a talk by DMA member Mark Nunan. Van Buren, our eighth president from 1837 to 1841, is not well known, but arguably he transformed US politics, uniting factions into workable two-party system.  Amazingly, having along with Andrew Jackson been instrumental in founding the Democratic Party, late in life he was influential in the launching of the Republican Party. As a boy growing up modestly at the close of the Revolutionary era, Van Buren knew personally Alexander Hamilton and other prominent leaders of the new country. America and its institutions were still young and as Van Buren reached political prominence he was a keen analyst of the factional, cultural and regional interests of his time. He became critical of  Federalist dominance, including Hamilton’s success in establishing the Bank of the United States. It cost him dearly when as president he was blamed for the “Panic of 1837” and he was not re-elected. Van Buren continued to press for financial and labor reforms through three presidential runs at a time of changing politics in the country and the run-up to the Civil War.  His career contains lessons about how to mitigate the potential for factional feuds and political violence through the unifying power of a strong and successful party system.

Mark Nunan, who has previously spoken to the DMA about the lives of Robert Moses and Fiorello LaGuardia, was born in Cork, Ireland. At an early age his family moved to Alabama. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1976 and continued his education at Stanford University where he was awarded a master’s degree in 1979 and a Ph.D. in 1983. During that same period, he was a Fellow at L’ENS normale superieure at the University of Paris-Sorbonne as part of his Ph.D. program. In 1984, he joined COS, Inc., a firm that assists companies and governments in researching and implementing new business opportunities, retiring as a senior vice president in 2018. He splits his time between Darien and Slovenia where he has family connections.

Video Presentation 

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 Darien Mens Association

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