The Quill

Quick Updates for Independent Lifelong Learners

November 30, 2025

#585

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NEWS

It's That Time of Year!


SPECIAL EVENTS

LUNCH@LLAIC Continues Through 12/16!

LLAIC Loves Art: Smithsonian Art Museum - Wednesday, 12/3

LLAIC Loves Art: Whitney Museum - Wednesday, 12/10

LET'S GO: Jim & Margery at the BPL - Wednesday, 12/17

Save the Date: LLAIC Loves Art: Brooklyn Museum - Wed., 1/21



AFFINITY GROUPS

Spanish Conversation Group (La Tertulia): Monday, 12/1

Current Events: Friday, 12/5

LLAIC Lit-Lovers: Friday, 12/12

Movie Mavens: Friday, 12/19

French Conversation Group



Not a member yet? Click here to join LLAIC.

NEWS

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR!


We are so thankful for our LLAIC community and all that it provides to keep us learning and living. From interesting courses to stimulate our minds, affinity groups to engage us in new adventures, lunch programming to enrich us and LLAIC Loves Art to expand our knowledge of the world of art, we are most grateful. We are grateful to our Course Leaders who devote many hours to preparing and giving courses, to our volunteers who run our organization so efficiently, and to Jen and Brendan for their work in keeping us all connected. It is truly an amazing village!


As members of this LLAIC village, we ask for your donation to help us. We all know costs are rising and LLAIC is striving mightily to keep our membership and tuition fees low while still providing the benefits of a world-class lifelong learning environment. 


If you would like to make a tax-deductible year-end donation, here are two simple ways:

  • Click here to donate.
  • Or, if you prefer, you can send a check made out to Lifelong Learners: An Independent Collaborative to our treasurer Joel Shwimer, 21 Stagecoach Road, Bedford, MA 01730.


Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to seeing you in our spring semester!

SPECIAL EVENTS

Free to LLAIC Members

LUNCH@LLAIC IS EXTENDED!

TUESDAYS AT TEMPLE SHALOM

175 TEMPLE STREET, WEST NEWTON

12/2, 12/9 AND 12/16

LUNCH STARTS AT 1, PROGRAM AT 1:30


Due to popular demand, we have decided to extend LUNCH@LLAIC beyond the original end-of-fall classes. So, in addition to our next program on Mary Shelley, we have added two more programs. Join us at Temple Shalom on these additional Tuesday afternoons for lunch and a delightful program! Bring your own lunch (we provide designer water and hot beverages) or email Jennifer Young if you want to order pizza ($3 for one slice or $5 for two).


LUNCH@LLAIC is open to guests and no RSVP is necessary, so bring a friend! The remaining presenters and programs are as follows:

 

  • December 2 - Sally Jordan - "Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Created Frankenstein." Our culture is full of versions of Frankenstein and his creature. From cartoonish representations like Boris Karloff’s lumbering monster in the 1931 film of the book, to The Shape of Water (2017), Guillermo del Toro’s thoughtful cinematic adaptation of this parable about what happens if we create a nonhuman “person,” the myth has a tremendous hold on our imaginations. Yet the anonymously published first edition of Frankenstein was written by teenager Mary Shelley in 1818. and was the tale’s first appearance. This presentation will explore her intriguing and inspiring story.  


  • December 9 - Shelly Levine - "Watergate at 50: The Burglary That Changed the Nation." It has been called “The Scandal that Never Goes Away” — and with good reason. Fifty years after the break-in at the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, we still do not know the full story of how the burglary came to happen. What we DO know is that the events that followed, culminating in President Nixon’s resignation in August of 1974, continue to hold lessons about the nature of power that seem to resonate ever more strongly as the years go by. This video tells the story of how a local break-in became a national scandal, and how it profoundly changed the way Americans think about their political institutions.


  • December 16 - Richard Mansfield - "Albert Camus and The Human Condition." For generations, Albert Camus has been an existential and moral guide because of his basic belief in the strength of the human spirit. This video explores the foundations of Camus’s thought, focusing on concepts that are central to his vision of the human condition, including the absurd, rebellion, and solidarity. It also traces his intellectual and political trajectory from the interwar period, through the Second World War. Camus is truly one of the most celebrated writers and public intellectuals of the twentieth century, and his writing is so relevant for our times.  

PLEASE JOIN LLAIC LOVES ART ON

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3 @ 1:30 PM AS PRESENTER RALPH KIDDER LEADS US IN A LIVELY SESSION ON CONTEMPORARY CRAFT WORKS


Craft artists push beyond traditions by testing the limits of materials and techniques. Whether using clay, metal, glass, or fiber, these artists create works that blur the lines between art and craft and encourage us to see everyday objects in new ways. Come ready to discuss works that surprise, delight, and challenge the viewer.


Click here by noon on Tuesday, December 2, to request a Zoom invitation. You'll receive it that day.

