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Weather: Mostly cloudy. Highs in the lower 80s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy. Lows in the lower 60s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph. See the daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
Today at a Glance:
The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at Wickline Park, 315 South 7th Street, featuring prepared food, fruit, vegetables , handmade products and local arts from more than 30 local merchants. The market is hosted by Flagler Strong, a non-profit.
American Association of University Women (AAUW) Monthly Meeting, 11 a.m. at Cypress Knoll Golf Club, 53 Easthampton Blvd, Palm Coast. A monthly speaker is featured. Lunch is available for $20 in cash, $21 by credit card, but must be ordered in advance. The lunch menu is available on our website. Lunch may be ordered by sending an email to: [email protected].
Gamble Jam: Musicians of all ages can bring instruments and chairs and join in the jam session, 2 to 5 p.m. . Program is free with park admission! Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach, 3100 S. Oceanshore Blvd., Flagler Beach, FL. Call the Ranger Station at (386) 517-2086 for more information. The Gamble Jam is a family-friendly event that occurs every second and fourth Saturday of the month. The park hosts this acoustic jam session at one of the pavilions along the river to honor the memory of James Gamble Rogers IV, the Florida folk musician who lost his life in 1991 while trying to rescue a swimmer in the rough surf.
City Repertory Theatre’s Holiday Cabaret, Dec. 8 and 9 at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 10 at 3 p.m., at City Repertory Theatre at City Marketplace, 160 Cypress Point Parkway #B207 Palm Coast. Spice up your holidays with our festive cabaret featuring talented performances that will enchant you through a medley of beloved ‘Carols’ and a delightful mix of naughty and nice skits. From hilarious comedy to heartwarming moments, this cabaret promises to be an unforgettable holiday experience. All proceeds will go toward the reconstruction of the Flagler Playhouse. Tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for students. Some materials may not be appropriate for younger children. Book here.
The Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade is on from 6 to 8 p.m.: This year the Parade will begin at Cochise Waterway and head south. The parade will pass the Cimarron and Club House Waterways and sail under the Hammock Dunes Toll Bridge past St. Joe Walkway and Waterfront Park. Boats will turn at the Gazebo in Grand Haven , pass Cimarron Waterway, and return to home port. Parking will be available at the Palm Coast Community Center and the Daytona State College campus, both on Palm Coast Parkway. Flagler County buses will shuttle viewers between designated parking and European Village. Lit parking signs will be posted between along the Parkway. Parking will also be open at Waterfront Park. As always, Parade viewers are advised to seek parking early. All parking and shuttle service is free and will be available continuously between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. The Parade will be held in honor of the late Al Krier, a long-time Parade champion and major community activist. Some 100 boats are expected. Grand Marshalls will be Palm Coast Mayor The Honorable David Alfin and Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly. Carrying the Grand Marshalls will be “Sunshine,” a 55-foot Viking owned by Club members Donna Heiss and Ken Mazzie. Parade escorts include the Marine Unit of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and TowBoatUS. The Florida Inland Navigation District is endorsing the event. Once again, the Parade will be broadcast live by Flagler Broadcasting on KOOL-FM, 100.9. The City is providing worldwide simultaneous live coverage on Youtube.
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center: Nightly from 6 to 9 p.m. at Palm Coast’s Central Park, with 55 lighted displays you can enjoy with a leisurely stroll around the pond in the park. Admission to Fantasy Lights is free, but donations to support Rotary’s service work are gladly accepted. Holiday music will pipe through the speaker system throughout the park, Santa’s Village, which has several elf houses for the kids to explore, will be open, with Santa’s Merry Train Ride nightly (weather permitting), and Santa will be there every Sunday night until Christmas, plus snow on weekends! On certain nights, live musical performances will be held on the stage.
Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The food pantry is organized by Pastor Charles Silano and Grace Community Food Pantry, a Disaster Relief Agency in Flagler County. Feeding Northeast Florida helps local children and families, seniors and active and retired military members who struggle to put food on the table. Working with local grocery stores, manufacturers, and farms we rescue high-quality food that would normally be wasted and transform it into meals for those in need. The Flagler County School District provides space for much of the food pantry storage and operations. Call 386-586-2653 to help, volunteer or donate.
