Owl Club

The Owl Club of Cape Town, South Africa, is a gentleman’s dining club formed in 1894 to provide a social meeting place for those with an interest in the liberal arts and science. The members are entertained and informed by a tradition of speakers and musical performance.

Background to the name

It was the wife of the first Secretary, C. G. Lowinger, who coined the name. Soon after the genesis of the idea of its formation, four men sat in the twilight near the Royal Observatory in Cape Town discussing what it should be called. W. E. Ranby, the first chronicler of the Club, takes up the tale: “Into the gathered darkness came Mrs Lowinger with the natural inquiry, ‘Why are you all sitting here in the dark like a lot of owls?’ ‘The very name for our Club!’ they cried, and the Owl Club it was called and remains” (Ranby 1952: 7). Members are designated as “Brother Owl” or Owl so-and-so. The first formal meeting of the Owl Club took place on 1 October 1894.

Location of the Club

Down the years, the Club has met in various venues in the City of Cape Town. Between 1975 and 1998 it met at the Cape Town Club (formerly the City and Civil Service Club) in Queen Victoria Street. Since 1998, the venue for meetings has been the Kelvin Grove Club at Newlands, Cape Town, usually in the Grill Room.

Owl Club (Harvard)

The Owl Club is a men's only final club at Harvard College, founded in 1896. Its clubhouse is located at 30 Holyoke Street in Cambridge, in close proximity to Lowell House. It ought not be confused with the homonymous Owl Club, a defunct society in South Africa.

Early history

Owl Club was founded in 1896 by Reginald Mansfield Johnson, Malcolm Scollay Greenough, Jr., Frazier Curtis, Preston Player, Charles Clifford Payson, Austen Fox Riggs, and Dudley Hall Bradlee, Jr. It originally went under the name Αvλòζχαι’‘Εχπωμα (meaning the Pipe and Mug), or Alpha Epsilon.

In 1901, land on the corner of Holyoke Street and Holyoke Place was purchased. In 1905, architect James Purdon of Purdon and Little drew up plans for the Georgian clubhouse, and on June 24 of that year the cornerstone of the present clubhouse was laid. The new building was formally opened on March 24, 1906, the tenth anniversary of the Club.

In 1916, it was voted officially to change the name from “Phi Delta Psi Club” to “Owl Club”. The club had become informally known as Owl as an abbreviation of its Greek name, Αvλòζχαι’‘Εχπωμα.

Owl

Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes, which includes about 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons and feathers adapted for silent flight. Exceptions include the diurnal northern hawk-owl and the gregarious burrowing owl.

Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds although a few species specialize in hunting fish. They are found in all regions of the Earth except Antarctica and some remote islands.

Owls are divided into two families: the true owls or typical owls, Strigidae; and the barn-owls, Tytonidae.

Anatomy

Owls possess large forward-facing eyes and ear-holes; a hawk-like beak; a flat face; and usually a conspicuous circle of feathers, a facial disc, around each eye. The feathers making up this disc can be adjusted in order to sharply focus sounds from varying distances onto the owls' asymmetrically placed ear cavities. Most birds of prey have eyes on the sides of their heads, but the stereoscopic nature of the owl's forward-facing eyes permits the greater sense of depth perception necessary for low-light hunting. Although owls have binocular vision, their large eyes are fixed in their sockets—as are those of other birds—so they must turn their entire head to change views. As owls are farsighted, they are unable to see clearly anything within a few centimeters of their eyes. Caught prey can be felt by owls with the use of filoplumes—like feathers on the beak and feet that act as "feelers". Their far vision, particularly in low light, is exceptionally good.

Index of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition monsters

This is the Index of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition monsters, an important element of that role-playing game. This list only includes monsters from official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition supplements published by TSR, Inc. or Wizards of the Coast, not licensed or unlicensed third party products such as video games or unlicensed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition manuals.

TSR 2009 - Monster Manual (1977)

This was the initial monster book for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, published in 1977. Gary Gygax wrote much of the work himself, having included and expanded most of the monsters from the previous D&D supplements. Also included are monsters originally printed in The Strategic Review, as well as some originally found in early issues of The Dragon (such as the anhkheg and remorhaz), and other early game materials. This book also expanded on the original monster format, such as including the stat lines on the same page as the monsters' descriptions and introducing more stats, expanding the length of most monster descriptions, and featuring illustrations for most of the monsters. The book features an alphabetical table of contents of all the monsters on pages 3–4, explanatory notes for the statistics lines on pages 5–6, descriptions of the monsters on pages 6–103, a treasure chart on page 105, and an index of major listings on pages 106-109.

Owl (band)

Owl is a three piece Los Angeles-based hard rock band. Led by vocalist/bassist Chris Wyse, the long-time bassist for the Cult and a member of Ace Frehley's band, Owl released their eponymous debut in 2009 and their second album, The Right Thing, in 2013.

History

Wyse began playing bass while in grade school in upstate New York. As a teenager, he met drummer Dan Dinsmore, then 17; shortly thereafter, they began playing together in a local band, East Wall. After touring regionally, Wyse, who had garnered national attention as a bass player, moved to Los Angeles, while Dinsmore remained in Albany, joining the industrial rock band The Clay People.

Wyse's success came quickly in Los Angeles, where he played with Guns N' Roses' Chris Pitman, Tool's Paul D'Amour, Tal Bachman, Mick Jagger, Scott Weiland, and Ozzy Osbourne before joining the Cult in 2006. Dinsmore's band also achieved significant success, particularly with the single Awake, from the Strangeland soundtrack which hit #1 on the metal charts. When the Clay People went on hiatus in 2001, Dinsmore continued his career as a drummer, playing with producer Mike Clink, known for his work with Metallica, among others.