July 18, 2012

Complete Range of Hardware and Housewares Are Offered at Smith’s Ace Expanded Location

NEW LOOK: “Customers are so pleased with the new arrangement, combining hardware and housewares together. It is very convenient for them to have everything under one roof!” Kelly Babbitt, manager of housewares at Smith’s Ace Hardware & Housewares in the Princeton Shopping Center, is shown near a display of popular housewares items. The new configuration coincides with Smith’s Ace Hardware’s 10th anniversary in the Shopping Center.

Smith’s Ace Hardware just got bigger and better! Its companion store, Smith’s Ace Housewares, has now relocated with the hardware in expanded space at the Princeton Shopping Center.

“We wanted to have everything together, and we needed more room to expand,” explains owner George Smith. “Housewares is very popular, and we opened it originally in 2004 because of customer demand. People really wanted housewares.”

In its 10 years at the Shopping Center, Smith’s Ace Hardware has truly become the indispensable place! Carrying both a complete range of hardware and housewares, it offers customers an attractive local alternative to Home Depot and Lowe’s.

“I wouldn’t think of going anywhere else,” says a long-time customer. “They have everything you need, and the service is great. The staff is knowledgeable and helpful.”

Family Business

George Smith does know the hardware business. He and his brothers now own four Ace Hardware stores — in Yardville, Mercerville, Newtown, Pa., and the Princeton location. They are continuing the family business, started by their grandfather in 1946.

“Yardville Supply started out as a concrete plant, then added lumber and a hardware store,” says Mr. Smith. “My dad worked there and became president of the company. My brother Ed and I started helping out when we were 15 or so. I stayed in the building materials business, and Ed was in the ready mix business.”

In 1997, they joined Ace Hardware, which was established 75 years ago and has 5,000 stores across the United States. It offers a broad selection of its own private label products, as well as many name brand items.

The Princeton store opened in 2002, and has lived up to the Smiths’ expectations. “We thought Princeton would be a good location, and the space was available,” recalls Mr. Smith. “There has been an absolutely great reaction. The way the community has responded has been exceptional. People still come in all the time, and say “We’re so glad you’re here!’”

The expanded space includes 18,000 square feet and is filled with all the tools, supplies, and gadgets one expects to find in a hardware store. Everything is conveniently arranged according to department, with a full section devoted to housewares.

“We have 30,000 different items,” reports Mr. Smith. “30 different hoses, 100 different kinds of nails, 300 light bulbs, and new things all the time.

“The goal was to expand and not lose sales. Everything was completely rearranged — a total remodel, and we did the work ourselves. We hired the electricians, plumbers, carpenters, etc. Getting the remodel completed and in place has been a challenge. It took over a year and a half, and Princeton Township and the Shopping Center were very helpful. Everyone came together to make it happen.”

Room to Browse

Everyone loves hardware stores. There is so much to look at, and something so intriguing about all those gadgets. Now there is even more room to browse.

The paint department has grown significantly over the years, reports Mr. Smith. It now carries five lines of Benjamin Moore paint, including the environmentally-friendly Gen X, as well as the Ace brand lines, such as Clark + Kensington. All the painting supplies, stains, and varnishes are on display.

Bird seed of all kinds, feeders, and houses are year-round sellers, and as everyone heads outdoors for spring and summer, Smith’s Ace can furnish all the needs. Outdoor furniture, bistro tables with umbrellas, Tiki torches, solar lights, and hammocks are all in stock. Grills, including state-of-the-art Weber gas grills, are big sellers, and the store offers even more in the expanded space.

Lawn care supplies, from potting soil and planters to weed killers, grass seed and turf enhancers are available, as is a complete line of garden tools — pruners and rakes to wheelbarrows and hedge trimmers.

Mail boxes, outdoor thermometers, signs and numbers, and the all-important picnic needs: thermos, cooler, and basket are available.

All the hardware cabinetry, also door locks, padlocks, and hooks, nails, screws, and bolts of every kind; and plumbing items, from pipes and tubing to toilet seats, are on hand, as are shower caddies and curtains and storage containers. And don’t forget buckets, brooms, and bags!

Fix-It Place

“We also sharpen knives and scissors, and make keys, We’re the Fix-It place,” adds Mr. Smith. “We also have new wall and ceiling lighting fixtures, new faucets, and expanded cleaning supplies.”

Housewares have become very popular, he continues. “We have tried to get things others don’t have. We have the Ace brand products as well as many others, and everything is very good quality.”

Big sellers in housewares include the very popular “Soda Stream”, which allows customers to make their own soda at home. “It’s made in Israel, is ecologically important, and ultimately is less expensive,” says Mr. Smith. “There is a COT (a special container), which carbonates the water, and there are more than 30 different flavors. We’ve had it about a year, and it just keeps getting more and more popular.”

Blenders are always favorite housewares items, and Smith’s Ace has them all, including the very special $400 Vitamix model, which can do it all: make soup, juice, peanut butter, even flour.

Colorful Patterns

The Lodge enamel cast iron products, including Dutch ovens, are big sellers, as is the line of Melamine dishware in wonderfully colorful patterns, and with coordinated place mats, tablecloths, and napkins.

Tea kettles, trays, toasters, and timers are available, as are clocks, measuring cups, drying mats. and colorful aprons; Pots and pans, coffeemakers, and cutting boards in many designs and styles are always highlighted.

Canning is making a comeback, report the housewares staff. “Some people are canning with a passion now. They’re making relish, even mustard. A lot of people can tomatoes and fruit, and make jam. We have all the Ball jars and other needs.”

Prices at Smith’s Ace are geared for every pocketbook — from five cents to $1000, and everything in between.

Mr. Smith is very happy with the Shopping Center location. “I like the Princeton customers, and the diversity that is here. We have people coming from England and France and other countries, and lots of regulars. We offer a Rewards program, which accumulates. When someone spends $250, they receive a $5 coupon. And they get a $5 coupon on their birthdays. We have a lot of specials and sales as well.

“We try to fill customers’ requests, and keep their needs uppermost. We work hard to offer quality products and the best service.”

Smith’s Ace Hardware & Housewares is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 8 to 5, Sunday 9 to 3. (609) 430-4300.


Obituaries 7/18/12

L. Scott Bailey

Scott Bailey, former Princetonian and founder and publisher of Automobile Quarterly magazine, died at his home in the English Cotswolds where he lived since the late 1980s with his wife Peggy.

Scott Bailey and his wife Peg founded the journal, Automobile Quarterly (AQ) in New York in the spring of 1962. The hard cover magazine, with a horizontal format and no advertising, approached automobile history from a scholarly perspective, featuring exhaustively researched stories on individual marques, both prominent and obscure, motorsports, design, technology, and — most important — the influential personalities that shaped the automobile’s evolution. AQ also featured critical commentary on contemporary automotive topics, and informed speculation on future automotive trends. Writers included Ken Purdy, Karl Ludvigsen, Michael Lamm, and Griff Borgeson, whose stories were complemented by large-format photography and illustrations by noted automotive artists such as Bill Neale, James Allington, Yoshihiro Inomoto, David Kimble, Walter Gotschke, and Peter Helck; other contributors were prominent automotive personalities Enzo Ferrari, designer Howard “Dutch” Darrin, and John Fitch. AQ was reviewed in the New York Times as “the world’s most lavish magazine.”

In the early 1960s Scott commissioned Italian coachbuilder Nuccio Bertone to create an interpretation of the newly launched Ford Mustang in order to demonstrate that the storied Turin-based coachbuilders could execute relevant contemporary designs. The stunning result of this collaboration was exhibited at the 1965 New York International Automobile Show where the Bertone Mustang won “best of show” honors.

Automobile Quarterly was the first automotive publication to place a female editor, Beverly Rae Kimes, at the top of its masthead. In addition to her contributions, Kimes and other AQ authors supported Bailey’s expansion into books on automotive history, which eventually included over fifty books. AQ’s detailed histories on such marques included Ford, Chevrolet, Porsche, Buick, Cadillac, Packard, Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg, Corvette, including a pair of highly authoritative Corvette Restoration Guides. As a demonstration of AQ’s comprehensive automotive research and archives, General Motors commissioned AQ to compile its corporate history on the occasion of GM’s 75th anniversary.

Throughout Scott Bailey’s tenure, Automobile Quarterly documented not just the evolution of the automobile but also elevated automotive history to an unsurpassed level of scholarship. Through a combination of authoritative texts, detailed archival documentation, rich photography and lavish artwork, he created a collection of periodicals and books that continue to be highly sought after by automotive enthusiasts and collectors. In 1986 Scott and Peggy sold Automobile Quarterly to Columbia Broadcast System Publications.

Though the driving force behind the enterprise and its prodigious output, Scott seldom let his name surface on book jackets or author lists: he saw himself as one whose job was to get the best out of all around him. He promoted an AQ ethos of doing the job one way — without error — with style and great craftsmanship. The AQ impact and ethos that marked Scott’s tenure as founding editor and publisher have seldom been matched in automotive publishing. AQ’s output won numerous awards for design, editing, and writing. Recognitions for Bailey’s own work included: Thompson Products Museum Trophy and National AACA Award for outstanding restoration of a historic vehicle; Automotive Hall of Fame’s Distinguished Service Citation; Society of Automotive Historians Friends of the Automotive History Award; the Annual Award of the Society of Automotive Historians; and the Thomas McKean Award for historical research.

Scott Bailey was born in New York City and spent his childhood in and around Middletown, Ohio. He was an Eagle Scout, and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1941. In the Second World War, Scott served on PT boats, an aircraft carrier, and submarines; he saw duty on ammunition convoys in the North Atlantic and in the Pacific, and he was awarded the Submarine Service Commendation Medal.

Scott attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and Phi Alpha Delta, and studied at the Chase School of Law in Cincinnati. At Miami he met Peggy, his life companion and partner in love and business throughout every moment of the next seven decades. They married in 1947 during one of the century’s worst blizzards and settled in upstate New York where Scott dedicated himself to giving back to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), serving as an executive for BSA and with Peggy, running a Scout camp at Lake Seneca. The BSA awarded him their Distinguished Service Medal in 1964.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Scott was Public Relations Counsel for Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference for Carl Byoir and Associates, and later with the American Rocket Society. At that time his interest in antique cars grew, and he became executive vice president, and director of public relations for the Antique Automobile Club of America and editor of The Antique Automobile Magazine. In 1958 he was a recipient of the Silver Anvil Award of the Public Relations Association for his performance in the field of transportation, especially for his work supporting railroads as they were challenged by highway development.

The next 25 years were focused on the creation and development of Automobile Quarterly. After the sale of AQ to CBS in 1986, Scott and Peggy settled in England, in the Cotswold Hills. At home in the village of Stanton and then in nearby Wood Stanway, Scott published two poetry books and worked to improve his skill as a painter of portraits.

Scott Bailey was an editor, painter, Scout, poet, sailor, publisher, mentor, and true romantic. He was proudest of the opportunities he found to help young people, often reflecting on the help and encouragement he received in his youth.

Scott Bailey is survived by his wife, Peggy; his daughter Meg; his son Douglas; and two grandchildren, Alexander and Hannah. He will be missed by the many he helped and supported to reach their goals.

———

Lou Ann Litton

Lou Ann Litton, a longtime resident of Lawrenceville, died at Potomac Homes Memory Care in Princeton on Monday, July 9 at the age of 77 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Lou Ann was born in Perkins, Okla., and grew up in Charleston W.V. She earned a Bachelors of Science in chemistry from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Following graduation she moved to New Jersey and was employed by Esso Research and Engineering Corporation (now Exxon Mobil) in the information division for nearly a decade. Her skills in science, chemistry, German, and French prepared her career as a writer and abstractor of technical journals and patents.

Following many years as a “super-mom” raising four children, she attended Mercer County Community College and received an associate’s degree in computer programming. She was then employed in full and part-time positions at Educational Testing Service, the Mercer County Court House, and in various volunteer organizations. She was a longtime parishioner at Trinity Episcopal Church in Princeton.