In Coming Days:
Dec. 23: Culmination of toy drive for Toys for Tots at AW Custom Kitchens, European Village, starting at 11 a.m. A drawing for all eligible participants will take place at 2 p.m. Anyone who will have donated toys for the drive will have a chance to win various items, including a 65-inch 4K Smart TV, an Apple iPad, a pair of Apple Air Pods, and gift cards from the co-sponsors of the event. Fifty such cards have been donated. With proof of a voucher, donors also will receive a free hot dog, a free drink, a free popcorn, a free cotton candy, and a free snow cone. There will be a variety of fun things to do such as a bouncy house for children in thanks to the community for its generosity. See details here.
Notably: Have you noticed how, since Israel resumed its demolition of Gaza, just about all references to casualties have disappeared from American front pages–if the ongoing massacre is ever referenced? Did you notice how, when the second assault began, after that brief pause, and the headlines did seem to graze on the edge of outrage, Israel was quick to bring out its own outrage with a new round of disclosures about Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack–the women they raped and tortured–as if precisely to blunt any further attention on the civilian toll in Gaza, on the immensity of the ongoing slaughter, the way classic propagandists do when they need to cover up their own crimes? The last 24 hours’ front pages across the country hardly have a Gaza story at all. The Denver Post is more interested in Pearl Harbor’s anniversary and an Interstate’s expansion, with a tiny piece on “visions for postwar Gaza” at the lower right corner. Casualties? Don’t be silly. Arizona Republic: nothing. Orlando Sentinel: nothing (though the “horrifying” report on the demolition of Florida’s higher education system is worth its prominence. Here’s the St. Pete Times’s version.) The LATimes has a tangential piece–how cities in the United States are taking “divisive stands on Mideast.” Nothing on casualties. USA Today? “Many Jews afraid to celebrate Hanukkah.” Maybe by the time Ramadan rolls around, right around Easter, we’ll see the same headline, with Arabs substituted for Jews. Even the New York Times takes a pass, its Gaza story for the day focused on “Secrets Recovered on Battlefield” assisting in the “pursuit,” like it was a computer game. Not much better in Europe. The rabidly right-wing Daily Telegraph, which I so loved in my days in Canterbury, has a huge picture of Santa hugging the decrepit King Charles and a story at the bottom of the page about a professor–possibly related to that Irish bigot who just left Flagler Beach–who apparently wrote on social media that the Jewish Labor Conference should be blown up. As for the actual blowing up of Gaza, nothing. The closest we can come to the humanitarian catastrophe is at the Guardian: “Gaza faces descent into Chaos, warns UN chief.” Meanwhile the US vetoed a UN measure calling for a cease fire in Gaza, of course, calling it “divorced from reality.” The measure is divorced from reality, not the US. OK. Enough madness for a Saturday.
—P.T.
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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.
Flagler County School Board Information Workshop
Flagler County Library Board of Trustees
Nar-Anon Family Group
Flagler County School Board Meeting
Bunnell City Commission Meeting
Palm Coast City Council Meeting
A Community Presentation on Sand Dunes By Florida Sea Grant and UF/IFAS Extension Flagler
Food Truck Tuesday
Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
For the full calendar, go here.
Can one see the horrors in Gaza and not hate those who are inflicting them? Experience what’s happening in Gaza and not dream of revenge? Generations of Palestinians bequeathed hatred for Israel as a result of the first Nakba, and other generations will now bequeath even greater hatred, as a result of the second Nakba that’s promised to them. “The next generation is sleeping in the next room / I hear him breathing / The next generation is dreaming in the next room / and murmuring fears in his sleep,” sings Hanan Yovel to the words of Ehud Manor; the next Palestinian generation is murmuring fear in its sleep, but it isn’t in the next room–it has no room. And in a few months from now, good Israelis will once again travel to Paris and London, Dubai and New York, and will be shocked: How they hate us. Why? What did we do wrong?
–From Gideo Levy’s “What Did We Do Wrong,” Haaretz, Israel, Dec. 7, 2023.
Laurel says
House Speaker Mike Johnson sums it up as champion of white, (supposed) Christian, Nationalism. A supporter, and architect, of the January 6th Insurrection, which we saw right before our eyes as it went on. The very insurrection that was claimed to be the act of ANTIFA, and BLM supporters, by people who tried to cover the treasonist action now wanting to protect these people who broke into the Capital, crapped on the floor, attacked Capital Police, and tore the place up.
He should be removed immediately.