By David Fortier
Come Sunday morning, Christmas will be behind us, but we still have Child No. 3 and his partner, who are staying with us through New Year’s. They will return to Australia sometime before the coming weekend. Between now and then, they have been and will be visiting friends, attending birthday No. 5 for Grandchild No. 1 and eating as much American junk food as possible–these are not readily available in Australia.
Among the treats are Smart Food, Cheez-Its, Chipotle and pizza. They are eating out as often as they can. We did manage to get in brunch on Saturday at Expresso Cafe. There were six of us there and we spent at least an hour hanging out and chatting after we finished our food.
Something to note, Child No. 3 is a Pokemon player and this past year, in a tournament in Perth, Australia, he was among the top 10 finishers.
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For reading this week, I finished “James,” this year’s National Book Award for Fiction winner, by Percival Everett. Once again, it is a retelling of the Mark Twain’s, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of Huck’s companion, the enslaved Jim.
Last week I said, there’s no “telling” about it. After finishing the novel, I feel more strongly than ever that it is a book to be experienced. The author does something earlier in the book to establish the context that is genius. It is simple, so simply it’s impact might be missed–but I doubt it.
However, if you want more background, click here for Goodreads.
For listening this week, how about the Hidden Brain podcast episode, “How to be More Creative”? We like to think that only “special” people have this creative ability. New research is finding that there is a science to creativity that makes creativity accessible. That does not sound like much of a pitch, but the more we understand how each of us “works,’ the more we can see how creativity works in each of our lives. I especially like how the concept of “genius” is handled. Click here.
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City meetings this week include the following:
On Monday, Dec. 30
- Historic District Commission–canceled.
- Planning Commission, 6 p.m. Council chambers, city hall. For virtual meeting, click here.
On Tuesday, Dec. 31
- No meetings posted.
On Wednesday, Jan. 1 (New Years Day)
- No meeting posted.
On Thursday, Jan. 2
- No meetings posted.
On Friday, Jan. 3
- No meetings posted.
TBE will do our best to update meeting times and locations, but it’s a good idea to check the agendas ahead of time for cancellations. Click here for specific meetings and times.
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Have some life experience in a particular business or field of study. You might be a journalist in the making. Contact editor@bristoledition.org.
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Happy New Year!
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