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From the Editor
The Best Gifts
The Best Gift! I’ve done my share of marketing over the years and I am just naturally drawn to catchy ad lines or commercials. Here’s one from a 1978 ad for 3M Company Scotch Tape: Christmas is a time to believe in things you can’t see.
I personally think the best things the holiday season has to offer are those that can’t be wrapped up and a pretty bow stuck on top. In fact, the quote I have chosen to start my annual Christmas letter (yes, I am one of those people—although I have rules—such as not mentioning every single relative I have, or every time I got in the car including details of each destination for the past 365 days) for the past several years is this: The best gifts of Christmas aren’t under the tree but in the warm smiles and loving words of the people around us.
I can’t see Jesus or reach out and touch Him, but I do believe He came to this earth in the form of a newborn baby, ultimately dying on an old, rugged cross. That is THE best gift because I know I am not deserving of such a gift – someone laying down their life for me—so that I could live life eternal. I believe in a Savior whom I cannot see.
When I can gather my family together, hear the laughter, embrace the smiles and hugs, eat together and play together—those are the best gifts I could ever receive.
It’s the best time of the year for me. I start playing my Christmas music in October, even though my family has registered complaints of “Too early!” It’s just the ‘hap, happiest season of all’ as Andy Williams or some crooner has sung over the years.
I challenge you this holiday season to tell someone in your life how much you appreciate them—give them a big smile or a big hug, perform a kind deed—and let them experience a gift they won’t find under their Christmas tree. Those really are the best gifts.
Happy Holidays Everyone!
Happy to be Serving You,
Where Land and Sea Unite to Inspire (Quote of the Month)
“Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.” — Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
MBA Trivia Contest
Question for December 2009
When was the elite band named “Westwinds” and who was the band director at that time?
Westwinds Holiday Concert
Answer to November Trivia Question
Q: What year was the gate house built at the MBA entrance?
A: The gate house and the automatic gates were installed in the 1982-83 school year. Mr. John Eggers built the gate house. This was a class gift from the class of 1984, long before they actually graduated. The 1983 yearbook depicts the gate on the front cover. Thanks Class of ’84!
1983 Yearbook Cover 
Class of 1984 officers and the new gate 
Gate Article in December 1982 Helm
Lamont Raymond ’85
Winner: None
Contest Details
Announcing the Grand Prize Winner of the 2009 MBA Trivia Contest
This year’s trivia contest came to a close at student assembly on Friday, December 4, 2009, as alumna and current MBA faculty member Donna Baerg ’86, reached in and drew out the Grand Prize winning name in front of the MBA student body. We are pleased to announce that the winner is:
David Breitigam ’82
August 2009 Trivia Question Winner
David will receive a weekend stay at Monterey Bay Academy to include:
- Two (2) nights free lodging in the MBA guest house for you and your family (limit 8 people)
- Meal tickets for the MBA cafeteria during your stay
- Miscellaneous gift certificates to area locations and sights
- The visit must be scheduled at least one (1) month in advance and the date be approved by the Alumni and Development Office
- The visit must also be scheduled prior to December 2010 (a one-year limit) or the offer will expire.
David and his family currently live in Ridgecrest, CA. His son, Tannor, is a current MBA student and scheduled to graduate in 2011. This free MBA weekend should come in handy! Congratulations David!
Here were the monthly winners for 2009:
History of a Certain Sweet Treat–Holiday or Not
Chocolate—the Other Food Group—or so I like to think. I recently learned that of all the types of cookies ever created, the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie remains the most popular and most baked cookie, especially during the holidays, according to a Food Network program I watched last week. Here’s some interesting history from Wikipedia Encyclopedia about that sumptuous delight that is so hard to resist.
History
The chocolate chip cookie was accidentally developed by Ruth Wakefield in 1933. She owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts, a very popular restaurant in the 1930s. The restaurant's popularity was not just due to its home-cooked style meals; her policy was to give diners a whole extra helping of their entrées to take home with them and a serving of her homemade cookies for dessert. Her cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, was published in 1936 by M. Barrows & Company, New York, and included the recipe "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie", for what have since been widely called Toll House cookies.
 Nestlé Marketing
Wakefield is said to have been making chocolate cookies, and, on running out of regular baker's chocolate, substituted broken pieces of semi-sweet chocolate from Nestlé for it, thinking that it would melt and mix into the batter. It clearly did not, and the chocolate chip cookie was born. Wakefield sold the recipe to Nestlé in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate chips. Every bag of Nestlé chocolate chips sold in North America has a variation (butter vs. margarine is now a stated option) of her original recipe printed on the back.
