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NEWS
LLAIC Course Registration Ongoing
Regis College LLARC Fall Course Registration is now open
SPECIAL EVENTS
Summersession continues on Tuesdays at 10:30
LLAIC Annual Picnic Thursday, August 6 @ 11:30
Let's Go: Charles River Museum of Industry, Friday, August 14
Dinner Theater: "Rhinoceros", American Repertory Theater, Sept. 9
AFFINITY GROUPS
French Conversation Group: Monday, July 27
Current Events: Wednesday, August 5
On summer vacation: La Tertulia, LLAIC Lit-Lovers, Movie Mavens
To join LLAIC: click here
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Schedule-at-a-Glance
FALL COURSE REGISTRATION IS STILL GOING ON
Registration for fall courses began on Monday morning, July 20th. Many courses are still available, so sign up before they fill up! Make sure you are a current LLAIC member before then. Also make sure you have your username and password to log in.
Click here to go directly to the course registration page.
Click here for a short guide to help you with registering.
In the unlikely event that your first-choice course is full, put your name on the waitlist. If you run into difficulty, call one of our helpers listed below. And if their line is busy or there's no answer, call another one!
- Phyllis Cohen 508 651 9630
- Carole Levy 781 929 9710
- Richard Mansfield 978 443 4404
- Bill Miniscalco 978 394 1870
- Peter Schmidt 339 223 3973
If you would prefer to register for membership and/or courses by mail, contact Richard Mansfield at 978-443-4404 or richardscottmansfield@gmail.com and he will send you the forms.
Our course schedule and full course descriptions are available on our website. Each course is listed by day, by period, and by course leader. If you click on the course name, you will get a full description, including the dates, times, location (Zoom or in person), amount of preparation, etc. If you click on the course leader’s name, you will find their bio. Click here for the class dates, and click here for the Schedule-at-a-Glance.
A word to the wise: our courses will open up to members of LLARC on July 27. So, if you are thinking of taking a LLAIC fall course but have not yet signed up, don’t wait too long to register!
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REGIS COLLEGE LLARC
FALL COURSE REGISTRATION
IS NOW OPEN
As part of our ongoing collaboration with LLARC (Lifelong Learning at Regis College), LLARC courses listed on their website here are open to LLAIC members for registration. Some LLARC courses will be on Zoom and some in person at Regis College in Weston. Click here for detailed instructions on how to sign up for up to two LLARC courses.
If you have any difficulty with registration, contact Bill, Peter, or Shelly.
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SPECIAL EVENTS
Free to LLAIC Members
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TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2026
SUMMER SESSION CONTINUES
Summersession continues this week in person at Temple Shalom with two very interesting topics:
Bill Miniscalco at 10:30 am - 12:00 noon
Science in the News
The news media are sprinkled with scientific developments that get missed or are poorly explained. I have chosen a number of recent developments for us to briefly explore. Some are potentially important, others are just curious, but all will provoke discussion. Among the topics are:
- A cell synthesized in a laboratory that has many of the functions of life.
- Are AI chatbots conscious and, if so, should they be treated humanely or be trusted?
- Meta has demonstrated a noninvasive method for converting thought into text.
- Is it possible to keep Venice from suffering the same fate as Atlantis?
Patti Lutsky at 1:00-2:30 pm
Linguistic Aspects of Internet Writing
- How has the internet changed the ways we write English?
- What are the semiotics of text messages?
- What do all those acronyms mean?
- How do you pronounce “gif”?
All Summersession programs are simply drop-in, no advance registration necessary. Come for the morning or afternoon or both, and of course no charge. Bring your lunch (or can email Jen here to order pizza) and join us for the day in our lovely air-conditioned “Schmooze Room.” Why not even bring a few friends and introduce them to LLAIC?
Looking Ahead to Future Summersession Programs:
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Period 1 (10:30-12:00)
The Physics of Baseball with Peter Schmidt
Ethics with Richard Mansfield
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Period 2 (1:00-2:30)
LLAIC Focus Group led by Pat Cole
The Famous Liberty Ship with David Rabinowitz
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LLAIC ANNUAL PICNIC
Tuesday, August 6 @ 11:30
LYONS PARK, NEWTON
LLAIC’s twice rescheduled annual picnic will be held starting at 11:30 on August 6 at Lyons Park (GPS: 104 West Pine St., Newton). Bring something for yourself to eat and something to share. Bring some large plastic tablecloths if you have any!