Lou Ann had many interests, including pottery and glass, bird watching, gardening, sewing, cooking, antiques, furniture refinishing, reading, and music. Her attention to detail enabled her to master these interests. During her junior high and high school years in Charleston, she became a highly accomplished cellist and was the youngest member of the semi-professional Charleston Symphony Orchestra. She continued to play in orchestras and chamber music groups until family demands limited her time to continue as a musician.

Lou Ann was a quiet-spoken, and even shy person, but especially in raising four active children, one look of her intense blue eyes and her particular facial expression produced instant results. During recent years she greatly enjoyed joining her husband, Jim, during many tours with the American Boychoir throughout the United States and in Europe and Asia. Following retirement they enjoyed several trips to Europe until the progress of Alzheimer’s made travel impossible.

She met her future husband, James (Jim) Litton in the seventh grade and they were married nearly 55 years ago. Before returning to New Jersey 44 years ago, they lived in Southport, Conn., Canterbury, England, and Indianapolis, Ind.

Lou Ann was predeceased by her parents, Ermal Lee (Ed) and Irene Lily Hall; and her sister, Judith Kay Dodd. She is survived by her husband, James Howard; her children and their spouses, Bruce Edward and Patricia Litton of Bedminster, Deborah Ann and James Purdon of Maplewood, David Allan Litton and Carol Dingeldey of West Hartford, Conn., and James Richard (Rick) and Alysia Litton of Sea Girt, N.J.; and grandchildren, Kiersten Blue and James Kyle Litton and Matthew Blakely Litton. She is also survived by her sister and brother in law, Betty and William Ray; and by several nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Arrangements were provided by Mather Hodge Funeral Home, 40 Vandeventer Avenue, Princeton. Visiting hours took place on Friday, June 13. In thanksgiving for the life of Lou Ann, a Requiem Eucharist was celebrated at Trinity Episcopal Church, 33 Mercer Street, Princeton, on July 14. A reception in the church social hall followed.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Trinity Church Princeton, Trinity Cathedral, 801 West State Street, Trenton; or to the American Boychoir School, 19 Lambert Drive, Princeton.

———

Frances G. Frankel

Frances G. “Fran” Frankel, 85, passed away Monday, July 16, 2012.

Born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., daughter of Isaac Pinsker and Mollie (Lippin); and widow of Max Gershon Frankel, PhD.; she is survived by her daughter, Elka R. Frankel of Princeton and her husband, David Eden; her son, Joel A. Frankel of Chicago and his spouse Helen Rosenberg; grandchildren, Layla G. Frankel and Elan S. Frankel; and numerous cousins.

Fran met Max Gershon at Brandeis Camp in Pennsylvania after World War II, and they married in 1948, after which Fran moved to Norman, Okla. There, Max Gershon was attending the University of Oklahoma, where she also took courses.

After her husband’s graduation, the couple traveled to Israel, where they lived on a kibbutz for close to a year. There they met and were befriended by Golda Meir, whose son the young couple had met previously in the U.S. After they returned to Oklahoma, they had their two children, and went on to Denver, Co., and St. Louis, Mo., where Max Gershon attended graduate school, eventually receiving his PhD in special education. After that, the family lived in Silver Spring, Md., while Dr. Frankel taught at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. In 1968 the family moved to Princeton when Dr. Frankel accepted a position at Trenton State Teacher’s College (now the College of New Jersey) and later taught at Kean College.

Soon after arriving in Princeton, Fran worked at the Phillip Morris Agency in New York City, and a couple years later began working at Princeton University in a number of positions, eventually ending up at the Hillel Jewish Student Association (in the old Murray-Dodge Building), and later on, as alumni coordinator at the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton, where even after retiring she continued as a volunteer into her 80’s.

Active in Community Without Walls House 5, and the local chapter of Jewish Women International, she was a member of Hadassah and the Jewish Center of Princeton.

An avid gardener, she had many friends from all walks of life in Princeton, from the University, the Jewish community, and the neighborhood, who would all meet and mix during her annual summer backyard picnic at her home on Grover Avenue.

Funeral services and burial will take place on Thursday, July 19, at 10:30 a.m. at Beth Israel Cemetery, Woodbridge, N.J.

Arrangements are by Orland’s Ewing Memorial Chapel, 1534 Pennington Road, Ewing Township.

———

Gerold M. Lauck

Gerold McKee Lauck, 95, a resident of Moorings Park Retirement Community, Naples, Fla., died July 14, 2012.

He attended the Lawrenceville School and received a BA degree from Yale University in 1938. He was a member of both of their golf teams.

In 1943 he received his wings and commission in the Army Air Corps and was made a pilot instructor to aviation cadets in Greenwood, Miss. A year later he was assigned as a B-25 pilot in the 70th Bombardment Squadron of the 13th Air Force, and flew 50 missions in the Pacific Theater Campaign.

After World War II, he moved to Princeton and retired as a Supervisor of Accounts in 1975 from N.W. Ayer & Son, America’s oldest advertising agency.

He was preceded in death by his first wife, Jane Felix Lauck; and is survived by his second wife, Marian McLeod Lauck. He is also survived by his son, Anthony G. Lauck of Warren, Vt.; and grandchildren, Peter M. Lauck and Gregory G. Lauck of Wellesley, Mass.

His memberships included Trinity-by-the Cove Episcopal Church, Hole-in-the-Wall Golf Club, the United States Seniors Golf Association, and Sons of the Revolution.

Funeral Services in Princeton will be private. Cremation entrusted to The Beachwood Cremation Society, 4444 Tamiami Tr., Naples, Fla.

———

Dorothy C. Franklin

Dorothy Carll Franklin, a former long-time Princeton resident, passed away peacefully at her home in Mantoloking, New Jersey on Saturday, July 14, 2012.

She was born in Trenton on January 25, 1925 to the late Julia and Charles Monford Carll of Princeton. She is the wife of the late Dr. Charles Montanye Franklin of Princeton and Vero Beach, Fla. Dr. Franklin was the physician for the Princeton University football team.

She is survived by her daughter, Dorothy Pickering Bossidy of Bay Head, N.J.; her son, Donald Albert Pickering of London, England, a grandson, Stuart Charles Carll Pickering; son in law, Bruce Haig Bossidy; niece, Judy English Power; and stepson, Charles Montanye Franklin. Her sister, Julia Carll English of Princeton predeceased her.

She was a member of the Bay Head Yacht Club, The Nassau Club, The Present Day Club, The Princeton Club of New York and the Moorings Club of Vero Beach, Fla., where she was a long-time resident.

“Dottie”, as she was known to friends, was an accomplished artist. She was also an avid traveler and gained inspiration for her watercolor paintings from her extensive travels around the world. She will be greatly missed by her loving family and many friends.

A memorial service will be held at All Saints Episcopal Church in Bay Head on Saturday, July 21, at 11 a.m. The service will be officiated by The Reverend Neil Turton.

For further information or to send condolences to the family, please visit www.obrienfuneralhome.com.

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Woody Guthrie’s Book-Writing, Subway-Riding, Swamp-Crossing, 100th-Birthday Blues

“I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world.”

—Woody Guthrie (1912-1967)

Hey, hey Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song
‘Bout a funny ol’ world that’s a-comin’ along.
Seems sick an’ it’s hungry, it’s tired an’ it’s torn,
It looks like it’s a-dyin’ an’ it’s hardly been born.

—Bob Dylan, “Song to Woody”

When the folks next door gave us the new Neil Young record, Americana, I wasted no time sliding it in the CD player on Moby, my four-wheeled stereo CRV. As happened last month with the Beach Boys’ new one, That’s Why God Made the Radio, I let the thing keep playing, five times at last count, as I drove around town. To borrow an old term from MTV’s heavy metal youth, it was a high octane headbanger’s ball as Neil and Crazyhorse beat the joyful daylights out of old singalong favorites, including “Clementine,” “Oh Susanna,” “Travel On,” and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”

Although I was unaware until a few days ago that Woody Guthrie’s centenary was upon us, what better prelude to the event than all this pounding, full-throated vintage Americana? It was Neil Young, after all, who inducted Guthrie into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. In his remarks, Young said that when he was in high school he thought “maybe I’d like to be one of those rockers that could bend the strings and get down on my knees, and kind of make everybody go crazy. Then I wanted to be that other guy, too, that had a little acoustic guitar, and sing a few songs — sing about things that I really felt inside myself, and things I saw going on around me.” He doesn’t come right out and say so (“I don’t know which one of those guys I tried to be”), but of course Neil Young is not only one of the most go-crazy-everybody guitar madmen in the universe, he is a passionately committed, devoted-to-the-message singer songwriter with one of the great rock and roll voices, full of hope and heartbreak, and as searing as a siren in the night.

“It all seems to go back and start with Woody Guthrie,” Neil said near the end of the Hall of Fame remarks. “His songs are gonna last forever, and some of the songs of his descendents are gonna last forever.”

While the first such descendents to come to mind are Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, there’s also Johnny Depp, who grew up in Kentucky “on bluegrass and country music,” has listened to Guthrie all his life, and is editing with Douglas Brinkley Guthrie’s only novel, House of Earth, which will make its publishing debut next year. In the back page essay in last Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, Depp and Brinkley locate “the roots” of the novel in Guthrie’s Dust Bowl experiences, his reading of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and the writing of “This Land Is Your Land,” which he “conceived of” while hitchhiking to New York and wrote in late February of 1940, “holed up in a low-rent Times Square hotel.”

Not surprisingly, the version in Americana sung by Neil Young restores the more contentious verses, such as:

 

By the relief office I saw my people.

As they stood hungry,

I stood there wondering if God blessed America for me.

And:

There was a high wall there

That tried to stop me

A sign was painted that said ‘Private Property’

But on the other side it didn’t say nothin’

That side was made for you and me.

 

With a few adjustments, those words still have some significance in the time of the 99 percent. Centenary Princeton coincidences abound here, given what Woody reveals in his wordslinging memoir, Bound for Glory (1943): “Born 1912. That was the year … my papa and mama got all worked up about good and bad politics and named me Woodrow Wilson.” Only ten days before Woody came into the world, the other Woodrow, Princeton graduate, professor, and president, then governor of New Jersey, had been nominated for president on the 46th ballot at one of the wildest Democratic conventions ever, which took place 12 days before Woody came into the world on July 14.

Woody in the Apple

At the end of Hal Ashby’s visually stunning film version of Bound for Glory (1976), Woody (played wisely and well by the late David Carradine) is headed for New York City. The Times Square hotel where “This Land Is Your Land” was written was the Hanover House, located on West 43rd and Sixth Avenue, “a long block from the New York Public Library,” according to Ed Cray’s 2004 biography, Ramblin’ Man. Guthrie’s American anthem, orginally titled “God Blessed America for Me,” was written as a corrective to Irving Berlin’s forthrightly patriotic, “God Bless America.” The tune came from the Carter Family’s “Little Darlin’, Pal of Mine,” which, typically, derived from a Baptist hymn, “Oh My Lovin’ Brother.”

Some of the most colorful prose in Bound for Glory is inspired by his response to the big city. Sixty-five stories up (“Quite a little elevator ride down to where the world was being run”), he riffs on the Rainbow Room “in the building called Rockefeller’s Center, where the shrimps are boiled in Standard Oil” (a line ready made for the song in which it became “they tossed their salad in Standard Oil”): “I was floating in high finances, sixty-five stories above the ground, leaning my elbow on a stiff-looking tablecloth as white as a runaway ghost, and tapping my finger on the side of a big fishbowl. The bowl was full of clear water with a bright red rose as wide as your hand sunk down in the water, which made the rose look bigger and redder and the leaves greener than they actually was.”

