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Weather: Mostly sunny. A slight chance of showers in the morning, then a chance of showers with a slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the mid 70s. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent. Friday Night: Mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening, then mostly clear after midnight. Lows in the upper 40s. West winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph, becoming northwest 5 to 10 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 20 percent. See the daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
Today at a Glance:
In Court: Jerome Byron Malereba, the 47-year-old Palm Coast resident a jury found guilty of soliciting a 14-year-old girl for sex and stalking her and her mother, is sentenced at 8:30 a.m. by Circuit Judge Terence Perkins in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse. Malerba was found guilty on three third-degree felony counts that consecutively add up to a maximum of 15 years in prison, though the sentencing guidelines have a minimum of 33 months. See: “Jury Finds 47-Year-Old Palm Coast Man Guilty of Cyber-Stalking and Soliciting Girl, 14, for 18 Months.” Also: the sentencing of Damari Barnes, who was 15 when he shot and killed Jamey Bennett, 19, at a bonfire party, is at 1:30 p.m. See: “Da’mari Barnes, 17, Pleads Out in Shooting Death of Jamey Bennett, 19; Uncertain Sentence Pending.”
Free For All Fridays with Host David Ayres, an hour-long public affairs radio show featuring local newsmakers, personalities, public health updates and the occasional surprise guest, starts a little after 9 a.m. after FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam’s Reality Check. Guests today include Jane Cullinane and Rep. Paul Renner. See previous podcasts here. On WNZF at 94.9 FM and 1550 AM.
The Scenic A1A Pride Committee meets at 9 a.m. at the Hammock Community Center, 79 Mala Compra Road, Palm Coast. The meetings are open to the public.
The Blue 24 Forum, a discussion group organized by local Democrats, meets at 12:15 p.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE. Come and add your voice to local, state and national political issues.
Palm Coast’s Southern Recreation Center Grand Opening and Open House, 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Southern Rec Center next to the Palm Coast Tennis Center, 1290 Belle Terre Parkway. See: “Palm Coast’s $13.7 Million Southern Recreation Center: A Facility Designed for Way More than Pickleball and Tennis.”
Woody Allen’s ‘Don’t Drink the Water,’ at Daytona Playhouse: Feb 16, 17, 22, 23, 24 at 7:30 p.m., Feb 18 and 25 at 2 p.m. Tickets: $20, $19 and $10. Book here. It’s the Cold War and an American tourist, his wife and daughter rush into the US embassy two steps ahead of the Vulgarian police who suspect them of spying. The ambassador is away and his hapless son frantically plots their escape with even a little time to fall in love. With Chris Sinnett, Suzanne Bonner, Sunnie Rice, Zachary Goodrich, Carrie Van Tol and Terrence Van Auken, among others.
‘Tuck Everlasting,’ at Limelight Theater, 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine. Tickets: $22.50. Book here. 7:30 p.m., except on Sundays, when the show is at 2 p.m. What would you do if you had all eternity? Eleven-year-old Winnie Foster yearns for a life of adventure beyond her white picket fence, but not until she becomes unexpectedly entwined with the Tuck Family does she get more than she could have imagined. When Winnie learns of the magic behind the Tuck’s unending youth, she must fight to protect their secret from those who would do anything for a chance at eternal life. As her adventure unfolds, Winnie faces an extraordinary choice: return to her life, or continue with the Tucks on their infinite journey.
Notably: Just when you think New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman could not get more odious, here he comes worsting himself, this time with a piece called “Understanding the Middle East Through the Animal Kingdom.” He says he likes understanding certain issues “with analogies from the natural world.” He describes the United States as the lion of the Middle East, “still the king of the Middle East jungle” (note the reduction of about two dozen countries to a “jungle,” an old racist Orientalist trope), but a scarred and tired lion. Iran, he compares to “what a recently discovered species of parasitoid wasp is to nature. What does this parasitoid wasp do? According to Science Daily, the wasp ‘injects its eggs into live caterpillars, and the baby wasp larvae slowly eat the caterpillar from the inside out, bursting out once they have eaten their fill.’ Is there a better description of Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq today?” Calling those countries a “jungle” isn’t enough. He compares Hamas to a spider and Netanyahu to some kind of lemur,. while still referring to him as “Bibi,” as if the butcher of Gaza were just another cuddly foreign leader Friedman is so cozy with. The piece obviously drew a good deal of outrage. “Thomas Friedman’s describing the Middle East as an ‘animal kingdom’ is even worse than it sounds,” MSNBC’s Zeeshan Aleem wrote. Al-Jazira just called it “dehumanization.” Friedman wrote a non-apology that ended up being mostly about himself, as are most of his turgid paragraphs, with an errant admission that “If invoking a metaphor or image alienates and angers part of my audience, I know I used the wrong metaphor.” But nothing more. The Times has fired many writers in the last few years for way, way less, among them James Bennet (well, he “resigned”). But Friedman goes on giving cover to imperial America as if he were its Balfour.
—P.T.
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I had an uneasy fear, without doubt well grounded, that if I kept on with the Free Lance I would become a mere columnist, bound down to a routine job and with no energy left for better tings; worse, that I would degenerate into a town celebrity, a local worthy — something that I have always tried most diligently to avoid.
–H.L. Mencken, cited in see Terry Teachout’s The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken (2002).
Pogo says
@To Whom It May Concern
A toast… fill your glass as you will — with gossip, resentment, bitterness, envy, jealousy, whatever — it’s your glass. Now, here’s looking at ya.
Oh, the toast. To Presidents Stevenson, Humphrey, McCarthy, Gore, Kerry, and Hillary — and all they accomplished.
Now, let’s get busy with Hal Lindsey’s plan (with introduction by V. Putin) for world peace.