Larry the K's Lineup

Survivors circle the Norton High School track during the June 2023 Relay For Life opening lap. The Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro to benefit the American Cancer Society (ACS) will be holding the kickoff for its reimagined 2024 event from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22 at the Attleboro Arts Museum, 86 Park St., Attleboro, with a snow date of Wednesday, Feb. 28 at the same time. The kickoff at the museum, a community partner of the relay, will share information about this year’s 26th event, which is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 8 at Norton High School. The relay has changed from an 18-hour overnight event to a one-day only one to attract more people and families. At the kickoff, the top fundraisers from the 2023 event will be presented awards and a preliminary relay schedule will be shared. The kickoff is open to anyone interested in learning more about the relay. The Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro draws teams and participants from most Attleboro area com...

In this column, which was published in the January 2024 edition of Jewish Rhode Island of Providence, R.I., I share 10 thoughts to usher in 2024. The link to the column, as it appears on the newspaper’s website is at the end of the column. ******** Here are 10 thoughts and observations to usher in 2024: 1. Almost four years removed from the start of the pandemic, COVID-19, thanks to vaccines and boosters, is more or less another thing to contend with, but it still stinks to get a positive test --- especially so when it comes after having done all the right things. I received the two original vaccines in 2021, three boosters over the next year-plus and the latest one this past fall. I also received the flu and RSV vaccines. Nonetheless, I wound up getting a rather disappointing “gift” on the third day of Hanukkah: a cold that, two days later, turned out to be COVID. There may no longer be a stigma attached to getting COVID, but the disease still disrupts your life. I had to can...

As many of my regular readers might have noticed, it's been a while since I've posted on my blog and there's a very good reason for it: I've unfortunately been under the weather since Dec. 10, when after coming down with a cold, I tested positive for COVID-19 despite getting all of the vaccines and boosters, including the latest one in October. And this fall, I also got the flu and RSV vaccines, but alas, it all was to no avail. As what inevitably happens with me, it wasn't a simple cold as I developed an atrocious cough, one that produced what were, at times, violent coughing fits that kept me up most nights for nearly two weeks. The good news is that I'm on the mend, with the cough finally dissipating, but it caused me to develop back pain that has stopped me from my daily jogging routine, though I've managed to get some steps in walking. If you haven't been vaccinated, please do so: Doctors told me things would have been much worse had I not been vacc...

  The second night of Hanukkah. The third of eight candles lit during Hanukkah will be illuminated at sundown today (Saturday, Dec. 9). In recognition of that, I offer my annual “Chanukah Charlie” quiz on the holiday. The answers are listed at the end of this column: The link to the column, as it it appears on the website of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA, where it was published in the Dec. 9-10 Weekend edition of the newspaper, follows: https://www.thesunchronicle.com/opinion/columns/larry-kessler-chanukah-charlie-wishes-you-a-happy-hanukkah/article_89c2a33f-3705-53f9-a95b-b512b3451232.html ******** As he’s agreed to do for me over the last two-plus decades, Chanukah Charlie offers his annual multiple-choice quiz on the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, which started with the first candle being lit on Thursday, Dec. 7, ahead of the first day on Friday, Dec. 8, because all Jewish holidays start at sunset. The holiday will come to a close on Friday, Dec. 15 after the ei...

  Gifts donated during the 2023 Leftover Turkey Trot. This column, published in the Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, edition of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA, on the 41st annual Christmas Is For Kids gift drive, calls attention to the volunteers who spend a good chunk of their holiday season giving their time to make sure that about 1,000 needy children and teenagers --- many living in shelters or in difficult situations --- will receive presents, including badly-needed clothes, on Christmas Day. I’ve been writing about the drive for more than 30 years, and have been volunteering since 2017, and the drive is truly a godsend to hundreds of families in the greater Attleboro area. The drive has been a model of consistent gift-giving over the last four decades, and I salute all of the volunteers, lovingly referred to as “elves,” who work countless hours to make Christmas a reality for so many. The link to the column, as it appears on the newspaper’s website is: https://www.thesunchron...