Subway

There’s a photo from 1943 of Woody playing and singing on the subway that belongs with the iconic New York images of an overcoated James Dean walking, hands in pockets, in the middle of a rainy night Times Square and a decade later, a tan-jacketed Bob Dylan walking down West 4th Street in the Village with Suze Rotolo on his arm. My first thought was of Walker Evans’s clandestinely snapped pictures of subway riders between 1938 and 1941, most of which show seated passengers, with the exception of a blind accordion player standing and playing in the middle of a crowded car. Evans’s slightly unfocused image pales next to Eric Schaal’s photograph of Woody, who is also standing in the middle of the car bundled in what appears to be a black pea coat with a dark cap pushed back on his head, his eyes closed or perhaps downcast in a singing trance that gives his face a naked, exposed, almost beatific quality. If you’re accustomed to the more common images of Woody as the craggy, raw-boned Dust Bowl wayfarer, you might not even recognize him. He looks exotic enough to pass for, say, Jean Louis Barrault’s street-singer brother, having climbed aboard the D train fresh from the Boulevard du Crime in Marcel Carné’s film, Les Enfants du Paradis, his face lit with the otherworldly radiance of the mime Baptiste’s in one of his dumbshow reveries.

Twenty-one of the pictures Schaal took as he followed Woody Guthrie around New York can be seen (and should not be missed) in Life.com’s 100th birthday tribute, “Woody Guthrie: Photos of an American Treasure” at http://life.time.com/culture/woody-guthrie-in-nyc-1943. Guthrie’s politically suspect wartime reputation presumably explains why these flattering, sympathetic photos of Woody as a folk hero never showed up in the pages of Henry Luce’s Life magazine.

Dylan Crosses the Swamp

In his memoir, Chronicles Volume One, Bob Dylan describes a visit to Guthrie at Greystone Hospital in Morristown New Jersey during which Woody mentioned some boxes of songs and poems stored in the basement of his house on Mermaid Boulevard in Coney Island. Having been told he’s “welcome to them” if he wanted them (Woody’s wife “would unpack them for me”), Dylan rides the subway all the way from the West 4th Street station to the last stop and finds himself walking across a swamp (“I sunk in the water, knee level, but kept going anyway — I could see the lights as I moved forward, didn’t really see any other way to go”). When he comes out on the other end, his pants are drenched, “frozen solid,” and his feet are “almost numb.” Guthrie’s wife isn’t there, just a nervous babysitter who wouldn’t let him in until Woody’s son Arlo tells her it’s okay. Nobody knows or can do anything about the box in the basement. Staying just long enough to “warm up,” Dylan turns around and trudges back across the swamp to the subway in his waterlogged boots. Like so much in Chronicles, this anecdote is a song in itself, waiting to be written, even though it would have been better yet had Dylan forged the swamp with his arms weighed down with boxes of Guthrie’s songs and poems.

As Dylan goes on to explain, Woody’s lyrics “fell into the hands” of Billy Bragg and Wilco, who “put melodies to them” and brought them “to full life” in the first of a series 40 years later. Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions was released this year on Record Store Day, April 21, in a 3-disc box set to commemorate Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday. Also in honor of the centenary, the Smithsonian has released Woody at 100, a 3-CD boxed set including 57 tracks and dozens of Guthrie’s drawings, paintings and handwritten lyrics.


Princeton University Summer Concerts Presents The Chiara String Quartet

The Princeton University Summer Concerts series continued its popular season last week with a performance by the Chiara String Quartet, which presented a concise and well-balanced program to a very appreciative audience. These free summer chamber concerts have become the thing to do on hot summer nights in Princeton, and the audience at Richardson Auditorium last Monday night was not disappointed by the Chiara Quartet’s level of play or choice of repertoire. The quartet, comprised of violinists Rebecca Fischer and Julie Hye-Yung Yoon, violist Jonah Sirota, and cellist Gregory Beaver, presented two chamber standards and a work by a composer with whom they have had a long association.

Franz Josef Haydn’s string quartets were the model for the genre during the 18th and a good part of the 19th centuries. His Opus 76 was a courtly set of quartets, and the fifth of this set was particularly joyful. Led by first violinist Ms. Fischer, the first movement was a refreshing start to the Chiara’s concert. Ms. Fischer drew out the phrase cadences especially well, with Mr. Beaver playing with a rich and mellow sound when the cello had long solo passages.

Throughout the four-movement work, the Chiara String Quartet demonstrated excellent communication with one another, building simultaneous dynamic swells and crescendi. Mr. Beaver was well in control in the third movement Menuetto, providing a solid foundation to the ensemble sound. The final Presto was high-spirited, with a quick melody traded between violin and cello, and precision among the players as the work came to a close.

Like the Chiara Quartet, Massachusetts-born composer Jefferson Friedman is young, and his String Quartet No. 2 had an energetic exuberance and contemporary intricacy about it. The Chiara Quartet has a long-standing partnership with Mr. Friedman (he has written three quartets for them) and clearly had his second String Quartet well in hand. From the outset the four instruments maintained simultaneous intensity through the very rhythmic and canonic movement. Mr. Friedman’s work had a great deal of motion, interspersed with haunting and expressive solos. The three movements had no descriptive subtitles, but were different in character, with the Chiara ensemble bringing out well the stylistic variety. In the hymn-like second movement, Mr. Friedman created a soothing texture with two violins and viola against a subtle cello accompaniment, and the ensemble showed its expertise in working together with collective silences and reaching points of rest together. The third movement contained an unusual texture, with the viola being the only instrument bowed against sharp pizzicatti from the other players. The Chiara Quartet maintained focus and intensity well as this difficult yet appealing work drew to a close.

The quartet showed its full strength in Brahms’s String Quartet in B-flat Major, the last of the composer’s three quartets. Brahms composed many of his violin works for a specific performer, as evidenced by the lyrical song played by first violinist Ms. Fischer in the second movement. The Chiara ensemble played this piece from memory, which enabled the players to fully communicate with one another unencumbered by music stands. The players seemed to lean in more, playing with ease and sensitivity, and the audience was definitely intrigued by how much more one can see in a performer when they are playing from memory.

The Chiara players could feel instinctively when to move from resting point into motion, especially in a second movement which could easily have come from Brahms’s sacred repertoire. The players brought out well the gypsy-like syncopation in the third movement Agitato, with the muted first violin matching the dark color of the viola. The charming Viennese fourth movement which closed the work reminded the audience of the chamber roots of the string quartet genre and sent the audience off into the summer night feeling as though they had been to a delightful and intimate soirée.


Area Exhibits 7/18/12

Artists’ Gallery, 18 Bridge Street, Lambertville, is showing “Water Light,” watercolors by Eric Rhinehart and Carol Sanzalone, through August 5. The artists will host a “Coffee and Conversation” August 5 from 2-5 p.m. Visit www.lambertvillearts.com.

The Arts Council of Princeton at Paul Robeson Center has “Poolscapes and Swimmers,” with drawings of the old Princeton Community Pool by Stephanie Magdziak and Ronald Berlin, through July 28. “Monday Gestures and Poses,” in which members of the ACP’s Monday night Life Drawing Workshop, is also on view. “Words with Friends,” through July 20, blends language and art. For more information call (609) 924-8777 or visit www.artscouncilofprinceton.org.

D&R Greenway, 1 Preservation Place off Rosedale Road, presents “Crossing Cultures,” art celebrating the biodiversity of habitats, in the Marie L. Matthews Galleries. In the Olivia Rainbow Gallery, work from the Ennis Beley Photography Project, a summer student program, is on display. Both shows are through July 27.

Dalet Gallery, 141 N. Second Street, Philadelphia, hosts “Made in Princeton,” with works from members of the Princeton Artist Alliance and the Princeton Photography Club, through August 13. A reception is August 3, 5-9 p.m. Hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Visit www.dalealert.com.

Ellarslie, Trenton’s City Museum in Cadwalader Park, shows “Trenton Makes,” the local segment of the Trenton Artists Workshop Association’s Trenton/New York Visual Art Exhibition, which will also feature a show at the Prince Street Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, 4th floor, New York, July 31-August 18. Works by Mel Leipzig, Jon Naar, Aubrey Kauffman, Leon Rainbow, Linda Osborne, and others are included in these shows. Call (609) 989-3632 for Ellarslie information; (646) 230-0246 for Spring Street Gallery.

Firestone Library at Princeton University is showing “A Fine Addition: New & Notable Acquisitions in Princeton’s Special Collections” through August 5 in its Main Gallery. Opening in the Milberg Gallery July 23 and running through December 28 is “Woodrow Wilson’s Journey to the White House.”

Gallery 14, 14 Mercer Street, Hopewell, shows the third annual Juried Photographic Exhibition through August 11. Gallery hours are Saturday and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. or by appointment.

Gourgaud Gallery, Town Hall, 23-A North Main Street, Cranbury, will exhibit “Flora, Fauna and Mystical” through July 27. Paintings by Linda Gilbert are in the show. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday, and 1 to 3 p.m. Sundays July 15 and 22.

Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, presents Ming Fay’s “Canutopia” installed in the new East Gallery through February 15. Artists displayed in other GFS galleries through September include Sharon Engelsein, Willie Cole, and Marilyn Keating. “Aerial Roots” by Steve Tobin is in the Meadow Gallery through July 31. See www.groundsfor sculpture.org.

Historical Society of Princeton at Bainbridge House, 158 Nassau Street, Princeton, is presenting “Einstein At Home,” an exhibit featuring home furnishings, personal memorabilia, and photographs of Albert Einstein with family, friends, colleagues, and national dignitaries, through August 19. Admission is $4 per person; free to HSP members. At the HSP’s Updike Farmstead on Quaker Road, “The Art of First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson: American Impressionist” is on display. Opening hours are Saturday and Wednesday from 12-4 p.m. For more information visit www.princetonhistory.org.

Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton shows sculpture by Nancy Cohen and ceramics by Bill Macholdt through September 9. Visit www.hunterdonartmuseum.org.

The James A. Michener Art Museum at 138 South Pine Street in Doylestown, Pa., has a permanent exhibit, “Intelligent Design: Highlights of Arts and Crafts Studio Craft Movements,” featuring works by Wharton Esherick, George and Mira Nakashima, David Ellsworth, and others. “Offering of the Angels,” a selection of 45 Renaissance and Baroque masterworks from the Uffizi Gallery, is on view through August 10. “To Stir, Inform, and Inflame: The Art of Tony Auth” is on view through October 21. “I Look, I Listen: Works on Paper by Marlene Miller” is exhibited through October 14.

The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, 71 Hamilton Street, on the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, is hosting “Aspects of Architecture: The Prints of John Taylor Arms,” through July 31. The museum is offering free admission this summer to all active military duty personnel and their families, through Labor Day. “Lynd Ward Draws Stories: Inspired by Mexico’s History, Mark Twain, and Adventures in the Woods” is on view through June 23, 2013.

Joan Perkes Fine Art Gallery, 202 North Union Street, Lambertville, has the First Annual Works on Paper Show July 21-August 17. An opening reception is July 21, 3-7 p.m. and July 22, 1-6 p.m. Call (609) 460-4708 for more information.

Mercer County Senior Art Show will be held July 18-August 3 at Meadow Lakes, 300 Meadow Lakes just off Etra Road, East Windsor. Categories are acrylic, craft, computer imagery, drawing, mixed media, oil, pastel, photography, print, sculpture, and watercolor. Call (800) 564-5705.

Morven Museum & Garden, in collaboration with the Arts Council of Princeton, presents “The Garden at Night: Photographs by Linda Rutenberg” through September 16. Museum hours are Wednesdays-Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. on. Group tours of 10 or more can be arranged any day by advance reservation. There is free on site parking.

Mudd Manuscript Library at 65 Olden Street, Princeton University, is presenting “She Flourishes,” showcasing the history of women at Princeton, through August 31. The show documents the struggles and accomplishments of women associated with the University.

New Jersey State Museum, 205 West State Street, Trenton, is showing “Botanica Magnifica: Photographs by Jonathan Singer” through August 26.

