Symphony conductor John Parkinson promises a program aimed at instilling the finest and most heartwarming Christmas Spirit.

Along with a program of secular and popular holiday songs, this year will see a special presentation of “T'was the Night Before Christmas” narrated by popular local actor Bert Hutt.

Lake County's favorite jazz singer Paula Samonte returns after a one-year absence, to entertain her many fans with a medley of her signature Christmas songs.

The CLPA Youth Orchestra, under the direction of Susan Condit, will deliver two numbers. First is “A Burgundian Carol,” often better known as “Sing We Now of Christmas” with a modern arrangement of the ancient melody by Deborah Baker Monday.

The second selection, “Bobsled Run” is a snow-scene memory, not of Olympic style bobsleds, but rather the antique models pulled by horses. It was written by Lloyd Conely.

Tickets to see the show in person are still available. Tickets for a full dress rehearsal at 11 a.m. are $5 general admission and free to all youths under 18.

Admission to the 3 p.m. concert is $20 general and $15 for Clear Lake Performing Arts (CLPA) members.

Advance purchase tickets can be had by phone at 707-263-0577 or online at www.soperreesetheatre.com.

Tickets also available in person at Catfish Books in Lakeport and Lower Lake Coffee Co. in Lower Lake.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the film starts at 6 p.m. at the Clearlake United Methodist Church at 14521 Pearl Ave., Clearlake.

This is no children’s movie. This documentary takes a fascinating and penetrating look at a root cause of the current financial misery suffered by so many of us and our country.

The “secret” is simply that our money is printed by the privately owned Federal Reserve rather than the Federal government.

If our money were printed by the government, rather than being borrowed from The Fed, no interest would have to be paid – and untold gazillions of dollars would be saved.

As it is, we are in the hands of bankers, who were as self-serving a century ago as they are now.

Consider this breathtakingly candid quote from a banker’s letter in 1891 to his fellow banksters: “On Sept. 1st 1894 we will not renew our loans under any consideration. On Sept. 1st we will demand our money. We will foreclose. We can take two-thirds of the farms west of the Mississippi as well, at our own price ...” (From the American Bankers’ Association, as printed in the Congressional Record, 1913.)

Frank L Baum’s children’s book expresses his concerns over the same issue in a code featuring the yellow brick road, Dorothy’s originally silver slippers, the Emerald City – and that little man behind the camera. Rarely has monetary policy been so gripping – and so very pertinent.

Creating our own local currency is one very positive solution to this problem. SSC is delighted to report that a speaker from Transition Lake County who heads up the TLC Local Currency working group will be speaking after the film.

For more information call 707-279-2957.

The event will feature music students from grades sixth through eighth.

The program will be on stage at the MAC auditorium, Lange Street, Lakeport.

Admission is free.

The concert begins at 7 p.m.

The award winning jazz band and concert band will perform on the MAC Auditorium stage, Lange Street, Lakeport.

Admission is free.

Ted Kooser, US Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. Photo by UNL Publications and Photography.

Blank

When I came to my mother’s house

the day after she had died

it was already a museum of her

unfinished gestures. The mysteries

from the public library, due

in two weeks. The half-eaten square

of lasagna in the fridge.

The half-burned wreckage

of her last cigarette,

and one red swallow

of wine in a lipsticked

glass beside her chair.

Finally, a blue Bic

on a couple of downs

and acrosses left blank

in the Sunday crossword,

which actually had the audacity

to look a little smug

at having, for once, won.

Ted Kooser was US Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. He is a professor in the English Department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He lives on an acreage near the village of Garland, Nebraska, with his wife Kathleen Rutledge, the editor of the Lincoln Journal Star.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2010 by George Bilgere from his most recent book of poems, The White Museum, Autumn House Press, 2010. Reprinted by permission of George Bilgere and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2010 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.