Calendar of Events

12:30p Santa Cruz Sunday Lunch at Makai Island Kitchen & Groggery, 49A Municipal Wharf, Santa Cruz 95060. You’ll find them near the last bend in the wharf, a fully immersive escape into the world of tiki. To step inside Makai is to enter an exotic world of bamboo, woven rattan cane, palm fronds, and colorful Japanese glass fishing buoys. It is a place of island melodies and intoxicating aromas. Makai’s menu enjoys a similar attention to detail. Each dish features traditional elements subtly reimagined to reinforce the entire tiki experience. Hosted by Pia Smith, (415) 572-4470. PC

24 – Tuesday

7p Wonderfest. Join us for Multi-Messenger Astronomy, another great science-based Wonderfest presentation at the HopMonk Tavern, 224 Vintage Way, Novato 94945. We meet in the Lecture Room at 6:30p when it starts to fill up. Our host Hugh Bonney will be sitting at a Lecture Room table with a Mensa sign on it. You can order food from the menu to be served in the Lecture Room. Our Wonderfest speaker is Dr. Raffaella Margutti, Associate Professor of both Physics and Astronomy at UC Berkeley. Dr. Margutti received the 2022 New Horizons in Physics Prize, and she advises three recent Wonderfest Science Envoys. The most energetic phenomena in the universe tend to reveal themselves through intense, short-lived signals. These violent transient events include novae, supernovae, and mergers of both neutron stars and black holes. Their signals – their natural messages – can span the entire electromagnetic spectrum, and may include gravitational waves as well as bursts of subatomic particles. The burgeoning field of multi-messenger astronomy inspires new technical observing abilities as it challenges our understanding of astrophysics. In so many new ways, however, the glorious cosmos and its contents come into clearer focus. Details at wonderfest.org/multi-messenger-astronomy/. HopMonk’s menu is at www.hopmonk.com/novato-menu. RSVP on SFRM Meetup (best) or email Hugh Bonney, hfbonney/a/t/sonic.net, PC, NMPCW, WCE, NS, NC, NXM

25 – Wednesday

5:30p Trivia Night. See March 25. (RSE 4 W)

6p Santa Cruz Trivia Night at Front & Cooper, 725 Front St., Santa Cruz 95060 (located within Abbott Square Market). Arrive at 6p to put a team together, with the trivia contest starting at 6:30p. Come test your knowledge, have fun, and have some hand crafted cocktails! Hosted by Pia Smith, (415) 572-4470. PC

26 – Thursday

11:45a South Bay Lunch. See March 12. (RSE 2,4 Th)

28 – Saturday

10a How You Say It Discussion. We will be reading How You Say It: Why We Judge Others by the Way They Talk – and the Costs of This Hidden Bias by Katherine D. Kinzler, one chapter per week. Come to the discussion with your questions and observations. This is pretty low-key, expect to learn something and to have fun. Join us for one, a few, or all chapters. This week we’re reading Chapter 2: Native Tongues. This is a Zoom event. The login details are listed on Meetup. Hosted by Pia Smith. PC (RSE Sa)

7p East Bay Game Night. See March 28. (RSE last Sa)

4p Albany Hill Hike is on hiatus this month. We’ll return in April. (RSE 1 Su)

3 – Tuesday

5p Tuesday Tipplers will meet at San Rafael Joe’s, 931 4th St., San Rafael 94901, at 5p for drinks in the bar and then move on to dinner in the dining room after an hour. Park on the street or in the city garage behind the restaurant. If you have questions e-mail Ed Sabrack at edsabrack/a/t/comcast.net or call (415) 472-3725. PC (RSE 1 Tu)

4 – Wednesday

11:30a First Wednesday Lunch. Join old friends and meet new ones at West Park Bistro, 788 Laurel St., San Carlos 94070, www.westparkbistro.com/. There is ample parking available behind the restaurant. Hosted by Adele Satterfield, (650) 339-1431. PC, NMPCW, NS, WCE (RSE 1 W)