Princeton Art Gallery, 20 Nassau Street, is showing works by artists influenced by the late professor I-Hsiung Ju. A closing reception July 31 is from 6:30-8 p.m. Howard Ye will demonstrate Chinese brush painting. The gallery’s hours are 1-6 p.m.

Princeton Brain and Spine Care Institute at 731 Alexander Road, suite 200, presents “The Activity of Form,” a photography exhibit by Laura McClanahan, Greg McGarvey, Barbara Osterman, and Larry Parsons, through September.

Princeton Township Municipal Complex, 400 Witherspoon Street, is exhibiting a photo collection of the traditional costumes of the Molise region, on loan from the Cultural Ministry of the Region of Molise. The photos will be on display through the month of July. The exhibit was arranged by the Princeton/Pettoranello Sister City Foundation.

The Princeton University Art Museum presents “Encounters: Conflict, Dialogue, Discovery” through September 30. The show includes more than 60 works from the museum and private collections and mixes media, historical period and place of origin. “Root and Branch,” which explores the form of a tree in art and includes several art forms, runs through November 25. The Museum will install 12 sculptures by Ai Weiwei at Scudder Plaza, in front of Robertson Hall, for one year starting August 1. Museum hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. Call (609) 258-3788.

Small World Coffee, 14 Witherspoon Street, has works by Johanna Furst through the end of July. “The Future is Female 2.0” runs the month of September.

Straube Center, Route 31 and Franklin Avenue, Pennington, presents “The Inception of an Era” through August 31. Works in all media are by artists who have graduated from colleges and universities within the past five years. Visit www.straubecenter.com.

West Windsor Arts Center Gallery, 952 Alexander Road, Princeton Junction, will show “Pantyhose, Wire, Brushstrokes & Lens” July 22-August 31. An artists’ reception is July 22 from 4-6 p.m. This is work by teaching artists and faculty of the arts center. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Friday, 12-6 p.m. Visit www.westwindsorarts.org.

A Frenetic Animated Adventure That Is Strictly for Tykes

SO NEAR AND YET SO FAR: The whimsical prehistoric animal Scrat (voiced by Chris Wedge), who is half squirrel and half rat, is obsessed with burying his acorn for future use when food is scarce. Unfortunately, Scrat tries to bury the acorn in the frozen tundra of the north. His efforts set off a series of cataclysmic events which results in the world’s land mass separating into separated continents.

Unfortunately, the people behind the latest installment of this animated series of movies abandoned the family-friendly formula which made the earlier films so popular with children of all ages. Instead, they decided to produce a comedy that is more concerned with generating cheap laughs by any means possible than with spinning a coherent tale that will also engage adults.

In addition to the unfocused, scatterbrained storyline, Ice Age 4 features a plethora of preposterous anachronisms which suggest that pirates, togas, and telephones existed in the age of prehistoric creatures. Plus, the picture makes a number of distracting allusions to everything from the movie Meet the Parents, to Trix cereal TV commercials (“Silly Rabbit!”), to Homer’s Odyssey (seductive sirens as characters), and to the Bible (Book of Jonah).

The result is an adventure designed to enthrall tykes at the expense of appealing to older audiences. In addition to the principals who are reprising their roles, newcomers to the voice cast include Jennifer Lopez, Drake, Wanda Sykes, Joy Behar, Peter Dinklage, Nicki Minaj, and Keke Palmer.

The fun starts when half-squirrel/half-rat Scrat (Chris Wedge) accidentally triggers the tectonic division of the planet’s continents when he tries to bury an acorn in the frozen tundra. Elsewhere, Woolly mammoths Manny (Ray Romano) and his wife, Ellie (Queen Latifah), exhibit concern about their daughter Peaches’s (Palmer) crush on Ethan (Drake). Predictably, the smitten teen rides roughshod over the feelings of a secret admirer (Josh Gad) whose existence she barely acknowledges becauses he’s just a molehog.

Additional subplots involve sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) who is caring for his sassy grandmother (Sykes), and saber-toothed tiger Diego’s (Denis Leary) pursuit of a love interest. However, the film’s primary concern is reuniting the families who were separated from each other and ended up on different land masses in the wake of Scrat’s cataclysmic hijinks.

Too bad the resolution of every piece of this cinematic jigsaw puzzle proves predictable.

Fair (*). Rated PG for rude humor, action, and scenes of peril. Running time: 94 minutes. Distributor: 20th Century Fox.


Two Olden Street Houses Are Demolished, To Be Replaced by Visiting Scholars’ Apartments

TOPPLING THE WALLS: Demolition of two residential buildings on Olden Street clears the way for construction of a new apartment house for visiting scholars. The buildings, boarded up for years, once served as apartments for Princeton University students, among other uses. (Photo by Jeff Tryon)

A pair of boarded-up buildings long considered an eyesore on Olden Street are being demolished to make room for a new apartment house for visiting faculty members at Princeton University. Cranes have been busy for several days knocking down two houses that have a long history in the community, including years as apartments and, at one time, a kosher dining place for University students.

In their place on the northwest corner of Olden and William streets will rise Olden House, a three-story complex of 18 studio and one-bedroom dwellings designed by local architect/developer J. Robert Hillier (a Town Topics shareholder), who is a graduate of the University and a visiting lecturer in its school of architecture. The building has been designed with low-flow plumbing fixtures to reduce water consumption, building finishes using sustainable products, an energy-efficient HVAC system, and energy-efficient lighting.

“These are small but complete apartments with washers, dryers, kitchenettes, and fully handicapped access,” Mr. Hillier said. “The key to our design is that everyone has gotten used to a vacant lot on the corner, and we are preserving a piece of that. The interesting thing architecturally is that we had to do a somewhat institutional building, but also a residential building in a residential neighborhood. So we were working between two types of buildings.”

The proportion and the arrangement of the windows is “very residential,” Mr. Hillier said. “All of the University buildings are brick, but we’re whitewashing this instead, so it will have much more of a residential feel. The wood screen is sustainable wood, and it serves as a rain screen where it becomes almost like a trellis. So it will feel very airy. It’s at the corner, so we wanted to make sure that the building was inviting, not heavy.”

Visiting scholars will use the apartments for anywhere from a month to a year. Since the building is close to campus, residents will be able to walk to destinations. “This means we don’t need as much parking as a usual apartment building would need,” Mr. Hillier said. “We will have a Zip car on the site.”

Mr. Hillier’s firm is leasing the land from the University, and will operate the building for them. It will be a tax-paying entity [the University does a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT].

The Hillier firm and University officials met with neighborhood residents during the past two years on three occasions. “We wanted to make sure we were doing something they would be comfortable with,” Mr. Hillier said. “They were happy to see the buildings go.”

Watching the demolition of the houses — one numbered 13 and 15 Olden Street; the other 17, 19 and 21 — with some regret was Alfred Kahn, who owned the buildings and rented them out until the University purchased them from him 13 years ago. “I was there when they were tearing them down,” Mr. Kahn said Tuesday. “To see them come down was a little bit upsetting to me. I remember each and every room, and who the kids were that lived in them.”

Mr. Kahn, who owned the Abel Bagel shop on Witherspoon Street and still owns a residential building on Leigh Avenue, said his father Benjamin Kahn bought the Olden Street buildings in the early 1950’s. “They were probably built around the turn of the century. They were always occupied by local people,” he said. “I started managing them in the early 1970’s. I rented them to students. The reason the University wanted them is that they became fraternity houses, and they frowned upon that. They bought them and boarded them up.”

At one time, Mr. Kahn and his family lived at 21 Olden Street. In addition to Yavneh House, the University’s kosher dining facility, and apartments, the buildings also served as headquarters for the New Jersey Monthly magazine and the Princeton Review, he said. “They were founded in those houses. And a lot of local kids who went to Princeton University lived in them.”

A third house and garage on the property were taken down more than 15 years ago. Estimated completion of Olden House is summer 2013.


Rep. Rush Holt Co-Sponsors Bill That Would Help Kenwood Family

The death of Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad (PFARS) volunteer Michael Kenwood last August during tropical storm Irene was a tragedy for his young family. The 39-year-old emergency medical and rescue technician left a wife, Beth, and daughter, two-year-old Laney, as well as extended family members, friends, and colleagues.

This sad situation was compounded when it was revealed that, under current law, Mr. Kenwood’s family was not eligible for federal death benefits because he was a volunteer member of a non-profit organization. This did not sit well with Representative Rush Holt [D-12], who has been working on behalf of the Kenwood family and others to change the legislation.

Mr. Holt has co-sponsored the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Improvements Act of 2012, which passed the House on June 27 and is now pending in the Senate. The bill was introduced on February 14 by Representative Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA). In his remarks on June 26, Mr. Holt said the legislation would expand federal benefits programs for those who volunteer for fire departments and rescue squads and are injured or killed in the line of duty. “Quite simply, it is the right thing to do,” he said. “I am glad to see this bill being brought to the floor and I urge my colleagues to support it today.”

It was during the early morning hours of August 28, 2011, that PFARS was called to the scene of a vehicle submerged in raging floodwaters near Rosedale Road, with occupants possibly trapped inside. Mr. Kenwood, trained since college as an emergency worker, entered the water tied to his partner in an attempt to reach the stranded car. When they realized that the current was too strong and tried to turn back, Mr. Kenwood lost his footing and was pulled into the current. He was unconscious and not breathing when he was recovered downstream, and died later that day. The submerged car turned out to be empty.

“Michael’s sacrifice would be no different if he had been a member of a paid fire department or EMS agency, and federal law should treat it as such,” Mr. Holt said in his remarks. “When he was called to enter those floodwaters, Michael did not stop to think, ‘I don’t get paid for this — should I do this?’ He answered the call just like thousands upon thousands of others do each and every day, risking their lives in the service of others, regardless of whether or not they are paid.”

Mr. Kenwood’s name was added last month to the National EMS Memorial in Colorado Springs, Colorado. At an annual service there, men and women of the country’s Emergency Medical Services who have given their lives in the line of duty are honored and remembered.

“Michael took time away from work, friends, and family to make sure his community was protected and that those in need got prompt, professional emergency medical care,” said PFARS President Peter Simon, in an email this week. “Ironically, because the Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad is a non-profit, independent organization, our members do not qualify for the Public Safety Officers Benefit — a flaw with the current program that will hopefully be corrected. We appreciate the efforts of everyone working diligently to see that this bill is championed and passed so that the true heroes of our community, like Michael Kenwood, get the respect they deserve. And more importantly, the families of these fallen heroes get the support they need.”

Mr. Kenwood’s widow, Beth, said she is thankful for Mr. Holt’s efforts. “I am deeply grateful for Representative Holt’s support and his dedication to getting the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Improvements Act passed,” she said in an email. “I appreciate Mr. Holt and the many others who continue to remember and recognize the sacrifice Michael made and the ongoing struggles our family faces in the wake of Michael’s death.”

“Trial by Movie” to Be Offered This Fall As Evergreen Forum Gears Up For New Classes

UNDERSTANDING MORALITY: Actors Daniel Day-Lewis and the late Pete Postlethwaite in a scene from “In the Name of the Father,” one of the movies that will be studied in Judy Walzer’s new Evergreen Forum course, “Trial by Movie.”

“Miscarriage of justice is as much a concern to the legal system as is the correct use of the rules,” writes instructor Judy Walzer in the description of her upcoming Evergreen Forum class, “Trial by Movie.” “On the screen, injustice inevitably makes the drama still more powerful.”

With that in mind, Ms. Walzer’s class will be reading book versions and viewing movie renditions of works like 12 Angry Men, A Civil Action, The Winslow Boy, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Reader, To Kill a Mockingbird, and In the Name of the Father.

The Evergreen Forum is a peer led, continuing education program offering daytime courses for interested adults in the Princeton area. The next round of classes will begin this fall, and although registration does not officially begin until July 20, the list of this term’s classes is already posted on the Forum’s website, www.theevergreenforum.org. Time is definitely of the essence here. Ms. Walzer is on the Forum’s Long-Term Planning Committee and she described its challenges as having to do with “the pressures of success” as more and more people want to become involved. With limited enrollments in many classes, oversubscription is likely, and a lottery will be held on August 28 to choose who gets in. Participants will be notified of their status by August 31.

