Sue Ellen asks the question, "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?"

President Mark Hastings, correctly claiming that she needed no introduction, presented our speaker, Rotary's own Sue Ellen Williams. Sue Ellen had a long and distinguished career as an English teacher at Renfroe Middle School and later at Parkview with a particular love of word usage and derivation. Before we could settle back to endure what threatened to be a rather dry talk, she presented the word "ecdysiast." It is derived from the same root one used to describe a snake shedding its skin, but it means "stripper."

She then proved that we weren't as smart as a fifth grader by asking the club the meaning of several expressions from a collection of teen-age terms. No one knew that "check your vitals" had nothing to do with medicine - it means " check your text messages." (For that matter, your writer wonders how many members could even send a text message!) She asked whether "irritates" or "aggravates" is correct in the sentence "hot food ____ my ulcer."

When someone answered "irritates," Sue Ellen replied politely, "That's fine - but that's not right."

Several other common mistakes "irritate" Sue Ellen - wrong case (John went with Mary and I), overkill (very unique), and redundancy (where is my dog at?). But she admitted to accept occasionally ending a sentence with a preposition, closing her talk by quoting Churchill, "that is an error up with which I will not put."

Sue Ellen showed a particular talent for presenting an outwardly dull subject seriously but almost in the manner of a stand- up comedian. It's no surprise that some of her Parkview students considered her English course the most interesting of their high school experience.

At the close of her talk, President Mark presented a copy of What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know to the DeKalb Library System in Sue Ellen's honor.

Reported By Frank Matthews

Photographs By Mark Burnette