5 – Thursday

6:30p Asian Peninsula Dining. Join us for Burmese-Chinese cuisine at the Green Elephant Gourmet at 3950 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto 94303, in the Charleston Shopping Center. Good food, good conversation. I really like the restaurant. (Think coconut milk and pumpkin.) To reserve, contact Susan at Susan.Heimlich/a/t/gmail.com or at (650) 714-4972 (call or text) at least two days before the event. Be sure to get confirmation. At the restaurant, ask for Susan, and please bring cash. PC, NMPCW

7 – Saturday

10a How You Say It Discussion. We will be reading How You Say It: Why We Judge Others by the Way They Talk – and the Costs of This Hidden Bias by Katherine D. Kinzler, one chapter per week. Come to the discussion with your questions and observations. This is pretty low-key, expect to learn something and to have fun. Join us for one, a few, or all chapters. This week we’re reading Chapter 3: How Language Divides Us. This is a Zoom event. The login details are listed on Meetup. Hosted by Pia Smith. PC (RSE Sa)

6p Online Board Games. Come explore some board games that can be played on the Web. If you’re new, please create a (free) account at boardgamearena.com and follow the setup instructions. We’ll meet online with Zoom to establish voice contact, and then we’ll decide on a game to try out. RSVP on the Meetup calendar, if possible, otherwise contact Karl Heuer at puzzles/a/t/sfmensa.org or (650) 648-3594. PC, NMPCW, ACW (RSE 1 Sa, 3 M)

2p Robot Games at Boys and Girls Club of the Coastside, 600 Church St., Half Moon Bay 94019. High School teams compete as two Alliances of three robots each. Student-designed, built, wired, and programmed 52-kg metal robots collect 15 cm balls to shoot into their tall hexagonal goal, against defense from the other three-robot alliance. The game also includes robot(s) climbing on a multiple-rung tower at each end of the 8m x 17m field. The first 20 seconds of each 2:40 match are Autonomous, where the robots operate independently of their student operators. New this year, the robots may climb on the tower during Autonomous, but then have to get back down on their own! Thereafter the ’bots are driven wirelessly by students; at the end of the match the robots can climb multiple rungs of the tower, trying to accommodate multiple robots on that same tower. Robots are constrained on size, components, and weight. See the game animation at www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fybREErgyM. The competition runs Saturday and Sunday. Finals begin Sunday at 2p. SFRM’s Gary Koerzendorfer mentors team 2643 “Dark Matter” from Santa Teresa High School in San Jose. Admission and parking are free. PC, NXM, ACW

9 – Monday

4p San Francisco Pub Get-Together. Stop by after work or, if you don’t work downtown, just come anyway. All Mensans and their guests are welcome, provided that they are at least 21, at Patriot House in 2 Embarcadero Center (Sacramento St. between Front St. and Davis St.), SF 94111. Take the inside escalator to the 2nd floor, turn right twice, and then follow the sign to the stairs to the 3rd floor. The restaurant’s entrance is near the top of those stairs on the 3rd floor. Look for the Mensa logo on our table or ask one of the waitresses to find us. Starting at 4p, but arrive when you can and leave when you’re ready. We will be there for several hours. They have a Happy Hour from 4p until 6p, with the kitchen closing at 9p and the bar closing at 10p. RSVP preferred on Mensa’s Meetup site at www.meetup.com/SFMensa, less preferred by e-mail to Barry Krasner at bwkbwk/a/t/pacbell.net. If you find that you can’t come after RSVPing “Yes”, please change your RSVP to “No” before the event takes place. PC, NC, NS, NMPCW (RSE 2 M)

10 – Tuesday

5:30p Apt To In Aptos Mensa Bar Group is held at Sevy’s Bar + Kitchen at Seacliff Inn, 7500 Old Dominion Court, Aptos 95003, www.seacliffinn.com/santa-cruz-restaurants on the second Tuesday of the month, running until about 7:30p. Come join Central Coast Mensans: Forget last month’s feces and anticipate this month’s blindsides. T(R)oast past friends, find new ones, and introduce current ones, all while contemplating how it all defaults to QM scaled. Courtesy e-mail to host Stew Gibson at LooseId/a/t/ix.netcom.com with subject “Sevy” for restaurant head count is appreciated, but not required. Tip 20% on the bill, with separate checks. PC, NMPCW (RSE 2 Tu)