  This column on the unprecedented levels of antisemitism, published in the Dec. 6, 2023, edition of The Sun Chronicle, throws no punches, but it's something that needs to be said. Antisemitism has not only spiraled out of control in this country and the world, as I say in the column, but it’s the worst that I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. With Hanukkah starting tonight (Thursday, Dec. 7) with the lighting of the first of eight candles, I’m posting the column today. The link to the column, as it appears on the newspaper’s website, follows: https://www.thesunchronicle.com/opinion/columns/larry-kessler-hate-at-hanukkah/article_e2d653d2-12fd-5958-b634-8675fdf1cc59.html ********* “I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? … If you prick us do we n...

  The author's menorah is lit up on the final night of Hanukkah in December of 2022. With Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, starting on Thursday night, Dec. 7, 2023, when the first candle is lit, it’s shaping up to be a very bleak --- and dark --- holiday due to the Israel-Hamas war and the avalanche of hatred that has followed it. Antisemitism has been especially virulent and nearly out of control since Hamas’ brutal terrorist invasion of Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s overwhelming response in Gaza that has killed thousands, including far too many civilians. (The only exception to the carnage in the Middle East has been the recent truce during which about 100 of the more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas were released.) But with antisemitism out of control --- millions in the United States and millions more worldwide have blamed the heinous events of Oct. 7 on Israel and all Jews --- it’s shaping up to be a joyless Hanukkah. To make matters worse, antisemitism has ...

  Some of the about 200 toys donated to the Christmas Is For Kids gift drive at the Turkey Trot. Want a feel-good story during these horrible and bleak times where hatred has a big lead over love? Then read on! ******** More than 450 runners and walkers turned out for the Second Annual Leftover Turkey Trot in downtown North Attleboro on a clear, but chilly, Sunday morning (Nov. 26, 2023) to raise more than $10,000 for Christmas Is For Kids. The second annual fundraiser for the Attleboro area's largest gift drive, now in its 41st year, drew 461 participants, said Kelly Fox, the driver's longtime chairperson. Fox said that money will provide gifts for 300 of the 1,000 children and teens that the drive expects to serve this holiday season. In addition, the entrants donated about 200 toys to the drive, Fox said. The race was organized by the Town of North Attleboro, in partnership with the gift drive and was followed by the annual Santa Parade through downtown North Attlebo...

  Today (Nov. 22, 2023) marks 60 years since President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated during a campaign trip to Dallas. It was a Friday afternoon, less than a week before Thanksgiving, when Kennedy was gunned down by Lee Harvey Oswald --- or by the CIA, FBI, Cuban hit men, the Mob or by an alien from outer space, depending on which crazy conspiracy theory you happen to believe. But regardless of conspiracy theories, one thing is clear: The United States lost its innocence and idealism forever that day. Kennedy’s assassination ushered in more than a half-century of mistrust of government bureaucracy and officials --- and that negativity toward government is stronger than ever in 2023 and shows no signs of dissipating.   Although that may have been for the best, the deep cynicism that followed JFK’s death has nonetheless hurt the United States in the long run. Vietnam and the lies that led to a wider war there and Watergate followed, and although those scandals pal...

  With the horrific Middle East war raging --- along with the 21-month-old war raging in Ukraine --- it may be difficult to find reasons to give thanks in less than two weeks during the American Thanksgiving. In this column, which appeared in the November edition of Jewish Rhode Island of Providence (published on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023), I give 10 reasons why I will be giving thanks this Thanksgiving Day despite the non-stop wars and the fractious country, where hatred of everyone seems far more popular than love, empathy, sympathy or generosity. The reasons listed in this column in no way minimize the horrors appearing nightly on the national news and 24/7 on the non-stop cable TV networks, but it IS to suggest that Americans remain extremely fortunate, despite all of the constant negativity that we are bombarded with   --- not to mention the incessant negativity and hatred that has taken over social media. The link to this column, as it appears on the Jewish Rhode Island’s ...