“Trial by Movie” will meet for eight weeks on Wednesdays, beginning October 3, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., in the Community Room at the Princeton Public Library. Ms. Walzer describes herself as feeling “grateful and privileged” to be teaching it. Evergreen Forum instructors receive no remuneration, but are entitled to take one free class for each class they teach.

A former teacher and administrator at The New School, Ms. Walzer’s background is in English and American Literature. Her latest course offering evolved as “somewhere along the line I saw several movies that have trials, and it struck me that there are particular advantages to focusing on the drama between adversaries.” Some further research and more movie-viewing convinced her that it would be a good subject for a course.

Evergreen Forum recently celebrated its tenth anniversary under the auspices of the Princeton Senior Resource Center. The faculty is largely comprised of retired professors from area colleges. Coming from a similar demographic, the students aren’t too shabby, either, and the combination means leaving lots of time for discussion. “These are students who have something to say,” observed Ms. Walzer, whose previous classes have focused on subjects like literary connections to “film noir” and biographical treatments in books and movies.

“Hollywood has changed so much,” she said recently. Acknowledging that while “a picture is worth one thousand words,” Ms. Walzer believes that “the experience of reading literature gives you something that you can’t get from the film.

“What I like is studying the contrasts in how you respond to each medium; is it a better or poorer rendition? In the musical world this is called ‘crossover.’”


A Two-Person Solution for the New Princeton

Borough Administrator Bob Bruschi and Acting Township Administrator Kathy Monzo will be the Administrator and Deputy Administrator, respectively, of the consolidated Princeton government, effective January 1, 2013.

At a joint meeting on Monday evening, Borough Council and Township Committee members unanimously endorsed the Transition Task Force’s Personnel Committee recommendation, which provides, they believe, for “a team approach.” Mr. Bruschi’s appointment is for one year until he retires; the length of Ms. Monzo’s tenure was not specified. Before replacing Administrator Jim Pasacale, who retired earlier this year, Ms. Monzo was the Township’s Chief Financial Officer, and it was suggested that her new responsibilities as Deputy Administrator include serving as Director of Finance in the new government. This two-person solution, it was noted, comes at no additional cost to the new municipality.

Members of both governing bodies praised Mr. Bruschi’s and Ms. Monzo’s years of service, leadership skills, and readiness for their new jobs.

Although his appointment as Police Chief of the new municipality was already in place, Borough Police Chief Dave Dudeck was given an opportunity on Monday evening to answer questions and talk about his hopes for the future.

“The most important thing is that we meld the two departments together,” said Mr. Dudeck in response to Township Deputy Mayor Liz Lempert’s question about the “biggest challenge” he sees ahead. He described differences between the current Borough and Township Police Departments not as negatives, but as representing different styles of policing that may have been determined by the demands of each municipality. He cited the tradition of more foot patrol officers in the Borough than the Township as an example, and promised to deal with “cultural differences” by “opening lines of communication.” He returned to this theme several times, adding a description of “one-on-one” meetings and concern for professional development in response to Borough Councilwoman Jo Butler’s question about “specific things being done to integrate the forces.”

Township Committeewoman Sue Nemeth wondered what residents “should expect from new police department.” Calling it “a great question,” Mr. Dudeck emphasized a “very professional department,” where “integrity is of the utmost importance” and officers interact with citizens, rather than just “hiding in a car.” He noted that one side of policing is community service, while the other side is when “tragedy” occurs. “We will be there for you,” he said.

Flanked by representatives from KSS architects who served as consultants, Facilities and Assets subcommittee chair Bernie Miller charted the steps that led to recommendations regarding utilization of the Township and Borough Halls under the new administration, and, after some discussion, both governing boards approved the plan. Mr. Miller noted that, in the interest of doing away with old perceptions, the committee had begun to use different names for the two buildings, referring to them, for example, as the “Witherspoon Building” and the “Monument Building,” respectively.

Among the sticking points was a “third option” solution that locates offices for the mayor and administrator in the Witherspoon Building, with a “satellite” office in the Monument Building. Borough Councilman Roger Martindell wondered if two sets of offices for the mayor and administrator ran counter to the notion of consolidation.

Space considerations led to the recommendation that the new Police Department be housed in the Witherspoon Building where, for convenience sake, the court facilities would also be located. “Community-oriented” departments like Affordable Housing and Health will go the Monument Building, where they may be joined by TV30 and Corner House. A request for space from the Princeton Senior Resource Center was submitted “too late” for consideration in this round of recommendations, but Mr. Miller suggested that something could be “worked out” in the future.

Another recommendation, authorizing administrators to request a proposal from KSS for the new offices was also approved, but there was some disagreement about the wisdom of a recommendation that leaves management of the project to “the professional staff.” Borough Councilman Kevin Wilkes suggested that administrators’ “plates were already full,” and that there are professional construction managers available to coordinate such projects. It was noted that the wording of the recommendation did not preclude that option, and it was passed.


TD Bank Could Move Into Wild Oats Site On East Nassau Street

The future of a stretch of East Nassau Street once known as “gasoline alley” was the focus of a meeting of Princeton Borough Council last Tuesday, July 10. The question of whether to allow banks in the area took up much of the discussion of a draft ordinance that would change the zoning of businesses between Olden Street and Murray Place from service business (SB) to neighborhood business (NB), which is the zoning for the opposite side of that portion of Nassau Street.

Some officials and neighborhood residents have expressed opposition to allowing banks on that side, preferring the mix of retail and restaurants that exists across the street. Others, such as business owner Lou Carnevale, would welcome banks to the location. Mr. Carnevale has been paying taxes for five years on the empty building that previously housed the Wild Oats market, and he is anxious to bring in TD Bank, which he said is interested in opening a branch in the first floor space.

“I need an anchor, a triple-A tenant,” he said during the public comment segment of the meeting. Mr. Carnevale added that he would like to have a variety of businesses in the building, but he can’t get financing without a major tenant such as TD Bank. “I have tenants that want to sign, but I can’t keep them forever,” he said. The second floor of the building would have offices.

A survey conducted by Princeton Future last year indicated that many neighborhood residents would like the space to house an establishment in the style of Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market. What they didn’t want, the survey revealed, was banks, fast food restaurants, or a laundromat. But during ensuing public meetings, some residents said they would be in favor of banks that were up to 5,000 square feet.

Linda Fahmie of ROI Realty, who represents the Carnevale family, said that TD Bank would fit into the neighborhood because it wants “a community orientation,” and would like to install a mural depicting historic Princeton on a wall of the facility. The branch would be 4,500 square feet, Mr. Carnevale said.

Councilman Kevin Wilkes suggested that there be 500 feet between any banks that are brought onto the street, “to limit banks on top of banks.” He was opposed to the idea of limiting the frontage of banks or other types of financial institution to 25 feet, because it could affect the design.

Also discussed was the idea of adding a boutique hotel to the mix. “That could be an interesting addition to the neighborhood,” commented Council member Barbara Trelstad. Lee Solow, Princeton’s Planning Director, voiced concerns about traffic and deliveries. But he said he would look into the matter further.

Ms. Fahmie commented that a hotel might work if it were considered as a conditional use in the zone, meaning it would have to meet certain standards. Andrea Stine, who lives on Murray Place, expressed concerns about a hotel because it would bring tourists to the neighborhood, making it “very transient.”

Area business owner Jack Morrison disagreed. “We won’t have a flop hotel,” he said, using the 16-room Peacock Inn on Bayard Lane as an example of a quality boutique hotel. “Let the market forces get down there,” he said, adding that offering more opportunities for entrepreneurs would energize the area.

Alexi Assmus, a neighborhood resident, encouraged the Council to establish small spaces on the street so that small business owners can afford to operate there. She also suggested that new businesses be LEED-certified. Responding to concerns expressed about traffic, she said, “One of the things we’re forgetting in these discussions is that 8,000 students from Princeton University use the restaurants [on East Nassau Street], all of whom walk.”

David Kinsey of Aiken Avenue said there are already eight banks on the north side of Nassau Street between Bank Street and Scott Lane. “I wonder what major national bank is not represented in the community,” he said. “The one flaw in the ordinance is opening [the street] up to banks. How many more do we need? I ask you to think really carefully about opening the south side to banks.”

Borough Council will revisit the ordinance at its meeting July 24.


Rabner: “Recent Improvements” Offset Consumer Reports Hospital Ranking

The University Medical Center at Princeton scored 39th among the 62 New Jersey hospitals listed in Consumer Reports’ (CR) recent (August 2012) “Ratings of Hospital Safety” (consumerreports.org).

“Hospitals should be places you go to get better, but too often the opposite happens,” begins the CR report, a sobering fact that appears to have played out in the recent death of 12-year-old Rory Staunton from septic shock in a New York City hospital.

“We believe it is important to give consumers access to information they need to make informed choices about their healthcare, so we support efforts such as the recent Consumer Reports (CR) safety rankings,” said Princeton Healthcare System President and CEO Barry S. Rabner in an email.К“Unfortunately, the rankings relied on some older data and failed to reflect recent improvements.”

Mr. Rabner did not mention the hospital’s move on May 22 to a larger, improved facility, but noted that “our hospital has madeКsignificant improvements over the past few years related to several items factored into the rankings, including infection control, communication with patients regarding their medications, and communication prior to discharge.

“In fact, within the past 10 months, two independent organizations whose purpose is to evaluate the safety and quality of healthcare have given our hospital care their highest marks,” he added.

In a web-based list of “Quick Facts,” the hospital, now known as the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, notes that the new facility includes “231 single patient rooms with welcoming décor and amenities that reduce stress and anxiety, while minimizing hospital-acquired infections, improving patient safety, enhancing privacy, improving communications and confidentiality, and speeding recovery.”

The hospital safety rating was a first for CR, which reported “using the most current data available to us at the time of our analysis.” This included information from government and independent sources on 1,159 hospitals in 44 states. They also reportedly interviewed patients, physicians, hospital administrators, and safety experts; reviewed medical literature; and looked at hospital inspections and investigations.

A hospital’s “safety score,” according to Consumer Reports, results when six categories of hospital safety are combined into a score between 1 and 100.

Four measures of safety were actually cited in the list, which was arranged by state. Out of five scores, with five being the best and one the worst, Princeton scored two for infections; two for readmissions; one for communication; and four for scanning. The highest-scoring hospital in the state was Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Browns Mills, followed by Newton Medical Center in Newton. The lowest score went to Kimball Medical Center in Lakewood, followed by JFK Medical Center in Edison.


Tripping The Light Fantastic For Save

TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC FOR SAVE: Friends and supporters of SAVE kicking up their heels at a benefit held at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in the Princeton Shopping Center. The animal shelter is scheduled to move from its current, crowded Mt. Lucas facility to a new home in Montgomery Township in the fall of 2013. Participants at the benefit discuss the relative merits of cats and dogs in this week’s Town Talk. (Photo by Emily Reeves)

July 12, 2012

Cars Driving Over Front Lawns Around Storm-Downed Limbs Is Unconscionable

To the Editor,

Tonight was the last straw. I can no longer be silent about this nominally beautiful and cultured town. My husband and I moved to Princeton in 1980 and we were enchanted, but things have changed, and not for the better. A year or so ago a woman wrote a letter expressing her dismay about the dirt and garbage on Nassau Street. She was contradicted in the next issue by a person who thought Princeton was just fine thank you, clean and beautiful. I stayed quiet at that time, but the first lady was so right! Why can’t the merchants in our famed business district pick up a broom and sweep away the butts and debris as would any self-respecting store keeper in Europe. Let’s learn from our clean and beautiful sister cities Colmar and Pettoranello.

