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Weather: Patchy fog in the morning. Partly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms. A slight chance of showers in the morning, then a chance of showers in the afternoon. Highs in the mid 80s. East winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers with a slight chance of thunderstorms in the evening. Lows in the upper 60s. East winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
Today at a Glance:
Drug Court convenes before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins at 10 a.m. in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse, Kim C. Hammond Justice Center 1769 E Moody Blvd, Bldg 1, Bunnell. Drug Court is open to the public. See the Drug Court handbook here and the participation agreement here.
Book bans: A review committee was scheduled to meet this afternoon at Flagler Palm Coast High School to decide the ate of What Girls Are Made Of, the Elana Arnold novel. The meeting was cancelled on Tuesday. The school has not provided an explanation.
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 105 South 2nd Street in Flagler Beach. Commissioners will have to swallow hard and likely approve an $83,000 bill for another year of insurance on the pier, even though it is closed to the public, before construction begins. Watch the meeting at the city’s YouTube channel here. Access meeting agenda and materials here. See a list of commission members and their email addresses here. The full agenda is here.
The Palm Coast Democratic Club holds its monthly meeting at 6 p.m. at the the African American Cultural Society, 4422 North U.S. Highway 1, Palm Coast (just north of Whiteview Parkway). The meeting is open to all; everyone is welcome. There is no charge and advance arrangements are not necessary. For best directions call the African American Cultural Society at (386) 447-7030. The evening begins at 6 p.m. with a social hour. At 7 p.m. a brief business meeting will be followed by a discussion or a guest speaker. For further information call Palm Coast Democratic Club Interim President, Donna Harkins at 386-237-7202.
Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series hosted by the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience at 7 p.m. This free lecture will be presented in person at the UF Whitney Laboratory Lohman Auditorium, 9505 Ocean Shore Boulevard, in St. Augustine. Those interested also have the option of registering to watch via Zoom live the night of the lecture. Register to watch online here. In this edition: Mandë Holford, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Hunter College, The American Museum of Natural History, CUNY Graduate Center.
Uncouth, an open mic night: Join a unique community of creative artists and performers on Thursday nights from 9:30 to 10:30 p.m. in Lee’s Garage, Carlton Union Building, Room 261A, 131 E Minnesota Avenue, DeLand, for an event featuring the student community of Stetson University. Uncouth is an “open-mic night” where students can perform their poetry, prose, music, and any other ‘artistic’ talents. This is a safe space for students to gather with their peers and enjoy the company of other creative minds.
In Coming Days:
Flagler Pride Weekend: All applications (Vendor, Sponsor, Volunteer, Speaker, Entertainment) for Flagler Pride Weekend are now open until midnight on May 20th, 2023. No late applications will be accepted or considered. Vendors, apply here. Flagler Pride weekend is scheduled for June 10-12, at Palm Coast’s Central Park.
Notably: A Montana legislator is banned from representing her constituents in her own legislature because she protests a bill that will ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender children. But a serial liar who deceived his voters on the way to getting elected to Congress, and who’s just been charged with wire fraud, money laundering, stealing public money and lying on federal forms–I am referring to George Santos–will be allowed to continue serving in Congress, according to Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Speaker of the House. And a man found guilty of predatory sexual abuse and defamation can continue to depend on the same amount of public support, probably more than he had before the verdict. That’s about right for contemporary America. The only false note is Santos somehow being in Washington, rather than in the Florida legislature, where he’d fit in even more.
—P.T.
Now this:
Flagler Beach Webcam:
The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
For the full calendar, go here.
The odds of being around a few years hence gyrated from absurdly low to tolerably decent, then back again when I had a recurrence. The whole of it, beginning the very day of my diagnosis, devoured four years. The experience scrubbed my eyes and gave the days much greater vibrancy. Grief found a way of blending with joy and deepening it. Sorrow, I learned, is the shadow of love, because what is sorrow but the fear and pain of losing what you love? Simple things—the sight of children playing in a park, wind blowing through trees—assumed an otherworldly radiance and stopped me in my tracks. A slice of lemon cake, a sip of turmeric tea, a dab of spicy hummus on a cracker: familiar foods took on new flavor and exploded in my mouth. The scrambling of the calendar, the whiting out of all presumed years beyond the one at hand, gave me an urgent clarity and rendered me freer than at any point in my life. I felt weightless like a dry sponge ready to absorb. Were there an algorithm to gauge a soul’s freedom, I told friends before setting out, mine would come back stamped “fully unburdened.”
–From Neil King’s American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal (2023).
