My name is Gene, and I too am an alcoholic. Hi, Gene. And whenever I identify myself as an alcoholic, I base that identification on my interpretation of the definition of the word alcoholic as it’s defined in the third chapter of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, wherein it says that we alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. And that’s all it says. Don’t make any reference to how much you drank, what you drank, where you drank, or what happened as a result of your drinking. Doesn’t say in order to qualify for membership in AA or identify as an alcoholic, you gotta spend your time on skid row, drink wine, go to jails and institutions, and marry the same woman three or four times. Those are things that can happen to anybody who drinks, you know. I’m sort of here as a, a fill-in, and I guess I– everybody else is making announcements, so I’ll give you a couple that you might be interested in.

My dear associate and longtime friend, Clancy, who was supposed to be here tonight, does not have cancer of the throat despite any kind of a rumor you might have heard. About a month and a half ago, we were away someplace, and he got a chicken bone caught in his throat. And when they were trying to get it out, they cut– scratched the inside of his sternum in there someplace. And, uh, because he was going to a throat doctor, you know how AA is, and.. That’s one announcement, and then the other announcement is that he’s not in Russia telling the Russians all about AA, you know? That’s another little rumor that got started. When Mike called up and told me that Clancy had other commitments and couldn’t make it here this, this year, I, I was sort of amazed that he asked me to come ’cause I was here last year, you know. And, and the only time I’ve ever been to a place more than once is prison. But, uh, here we are, you know, and I love this place.

Uh, this is a very enchanting place, a little seacoast town like that. And, and I have said it to members of the committee here today, and I also said it last year, that I wouldn’t mind settling in a little place like this and running them dogs on the beach every morning and have some kind of a little business downtown, you know, where I’d, I’d have a sign that would say, “Be back in a half an hour.” You know? And, and I could really make it here. I did have a nice ride back from the airport with these two guys, and we cut up a few old touches and found out we had a lot of things in common. And, and, uh, done those things that AAs do, tell a couple of jokes, tell a few lies. But, but we became acquainted, you know, and, uh, that bond that we all know so well in AA was formed, of course, you know.