During WWII, GIs from Massachusetts who were stationed overseas shared the cookies they received in care packages from back home with soldiers from other parts of the U.S. Soon, hundreds of GIs were writing home asking their families to send them some Toll House Cookies, and Wakefield was soon inundated with letters from around the country asking for her recipe. Thus began the nation-wide craze for the chocolate chip cookie.
Toll House employees' account
A different history of the cookie derives from George Boucher, who was at one time head chef at the Toll House Inn, and his daughter, Carol Cavanagh, who also worked there. Contradicting Nestlé's claim that Wakefield put chunks of chocolate into cookie dough hoping they would melt, the daughter stated that the owner, already an accomplished chef and author of a cookbook, knew enough about the properties of chocolate to realize it would not melt and mix into the batter while baking. Boucher said that the vibrations from a large Hobart electric mixer dislodged bars of Nestlé's chocolate stored on the shelf above the mixer so they fell into the sugar cookie dough it was mixing, then broke them up and mixed the pieces into it. He claimed to have overcome Wakefield's impulse to discard the dough as too badly ruined to waste effort baking them, leading to the discovery of the popular combination.
Present Day
 Although the Nestlé's Toll House recipe is the most widely known, every brand of chocolate chips ("semi-sweet chocolate morsels," in Nestlé parlance) sold in the U.S. and Canada contains a variant of the chocolate chip cookie on its packaging, and almost all baking-oriented cookbooks will contain at least one type of recipe.
Practically all commercial bakeries offer their own version of the cookie in packaged cooked or ready-to-bake forms. There are at least three national (U.S./North America) chains that sell freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in shopping malls and standalone retail locations. Several businesses—including Doubletree hotels, Citibank, Aloha, and Midwest Airlines—offer freshly baked cookies to their patrons to differentiate themselves from their competition.
There is an urban legend about Neiman Marcus' chocolate chip cookie recipe that has gathered a great deal of popularity over the years.
To honor the cookie's creation in the state, on July 9, 1997, Massachusetts designated the chocolate chip cookie as the Official State Cookie, after it was proposed by a third-grade class from Somerset, Massachusetts.
Wikipedia
Humor: a keen perception of the ludicrous
  
Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc. – www.reverendfun.com
Click cartoon for larger version.
Two weeks before Christmas I always think of a good present for someone, but it has to be ordered three weeks in advance.
Andy Rooney, American radio and television writer, 60 Minutes on CBS Television
I was in a department store and I saw a weird-looking gadget. I asked the young saleslady what it was. She answered, “It doesn’t do anything. It’s just a Christmas gift!”
Milton Berle, comedian
A grandmother took her grandson to see Santa Claus in a department store after purchasing about a dozen Christmas gifts. Santa gave the boy a little present. “What do you say to Santa?” prompted Grandma. “Charge it,” said the little boy.
Even More of…The Best of Bits & Pieces Published by The Economics Press, Inc.
News Notes
- Holiday Marriage! Ms. Arladel Nelson and Pastor Fred Speyer have announced their plans to be married this December. View the full wedding announcement with comments from the couple.
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| Dr. Richard Hart |
Dr. Richard Hart, CEO, Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center (hospitals and university), will be our guest speaker at the 11 o’clock hour on April 24, 2010 during the 60th Anniversary Alumni Weekend. Dr. Hart is the parent of three MBA graduates. Click photo for bio.
- April 22-25, 2010 60th Anniversary Alumni Weekend Make plans now to attend.
- Honor classes for 2010 – Class agents need to contact the alumni office so we can begin working with you in contacting your classmates, arranging parties, etc. If you are the one who makes it happen, give us a call today!
Honor Classes for 2010 — 1950, 1955, 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005
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| Ms. Arladell Nelson |
Calling All Oceanaires! Do you have any old Oceanaires photos? Or maybe you can recall some memorable or humorous moments in class or on tour? Do you have any suggestions for the Alumni Weekend Reunion Concert repertoire? If so, contact the Alumni Office with your information, or questions regarding the concert.
It's a “don’t miss” event, April 24, 2010. The Oceanaires Reunion Concert will be conducted by Ms. Arladell Nelson, former MBA choir director from 1968–1998. We look forward to Ms. Nelson and all our former Oceanaires returning to our campus for this concert.
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| Pastor José Rojas |
Pastor José Rojas, MBA 1978, Director of Volunteer Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, will be the Baccalaureate Speaker for the May 29, 2010 graduation. Click photo for bio.
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