It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Origami

Battle lines have been drawn.

What this means, dear readers, is that you must decide who won the Great Rotary Club of Muscatine Origami Battle of 2015. It was waged Monday at the Wesley United Methodist Church Family Life Center.

Gilad Aharoni gave a program on Origami, showing off many of his works and leading the club’s members through an exercise in which they each had a chance to make a paper swan.

But it didn’t end there.

My girlfriend, Janet, a fellow Rotarian, immediately posted a photo on Facebook of our swans and said: “My swan is better than Chris’ swan.”

To which my sister responded: “I’m calling the one on the right Nessie.”

I thought that perhaps meant the best swan was on the left. After all, with one of the swans being compared to the Loch Ness Monster, how could the one on the right win the Great Rotary Club of Muscatine Origami Battle of 2015?

It appears I was wrong.

What follows is a recreation of the conversation Jacob and I had when I got home from work later in the afternoon:

Me: Hey, Jacob. How was your day? What’d you do that was fun?

Jacob: Nothing … How was your day?

Me: My day was great. Thanks for asking.

Jacob: I think I hear sarcasm in that, but I’m not sure. (He is a perceptive young man.)

Me: No. It really was great. The best part of the day was when your mom and I made Origami swans at Rotary. Of course, she immediately said hers was better than mine.

Jacob: Probably because it was …

I then showed him the photo sitting atop this blog post. When asked to pick the best swan, he chose the one on the right — the one my sister had identified as Nessie.

So, dear readers, it’s up to you to pick the winner. Which do you prefer? The one on the left? Or the one on the right?

Which one was made by the Rotarian, about whom club member Jessica Wittman, after watching the swan’s creation, said: “The slow ones do survive.”

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Speaking of Jessica Wittman, she leads an exercise early in most of the Rotary Club of Muscatine’s weekly meetings that have come to be known as Fun With Jess.

Wittman, corporate liaison at Muscatine Radiology and Corridor Radiology in Coralville, usually will lead some type of icebreaker exercise. Monday, she had borrowed 17 questions from a recent pub trivia contest in which she had participated.

The table where I sat with the creator of the Loch Ness Monster lookalike paper swan and three other Rotarians got eight of the following 17 questions correct:

1. Which singer joined Mel Gibson in the movie, “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome”?

2. Vodka, Galliano and orange juice are used to make which classic cocktail?

3. Which American state is nearest to the former Soviet Union?

4. Consecrated in 1962, where is the Cathedral of St. Michael?

5. On TV, who did the character Lurch work for?

6. Which classic children’s book was written by Anna Sewell?

7. How many tentacles does a squid have?

8. Which reggae star died on May 11, 1981?

9. Characters Charlie Allnut and Rosie Sayer appeared in which classic 1951 movie?

10. What is converted into alcohol during brewing?

11. Which river forms the eastern section of the border between England and Scotland?

12. Which Briton on ice skating gold at the Lake Placid Olympics?

13. In what year was Prince Andrew born?

14. TV commercials for Campari launched the career of this actress?

15. Name the two families in “Romeo and Juliet”?

16. If cats are feline, what are sheep?

17. In the song, Heartbreak Hotel is on which street?

Answers will be posted in the comments.