Hmmmm ... is that fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, flushed skin, red and watery eyes, dry cough, sore throat, watery mucus and general weakness the dreaded influenza — or is it something else?It might be the flu. Even medical experts have a hard time knowing for sure. The one thing everyone knows about the flu, though, is that no one wants to get it. At its best, it’s miserable. At its worst, it kills.Flu season has officially begun, and millions of Americans are heading for their doctor’s office, clinics, flu shot “events” and drug stores for vaccinations. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends everyone over the age of 6 months get vaccinated, except for those allergic to chicken eggs, anyone who has had a reaction to the shot in the past or anyone running a fever.The national health organization has a mission of preventing widespread outbreaks of any contagious illnesses. But not even the experts agree that mass immunizations are the answer to stopping the spread of a virus that changes constantly — potentially as often as with each body that hosts it. This year’s vaccine is the same as last year’s, which is unusual. The annual vaccine (effectiveness is estimated at as little as six months) is formulated based on past data and predictions for what might come. The current formula is aimed at H1N1, or the “swine flu” that caused the 2009 pandemic; Influenza A (H3N2); and Influenza B.It seems that everyone has a story about why they do or do not get vaccinated. One local 54-year-old woman gets a shot at the private school where she works. As an allergy and asthma sufferer, she feels it helps protect her. She still seems to get the flu every year but she believes the vaccine reduces the length and severity.A woman in her 20s, with some medical training, said she does not get an annual shot because she is not in a high-risk category, and because of the risk inherent in the vaccine.She says the virus can activate in your system after you get the shot, so you end up getting the flu anyway. Also, she said, the vaccine given each year only protects against limited strains of virus. It’s still possible, even with the shot, to catch a different version of the flu.Dr. James Steckleberg, on the staff at the Mayo Clinic, writes on the center’s website that many strains mutate in their host. But mutations that begin with a strain formulated into the vaccine may remain similar enough so that an inoculated immune system will attack it.Can you get sick from the vaccine? The CDC says it’s possible, since it’s made from a “killed” virus that is not dormant. That means it can activate in the body.However, the Mayo Clinic says what actually happens is an immune system response that produces flu-like symptoms, most often in young adults. Some would ask, does it matter? Symptoms are symptoms, and sick is sick.One of the biggest current factors in weighing the options is cost. Some Medicare and health insurance plans cover some or all of it.But some don’t, and many families have lost benefits to unemployment or cost-saving measures by employers.Shots average around $30. It can quickly add up to more than a family can afford. Children younger than 9 should get two doses if it’s the first time they have been vaccinated for influenza. There is also the potential need for a second shot during the flu season, if a particularly virulent new strain prompts the development of a new vaccine. The flu season can also last into May — beyond the estimated optimum protection duration for the vaccine.If you do get the flu, chances are you will be advised to tough it out, and most importantly, stay home and try to avoid spreading it to others. It is impossible for medical professionals to know for sure if a patient has the flu based on symptoms alone. Laboratory tests are now available, but doctors typically use them only on high-risk patients. Antiviral drugs can be given, and are most effective when taken soon after symptoms begin.Antibiotics are effective against bacteria, not the flu, which is a virus. They may be prescribed for those at risk, or who develop conditions such as bacterial pneumonia while fighting the flu.For others, taking antibiotics with a virus can do more harm than good, according to the CDC, as they can trigger an antibiotic resistance when needed most.Getting a flu shotMILLBROOK — The Dutchess County Department of Health (DCDH) will hold a flu shot clinic on Friday, Dec. 2, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Millbrook Cornell Cooperative Extension, 2715 Route 44.Interested individuals may register and find more information about flu immunization online at www.dutchessny.gov and clicking the “What to Do About Flu” button, or visit bit.ly/DCFlushots. For those without Internet access, call the Department of Health’s Flu information line at 845-486-3435 or call to register at 845-486-3419.The fee for inactivated flu vaccine will be $32; FluMist will be $40. The fee for the pneumonia vaccine is $75. Influenza and pneumococcal vaccines are covered by Medicare Part B; individuals must bring their card to the clinic. Adults enrolled in Medicare HMOs may be required to pay the fee.The adult flu clinics will offer vaccine to anyone 18 and older wishing to protect themselves against influenza. Individuals under 19 years of age may attend one of the department’s children’s immunization clinics to receive flu vaccination and other important immunizations at low-cost or no cost. Individuals younger than 18 years of age must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Go online to www.findaflushot.com to find other locations where the clinics will be held.
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Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.
“I was a library kid. I walked to the library after school,” she said.
For Sher, the library is as much about the people as it about the books.
“Part of the job I love so much is that running the library is such a community,” she said.
She treasures the relationships she has built, whether recommending books, celebrating accomplishments or helping patrons through difficult times.
“I am thankful that our community is so supportive of the library, unlike what is happening in some other places where librarians are villainized,” Sher said.
Sher takes pride in the Hunt Library’s reputation for being “open and welcoming to everyone. People come in and see things and get pulled into things they weren’t expecting. Our library is seen as a positive force.”
Sher came to Falls Village after being awarded a fellowship at Adamah Farm, then a program of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. She worked at pickling, in the greenhouse and later in the development office. She also worked as a nanny.
At the same time, “I was in the library all the time,” she recalled. “I’m a voracious reader. The library is where I met a lot of my first friends in Falls Village.”
She became assistant librarian at Hunt and worked in that position for almost a decade before becoming the executive director four years ago.
Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.L. Tomaino
Sher met her husband, Adam, while working at Adamah. They had their wedding there in 2012. He now emcees many events which she co-organizes with the Falls Village Recreation Commission.
Sher and her family live near the library.
“It’s an easy commute,” she said with a smile. “My kids run back and forth. I can go home to walk the dog if I need to.”
“My kids have grown up here.” Her oldest son, Eli, “loves volunteering. He helps with Augustfest and often helps set up chairs for ArtWall gatherings.” Her younger son, Noah, is often at events and was eager to taste cookies at last year’s holiday cookie swap.
When she is not at the library, Sher likes to hike with her family. Bella, their Portuguese water dog, often accompanies them.
Sher enjoys seeking out people to offer events at the library.
“I do a lot of different community programming. It is one of my favorite parts of the job.”
Augustfest, featuring food, music and an auction, is the library’s biggest fundraiser.
“This summer we had a record 152 attendees, which was pretty incredible.”
Yonah Sadeh, a filmmaker from Falls Village, inaugurated the VideoWall this year, Sher explained.
“I’ve known Yonah since he was two. It’s wonderful to work with him as an adult.”
The VideoWall complements the library’s ArtWall, which showcases a new artist each month. Sher praised the ArtWall committee for its work and highlighted December’s popular “12x12 Show,” featuring works by local artists, each measuring 12 by 12 inches and priced at $150.
Sher added that some of the artists who exhibit at the ArtWall offer workshops to students at Kellogg School, next door to the library. In September, artist Danielle Mailer worked with the children. Vincent Inconiglios taught a class last November.
Being next to the school, said Sher, is a great advantage.
“Kids are coming after school, to see friends, work on projects, find a great book. Kids that love the library end up using the library as grownups.”
This past year, in partnership with Adamah, the library and school created a garden, with excess produce made available at The Center on Main.
This year is Sher’s second year participating in the Troutbeck Symposium in Amenia with James King, director of the library at Salisbury School. The Troutbeck Symposium is “a gathering of a year of student historical inquiry across the region” in which students “uncover stories that have been overlooked, forgotten, or never recorded.”
Last year, Sher and King began a project with a group of students researching Irish immigrants in Falls Village, exploring ancestry and creating small magazines about their findings.
They continued this year, visiting St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery on Dublin Road, cleaning seven gravestones and even righting one with the help of stonemason and gravestone restoration expert Karl Munson. Paul Kozeazny, a representative of the Catholic archdiocese, helped secure access to the site.
A film documenting their activities will be shown at the symposium in spring 2027.
A full schedule of programs and events, ranging from tech help to ceramic mug-making, can be found on the library’s website.
Despite spending her days surrounded by books, and a busy schedule of programming, Sher still loves to settle in with a book at home.
For more information on library programs and events, visit huntlibrary.org
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Touré was born in northern Mali in 1981. His father, the renowned guitarist Ali Farka Touré, came from a family of soldiers and wanted his son to join the army. The younger Touré studied drums and the calabash and practiced guitar in secret. He earned his father’s blessing to pursue music shortly before Ali died in 2006, and they played two tracks together on Vieux’s debut album.
Touré is known for his deft, polyrhythmic playing, and his songs grow out of riffs that repeat and layer to hypnotic effect. He draws on rock, blues, Latin music and various African traditions. This distinctive blend builds on his father’s work adapting the sonic traditions of Mali’s arid north to the guitar.
Vieux’s album “Mon Pays” (“My Country,” 2013) honored Mali’s culture after Tuareg separatists and extremist groups seized the north in 2012. “Samba” (2017) was recorded before about 50 listeners in Woodstock, New York. In 2022 came “Les Racines” (“The Roots”), a return to his father’s desert blues, and “Ali,” on which he and the trio Khruangbin reworked eight of the elder Touré’s songs.
Touré leads the Ali Farka Touré Foundation, which focuses on cultural and educational work in Mali. Around the anniversary of Ali’s death, it holds a festival in Bamako, Mali’s capital. Bamako has been under blockade for much of the past year, besieged by JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Against this backdrop, Touré continues to carry the music of Mali to audiences abroad.
At the Nov. 5 concert, Touré’s desert blues will share the bill with Gnawa, the music LanGus plays, which developed in Morocco among West Africans who were brought north across the desert as enslaved people. Gnawa is religious music traditionally performed at all-night healing ceremonies called lila, intended to carry participants into trance.
Samir LanGusProvided
LanGus was born and raised outside Agadir, Morocco, and began learning Gnawa from its masters at age 8. He plays the sintir, a three-stringed bass lute made of wood and camel skin. The player strikes a low string with the thumb to create a deep, resonant pulse. Iron castanets clatter over the sintir’s bass line, and vocalists trade call-and-response refrains.
LanGus infuses the tradition with jazz and improvisation. In New York, he founded the ensemble Innov Gnawa. His first solo album, “Gnawa Love,” came out in February.
Touré and LanGus’s Nov. 5 concert is one of the last public events at Race Brook Lodge, which is for sale and ended full-service operations at the end of 2025. The lodge’s final scheduled event, on Nov. 6, is an evening of Rumi’s poetry with translator and vocalist Haleh Liza Gafori, cellist Isabel Castellvi and ceremonial bard James Bird.
For tickets, visit rblodge.com.
James FitzGerald is a student at Yale Law School, where he focuses on ecological restoration and international environmental cooperation. He splits his time between Lakeville and New Haven.
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