But back to Saturday evening, July 7. When the storm let up my husband and I went to look at two huge branches from a neighbor’s maple tree that had fallen across and blocked the whole street (Valley Road). As we stood there pondering the mess, we were amazed by the sight of a driver taking a detour across the sidewalk and over another neighbor’s lawn! That was shocking, but then several more people on their busy missions decided that must be OK, and followed. But it is not OK. Rather, such behavior is unconscionable and I should think illegal. It hardly speaks for Princeton’s supposedly high IQ. On the positive side, most drivers sensibly pulled into various driveways and turned around to find alternative routes to their destinations.

Princeton has much to offer but also much to be desired. An increase in civil behavior would be good. And clean downtown streets would be great, so I don’t have to be embarrassed to show my international friends around.

Reinhilde Nelson

Valley Road

We Can’t Make Princeton More Sustainable If Residents Are Unable to Use the Sidewalks

To the Editor:

A topic that I think would be of interest to readers are the regulations in the Princeton Township and Borough concerning who is responsible for clearing sidewalks of plants (and snow).

The stretch of sidewalk in Princeton Township, on Bayard Lane along Route 206 across from the Bank of Princeton and the Shell station, is nearly impassable, and it has been neglected and difficult to maneuver in since I moved to this neighborhood almost three years ago. I use this path to commute to work on foot or on my bike from my home near Mountain Avenue to my job downtown. Not only do the branches of trees and bushes stretch onto the sidewalk, but so does poison ivy and plants with thorns (some of them large thorns), which extend at heights dangerous for adults, kids, and pets. A few weeks ago, for example, I arrived home from my bike commute bleeding on my arm and leg after getting entangled in one of the thorn bushes on this path.

Here is a well done post by Steve Hiltner about this particularly bad stretch of sidewalk: www.princetonnaturenotes.blogspot.com/2012/06/weedful-needful-sidewalk.html.

We can’t make Princeton more sustainable if residents and visitors cannot use the sidewalks we already have.

Jennifer Bryson

Bayard Lane

Modest Proposals About What to Do If Going One on One With Black Bear

To the Editor:

At the presentation last month on black bears, given by state officials in Township Hall, I was astonished to learn that, in the very rare case that a black bear attacks, the best tactic is to fight back. Princetonians have not been called upon to display such courage since 1777, when we all could conveniently claim we had yet to be born.

To bridge this gap between experience and expectation, I herein provide a translation of the wildlife officials’ instructions, customized to fit the Princetonian lifestyle:

Black bears are near-sighted, so make noise to avoid surprising it. If the bear stands up on its hind legs, don’t worry. It’s just trying to see you better. Make sure the bear has an escape route. For instance, if it is following you out of the public library, hold the door open and give it plenty of room. If you encounter the bear in the woods, or on Nassau Street, you can back away slowly, but don’t turn your back to the bear. In a calm, assertive voice, put the bear on notice that you are a Princetonian fully armed with opinions, and will not hesitate to express them.

Avoid eye contact. If it doesn’t run away right off, bang the pot you happen to be carrying with you, or download a “kitchenware noise” app on your iPhone. Bears hate to cook, which explains their interest in garbage. Otherwise, clap your hands, raise your arms over your head, wave a jacket, all of which should make you look large and impressive.

On rare occasions, the bear will do a bluff charge, at speeds up to 35 m.p.h. If a cafe is close by, this is a good time to duck in for a double latte. If that option is not available, then you’ll need to dig deep. Fleeing will only make you appear weak. Perhaps the stirring words of a high school football coach will come to mind. In any case, stand your ground, wave your arms and shout. Pretend you’re in front of town council, venting your outrage over moving the Dinky. The bear should veer away from you at the last moment, providing a bigger thrill than any 3D movie at the mall.

If the bear actually attacks, which is extremely rare, it’s time to drop all remaining pretense of civility. Fight back. Don’t worry about the bear’s lack of access to dental care. Without asking permission, bop it on the nose. Bears’ noses are 100 times more sensitive than ours. Use this sensitivity to your advantage, all the while reveling in what a great story this will make to tell the grandkids.

In case you surf the internet for more info, don’t be confused by accounts of how to behave when encountering a grizzly bear out west, where the protocol is completely different and not nearly so gallant.

Stephen Hiltner

North Harrison Street

Disputing Lawyer’s Claim That Dinky Plaintiffs Follow Instructions of Borough Council Member

To the Editor:

In a recent letter to this paper, Richard S. Goldman, Esq., attorney for Princeton University (“Princeton University’s Lawyer Responds to Roger Martindell’s Letter on Lawsuit,” Mailbox, July 4) wrote that we and other Princetonians have brought a “nuisance lawsuit” against the University. No, we believe the University cannot legally commandeer the Dinky’s public right-of-way in order to build a second driveway to its Lot 7 garage. In 1984, when the University bought the Dinky station, and NJ Transit retained the right-of-way, that garage didn’t even exist.

Mr. Goldman also implied that our lawsuit is “following the instructions of a member of Borough Council.” Here, to mix metaphors, Mr. Goldman is grasping at straw men. A simpler explanation apparently eludes Mr. Goldman. Many Princetonians genuinely deplore Nassau Hall’s high-handed insistence that what’s useful for the University is perfect for Princeton. We plaintiffs don’t follow Borough Council’s secret instructions. Isn’t Borough Council sometimes influenced by constituents’ public statements? That’s how representative democracy works.

Walter Neumann and

Anne Waldron Neumann

Alexander Street

Dick Woodbridge Is Ideally Suited For Mayor of the Unified Princeton

To the Editor:

Long-time residents of both the Borough and the Township are familiar with Dick Woodbridge’s many contributions:

Township Mayor 1991-1992

Township Committeeman 1990-1992

Borough Councilman 1977-1987

Borough Council President 1984-1985

Police Commissioner 1977-1980

Fire Commissioner 1981-1984

Public Works Committee Chairman 1986-1987

Consolidation inevitably will be a complicated process to effect starting January 1, 2013. Dick, because of his substantial experience in many capacities serving residents in both the Township and the Borough, is the best-qualified person to harmoniously coordinate this process.

Independents and members of both political parties will benefit by electing him mayor of the unified Princeton because of Dick’s public spirit and wealth of experience.

Therefore, we urge you to vote for Dick Woodbridge for mayor in November.

Norm Harvey,

Florence Lane

Anastasia Marty,

Herrontown Lane

Fausta Rodríguez Wertz

Snowden Lane

Thanks for Spirit of Princeton Fireworks Go First and Foremost to the University

To the Editor:

On behalf of the Spirit of Princeton, a huge thank you to all the people who attended the Spirit of Princeton fireworks on July 2; and a bigger thank you to everyone who helped make this event happen.

This event is one of four annual patriotic events we host. The others are the Memorial Day Parade, Flag Day ceremonies, and Veterans Day ceremonies.

The fireworks happened thanks to the volunteers of the Spirit of Princeton along with the generous help of several organizations in our community. First and foremost was Princeton University for allowing us to hold this event on their property and for doing so much to help coordinate it and provide services from many of their staff in a number of different departments. Likewise, both the Borough of Princeton and the Township of Princeton provided administrative and logistical help before and after the event. Both of our police departments helped with the event, as did both Public Works Departments, the Recreation Department, and administrative staff from both municipalities. Also assisting were the Princeton Fire Department and the Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad. And thanks to the West Windsor Township Police Department for their assistance. As well as help from the Mercer County Department of Transportation & Infrastructure.

Our biggest thanks goes to all of you who come out and enjoy our events. Our next event is the Veterans Day Ceremony, November 11, 2012 at 11 a.m., at the All Wars Monument on the corner of Mercer Street and Nassau Street.

Financially, the Spirit of Princeton has a small endowment raised over the years that is a fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation. All Spirit of Princeton events are free of charge; but donations are always welcome and needed, see our website for information on events and how to donate, Spiritofprinceton.org.

Mark Freda

Vice-Chair, Spirit of Princeton

Sue Nemeth Thanks Voters, Campaign Team, Supports Democratic Nominee for Assembly

To the Editor:

I’m writing to express my thanks to all the Democratic voters in Princeton and throughout the 16th legislative district. It was an honor to have the opportunity to compete for the Democratic nomination for Assembly.

I also wish to thank my campaign team and the many volunteers who walked with me, made phone calls, hosted events, distributed literature, and donated to my campaign. Your unwavering energy and enthusiasm helped keep me motivated. You and thousands of other supporters voted for me in the primary, but by the end of the evening it was clear I would not have the votes to prevail and conceded the race to my very worthy opponent, Marie Corfield.

While I’m disappointed that I won’t be your candidate in November, I fully support our Democratic nominee, a fellow progressive and union member. Please join me in congratulating Marie and giving her your full support for the fall campaign!

Sue Nemeth

Township Committee

Virtually Any Move the University Makes Seems to Bring Push Back From the Town

To the Editor:

The July 4 issue of Town Topics contains the usual newsworthy items that emphasize the seemingly endless friction involving our relationship with Princeton University.

Viewed from 10,000 feet by a Township resident, with no ties to the University, this never ending antagonism is discouraging. Virtually any move that the University makes, seems to bring forth a great deal of push back from us. Some may be justified, some not. Many times the criticism seems to contain a degree of vitriol.

The basis for the problem seems to be the never ending desire for greater financial contributions from the University to the surrounding municipalities. Reasonable people can disagree on the appropriate amount of the voluntary contribution. Zero is too little, but often the argument is voiced that the contribution should be based on what the tax rate for the University would be if it were a taxable entity.

By law, the University is tax exempt, as are the Seminary, the Institute for Advanced Study, and countless other properties in our municipalities, that make this a unique cultural community.

If we devoted the same amount of time and energy to our municipal challenges, we probably could have accomplished any number of worthwhile objectives, such as bringing about consolidation, 25 years ago.

William Stephenson

Governors Lane

Obituaries 7/11/12

Winthrop Seeley Pike

Winthrop Seeley Pike, former mayor of Princeton Township and long-time resident of Princeton and Montgomery Townships, died July 6 at Brandywine Senior Living at Princeton. He was 92.

Born in Boston and raised in Wellesley, Mass., he was the son of the late Lewis Freeman Pike and Vida Seeley Pike; and brother of the late Vida P. Morrison.

He graduated from Williams College in 1941 with a BA in physics. Immediately following graduation, he entered the U.S. Army, serving as a radar officer in the Signal Corps during World War II in both the European and Pacific theaters. In 1946, he was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain.

He then moved to Princeton and joined the technical staff at RCA Laboratories, David Sarnoff Research Center. There, he worked closely with Vladimir K. Zworykin on the early development of color television. Among many other projects, he also developed sensory devices for the sight-impaired, highway vehicle control devices, color television receivers, storage tubes, weather balloon sensory instruments, portable television cameras and encoders, integrated circuits for stereo sound, and high altitude balloon-born television systems. He earned 17 U.S. patents and was the recipient of five RCA achievement awards. Following his retirement from RCA in 1987, he consulted with Princeton Scientific Enterprises, Inc. in the development of a blood gas analyzer device and high voltage ignition circuitry for military ordnance.

On a visit home to Wellesley, he met his future wife, Nancy E. Peakes at church. They were married in 1954. He was elected to the Princeton Regional School Board in 1967, and served for fourteen years, including several years as president. In 1981, he was elected to Princeton Township Committee, and as a member of the Committee, was elected to the position of mayor for the following five years.

A long-time member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Rocky Hill, he served as a member of the vestry for 19 years. He had also served as a lay reader, usher, and member of the vestry of All Saints Episcopal Church in Princeton. He started playing the organ in his teens, and was an avid musician, favoring, in particular, early classical music. A model train enthusiast and voracious reader, he relished family vacations in the Adirondack mountains and seeing the great pipe organs of Europe. During retirement, he also enjoyed monthly meetings with his fellow retired RCA employees and the weekly Tuesday Lunch Group. He also authored several articles for consumer electronics and model railroading magazines.