6:30p Puzzled Pint. Who likes PUZZLES? The kind where part of the game is to figure out what you need to be doing in the first place? Want to do it as part of a team, so you can bounce ideas off each other, and let someone else do the parts that you find uninteresting? This is a monthly event held in the Bay Area (and simultaneously elsewhere in the world), at a convenient pub where we might order food and drink before or during the game. RSVP to Karl Heuer at puzzles/a/t/sfmensa.org or (650) 648-3594 (voice or text) to reserve your spot and learn the address. If Game Control has arranged a pub, it’s probably on Shoreline Blvd. in Mountain View, or downtown San Jose. Otherwise, the event host will select a non-pub location, probably in Campbell. PC, NMPCW, NS, NXM (RSE 2 Tu)

7p Wonderfest. Join us for Pulsars (astronomy), and Blindness (vision), another great dual science-based Wonderfest presentation at the HopMonk Tavern, 224 Vintage Way, Novato 94945. We meet in the Lecture Room at 6:30p when it starts to fill up. Our host Hugh Bonney will be sitting at a Lecture Room table with a Mensa sign on it. You can order food from the menu to be served in the Lecture Room. The first Science Envoy will be Stanford physicist Maya Beleznay on Weighing Black Widow Pulsars. How many particles can fit in a city-size ball before collapsing into a black hole? Some neutron stars in our galaxy teeter on the edge of this maximum theoretical density. Observations of such “black widow pulsars” allow us to explore a regime of physics that cannot be probed in a lab on Earth. Next is UC Berkeley vision scientist Lawrence Man on Retinal Remodeling in Degenerative Blindness. As our eyes’ light-sensitive cells begin to die, downstream retinal neurons undergo physiological changes. This neural remodeling negatively affects the electrical properties of neurons, interfering with vision. Researchers are developing strategies and restorative technologies to overcome this remodeling. Details at wonderfest.org/pulsar-physics-gradual-blindness/. HopMonk’s menu is at www.hopmonk.com/novato-menu. RSVP on SFRM Meetup (best) or email Hugh Bonney, hfbonney/a/t/sonic.net. PC, NMPCW, WCE, NS, NC, NXM

Intelligencer Deadline. Deadline for calendar events, advertising, members’ free ads, and all other content. See above for information on submitting events. PC (RSE Tu after 1 Sa)

11 – Wednesday

5:30p Lafayette Trivia. Enjoy some delicious fare as we play against local teams in a fun-filled two-hour competition hosted by Head Games Trivia at Headlands Brewery, 3420 Mount Diablo Blvd., Lafayette 94549. An RSVP is required, as teams are limited to six players each. We meet at 5:30p for the 6p start time. Daniel Phillips, umpolung13/a/t/yahoo.com, (304) 975-0066. PC, NS, NMPCW, ACW, WCP, NXM (RSE 2W)

12 – Thursday

11:45a South Bay Lunch. Meet at Bill’s Cafe, 1401 Kooser Rd., San Jose 95118 (Off Hwy 85 at the Camden Ave. exit at the corner of Kooser Rd. and Stanwood Dr. near Blossom Hill Rd.), (408) 264-1900. Cocktails available, large menu (online), friendly fast service, Breakfast and Lunch, closes at 2p. Sandra Anderson, (408) 997-3187. PC, NMPCW, WCE (RSE 2,4 Th)

12n Thursday Munchers. A lunch group in Marin dedicated to trying different restaurants. This month we will visit My Thai Restaurant, 1230 4th St., San Rafael 94901, (415) 456-4455, mythai.com. RSVP by Monday, March 9, to Elizabeth Calaway at (415) 456-9220 or elizterrycalaway/a/t/aol.com. PC (RSE Th after 2 Tu)

