The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Donors Wanted to ‘Keep the Holiday Lights On’ for Struggling Families
Flagler Cares is in the midst of its Second Annual “Keep the Holiday Lights On” campaign. The health and social care coordinating organization is inviting residents and businesses to support local families in need of a modest financial bridge to keep their power on this holiday season. This initiative encourages neighbors to help neighbors by sponsoring homes to ensure struggling families can keep their lights on through December. The goal is to sponsor 100 homes at $100 per home, covering one month’s electric bill for families who might otherwise face utility cut-offs during the holidays. Supporters are welcome to contribute any amount to help brighten the season for their fellow residents. Donations can be made now through the end of the year on the “Keep the Holiday Lights On” webpage at www.flaglercares.org/holiday. Check donations may also be mailed or dropped off at Flagler Cares, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite B302, Palm Coast, FL 32164. As homes are sponsored, donors can watch the campaign’s progress online as homes on the page light up — a symbol of the community’s shared compassion and care.

Notably: It is unfair to readers, who cannot book tickets at this point (it was just a two-weekend run, and it’s over), and a bit unfair to the production, for which it’s too late to benefit from attention derived from the two and a half people who may read this, but it would be a greater injustice to let pass the memory of seeing “Around the World in 80 Days” at City Repertory Theatre last weekend without yet another round of applause–not for the latent imperialism and, at least in the play, well and far hidden racism you always find in Jules Verne, not for the inherent white supremacy of the book, which contrasts western civilization with eastern “savagery,” not with the old saw of good whites saving the poor Hindu from getting burned at the stake or the scene in a Japanese opium den, the Sioux (or was it Apaches?) attack (and another attept at saving the white guy from the savages). Not, not any of that, which you accept as part of the Verne deal. But the sheer energy and fun of the play, and particularly of Khloē Perez-Mathis and the 17 characters she pulls off, or the dozen or so (or was it more) the fabulous Beau Wade (a personal favorite since his days at the old Playhouse), Agata Sokólska-Lee’s elephant, plus Cameron Hodges and Danno Waddell, who Frenchify and Britishify to sniffing perfection. You leave a bit exhausted, as you should from a trip around the world, and you wish the run wasn’t over. Yet another reminder of how good we have it here with City Repertory Theatre and the work of Diane Ellertsen and John Sbordone, who seem to be getting younger by the season. Meanwhile, there’s always another Jules Verne handy: the guy could be ridiculously bigoted, but I’ll leave to another day how much I love him all the same: there were days and months and years in my youth I could not have survived without his books. Onto “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

 

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