He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Nancy; and their children, Kristina Hadinger and her husband Alfred; Christopher and his wife Leila Shahbender; Karen, Jonathan and his wife Kelly; Eric and his partner Stefan Steil; and Amy Sharpless and her husband Peter. He is also survived by nine grandchildren: Jon, Alfred, Julia, Alexandra, Katherine, Justin, Morgan, Sophia, and Serena.

The funeral will be held at 10 a.m. on July 11, 2012 at Trinity Episcopal Church, Crescent Avenue, Rocky Hill.

Burial will be in All Saints Cemetery, Princeton.

Calling hours took place on Tuesday, July 10 at The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, 40 Vandeventer Avenue, Princeton.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in his name may be made to the Trinity Episcopal Church Rocky Hill Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 265, Rocky Hill, N.J. 08553; The Mary Jacobs Memorial Library, 64 Washington Street, Rocky Hill, N.J. 08553; or Montgomery EMS, P.O. Box 105, Belle Mead, N.J. 08502.

———

Donald P. Shaffer

Donald Paul Shaffer, 72, died on July 7, 2012 at the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro.

Don was born on June 16, 1940, in Philadelphia, the son of the late Dorothy and Earl Shaffer. He was a graduate of The Haverford School (1958), Cornell University (1962), and the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton graduate school (1964). His athletic accomplishments included acting as captain of the Cornell basketball team and being elected into Haverford’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

After military service in the U.S. Army from 1964-1966, Don started a 30-year career in the textile business, first with E.I. DuPont, and then joining J.P. Stevens, International Division, in 1976. He served as president of the division from 1985 to 1992.

Having been a resident of Montgomery Township for 44 years, he participated in many activities in the area with his family. He especially enjoyed the friendship of fellow members at The Bedens Brook Club in Skillman, where he had played paddle tennis and golf. He was also a member of the Old Guard of Princeton.

Don is survived by his wife, Susan Ertel Shaffer, married 46 years; his brother and sister-in-law, Stephen and Karen Shaffer of Pennington; his sister and brother-in-law, Mary and David Lemire of Scottsdale, Ariz.; his son and daughter-in-law, Donald Hepworth Shaffer and Jennifer Alba Bensadoun of Berkeley, Calif. and their children, Sabine (4) and Samuel (1); and his son and daughter-in-law, Andrew Evans Shaffer and Jennifer Guilbert Shaffer of Bloomfield, Mich. and their children, Andrew (8) and Kara (5).

There was a private burial at the Rocky Hill Cemetery, followed by a memorial reception for friends at The Bedens Brook Club in Skillman on Tuesday, July 10.

In lieu of flowers, those who wish may make a donation to The Haverford School, Class of 1958, 450 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, Pa. 19041.

Arrangements are under the direction of The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.

———

George R. Bishop Jr.

George Reginald Bishop Jr., professor of French and longtime Princeton resident, died July 4 at Stonebridge at Montgomery. The beloved husband of the late Alice Elgin, he was 90.

Born in Altoona, Pa., he was the son of The Reverend George R. Bishop and Charlotta Miller Bishop. He graduated from Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia, Pa. and entered Princeton University in 1940.

From 1943 to 46, he served in the Army as an artillery survey officer with the 314th Field Artillery, 80th Division, returning home as a Captain and eventually promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. On his return, he received his Princeton BA degree with highest honors in French language and culture and began graduate studies in Romance languages.

After receiving his PhD from Princeton in 1952, he was appointed to the department of French at Rutgers University where he subsequently became assistant and later associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He served as acting dean of the College from 1972 to 1974 and chair of the French department from 1984 to 1990. He was chairman of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages from 1965 to 1966. A member of the class of 1944 at Princeton, he was formerly class president and reunion chairman.

A longtime member of Trinity Episcopal Church, he served as warden of the vestry from 1965 to 1969, vestryman multiple times, member of the All Saints Chapel Committee, delegate to the Diocesan Convention several times, and co-chair of the 21st Century Fund from 1995 to 2000. He helped found the Trinity Counseling Service in 1968. For 26 years, he worked on the Trinity rummage sale, first as co-chair with his wife, Alice, and then as chair. He served as trustee and vice president of the William Alexander Proctor Foundation from 1956 to 1984.

He is survived by his daughters, Anne Bishop Faynberg of East Brunswick, N.J., Charlotta Miller Bishop of Princeton, and Alice Anderson Bishop of Washington, D.C.

Funeral services were held on Saturday, July 7, 2012 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Princeton. Burial was private at the family plot in Huntingdon, Pa.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions, in his name, may be made to Trinity Church, 33 Mercer Street, Princeton, N.J. 08540.

Arrangements were under the direction of Kimble Funeral Home, Princeton.

Extend condolences at
TheKimbleFuneralHome.com.

———

Wilbur Gunnell

Wilbur Gunnell, age 93, passed away July 4, 2012 at Merwick Care and Rehabilitation in Plainsboro.

Born in Bedford County, Va., he lived in Princeton for 77 years. Mr. Gunnell retired from Princeton University Custodial Services with 24 years of service.

He is the son of the late Annie Austin Gunnell and Oliver Gunnell; and brother of the late Nellie Williamson and Andrew Gunnell.

Mr. Gunnell is survived by three nieces, Marie Johnson, Shirley W. Ganges, and Jean Williamson; and many grand nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 16, 2012 at Clay Street Learning Center, 2 Clay Street, Princeton.

Arrangements are by the Hughes Funeral Home.

———

Reading and Listening to Faulkner: Soft, Swift, and Insidiously Seductive

If I had not existed, someone else would have written me.

—William Faulkner (1897-1962)

This time last year, on the fiftieth anniversary of Ernest Hemingway’s death, I described “the big this-is-what-it’s-all-about moment where a 14-year-old who has been reading Mickey Spillane suddenly recognizes ‘the real thing.’” (“Fifty Years Later: Hemingway’s Hymn to the Writer and His Craft”). The book providing that moment was The Old Man and the Sea. With Faulkner, who died on July 6, 1962, almost a year to the day after Hemingway, the first shock of recognition came around the same age in a mass-market paperback edition of Sanctuary. The first thing I saw was a publisher’s note that immediately put Sanctuary and Faulkner beyond my range by referring to the novelist as “the modern master of the Grand Guignol” (whatever that was) and comparing his work with the plays of Webster and Tourneur (whoever they were). Next came the shock of encountering a character called Popeye in the first sentence when the only Popeye I knew was the cartoon sailor man and this was someone whose face “had a queer, bloodless color, as though seen by electric light.” When I went on to read that he had “that vicious depthless quality of stamped tin” and that his eyes were “two knobs of soft black rubber,” I knew I was “not in Kansas any more.”

Five years later I found myself pondering the first page of The Sound and the Fury. I was reading it outside of school, on my own, and I was lost. I had no idea what was going on. “I could see them hitting.” Hitting what? Caddie? Oh, golf. They were playing golf? The first time through was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I couldn’t put the book down, but what kept me reading had nothing to do with plot or character or suspense in the usual sense of the word. Faulkner’s departure from the conventional guidelines added a new dimension to reading. As I began to pick up on what he seemed to be doing, it was like sneaking into his secret workshop to look over his shoulder as he wrote, feeling a small part of what he must have felt, to be building something so mysterious and unique. By the end, I thought I’d discovered a new world but only barely. I knew I was still missing a lot, I wanted more, I couldn’t put the book away. So I went back to the beginning and started reading it over again.

Faulkner in Princeton

Some months ago, thinking ahead to a column on the 50th anniversary of Faulkner’s death, I began reading A Fable, which he finished writing here in Princeton in November 1953 in his editor Saxe Commins’s Elm Road home. Years later when we were living around the corner from the Commins house, I used to picture Faulkner in his overcoat walking off a hangover under the Hodge Road sycamores. He acknowledged his relationship with Commins in the dedication accompanying his collection of hunting stories, Big Woods (Random House 1955); presented in the form of an author-to-editor memo, it reads, “We never always saw eye to eye but we were always looking at the same thing.”

It’s best to read A Fable the way Faulkner suggested that readers come to James Joyce’s Ulysses, as “the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.” Even so, you soon get the impression that Faulkner approached the writing of the novel in the same spirit, in effect saying a prayer and betting everything he had on the power of his art while making himself available to that metaphorical “somebody else” who would write him if he “didn’t exist.” According to Dorothy Commins’s book, What Is An Editor: Saxe Commins at Work, Faulkner typed a two-page preface “as a favor to Saxe and to Random House,” to be used on the dust jacket of the finished book. The result was a rambling meditation on war and pacifism (“which does not work, cannot cope with the forces that produce the wars”), none of which was used in the eventual jacket copy, with its references to “mutiny in the trenches,” “the ageless tragedy and triumph of the crucifixion and the resurrection” and its promise to the reader of “a compelling story of violence and humility, of cruelty and compassion, of pathos and humor, of war and peace.”

Faulkner Plays 50 Choruses

At this point I should admit that I interrupted my reading of A Fable at page 215 in order to reread Light in August. Although I may never finish the book, I’m glad I read far enough to witness the feat Faulkner performs between pages 126 and 139, an Olympian run that begins inauspiciously with these two sentences:

“But when they reached the city they found no placid lake of grieving resignation. Rather, it was a cauldron of rage and consternation.”

I wonder if Commins had the nerve to point out that resignation-consternation trainwreck or the way the engine of Faulkner’s prose seems to come to a crashing halt when it hits a pair of labored, no-way-out, dead-end metaphors. “Seems” to come, I say, since what follows are 13 pages of Faulkner in full flight, all his jets and subsidiary igniters kicking in, propelling those “as if” and “not … but” clauses he’s addicted to. Give yourself up to it with a full measure of faith and the rhetorical onslaught sweeps you past bizarre liberties (“which was when the inspectors and inquisitors … realised the — not enormity, but monstrosity, incredibility; the monstrous incredibility, the incredible monstrosity, with which they were confronted”); when Faulkner’s locked in, it’s best to just sit back and let him play, the way you would if he were a jazz virtuoso standing on a storm-wracked promontory blowing 50 choruses against a gale-force wind. Like all great musicians, Faulkner has his own sound, as you’ll hear if you listen to the recordings of him reading from his work, his voice soft and swift and unstoppable, beyond mere accent and affect.

I’ve listened to recordings of Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Hemingway, Yeats, Pound, but no poet or writer I’ve ever heard is as insidiously seductive as Faulkner. It’s hard to imagine that a literate person of either sex could resist the way he makes love to the word “avatar.” The cassette I’ve been listening to includes passages from The Old Man, As I Lay Dying, and A Fable, as well as the Nobel Prize acceptance speech that no one at the ceremony could hear because he rushed the words and was standing too far from the microphone. It’s true, he seems happiest when he’s reading uptempo, feeding off the momentum, muting the rush of rhetoric; in terms of intonation, cadence, and melodics, the musician who comes to mind with his, in Nat Hentoff’s words, “pulsating ease,” is Faulkner’s fellow Mississippian, Lester Young.

Faulkner and Blackness

In 1959, his skin darkened with the help of a dermatologist and long sessions under an ultraviolet lamp, the novelist John Howard Griffin (The Devil Rides Outside) took his chances travelling through the Deep South as a Negro and published the results two years later in his book, Black Like Me. In 1931-32, after, incredibly, producing Sartoris, Sanctuary, The Sound and the Fury, and As I Lay Dying in the space of three years, William Faulkner wrote Light in August. You could say that Faulkner was safe within his fiction while Griffin put his life on the line passing as a black man in the reality of the South, but in Light in August, Faulkner dared to submerge himself and his art in the “black abyss” of race by creating and inhabiting and finally destroying Joe Christmas, who had passed as a white man until, obsessed by the enigma of his origins, he began fatally announcing that he had Negro blood.