14 – Saturday

10a How You Say It Discussion. We will be reading How You Say It: Why We Judge Others by the Way They Talk – and the Costs of This Hidden Bias by Katherine D. Kinzler, one chapter per week. Come to the discussion with your questions and observations. This is pretty low-key, expect to learn something and to have fun. Join us for one, a few, or all chapters. This week we’re reading Chapter 4: Deep Talk. This is a Zoom event. The login details are listed on Meetup. Hosted by Pia Smith. PC (RSE Sa)

4p Big Ideas Reading Group. Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future by Ed Conway. On Zoom. Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These are the six most crucial substances in human history. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-saving medicines. As we wrestle with climate change, energy crises, and the threat of new global conflict, Conway shows why these substances matter more than ever before, and how the hidden battle to control them will shape our geopolitical future. For April 11 on Zoom: Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life by Shigehiro Oishi. We have a list of books read at www.bigideasreadinggroup.com/BIRG2.html. For questions and invitations to our Zoom meetings please contact Chris Boyd at snoboyd/a/t/sbcglobal.net. PC, NMPCW, NXM (RSE 2 Sa)

2p Robot Games at St. Ignatius College Prep, 2001 37th Ave., San Francisco 94116 and at Woodside High School, 199 Churchill Ave., Woodside 94062. For rules, other details, and a video, see March 8. PC, NXM, ACW

2:30p Speaker Series: Flying for the CIA’s Air America, Pablo Escobar, and Jimmy Hoffa with Neil Hansen. In 1964, Captain Neil Graham Hansen embarked on a journey that would become the adventure of a lifetime. He hired on as a pilot for Air America – the CIA’s airline that operated during the Vietnam era and the “Secret War” in Laos and Cambodia – officially neutral countries, but the scene of countless U.S. covert operations. Even though he had already been a pilot for more than half his life, had worked as now-disappeared Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa’s private pilot, and later ran drugs for the Colombian cartels, flying for the CIA’s secret air service was the pinnacle of Hansen’s career – a dream come true that eventually turned his life into a nightmare. Captain Hansen will take us directly into the cockpit, onto dirt mountaintop landing strips and into his most harrowing experiences: being shot down in Laos, flying the last plane out of Cambodia just hours before it fell to the Khmer Rouge and began a holocaust that would ultimately take the lives of 1.7 million people. On Zoom. Please register at livepresentation.link/MAR. You will receive a confirmation e-mail from Zoom that will contain the link needed to join the presentation. Hosted by Judy Unger, junger2040/a/t/gmail.com. PC

16 – Monday

6p Online Board Games. See March 7. (RSE 1 Sa, 3 M)

18 – Wednesday

5:30p Re-BORG. Berkeley-Oakland Restaurant Group is reborn and revived in honor of the incomparable Cathy Roha, who initiated this event and hosted it for many years. Assimilate delicious food and interesting conversation at a good restaurant somewhere in the central East Bay. Please bring cash. E-mail or call ahead for location up to a week ahead. RSVP by 3p on Tuesday, March 17. Roberta Maguire, robertamaguire/a/t/hotmail.com, (510) 292-6370. PC, NS, NMPCW, ACW (RSE 3 W)

21 – Saturday

10a How You Say It Discussion. We will be reading How You Say It: Why We Judge Others by the Way They Talk – and the Costs of This Hidden Bias by Katherine D. Kinzler, one chapter per week. Come to the discussion with your questions and observations. This is pretty low-key, expect to learn something and to have fun. Join us for one, a few, or all chapters. This week we’re reading Chapter 5: Little Bigots? This is a Zoom event. The login details are listed on Meetup. Hosted by Pia Smith. PC (RSE Sa)

12n Saturday Sizzle. Meet fellow Mensans for lunch at Sizzler restaurant, 1515 Fitzgerald Dr., Pinole 94564, sizzler.com/locations/sizzler-pinole/. Is their menu only for carnivores? No, they also have a large salad bar. RSVP to Lorna at lornagruber/a/t/yahoo.com by noon the day before so that we can put together a large enough table. Look for a Mensa sign on the table, in case you’re new. PC, NMPCW, NS (RSE 3 Sa)

