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Weather: Sunny. High in the low 90s. Tonight: Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 60s.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Flagler Beach here.
- tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
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.
The Flagler County Association of Realtors hosts its 16th annual Meet the Mayors Q&A at 11:30 p.m. at the FCAR building, 4101 East Moody Boulevard. The session will include, by order of seniority in office, Bunnell Mayor Catherine Robinson, Beverly Beach Mayor Steve Emmett, Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin, and Flagler Beach Mayor Patti King. The session will also likely include a county representative. The invitation is open to the public, seats are limited register through eventbrite. Register Here.
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 105 South 2nd Street in Flagler Beach. 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.
‘Sense and Sensibility,’ at Daytona Playhouse: All shows at 7:30 p.m. except on Sundays, at 2 p.m. Daytona Playhouse, 100 Jessamine Blvd., Daytona Beach. Adults $20, Seniors $19, Youth $10. A playful new adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel follows the fortunes (and misfortunes) of the Dashwood sisters—sensible Elinor and hypersensitive Marianne—after their father’s sudden death leaves them financially destitute and socially vulnerable. When reputation is everything, how do you follow your heart?
Notably: Every once in a while you’ll read a column or see a commentary on TV about the degradation of language, the way you do about the degradation of music. A psychologist told the New York Times in the 1930s that swing music was unhealthy because it went against the rhythms of the body. Elvis was called lascivious. The Beatles were blasphemous. Madonna was… well, you remember. Same complaints about language. Radio and television were thought to be the end of the written word and the dawn of universal degeneracy. Email was thought to demolish proper syntax and grammar. Then came texting. OMG. And twitter. Or X. Or bigotry central, or whatever it’s called these days. But you shouldn’t be surprised that every ROFL and BTW and IDK and LOL had its origins at least as far back as the Medieval scriptoriums of Constantinople, Venice and Paris. Why? Because before the age of paper when parchment was so ridiculously expensive, scribes had to jam as much as they could on a single line, on a single page. For a few hundred years they had no spaces between words, no punctuation, no white space anywhere. And they developed all sorts of shorthanded abbreviations, in Latin especially, making Rosetta Stone translators of subsequent scholars trying to decipher it all. No one blames them. Why blame the abbreviation of today? Language will go where its medium and users take it. It roams, it changes constantly, it breathes. Nothing wrong with any of it. In its place, anyway.
—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.
May 2025
Palm Coast City Council Meeting
Food Truck Tuesday
Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
Contractor Review Board Meeting
Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee Meeting
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board
For the full calendar, go here.
A less obvious attraction of texting is that it uses a telephone to avoid what many people dread about face-to-face exchanges, and even about telephones—having to have a real, unscripted conversation. People don’t like to have to perform the amount of self-presentation that is required in a personal encounter. They don’t want to deal with the facial expressions, the body language, the obligation to be witty or interesting. They just want to say “flt is lte.” Texting is so formulaic that it is nearly anonymous. There is no penalty for using catchphrases, because that is the accepted glossary of texting. C. K. Ogden’s “Basic English” had a vocabulary of eight hundred and fifty words. Most texters probably make do with far fewer than that. And there is no penalty for abruptness in a text message. Shortest said, best said. The faster the other person can reply, the less you need to say. Once, a phone call was quicker than a letter, and face-to-face was quicker than a phone call. Now e-mail is quicker than face-to-face, and texting, because the respondent is almost always armed with his or her device and ready to reply, is quicker than e-mail.
—From Louis Menand’s “Thumbspeak: Is texting here to stay?,” The New Yorker, Oct. 20, 2008..
Ray W. says
I accept the argument of some that the main purpose of language is to enable me to better convey an idea in my mind into the mind of another. An organized form of language such as Spanish, Mandarin or English can act as an adequate conduit, but is it the best way to convey ideas?
First, Wittgenstein termed the use of Spanish, Mandarin or English as “artificial” language, as opposed to “natural” language.
Perhaps “natural” language (grunts, gestures, facial expressions, etc.) enhances the organized “artificial” language method of exchanging ideas, but that requires visual communication mixed with aural communication. Wittgenstein was not the first to distinguish “artificial” and “natural” forms of communication (Thomas Reid wrote of it over 100 years earlier). He thought it the most accurate form of communication. Wittgenstein’s concept of “artificial” language applies whenever communication is via alphabet (newspapers, books, e-mail, text, etc.); he considered such transfers of ideas solely by written language as less effective or precise, though I think a great wordsmith is a marvel (thank you to Mr. Tristam and all FlaglerLive commenter wordsmiths; each of you makes this site better for all).
In the end, all of us stumble in our efforts to help others more completely understand us. When a presidential candidate promises his followers a “bloodbath” if he is not elected later this year, all of us know intuitively what he intends to do if given the chance. But his supporters spring to action; they use both artificial and natural forms of language to confuse the faithful into believing a bloodbath would be a good thing for “them” all, not “us” all. Do not be confused. In a liberal democratic Constitutional republic, a bloodbath among the citizenry is never a good thing. It can be horrible or less than horrible, or perhaps terrible, but never good.
Yes, there are gullible partisan members of faction in both major parties, and both major candidates are doing everything they can to persuade the undecided gullibles to support them. Me? I will oppose the vengeful candidate every time. If the choice comes down to opposing the decent among us or opposing the vengeful among us, I will tilt at the vengeful windmills and leave the decent windmills alone.
ASF says
Feel the same about what is happening in the Ukraine?
Jim says
This “political cartoon” is a joke to itself. What action/event is it referencing? Has some or all the arms manufacturers in the USA been out partying and bragging about the money they are paid to make munitions? If so, I must have missed it.
The fact is that the USA has a large manufacturing base that supports our military services with the guns, ammunition, clothing, vehicles, aircraft, and everything else they require for support. And the products they make are unique in many cases with use only by the military. These industries are necessary in the world we live in now. I certainly understand that we all would like to live in a world where we didn’t need a strong and ready military but that’s not the reality of the current situation. As a result I fail to understand the need to bash an industry that is doing exactly what is expected.
How many of you would have been happy if, in the days after 9-11, our military had not been ready and capable of responding? As I recall, the entire nation was calling for blood after that attack. And, in great part because of the industrial base that supports our military, we did respond.
I know we all get upset with the “$900 hammer” story that sometimes comes up from some military purchase. I don’t like to hear that any more than anyone else but I worked in that industry for many years and, based on the approved methods of purchasing products, the “$900 hammer” can happen. That’s not because some company is gouging the government – it’s because they are required to follow governmental regulations. These companies are not charities and they are allowed to make a profit for the services provided. The amount of profit is also regulated by the government.
Yes, we are in a period where weapons and munitions are needed in many locations around the world and, yes, the companies providing these products will make a profit on those sales. So if you want to stand piously by and profess your contempt for the process, consider the alternative. We could follow Great Britain and other countries in “downsizing” and “defunding” our military and maybe eliminate or reduce some of the industrial base that supports them. And when we are all patting ourselves on the back for this great accomplishment, do you think that China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc. would not take advantage of our weakness and strike?
You can live in the real world or the world of your dreams. But if you decide to live in the real world, you need to recognize that there is a high cost associated with freedom.
James says
I came across this rather interesting article, it’s worth posting a link here even though it’s only tangentially related to the cartoon…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/24/what-is-maga-communism
… what a mixed-up, convoluted world this has become.
Just my opinion.