Faulkner and Milch

According to a Dec. 1, 2011 New York Times article by David Itzkoff, when David Milch found that his daughter, Olivia, was studying Light in August at Yale, it “renewed [his] engagement with the material,” eventually leading to discussions between his company, Red Board Productions, and the William Faulkner Literary Estate for the purchase of the rights to 19 novels and 125 short stories by Faulkner that could be adapted for film or television. HBO said in a news release that it would have the first opportunity to finance and produce these projects. Admirers of the great HBO series Deadwood, with its rhetorical overtones of Shakespeare, Dickens, and, yes, Faulkner, may agree with me in thinking that if anyone can do cinematic justice to the author of A Fable and Light in August, it’s David Milch.

In a Nov. 30, 2011, interview with the L.A. Times, Milch says that his interest in Faulkner “deepened” when he was at Yale assisting Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, and R.W.B. Lewis “on a history of American literature.” What attracts him in Faulkner is that he “speaks to us on the questions of race, the challenges of modernity and modern man’s dilemma in all of its aspects.” Asked about the challenge of filming “an unfilmable writer,” Milch contends that Faulkner is “enormously cinematic,” his prose and dialogue “superb, and compelling, and absolutely authentic,” and “his ear … just impeccable.”

When he was asked which of Faulkner’s works would begin the series, Milch said the decision had not been made. My guess is he will choose Light in August. If he does, he might cast Ray McKinnon, who was so heart-breakingly brilliant as the Rev. Smith in Deadwood, as the fallen Rev. Gail Hightower, in whose kitchen Joe Christmas is gunned down and castrated by a National Guardsman with the “voice of a young priest” and a face that has the “serene, unearthly luminousness of angels in church windows.”

For an example of the challenges Milch will face if he means to put the essence of Faulkner on film, consider the language surrounding Hightower as he thinks he should never have let himself “get out of the habit of prayer.” When he turns to the book-lined wall of his study, what is he seeking? Something theological? No.

“It is Tennyson. It is dogeared. He has had it ever since the seminary. He sits beneath the lamp and opens it. It does not take long. Soon the fine galloping language, the gutless swooning full of sapless trees and dehydrated lusts begins to swim smooth and swift and peaceful. It is better than praying without having to bother to think aloud. It is like listening in a cathedral to a eunuch chanting in a language which he does not even need to not understand.”

Good luck, David. Keep the faith.


Is This Madness? Or Just Emotional and Psychological Abuse? Princeton Summer Theater Stages Classic Thriller “Gaslight”

MARITAL MANIPULATIONS: Manningham (Evan Thompson) subtly deceives his wife (Sarah Paton) into thinking she is going insane, in Princeton Summer Theater’s production of Patrick Hamilton’s “Gaslight” (1938), playing at the Hamilton Murray Theater on the Princeton University campus through July 15.

A creative work whose title becomes a part of the common cultural vocabulary must strike a resonant chord in our social and psychological worlds, and the indomitable Princeton Summer Theater’s (PST) polished, intelligent production of Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 Gaslight presents a vibrant case in point. Our society has recently been struggling to come to terms with the complex psychological ramifications and destructive effects of bullying. “Gaslighting” — a power play which involves manipulating the victim into doubting his or her memory and perceptions — is certainly one of the most insidious forms of that kind of psychological abuse. Unsurprisingly, despite a certain quaint predictability and Victorian-style domestic familiarity, this classic melodrama maintains its power to engage and intrigue audiences almost 75 years after its original production.

Most famous is its 1944 movie version directed by George Cukor and starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten and an 18-year-old Angela Lansbury in her screen debut, Gaslight, set in London in the 1880s, is the story of a villainous husband and his calculating emotional and psychological torture of his wife, as he drives her to the brink of insanity.

Under the guise of the most caring and kindly paternalism in this traditional Victorian upper-middle class household, he deceives her into believing that she is misplacing valuable objects, neglecting her responsibilities as dutiful wife, and gradually losing her mind in forgetfulness. One of his ruses that make his wife question her senses and sanity is his clandestine raising and lowering of the gas lamps that give the play its title and light the couple’s Victorian living room. The Victorian world and male-dominated marriages of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892) come to mind, as does the victimized wife consigned to a 1860s mental institution in Emily Mann’s Mrs. Packard (2007).

The PST cast of five principals, all undergraduates or recent college graduates, under the direction of Princeton English and theater professor R.N. Sandberg, is excellent — credible and engaging in making significant character stretches to portray this curious assemblage of characters from a distant world.

In the central Ingrid Bergman role of the beleaguered wife Bella, Sarah Paton is convincing and sympathetic. She portrays a fluctuating fragility that shifts rapidly and credibly from happiness in response to her husband’s feigned affections to desperation and manic hysteria in the face of her fears and desperation in confronting what she is led to believe is her declining mental state. This overly dependent, neurotic stereotype of a Victorian wife is certainly a ripe subject for feminist scrutiny, as is her misogynist husband, though suspense and melodrama are Mr. Hamilton’s priorities rather than social commentary here.

Evan Thompson as Jack Manningham takes on the villain’s role with spirit and poise. His proud posture, thinly veiled insincerity, roguish demeanor, sexist commentary, and inappropriately suggestive overtures to the maid (Ariel Sibert) lucidly reveal his duplicity to the audience, if not to his wife, early on in the play. The audience, realizing Jack’s machinations, then identifying with Bella as she first spirals into distress and fear, then gradually begins to realize her husband’s treachery, enjoy watching as husband and wife match wits in mortal combat.

Ms. Sibert’s impertinent Nancy exudes the brazen spirit and style of the saucy, lascivious maid, and Jack’s flirtations with her become part of his psychological abuse of his wife, as the two women compete for his attentions.

As the elderly house servant Elizabeth, Maeve Brady makes an impressive stretch in age and creates a memorable character, watching closely the suspicious actions of her master and the alarming behavior of her mistress and helping in the end to resolve the tangled plot. Andrew Massey’s avuncular, witty, and determined detective contributes irony and dark humor to the proceedings, eventually winning Bella’s trust and allegiance in opposing the treacherous husband and sorting out his complex schemes and actions. Mr. Massey creates a quirky, believable, and likeable three-dimensional character.

Jeffrey Van Velsor, professional local set designer, in collaboration with talented lighting designer Alex Mannix, has successfully created the Manningham’s living room and this ponderous world of Victorian domestic life. In sharp, welcome contrast to the multiple settings of the 1944 movie version, the audience here stays focused in the single, darkly paneled, increasingly claustrophobic room. As the plot develops throughout the evening, the single setting intensifies the suspense and fear that the audience shares with the panicked Bella. “Gaslight” sconces on the wall further enhance the atmosphere and admirably serve the plot.

Mr. Sandberg has directed with skill and careful attention to detail. The action, even the rather long first-act exposition and set-up, moves swiftly, drawing the audience into this eerie world of intrigue and drama. The performers are well rehearsed and communicate the complexities of this tale with clarity and conviction. Ben Schaffer’s expert technical direction and period costuming by Julia Bumke and Ms. Sibert are also on-target and effective.

In commenting on Gaslight, Mr. Hamilton, who wrote several popular psychological dramas and novels in the first half of the twentieth century, once remarked, “It has a sort of genuineness in its very bogusness — it is sincere good fun theater.” Princeton Summer Theater makes the most here of Mr. Hamilton’s fascination with a rich psychological struggle and his fine sensitivity to the playwright’s art of keeping audiences on the edges of their seats.


Opera New Jersey’s Tenth Anniversary Is Celebrated With Verdi’s “Il Trovatore”

In the ten years since Opera New Jersey’s founding, the company has grown from a vehicle for student performance to a mentoring program incorporated into high quality operatic production. In these tough economic times, Opera New Jersey has managed to expand in quality if not quantity (this season sees a marked increase in number of productions and venues) while somehow keeping the wolves away from the door. Like its sister summer musical celebration The Princeton Festival, Opera New Jersey is branching out into educational initiatives, as well as venues in other parts of the state, but its core programming remains operatic production at McCarter Theatre — and nothing says opera more than Giuseppe Verdi.

Opera New Jersey opened its 10th anniversary season with Il Trovatore, one of Verdi’s most successful operas and one which can pack audiences in. Just about three hours long and cast for little more than a handful of principals, Il Trovatore is not for the faint-hearted opera company, but Opera New Jersey cast its net to the highest musical levels to find singers who could stand up to the demanding and dramatic score.

Refreshing to see onstage again was baritone Young-Bok Kim, who has performed with Opera New Jersey in past seasons. Mr. Kim remains a phenomenal singer and is spreading his wings a bit with other companies in the country. As the officer Ferrando, Mr. Kim sang solidly with a voice full of color, ringing out the lyricism of the narrative “Di due figli vivea padre beato” aria and singing cleanly against the orchestra’s gypsy rhythms.

Verdi incorporated many different styles of music into this opera to match the characters, and the heroine Leonora was well accompanied by strings in her opening scene. Joined onstage by her confidante Ines (sung by JoAna Rusche), soprano Erica Strauss brought a tremendous amount of vocal stamina to the role of Leonora, soaring with ease into the coloratura stratosphere for which Verdi is known. Ms. Rusche is a member of Opera New Jersey’s “Emerging Artists Program,” yet she impressively complemented the voice of Ms. Strauss, completing her phrasing and vocal color as the two singers carried on a musical dialogue. Ms. Strauss demonstrated great control in the cavatina and cabaletta of her opening scene (Verdi was experimenting with forms other than arias) handling the quick coloratura of the show-stopping cabaletta well. Particularly as the opera progressed into more dramatic and theatrical territory, Ms. Strauss proved that she is a soprano who can sing forever, never losing strength, even as Verdi saved the most difficult singing for the final scene.

Leonora’s beloved Manrico does appear, lightly accompanied by harp to replicate his lute (he is the trovatore, or troubadour of the title), and tenor Rafael Dávila brought passion and vocal strength to the role. Whatever vocal overpowering he may have started with quickly dissipated as the opera went along (it would be impossible to oversing for that amount of time) and Mr. Dávila found the “serenade” quality and innocent passion of his arias. Baritone Marco Nisticò provided a suave contrast in the Count di Luna, pouring his heart into “Per me ora fatale” as he also vies for the love of Leonora.

All of these vocal roles were demanding in stamina and energy, but the role of Azucena combined these requirements with the nastiness of a witch’s character. Mezzo-soprano Margaret Mezzacappa, fresh off of a performance of Beethoven’s equally demanding ninth symphony with The Philadelphia Orchestra, proved that McCarter’s Matthews Theatre was a great space for her — easily heard with just a shade of the demonic. Ms. Mezzacappa showed her lyrical and sensitive side with the trio with Leonora and Manrico in the final prison scene, singing expressively and with control while lying on the floor. Opera New Jersey cast some of its “Emerging Artists” in the smaller roles of this opera, and these young artists showed no difficulty keeping up with the very experienced principals.

Conductor Victor DeRenzi (artistic director of the Sarasota Opera) led the New Jersey Symphony in the orchestra pit, keeping a good balance between voices and instruments even as the opera went into its third hour (a tough haul for any orchestra). The orchestra opened the opera with clean brass and handled Verdi’s martial passages well. There were disconnects between singer and orchestra at times in rhythmic clarity, but when the two came together with precision the effect was very clean. The chorus of “Studio Artists of the Emerging Artists Program” provided solid singing in the well-known choruses from this opera.

Scenic Designer Boyd Ostroff (for the Syracuse Opera) made the most of simplicity, keeping a minimum of structure onstage with a backdrop of changing hues to depict the sky. There were many costume changes in this opera, and costume designer Howard Tsvi Kaplan emphasized the Spanish flavor of the storyline, incorporating a wide range of costumes for the principals and chorus members.

So where does Opera New Jersey go from here? With a wide array of musical offerings this summer (conducted and directed by a variety of people and accompanied by different ensembles) one wonders if the next decade will include an artistic director to pull these factions together with one resident artistic thread. Whatever the next decade brings, Opera New Jersey seems to be on solid footing going forward.