2:30p M-Wisely’s Café provides thought-provoking presentations to intelligent beings throughout the galaxy. (NOTE ONE-TIME CHANGE OF WEEK.) The presentations focus on space science, speculative science, and science fiction. This month’s topic is “Unraveling Distant Worlds From Cotton Candy Planets to Ocean Worlds and the Search for Life Among the Planets” with Dr. Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago. The discovery of exoplanets has revealed a cosmos teeming with strange and diverse worlds – some scorched by their stars, others light as cotton candy, shrouded in thick atmospheres, and a few that might resemble Earth. From molten lava planets to giant super-puffs and water-rich mini-Neptunes, exoplanets defy expectations at every turn. Join us for a deep dive into the cutting-edge science of exoplanet exploration. How do we detect their atmospheres? Could they support life? And do they offer clues about Earth’s own formation? With new data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and upcoming telescopes, we are beginning to piece together the story of planetary evolution – unlocking the chemistry of these distant worlds and rethinking the very definition of habitability. Please register at space-talk.link/MAR. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with the login information. PC (RSE 2 Sa)

1:30p Live Theater. Join us to see fellow Mensan Mark DeWeese perform in the San Leandro Players production of The Odd Couple (Female Version). We will meet in the courtyard at Casa Peralta Museum Auditorium, 320 W. Estudillo Ave., San Leandro 94577, at 1:30p to attend the 2p show, then go out to dinner afterward. The venue is close to the San Leandro BART station and there is also ample free street parking. Please purchase your tickets online as soon as possible at slplayers.org, then let us know you will be joining us. Tickets are $20 for seniors 55+ and children 12 and under, and $25 for other adults, plus about $2 processing fee. If you are unable to join us on March 22, consider attending one of the other performances between February 28 and March 29. We hope to see you there! Hosted by Roberta Maguire, robertamaguire/a/t/hotmail.com, (510) 292-6370, PC, ACW, NMPCW, NS, NXM, WCP

24 – Tuesday

7p Wonderfest. Join us for Cosmic Life, Human Heart, another great science-based Wonderfest presentation at the HopMonk Tavern, 224 Vintage Way, Novato 94945. We meet in the Lecture Room at 6:30p when it starts to fill up. Our host Hugh Bonney will be sitting at a Lecture Room table with a Mensa sign on it. You can order food from the menu to be served in the Lecture Room. Our Wonderfest speaker is astronomer and astrobiologist Dr. Margaret Turnbull in an additional talk for this month. She does research on planetary habitability at the SETI Institute. The search for life in the universe invites deep exploration of our own world’s 4-billion-year habitability. We begin to see the cosmos as a vast and seamless network of relationships – a web that envelops our own Earth and the human heart. In this age of ecological disruption and social fragmentation, the personal journey of one astrobiologist, integrating scientific inquiry with contemplative awareness, can help deepen the capacity for compassion rather than despair. It may even help the next generation to build a healthy, humane, and resilient civilization. Details at wonderfest.org/cosmic-life-human-heart. HopMonk’s menu is at www.hopmonk.com/novato-menu. RSVP on SFRM Meetup (best) or email Hugh Bonney, hfbonney/a/t/sonic.net, PC, NMPCW, WCE, NS, NC, NXM

25 – Wednesday

5:30p Trivia Night at the Patriot House gastropub in San Francisco. The contest is free, starts at 6p, and lasts about 2 hours, but please arrive about 5:30p, so that we don’t lose the table that I’ve reserved. If you’re a member of our SFRM Meetup group, RSVP on Meetup if you’re planning on coming, so that I can be sure to reserve a large enough table. If you’re not a member of our SFRM Meetup group, RSVP by e-mailing host Barry Krasner at bwkbwk/a/t/pacbell.net. Guests are allowed, so be sure to include the number of guests that you’re bringing when you RSVP. If you RSVP “Yes” and then find that you can’t attend after all, it’s very important that you change your RSVP to “No” as far in advance as possible. The Patriot House is located in Embarcadero Center #2, on the 3rd (top) floor. Enter from Sacramento St. between Front St. and Davis St. Take the inside escalator to the 2nd floor, then turn right twice and follow the sign to the stairs to the 3rd floor. The restaurant is near the top of those stairs. You’ll recognize our group by the Mensa logo that I will have on top of our table. If in doubt, ask the wait staff for “The Mensa Group”. PC, NC, NS, NMPCW (RSE 4 W)

