The British Farce "Noises Off" Debuts at Menlo School Tonight

1.  Appreciating Our Differences 

"Appreciating our differences" is the focus of a talk tonight by motivational speaker Spencer West who will be up front and personal about the challenges he has faced when he speaks at Encinal School. West lost his legs when he was five years old. He will share his story tonight.

Also appearing with him is Menlo Park resident Connie Tamaddon, author of Surprising Silhouettes, a children's book that conveys the idea that not everything is as it seems.  The event is part of Appreciating Our Differences week and takes place at Encinal Elementary School at 195 Encinal Ave.  Tonight's event is free and open to the public but organizers are asking for aRSVP to “rsvpforspencer@gmail.com” if attending.

2.  Menlo Art League
Sandra Smith-Dugan, a native Californian from the Bay Area, is the featured artist for the February meeting of the Menlo Art League.  Special tonight — her portrait demonstration for those in attendance.  The meeting tonight is free and takes place from 6:45 p.m. to 8: 30 p.m. in the downstairs Community Room at the Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma Street.  For more information, call Alice Weil at (650) 906-2045 or e-mail californiagallery@gmail.com.

3. Tips on Driving Web Traffic to Your Site

Get some tips on determining the key words that will drive traffic to your website. Think you know all of your keywords?  This seminar aims to show you what you are missing and how to do a better job of figuring out which words will send web traffic your way. Tonight's seminar on "Powerful Key Words That Convert Website Traffic" is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Silicon Valley Pad, 1370 Willow Road. For more information call (650) 276-0536 or Mark Kemp at (888) 484-6625.

4.  Author of book about medical costs at Kepler's tonight

Here's a topic that is of interest to all of us — the cost of health care in the United States. Kepler's is presenting author Dr. Walter Bortz tonight to speak about his book, Next Medicine. As Kepler's points out, in his book, Bortz zeroes in on why the American medicine is spiraling toward disaster. He'll talk about that tonight as well. Bortz is a physician with fifty years of experience and a leading authority on aging. He argues that the financial interests of biotech and drug companies have distorted the healthcare system.  Bortz speaks tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Kepler's, 1010 El Camino Real. For more information, call Pam Grange at (650) 324-4321 or e-mail pam@keplers.com.

5. A play at Menlo School

Menlo School offers its version of the British farce "Noises Off," by Michael Frayn, which looks at what happens when dueling directors staging two casts in alternating shows. The show opens tonight at 7:30 p.m. and runs through Sunday. Evening shows are 7:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m. Tickets are $7 for students and $10 for adults.  Senior-citizen discounts are available. The play is being shown at Florence Moore Theatre at 50 Valparaiso Ave. For more information, call Beth Orr at (650) 330-2001 ext. 2333 or e-mail elizabeth.orr@menloschool.org.