5 Things You Need to Know Today, Friday, March 22

Here are 5 pieces of information to get your weekend started a bit earlier and to help make you the smartest person in the checkout line of the grocery store.

1. Your 3-Day Local Weekend Weather Forecast:

• According to the NWS, today will feature scattered sprinkles after 3pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 39. West wind 7 to 10 mph.
• Tonight Scattered sprinkles and flurries before 7pm, then scattered flurries between 7pm and 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23. West wind 8 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
• Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 42. West wind 10 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph.
• Saturday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 28. West wind 8 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.
• Sunday Sunny, with a high near 45. West wind 7 to 10 mph.
• Sunday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 29.

2. Reader Comment of the Day: "I'd love to comment on this story, but I'm currently sawing the catalytic converter off my car; maybe later." Reader Mike G, commenting tongue-in-cheek (we hope) on the story, "Five Cars for Going Green."

3. It's Happening Tonight: Friday Night Flicks: Zero Dark Thirty (Dinner & A Movie) at 7 p.m. the Tewksbury Public Library. Enjoy a free meal and a screening of one of Hollywood's latest DVD releases -- Zero Dark Thirty, an Academy Award-nominated film dramatizing the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.  Learn more about the R-rated film HERE.  Register HERE.  Limited to 75 seats.  Co-sponsored by the Friends of the Library and the Lions Club.

4. It's Happening This Weekend: The 4th Annual Meghan McCarthy 5K Road Race is being run on Sunday, starting at 10 a.m. at Tewksbury High School. This is a tremendous event that raises money for cancer and brain tumor research. If you are a runner or walker of any age, this is a worthwhile event to participate it. Registration is just $15. Click here for more details.

5. Oh, And Another Thing: Make sure your dogs and cats are protected! We are coming into springtime (no, really, we are) and that means we are coming into rabies season. Tewksbury is offering a Rabies Clinic for dogs and cats on Saturday at the DPW garage on Whipple Road. Click here for more details.