26 – Thursday

11:45a South Bay Lunch. See March 12. (RSE 2,4 Th)

6p Commonwealth Club Lecture: The Science of Project Hail Mary. Come join fellow Mensans at this Commonwealth Club (110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco 94105) lecture on the science behind Andy Weir’s best-selling book Project Hail Mary. In Weir’s first novel, 2011’s The Martian, the protagonist endures interplanetary travel, and struggles to survive on a harsh new world. However, in Project Hail Mary, the hero faces a far greater challenge: interstellar travel to collaborate with an E.T. in hope of saving an imperiled planet Earth! Are the science and technology of Project Hail Mary realistic, promising too much, or underpromising? Hear more from Dr. Maggie Turnbull (Astrobiologist, SETI Institute) and Dr. Pascal Lee (Planetary Scientist, SETI Institute) as they add some beautiful realism to your personal exploration of Project Hail Mary. After the lecture, we will go to a local restaurant for light bites/drinks. Please buy your tickets on the Commonwealth Club website (www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2026-03-26/science-project-hail-mary) *before* you sign up for this event. Hosted by Katie To, tiggr0272/a/t/hotmail.com. PC, NXM

28 – Saturday

10a How You Say It Discussion. We will be reading How You Say It: Why We Judge Others by the Way They Talk – and the Costs of This Hidden Bias by Katherine D. Kinzler, one chapter per week. Come to the discussion with your questions and observations. This is pretty low-key, expect to learn something and to have fun. Join us for one, a few, or all chapters. This week we’re reading Chapter 6: On the Basis of Speech. This is a Zoom event. The login details are listed on Meetup. Hosted by Pia Smith. PC (RSE Sa)

7p East Bay Game Night. Join us for fun and games in the East Bay! We’re playing word games, card games, board games, all kinds of fast-action social games (not long strategy games). Choose from my shelves of games or bring your own fast-action social games. Please also bring a snack to share. The fun is in Oakland near Piedmont Ave. and Pleasant Valley Ave. No RSVP needed; just show up at 7p (when I unlock the door) or later. We have about 20 people every month, most of whom do not RSVP. For more information or directions, contact Alan at alan.winson/a/t/gmail.com or (510) 653-2685 (voice only). Please pull forward to park four cars in my driveway. Free street parking is available in the neighborhood; don’t give up! SUPER-SPREADER EVENT NOTICE: If you haven’t kept up your vaccinations, or don’t feel well or may have COVID, a cold, or anything else contagious, please stay home and join us next month! PC, NMPCW, NS, WCP (RSE last Sa)

29 – Sunday

2p Robot Games at Hollister High School, 1220 Monterey St., Hollister 95023. For rules, other details, and a video, see March 8. PC, NXM, ACW

11:30p First Wednesday Lunch. See March 4. (RSE 1 W)

4 – Saturday

10a How You Say It Discussion. We will be reading How You Say It: Why We Judge Others by the Way They Talk – and the Costs of This Hidden Bias by Katherine D. Kinzler, one chapter per week. Come to the discussion with your questions and observations. This is pretty low-key, expect to learn something and to have fun. Join us for one, a few, or all chapters. This week we’re reading Chapter 7: A Linguistics Revolution. This is a Zoom event. The login details are listed on Meetup. Hosted by Pia Smith. PC (RSE Sa)

2p Robot Games at Berkeley High School, 1980 Allston Way, Berkeley 94704. For rules, other details, and a video, see March 8, except note that this competition runs Friday and Saturday, with the finals beginning Saturday at 2p. PC, NXM, ACW

6p Online Board Games. See March 7. (RSE 1 Sa, 3 M)