The Quill

Quick Updates for Independent Lifelong Learners

August 30, 2026

#624

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NEWS

What You Should Know About LLAIC Membership

LLAIC Course Registration Ongoing

Regis College LLARC Fall Course Registration Ongoing



SPECIAL EVENTS

LUNCH@LLAIC starts Tuesday, September 15

LLAIC Loves Art, September 16.

Let's Go: Adams National Historical Park, Quincy, September 18

"Purpose" at the Calderwood, Sunday, October 11

AFFINITY GROUPS

Current Events, Tuesday, September 9

French Conversation Group, Tuesday, September 9

Spanish Conversation Group (La Tertulia), Monday, September 14

Movie Mavens, Friday, September 18

LLAIC Lit-Lovers, Friday, September 18



To join LLAIC: click here

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
ABOUT LLAIC MEMBERSHIP

LLAIC membership is yearly, so why not join now and enjoy all the benefits of our courses and activities! Even if you only plan to take a course in the Spring term, there are many events that happen all year long, including LUNCH@LLAIC, LLAIC Loves Art, Dinner Theater, Current Events, Movie Mavens, and much more!

Click here to join or renew your membership.

REGIS COLLEGE LLARC

FALL COURSE REGISTRATION

IS ONGOING

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 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.

LUNCH@LLAIC IS BACK!!

TUESDAYS AT TEMPLE SHALOM

175 TEMPLE STREET, WEST NEWTON

9/15 UNTIL THE END OF THE SEMESTER

LUNCH STARTS AT 1, PROGRAM AT 1:30

Join us at Temple Shalom on all your Tuesday afternoons from September 15 through the end of the semester for lunch and a delightful program! Drop in before class, after class, or just for the 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 next programs are as follows: 

• 9/15 David Rabinnowitz – Two short interesting live programs

The History of the Bicycle 

Do you recall the fun, freedom, and mobility of riding bicycles as a child and now as an adult? Do you know that the first bikes were powered by people’s feet? The bicycle is the most common vehicle in the world, with more models than any other kind of transport. Beginning with the creation of the wheel, this presentation reveals the many stages of bicycle development that brought over one billion bikes into our modern world.  

The Derivation of Names

Do you know where your last name comes from and what it means? Last or surnames often inform us of our origins, work, or physical characteristics……and sometimes not!! This presentation explains some of the reasons we have last names, how they originated, and what they do (or do not) tell us.

Future programs:

• 9/22 Richard Mansfield – Science vs. Faith and Evolution
• 9/29 Jim Mniece – The Scientific Genius (and Rivalry) of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla
• 10/6 Rhoda Greenspan – Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: Transformative Innovation or Ethical Quagmire?
• 10/13 Mary Mansfield – The Creativity and Joy of Joseph Collier, musician       

PLEASE JOIN LLAIC LOVES ART AND THE PHOENIX ART MUSEUM 

ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2026 AT 1:30 FOR:

ART OF THE MONUMENTS MEN

Join the Monuments Men as they brave the front lines of World War II to track, locate, and recover the stolen art of Europe that was looted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Discover which European museums and private pre-war collectors’ paintings were listed on “Hitler’s Top Ten List” for inclusion in his Fuhrer-Museum. Observe paintings and sculpture from the early Egyptian period through the Modernists of the 20th century.

Our docent, Doreen Weiser, holds a BS in Business Finance from St. John's University in NY and a Post Bacc in Education from University of Phoenix.  After Doreen’s retirement from teaching math for eighteen years, she trained to be a docent and became a master docent in 2015. 



Click here before noon on Tuesday, September 15, to request a Zoom invitation. You'll receive it that day.

THEATER LOVERS

"PURPOSE" AT THE CALDERWOOD

SUNDAY OCTOBER 11 at 2:00

Winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play and a smash hit on Broadway, Purpose is the explosive and wildly entertaining new play from Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, diving headlong into the life of a prominent and influential political dynasty. 

