Our daily column, 5 Things You Need to Know Today, will help you to get your day started and offer you some fodder for water cooler conversation.

1. Special Town Meeting resumes tonight at 7:30 or when a quorum is reached. On the agenda is appropriating $1.7 million in state aid to departments. There are proposals to give $14,000 to the library to extend hours on Sundays and to give about $30,000 to the veterans department for a additional half-time position. Framingham Patch will be live blogging.

2. Do you have memory ticklers from the old Shoppers World in your drawers, closets, attic or basement?  The Framingham History Center would like to borrow them for a special exhibition. Bring promotional items, such as photos and autographs of famous visitors, promotional items (postcards, blotters, bookmarks, menus, cinema tickets, etc.), bags and boxes with a store’s logo, and items purchased at Shopper’s World to the History Center today at 4 p.m. for a special show & tell and chat with curator Dana Dauterman Ricciardi and others about Shoppers World.

3. Try a Tai Chi class at the Open Spirit Center on the campus of Edwards Church at noon. Although Tai Chi was created as a martial art, it is more widely known for its health benefits as well as its meditative, calming and relaxing nature. Led by Sensei Jason Gould, suggested cost is $12-$15 per session of $60 for six weeks.

4. Gail Huff, Sen. Scott Brown's wife will be in Framingham today for a Women for Brown event at Jennifer's Gourmet at 1 p.m. Huff plans to chat with women business owners and listen to the issues they're facing in today's economy, said Framingham Republican Janet Leombruno. 

5. Dr. Jackson Katz, one of America’s leading anti-sexist male activists, will speak about Men, Women, Sex and Violence tonight at 7:30 at the McCarthy Center Forum on the campus of Framingham State University. The public is invite to the free presentation. Katz co-founded the Mentors In Violence Prevention program, the leading gender violence prevention initiative in professional and college athletics.  He is the author of The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help (2006).