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Weather: Partly cloudy. Highs in the upper 60s. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph, becoming southeast in the afternoon. Wednesday Night: Showers likely in the evening, then showers with a slight chance of thunderstorms after midnight. Not as cool with lows in the lower 50s. East winds around 5 mph. Chance of rain 80 percent. See the daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
Today at a Glance:
In Court: A 10 a.m. hearing is scheduled in the case of Damari Barnes, 17, regarding a psychological evaluation ahead of his sentencing later this month. Barnes pleaded last October to manslaughter in the February 2022 shooting death of Jamey Bennett, 19, at a bonfire party near Matanzas High School. In Courtroom 401 before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins at the Flagler County courthouse. See: “Da’mari Barnes, 17, Pleads Out in Shooting Death of Jamey Bennett, 19; Uncertain Sentence Pending.”
The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board meets at 10 a.m. every first Wednesday of the month at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For details about the city’s code enforcement regulations, go here.
Separation Chat, Open Discussion: The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State hosts an open, freewheeling discussion on the topic here in our community, around Florida and throughout the United States, noon to 1 p.m. at its new location, Pine Lakes Golf Club Clubhouse Pub & Grillroom (no purchase is necessary), 400 Pine Lakes Pkwy, Palm Coast (0.7 miles from Belle Terre Parkway). Call (386) 445-0852 for best directions. All are welcome! Everyone’s voice is important. For further information email [email protected] or call Merrill at 804-914-4460.
The Flagler County Republican Club holds its monthly meeting starting with a social hour at 5 and the business meeting at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn, 55 Town Center Blvd., Palm Coast. The club is the social arm of the Republican Party of Flagler County, which represents over 40,000 registered Republicans. Meetings are open to Republicans only.
Flagler County Waste Pro Trash Pick Up Schedule Changes:
- Normal Monday/Thursday pick up will fall instead on Tuesday/Friday (January 2 and 5)
- Normal Tuesday/Friday pickup will occur on Wednesday/Saturday (January 3 and 6)
- Normal Yard Waste Wednesday will be picked up on Thursday (January 4)
Cachinnate: I forget unfortunately where I came across the word–cachinnate–in the past week or so. Maybe it was in one of Steve Runciman’s early 1050s history of the Crusades, though I can’t imagine there was anything to cachinnate about at any time between 1097 and 1215. Especially not 1215: we have yet to recover from the Fourth Lateran Council, one of the great retardants of civilization and enlightenment, though wasn’t it the same year that Magna Carta was first signed? Eleven hundred centuries backward (the Lateran Council), one century forward: Magna Carta. It was also the year Gengis Khan clobbered the Chinese at the Battle of Zhongdu. No Cachinnations there. But it’s a lovely onomatopean sort of word: to cachinnate, says the OED, is “To laugh loudly or immoderately.” To illustrate the word the OED decides to pick on a phrase from 1824: “Not a publisher but cachinnates from Leipsic to Moscow.” The word apparently takes root from kench, meaning to laugh loudly, an old English word that emerged in the wake of 1215 (1225-30, to be more unprecise), but the word fleer, “To laugh in a coarse, impudent, or unbecoming manner,” is a mere synonym. I see from the list of OED variations that there is such an expression as to laugh like a drain, which is enough to make you cachinnate, guffaw and yaw-haw. We’re going to need a store of these words this year, because the language climate is turning more grim, and immoderate laughter may be better than any cavalry in sight.
—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.
January 2026
Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board Meeting
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
Flagler Beach Library Book Club
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Flagler County Republican Club Meeting
Flagler Beach Parks Ad Hoc Committee
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Palm Coast Democratic Club Meeting
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Friday Blue Forum
For the full calendar, go here.
The Devil is doubt. He’s what makes us reject the gifts God gives us, he makes us spurn the life we’ve been given. Did you know, suicide is the second cause of death among teen-agers, second only to automobile accidents, which are often a kind of suicide also?” “Funny,” I said. “I would have said, looking at recent history and, for that matter, at some of our present-day ayatollahs and Führers, the opposite. The Devil is the absence of doubt. He’s what pushes people into suicide bombing, into setting up extermination camps. Doubt may give your dinner a funny taste, but it’s faith that goes out and kills.
–From John Updike’s Roger’s Version (1986).
Laurel says
DeSantis’ group. He needs those boots to wade through the crap.