1. The Senior Book Discussion Group will meet today at 11 a.m. at the Beech Street Center to discuss "The Old Man and the Sea," by Ernest Hemingway.

2. The Belmont Public Library is closing at 5 p.m. today and open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and closed on Sundays.

3. Town offices and departments will be closing their doors at 1 p.m. on Fridays over the summer.

4. Life's A Bead at 404 Trapelo Rd. offers a great opportunity for anyone who's interested in getting started in beading. At 11:30 a.m., the store is offering a free beginner beader class. Learn the difference between different beads, stringing materials, findings, etc. And of course, learn how to crimp.

5. Friggatriskaidekaphobia, the fear of Friday the 13th, is actually a recent phobia, first mentioned in a 1869 biography of Gioachino Rossini, who died on a Friday 13th.

He [Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring friends; and if it be true that, like so many Italians, he regarded Fridays as an unlucky day and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that one Friday 13th of November he died.