Encircled by civil rights leaders, pastors, and congressmen for decades, the Jasper family is a foundational pillar of Black American society. That is, until their youngest son returns home with an unexpected dinner guest, and their carefully curated existence begins to fracture. Don’t miss this searing and hilarious exploration of faith, class, ambition, and heritage — what The Washington Post called “a feast of jaw-dropping tea and riveting food for thought.” 

The LLAIC Dinner Theater Committee is holding a limited number of “best seats in the house” for the October 11th matinee production of Purpose at the Calderwood Theater in Boston. If you would like us to reserve a ticket for you, please send $20 to Shelly Levine (instructions on the attached registration form) as well as the completed registration by Friday September 18th. Both partners in a couple must be members to be able top purchase tickets since seats are limited.

ADAMS NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, QUINCY

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 AT 9:40 AM

LUNCH AT CRAIG’S CAFÉ

Join us at the John Quincy Adams house in Quincy to learn about four generations of the Adams family that called Peace field home. Enjoy a guided tour of the Old House at Peace field and the Stone Library. This tour is 45 minutes in length. We will meet at 9:40 at the Visitor Center on 1250 Hancock St. The entrance to the parking garage is on 44 Saville Ave. It’s a five-minute walk from your parking space to the visitor center. After getting your parking validated, we will hop on a trolley at 10:00. The trolley will take us to the house and will take us back when the tour ends. There are several stairs to go to the second floor of the house but most of the tour is on the first floor. Bathrooms are in the visitor center but not at the house. Water bottles and big bags are not allowed at the house. 

Following our arrival back at the Visitor Center we’ll walk for 5 minutes to Craig’s Café for a delicious lunch. After lunch, participants will have the option of watching a 26-minute movie at the center or drive back home directly. You will also have the option of visiting the Church of the Presidents on the way back from the restaurant.

The tour costs $15 per person but is free with the National Parks pass. One card covers 4 people so it might end up not costing us at all. Please register using the attached registration form.

FRENCH CONVERSATION

GROUP

Tuesday, September 8 @ 1:30 PM

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. 

CURRENT EVENTS

Wednesday, September 9 @ 10:00

Led by Janet Holmes-Porter 

This week, there was so much news. What is happening with the war in Iran? Will the Strait of Hormuz be opened anytime soon? If not, where will oil prices go? What's happening in Gaza? What about the primaries?

Newcomers are always welcome to this erudite and forceful group. Click here before noon on Tuesday, September 8, to request a Zoom invitation. You'll receive it that day.

MOVIE MAVENS

NOWHERE SPECIAL (2020)

FRIDAY, SEPT 18 @ 2:00-3:00

A window cleaner in Belfast has months to live and one impossible task left: finding the right family to raise his four-year-old son after he’s gone. Nowhere Special tells this story with remarkable restraint — no big speeches, no manipulative score, just quiet, honest attention to love, fear, and what we leave behind for the people we can’t stay to protect. As RogerEbert.com wrote, “There are so many ways to go wrong with this story, but writer/director Uberto Pasolini does not let that happen, relying on the most ordinary details to take on greater and greater weight.” James Norton gives one of the most understated performances of his career opposite young newcomer Daniel Lamont, and the film ends up being less about dying than about how fiercely we try to keep loving someone after we’re gone.

It’s a small film (96 minutes, streaming free on Kanopy) that tends to stay with people long after it ends. We'll talk about the choices John makes, what the film says about family and memory, what any of us would do in his place, and welcome other thoughts about the movie.

Click here by noon on Thursday, September 17, for your Zoom invitation, which will be sent that day. 

LLAIC Lit Lovers

The new season of Lit Lovers will begin in October. These are the books we will read and discuss:



October: "Leo of Golden" by Allen Levi

Led by Patricia Cole

November: "Wrong Place Wrong Time" by

Gillian McAllister

Led by Sandy Grasfield

December: "The Frozen River" by Ariel Lawhon

Led by Herb Chasan

Learn more about LLAIC at www.llaic.org

Call us: (508) 453-1205

Write us: info@llaic.org

Editor: Phyllis Cohen

Production Manager: Alex Conn

Contributing Editor: Shelly Levine