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Weather: Partly cloudy. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 80s. Sunday night: Lows in the mid 60s. Chance of rain 30 percent. See the daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
Today at a Glance:
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village: The city’s only farmers’ market is open every Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at European Village, 101 Palm Harbor Pkwy, Palm Coast. With fruit, veggies, other goodies and live music. For Vendor Information email [email protected]
‘Hysteria,’ At Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, 160 Cypress Point Parkway (City Marketplace, Suite B207), Palm Coast. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. except on Sundays, at 3 p.m. In this surprisingly touching and hilarious farce, step into the wild world of “Hysteria,” Terry Johnson’s clever and funny play that blends fact and fantasy through the uproarious collision of Salvador Dalí and Sigmund Freud’s brilliant minds. Prepare for unexpected twists, outrageous situations, and a rollercoaster of emotions in this riotous farce set in 1938 London.
The Palm Coast Songwriters Festival is scheduled for May 2-5 at the Daytona State College Amphitheater, 545 Colbert Lane, Palm Coast, and other venues, including JT’s Seafood Shack at 5224 North Oceanshore Boulevard. Check the schedule for details. Starting at 5 p.m. May 2, midday or earlier on May 3, 4 and 5, with nearly 40 HIT Songwriters with over 125 #1 HITS and hundreds of additional charted songs to their credit performing. Single-day tickets start at $25 per day. These great songwriters give the attendees the ability to peek behind the curtain and learn the story behind the songs, along with hearing the writers perform them as well.
‘First Date,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine. 7:30 p.m., except on Sundays, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $32.50, including fees. Book tickets here. The 2012 musical takes the audience through the first meeting of Casey and Aaron, two 30-ish New York City singles set up by friends and family. The two have nothing in common: Aaron is a conservative banker, Jewish, and looking for a meaningful relationship, while Casey is an artist and a little too funky for Wall Street. With the influences of their friends and family (played out in their imaginations) as well as the effects of social media (Google, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube personified), this first date seems to be doomed. But with the help of a meddling but well-meaning waiter, Casey and Aaron might make a connection after all. With a contemporary rock score, FIRST DATE gleefully pokes fun at the mishaps and mistakes of blind dates and gives hope that there could be that one perfect moment.
Al-Anon Family Groups: Help and hope for families and friends of alcoholics. Meetings are every Sunday at Silver Dollar II Club, Suite 707, 2729 E Moody Blvd., Bunnell, and on zoom. More local meetings available and online too. Call 904-315-0233 or see the list of Flagler, Volusia, Putnam and St. Johns County meetings here.
Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from noon to 3 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.
Notably: It was on this day in 1985 that Reagan went to the Bitburg cemetery in Germany’s Rhineland despite outrage that he was paying tribute to the memory of SS soldiers buried there. He wasn’t, exactly. Some 2,000 German soldiers are buried there, only 49 of which were SS (not that the distinction is particularly noteworthy). The visit was intended to be a symbol of reconciliation. It was the 40th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. But was it just failing judgment or intention? Hours earlier he’d gone to the Bergen-Belsen death camp, where 50,000 are buried in mass graves. “Here they lie, never to hope, never to pray, never to love, never to heal, never to laugh, never to cry,” Reagan said. Maybe following that with a visit to Bitburg was not the best itinerary the White House travel agent could have devised: a group of Jewish demonstrators wearing the six-pointed yellow star and the word “Jude,” German for Jew, rushed German police in riot gear outside the cemetery. They were incensed by Reagan’s visit, accompanied by Helmut Kohl, the German Chancellor at the time. Not just Germans, but French, Belgian, Dutch and from 18 other countries. “Don’t honor SS murderers,” a banner read (as reported by the New York Times). “My brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” It’s doubtful that Reagan’s judgment had failed. We forget too easily that there was a deep, racist streak in the old man. Recall that he chose to announce his candidacy for president at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi, the same fair that had happily and indifferently (if not vengefully) opened in 1964 within days of the murder of the discovery of the James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, the three registration-drive workers found dead a few miles away, the same fair where white supremacists frolicked and reveled in their “states’ rights,” code words Trent Lott told Reagan he had to use to win over the bigots–which he not only did, but which he turned into the theme of his speech, never once recognizing the murders of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman, though he took time to recognize “five young men in the 100-yard butterfly” he’d seen beat in California the night before, because the U.S. was boycotting the Moscow Olympics, but at least “all of whom had beaten the winning time in Moscow.” That was Ronald Reagan’s judgment. All intentionality. Like his recurring peddling of the welfare queen myth on his campaign trails. Or his idiotic comment about “Roots”: “Very frankly, I thought the bias of all the good people being one color and all the bad people being another was rather destructive.” So no. I don’t think his visit to Bitburg was innocent. The only surprise is that Reagan didn’t also recognize the death of Napoleon on the same day in 1821.
—P.T.
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Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
For the full calendar, go here.
“Except there aren’t any Reagan Democrats, there’re just cut-and-dried rednecks. Now that I’m down south here, I understand better what it’s all about. It’s all about blacks. One hundred thirty years after Abe Lincoln, the Republicans have got the anti-black vote and it’s bigger than any Democratic Presidential candidate can cope with, barring a massive depression or a boo-boo the size of Watergate. Ollie North doesn’t do it. Reagan being an airhead didn’t do it. Face it: the bulk of this country is scared to death of the blacks. That’s the one gut issue we’ve got.”
–From John Updike’s Rabbit at Rest (1990).
Pogo says
@P.T.
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