ISI FPB History
also known as

Friday
Prayer | Pan-ISI | Plenary | Platinum | Premier
Breakfast

(from Joel Goldberg, current Cruise Director)

For those of you who may be curious, "Friday Prayer Breakfast" (FPB) has been an ISI institution since the Institute itself was perhaps six months old. The prayer part is a joke. When the late Chloe Holg first began this ritual, she named it after the constant White House prayer breakfasts that President Jimmy Carter hosted.

The Friday part and the Breakfast part are for real. We do it every Friday at 10:00 and we do eat breakfast (bagels and fixings). It is a cooperative event among the members, with everyone taking turns hosting. I sometimes say that the prayer part is a silent prayer that we recite in hope that the host will remember to bring the food.

In the early years of the Institute, when the Computers had most of the 12th floor (remember big iron??) and the staff had the 11th floor, we called the 11th floor eastside hallway the "back hall," and the denizens who conducted FPB at a table in that hallway dubbed themselves the "backhall" crowd. To this day, our mailing list is still the backhall mailing list (backhall@isi.edu).

I am the current FPB Cruise Director (another Chloe Holg moniker), the keeper of the mailing list and the scheduler of the weekly hosts. If you are interested in joining us, please drop me a line.

-- Joel Goldberg (aka, the Cruise Director)