5 Things You Need to Know Today, Jan. 18

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 18. Here are five things you need to know today.

1. File under: It takes a village
Tonight is the monthly at the Charlestown police station, where the community, members of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council and officers come together to talk about what’s been going on. A lot of people turned out two weeks ago for a at Mishuwam. There’s a good chance many of them will be there tonight, looking to continue the conversation about how to help local kids and help curb crime in the neighborhood. Meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at the police station. It’s free and open to everyone.

2. Eat, drink and get recognized
George Kelley, an assistant professor at won the Julia Child Award from Boston University for his master’s thesis, which analyzes the function of food and consumption in Shakespeare’s plays, sonnets and lyric poems. The award was granted by Boston University and it goes to students each year who have achieved outstanding scholarly work. According to Kelley’s research, “Consumption usually leads to the physical or spiritual ruin of a character,” Kelley said, in a statement issued by the college. Interesting fact: Kelley ran a catering company to help pay his way through school.  “I’ve always been a Shakespeare fanatic. The two lines of my interest just converged for my master’s thesis,” Kelley said. 

3. More meetings on the future of BPL
Officials at Boston Public Library are hosting budget roundtables this month to give the public a chance to talk about spending for the city’s branches in the next fiscal year. Although none of the roundtables are scheduled at Charlestown library, residents are welcome to attend at other branches. On Jan. 25, there’s a meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library in Copley Square. On Jan. 26, there’s one in Roxbury. And a second set of meetings will follow in March. For more details, visit the City of Boston’s web site. And for more info on the library’s finances, click here.

4. The deep dark heart of winter
Apparently there’s a good chance ice will be falling from the sky at some point today. The forecast from the National Weather Service is grim. Snow today before 2 p.m. Then rain. And snow. Maybe frozen rain and snow. Only 1 to 3 inches accumulation. Tonight: Rain and snow showers before midnight, then freezing rain likely. The rain could be heavy at times. Bright spot? Little or no accumulation expected by Wednesday.

5. In case you missed it
We publish a fairly regular column on Patch called , which takes a quick look at the history of a property in Charlestown and answers a few questions about it’s current and future usage. Yesterday in the column. It’s worth checking out. Did you know armories were built all around New England states around the same era (early 1900s)? Did you know it was because government officials were afraid of a labor uprising? That’s the kind of fear, you could argue, we could benefit from right now.

For more information on what's happening around the neighborhood today and everyday, check out our events calendar.