Today was the first meeting where the role of Toastmaster-of-the-Day was pre-assigned. Having this crucial role filled ahead of time seemed to make things run more smoothly, and Twana did an exceptional job with the mantle. Not sure when you're assigned to serve in this capacity? Check the Toastmaster-of-the-Day Assignments for July-Oct, 2019, and be sure to let VPE Sally know if you need to change to a different week.

Sally volunteered at the last minute to give a speech today, demonstrating how to begin the Pathways journey. This was a particularly helpful topic since not all new members have had the opportunity to sign up for Pathways. (If you need additional assistance, be sure to check out our guide to Getting Started with Pathways.)

Table Topics were a little different today as Loni tried a new format called "A 1000 Words," a reference to the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words." In this exercise, volunteers were given a copy of a photograph and asked to speak about it for 1-2 minutes. (Looking for additional variations on Table Topics?)

Viewing the photograph at right, Joann immediately picked up on what she described as a connection between animal and man, sharing a tender interpretation wherein it had been the boy's intention to share food with the pigeons that flutter around him. She even anthropomorphized the birds as feeling "anticipation" for the food being given them by the boy they regard as "Big Bird." Thank you for the delightful story, Joann!

In the left photograph, Twana described a group of girls skipping rope, the photograph conveying movement and childhood memories of fun days outside. She ascribed the complaint, "is it my turn, yet?" to the girl who is the lone onlooker and managed to relate the photograph to her own memories of childhood, making us all feel as though we knew her a little better by the end of her speech.

Sally surprised us all with a sultry Gabor-esque accent (dahlink) as she spoke in the first person from the perspective of the beautiful woman shown in the photograph at left, owning her place at the center of attention in any room she graces and refusing to apologize for her habit of smoking cigarettes.

Finally, Doug opened his table topic speech about the photograph at left by asking what one wouldn't be willing to do for a picture with the perfect point of view, pointing out the photographer's precarious position on the narrow ledge. He successfully leveraged this rhetorical question into commentary on differences in points of view in a more abstract sense.

• Best Table Topics: Sally
• Word of the Day: bedlam