From personal finance to Biblical tales, it takes a little TLC

SALISBURY — The autumn season of Taconic Learning Center (TLC) classes begins Sept. 16. As always, the classes are taught by area residents who have a particular expertise or interest in a topic. They are open to everyone who joins; membership is $60 per year and entitles the member to an unlimited number of classes. Class participation is not required and there are no required exams and no grades.The full list of 12 courses is available online at www.tlcnwct.org.Topics are widely varied. Always popular are courses on current events, such as Larry Rand’s exploration of the U.S. Supreme Court and decisions made in this year’s session. This class will meet at Noble Horizons on Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon, from Sept. 16 to Nov. 11.Author, humorist and retired oil company executive officer Jerry Jamin will talk about personal finance on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon at Geer Village beginning Sept. 19. He promises that, “We won’t be spending a lot of time on student loans or how to save for retirement or how to pay for your starter home or even your starter spouse. We will be concentrating on personal financial issues: investment alternatives, risk measurement and management, portfolio strategies, taxes, inflation and how to make your money last as long as you hang around. Maybe something left for the kids and grandkids. Maybe not. After all what did future generations ever do for us anyway? As usual a tolerance for arithmetic and a sense of humor are the only requirements.”Lynn Whelchel will continue her class on advances in medicine, on Thursdays from 2 to 4 p.m. at Geer Village in North Canaan, beginning Oct. 24.Rand, a retired history teacher, will also offer a documentary history of World War II on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to noon at Noble Horizons, beginning Sept. 17.Mark Scarbrough’s extremely popular studies of great works of literature continues this year with “Eight Poets Who Created the Modern World,” which will meet on Thursdays at Geer Village from 10 a.m. to noon, beginning Sept. 19. He plans to show how T. S. Eliot, Pablo Neruda, Adrienne Rich, Philip Larkin and others “did much of the heavy lifting for the construction of our notions of ‘modern’ in Western culture.”Other offerings in the arts include the opera of Giuseppe Verdi, the plays of Tom Stoppard and how to write a memoir.Retired Rev. Richard Taber comes out of retirement to offer an in-depth look at King David from a Biblical perspective: a cunning warrior, a shrewd politician and a fascinating character in one of the great tales of history.Go online for other course descriptions and to learn how to register.