Poker Party

It's becoming one of the hottest spectator sports on television, sauntering past fishing and pool with the recliner set. But poker fans know it's more fun to hold 'em even if you have to fold 'em. Being in the game is what brought card sharks to Bossa Nova Monday night for Cancer Caring Center's "What a Deal" benefit poker night. Butch Patrick (a.k.a. Eddie Munster) was noticed stalking the party, while players and participants enjoyed a full house. Among them were chair Josette Janczak, Kenny Colwes, Gary Dellovade, Paul Gruver, Rob and Carrie Beck and executive director Rebecca Whitlinger.

-- Patricia Sheridan

Twentieth Century Centennial Plus

Quick! Name the first corporation in Pittsburgh to be initiated and managed solely by women. If you said the venerable Twentieth Century Club in Oakland, established in 1894 as "an organized center for women's work, thought and action," you also know it turned 110 this year. To celebrate, members hosted a high tea last Wednesday in the beautiful formal dining room. Listening to a lecture on the club's history by Elizabeth Courtney were Dolores Smith Barber, AJ Jenkins, Sally Randall, Pam Chapple, Carolyn Graffam, Susan Cramer, Lois Zehner, Natalie Englert and Ceci Sommers Haughwout.

75th Anniversary Luncheon

The fashions were by Talbots, but the 225 guests at the Pittsburgh Field Club on Wednesday were members and friends of the UPMC Shadyside Hospital Guild. The annual Luncheon and Fashion Show was extra special this year as the Guild celebrated its 75th anniversary. President Joan Kenney and co-chairs Hazel Malter and Brittany Brennan presided over the affair, which was emceed by the PG's Barbara Cloud and featured vintage fashions including a nurse's uniform by Jean Kanouff. Applauding were Mary Bernacki, Bernice Friedlander, Mimi Fair and Clarice Horne.

LHAS Luncheon

What could be more enthralling than a talk about the latest developments in cosmetic surgery and skin rejuvenation? Only the installation of new officers and board members during Thursday's Ladies Hospital Aid Society annual meeting and luncheon at PNC Park. Guest speaker Molly Wagner, medical aesthetician for Dr. Dennis Hurwitz, offered the membership a glimpse of the fountain of youth. Not needing a sip or a nip were LHAS president June Yonas, Marcia Weiss, executive director Dee Dee Troutman and event chairs Judi Feldstein and Ruth Rubenstein.

-- P.S.

All Locked Up

The congressman from Florida wasn't barging in on Pittsburgh's waterfront Friday afternoon. Lock and Dam No. 2 was renamed the C.W. Bill Young Lock and Dam in his honor. Growing up in Harmar Township, he spent his youth splashing in the Allegheny. A barge-full of his family (including his 91-year-old mother, Wilma Wiley), friends and political cohorts set sail from Springdale. Among those on the float were Col. Ray Scrocco, Major General Carl Strock, John Woodley Jr, Peter Stephaich, Jim Pahlman, the PG's John Craig, Bill Pizoli and members of Congress Melissa Hart, David Hobson, Bill Shuster and Dennis Kerns.

-- P.S.