PLEASE JOIN LLAIC LOVES ART AND DR. DEBORAH GOLDBERG ON WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10 AT 1:30

TO PERUSE ARTWORK FROM THE WHITNEY MUSEUM IN NEW YORK


After patronizing American art since 1907, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney founded The Whitney Museum of American Art in 1930. Dr. Deborah Goldberg will look at the range of art in the early part of its collection, from the figurative to the abstract, including paintings and sculpture. Artists discussed will include Alexander Calder, Edward Hopper, and Georgia O’Keeffe.


Deborah A. Goldberg, PhD (the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University) lives in New York City. She teaches art history and writing at the School of Visual Arts, and lectures regularly at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art.


Watch this space in next week's Quill for a link to request a Zoom invitation. If you request it by noon on Tuesday, December 9, you'll receive it that day..

JIM AND MARGERY ON WGBH

AT THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY STUDIO

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17 AT 11 A.M.


Join hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan for a smart local conversation with leaders and thinkers shaping Boston and New England. They are a great team.


Jim and Margery have been broadcasting together for 18 years. They first worked together at NECN, then moved to radio and eventually WGBH radio in 2013.


Jim is a lawyer and activist. Margery is a journalist who has worked at the Boston Globe and Herald and other publications.

.

We will be present at their live broadcast from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on December 17 at the Boston Public Library studio. The broadcast actually goes from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. We are leaving early to go to lunch.


THIS EVENT IS FREE BUT LIMITED TO 10 PARTICIPANTS, and we are nearly full. Please contact Margalit Lai to find out whether space is available.



After viewing the broadcast, we will take a short walk to Cafe Landwer for a delicious lunch. It will be fun!!

SAVE THE DATE FOR LLAIC LOVES ART

AS THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM PRESENTS A VIRTUAL EXHIBITION OF MONET IN VENICE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21 @ 1:30 PM

This is the exhibit that is currently at the Brooklyn Museum. Watch this space for a Zoom link.

AFFINITY GROUP MEETINGS

Free to LLAIC Members

SPANISH CONVERSATION GROUP

(LA TERTULIA)

MONDAY, DECEMBER 1 @ 1:00 P.M.


Our format consists of reading and discussing articles from various Spanish language media sources of general high interest. There is no homework although everyone is invited to submit articles they might find for our agendas.

The hosts for the group are Miriam Grodberg and Larry Krakauer. Contact Miriam to request an invitation or with any

questions.

CURRENT EVENTS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5 @ 10:00 A.M.


The news doesn't stop for Thanksgiving, and a lot will have happened before we meet next. Join our vibrant group for our usual scintillating conversation. Be part of our ongoing efforts to find answers to the most challenging questions of the day. New members are most welcome.


Click here before noon on Thursday, December 4, to request a Zoom invitation. You'll receive it that day.

LLAIC LIT-LOVERS:

JANE EYRE

BY CHARLOTTE BRONTE

LED BY MARGARET DERGALIS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12 @ 10:30


Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is our December read, led by Margaret Dergalis. Some of our most satisfying discussions are when we reassess a classic we first read long ago. There are many very inexpensive paperback editions available on Amazon, starting with the Dover Thrift Edition for $5.60.


Click here before noon on Thursday, December 11, for a Zoom invitation. You'll receive it that day.


Coming up:

  • January 9 – Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane -- Gail Stone
  • February 13 – The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin – Irma Napoleon
  • March 13 – Maya’s Notebook by Isobel Allende – Abby Shapiro
  • April 10 - Exit by Belinda Bauer – Dana Kaplan
  • May 8 – The Lion Women of Tehran – Phyllis Cohen
  • June 12 – Tables for Two by Amor Towles – Carole Levy

MOVIE MAVENS

THE SAVAGES (2007)

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19 @ 2 P.M. ON ZOOM

 

The Savages balances humor and harsh reality in a bittersweet and nuanced 2007 film about family dysfunction and siblings who suddenly become responsible for their ailing and estranged father. Wendy and Jon Savage (Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman) invest their characters with rich, flawed, and hilarious humanity.

 

Please join us for this Oscar-nominated film, for best original screenplay and actress in a leading role.

 

The Savages is available to stream on Criterion or to rent on Apple TV, Amazon, YouTube or Fandango. Please click here before noon on Thursday, December 18 for a Zoom invitation. You will receive it that day.

FRENCH CONVERSATION GROUP

The French Conversation group is reading Pas Pleurer, by Lydia Salvayre, a novel about the Spanish civil war that won the Prix Goncourt in 2014.


We meet for two hours by ZOOM every other Monday at 1 p.m. We are intermediate to advanced French readers. We read the texts out loud over the internet. Please email Betty Salzberg at bsalzberg127@gmail.com if you would like to join us.

Learn more about LLAIC at www.llaic.org

Call us: (508) 453-1205

Write us: info@llaic.org


Editor: Barbara Mende

Contributing Editor: Shelly Levine

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