Directions: From Rte 95, take the Rte 30 East exit, and follow Commonwealth Ave. about ¾ mile. Turn left on Melrose Street, go about ¼ mile, then left on West Pine St. Go to the end and park near sign, “Auburndale Playground. The Cove.” Walk through the opening in the fence and follow the pathway to the left about 250 feet to the Ryan Picnic Area. There are about 30 picnic tables, mostly shaded.
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CHARLES RIVER MUSEUM OF INDUSTRY
Friday, August 14th at 11 A.M.
BREWERS TAP AND TABLE, 256 Moody St., Waltham
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Located in the Francis Cabot Lowell Mill, 154 Moody Street, Waltham, an icon of the American Industrial Revolution, the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation brings together intriguing artifacts, cultural insights, and inspiring stories to delight people of all ages.
We will meet at the museum at 11:00 for a one-hour tour. If coming from Moody St., the museum is set back from the street. There is a tall smokestack above the museum. There is no parking at the museum, but there is parking at the Embassy Theater parking lot, which is on the opposite side of the Charles River. There is an easy footbridge for visitors to walk from the parking lot over the river to the museum. A detailed description of parking options is available on the museum website. Note: there are stairs to the 2nd floor, but the majority of the exhibits are on the 1st floor.
After the tour we will walk up to Moody Street, where we’ll meet for lunch at the Brewer’s Tap and Table, on the corner of Moody Street and Pine Street. We’ll meet there at 12:30. They serve a nice variety of American pub food. A 20% gratuity will be automatically added to the bill so we can have individual checks.
Please fill out the registration form attached here and send it in if you plan to join us. Note: we will limit the number of registrations to 20 for this tour.
Registration for Charles River Museum trip.
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DINNER THEATER GROUP
"RHINOCEROS"
AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER
September 9, 2026 at 2:00 P.M.
We are excited to have a limited number of tickets to the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) production of “Rhinoceros” on Wednesday, September 9th at 2:00 p.m. Tickets cost $30.00 each.
The story: Everything seems normal one Sunday morning…until it’s not. One by one, friends and colleagues transform into rhinoceroses, and Berenger is forced to decide: will he follow the crowd or stand his ground?
If you would like a ticket to join this fall dinner-theater event, please fill out the attached form and email to Andrea Teacher at dreajjkk@gmail.com or mail to her at the address on the form. Payment can be made by check to Andrea or Venmo to Shelly Levine (@Shelly-Levine-2). Payment is due by August 14th, and no refunds will be issued after that date.
Since we have only a few tickets left, please email Andrea or Shelly ASAP if you want us to save you one.
Registration form for "Rhinoceros"
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AFFINITY GROUP MEETINGS
Free to LLAIC Members
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FRENCH CONVERSATION
GROUP
Monday, July 27 @ 1:30 p.m.
On April 13, we started reading short stories from the book French Stories/Contes Francais: A Dual-Language Book, edited by Wallace Fowlie. We’ve started with the first story, Micromégas, by Voltaire.
You can see a link to the Kindle version of the book on Amazon here. Once there, you can click a box on the right to order it in paperback. CAUTION: There are other similar DUAL LANGUAGE books edited by Wallace Fowlie. Be sure to buy the edition with “Ten Short Stories by Voltaire, Balzac, Gide, Camus …” et. al., available from Amazon for Kindle or in paperback.
The complete list of stories is included in the description. You can see the actual table of contents by clicking on the “Read sample” link just below the picture of the book’s cover. It seems to take you to the FORWARD; if so, you must click the < arrow on the left side to move back through the table. You can also scan to the right and read almost all of the first story,
We meet for an hour and a half by ZOOM every other Monday at 1:30 p.m. We are intermediate to advanced French readers who read the French text out loud and discuss the stories in French. Please email Betty Salzberg if you would like to join us.
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CURRENT EVENTS
Wednesday, August 5th @ 10:00 A.M.
Led by Don Bermont
What is happening with the war in Iran? Will there be another memorandum of understanding? Will the Strait of Hormuz be opened anytime soon? If not, where will prices go? What about the Houthis threatening to close the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait? What's happening in Gaza?
Newcomers are always welcome to this erudite and forceful group. Click here before noon on Tuesday, August 4, to request a Zoom invitation. You'll receive it that day.
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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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