December 12, 2012

Docudrama Recounts Shooting of Horror Classic “Psycho”

HERE’S TO THE SUCCESS OF “PSYCHO”: Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins, center) toasts the completion of the the film “Psycho” at a dinner with his wife Alma (Helen Mirren, right) and leading lady Janet Leigh (Scarlet Johannson). All was not right in tinseltown, when Hitchcock flirted with the women on the movie set and Alma left him and moved to a beach house. To see if the pair were reconciled, see the movie.

It wasn’t long after the Hollywood premiere of North by Northwest in July of 1959 that Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) began searching for his next project, since he was happiest when he was making movies. After passing over all the scripts being pitched by Paramount, the master of suspense became curious about a recently published novel inspired by the gruesome exploits of a Wisconsin serial killer (Michael Wincott).

Hitchcock found the book Psycho captivating, and acquired the rights to the novel over the objections of his agent (Michael Stuhlbarg), accountant (John Rothman), assistant (Toni Collette), and the studio’s president (Richard Portnow). He even had a hard time convincing his wife, Alma (Helen Mirren), whose support was always critical because she was his longtime collaborator and sounding board.

After the couple decided to finance the picture themselves, they turned their attention to casting. They settled on relatively unknown Anthony Perkins (James-D’Arcy) in the pivotal role of Norman Bates, while opting for Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) over a fading star (Jessica Biel) as their ill-fated leading lady.

However, pressures continued to mount after the filming got underway, with concerns ranging from the director having to massage actresses’ egos to figuring out how to get the graphic shower scene past the censors. Unfortunately, Hitchcock’s flirtatious behavior on the set took a toll on his relationship with Alma, who disappeared with a friend (Danny Huston) to a beachfront pied-a-terre.

Will Alma cheat on him or reconcile with Hitchcock despite his roving eye? That is the real tension at the heart of the movie, since everybody knows that Psycho was completed and went on to become a cinema classic.

Directed by Sacha Gervasi, this delightful docudrama is based on the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello. What makes the movie so compelling is the badinage between Alma and Alfred as ably portrayed by Oscar winners Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs).

Who knows whether their alternately acerbic and admiring interaction is accurate or pure fabrication? It almost doesn’t matter when delivered so convincingly, thereby allowing the audience a rare “fly on the wall” opportunity to watch how a genius and his wife made movie magic together.

A cinematic treat that offers rare peeks behind the scenes and behind the closed doors of a legendary director and the love of his life.

Very Good (***). Rated PG-13 for sexuality, violent images, and mature themes. Running time: 98 minutes. Distributor: Fox Searchlight.


December 5, 2012

University Proposes to “Privatize” Dinky, Planning Board Should Reject Transit Plan

To the Editor:

I have lived in this community for 36 years. I frequently drive on Alexander Road to get to Route One, and I either walk to the Dinky or drive to the Dinky for travel to trains on the Northeast Corridor. I believe that public transportation is a public right, that our train link to Princeton Junction is a public good, and that our public streets should be managed for the benefit of everyone, not for a small (and privileged) subset of our population.

For these reasons, I urge this Planning Board to reject the transit portions of the University’s site plan. The proposal to move the Princeton Branch station stop south and away from town is indefensible. It will make our train link to the Junction less convenient for all of us who use it, whether we walk or bike there, whether we drive and park, or whether someone drops us off. Worse, the plan will essentially privatize our train station. For over a century we have had easy access to the Dinky from public streets. We have not had to rely on special permissions or easements from a private corporation for our ability to get to the train. The University’s plan proposes to change all of that.

To reach the train, we will have to go through University land to the service sector of the campus. It will be harder to get there, and the challenges will be much harder for those who are elderly or disabled. It will be less safe to walk from there at night. The University proposes to respond to the inconvenience by providing more gas-fueled shuttle service. This is an insult to anyone who cares about environmental responsibility. Instead of moving a mass transit stop to facilitate commuter car access to a parking garage, the University should encourage car pooling and other methods to cut down on auto use.

This proposal cannot be justified by any sound public policy reasons. It is not in the best interests of our community. A University that purports to teach international diplomacy should begin at home by ending its campaign to diminish our rights to public transportation.

Mary Ellen Marino

Hornor Lane

Planning Board Should Require University To Come Up With Safer Plan for Station

To the Editor:

We rely on the members of the Regional Planning Board of Princeton to recognize the dangers to the public inherent in the plan for the new Dinky Station complex, part of the University’s Arts and Transit project. The area in front of the new station will have to accommodate buses and cars waiting, turning and parking; pedestrians crossing the road to the station; “kiss and run” traffic; cyclists; and drivers and pedestrians stopping at Wawa. In addition, cars coming from and going to Parking Lot 7 will share an exit road with the station complex. All of this, confined in the small area set out in the University’s proposal, will cause intense congestion and endanger public safety.

Four new crosswalks on Alexander Street between University Place and Faculty Road will further impede traffic flow and put the public at even greater risk.

For these reasons we urge the Planning Board to require the University to come up with a safer plan.

Peter Kleban, Barbara Anderman

Springdale Road

JM Group Thanks Customers and Friends For Donations to “First Annual Turkey Drive”

To the Editor:

As we give thanks and count our blessings this time of year, the JM Group Family would like to acknowledge our generous customers and friends for their donations to our “First Annual Turkey Drive.”

We are so pleased to share the news that with your help, we donated 500 turkeys along with $1,200 to the Mercer Street Food Bank, enabling struggling families to enjoy the holiday. In addition, our “Fourth Annual Harvest Festival” raised $3,800, which we donated to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.

The volunteers at the food bank and soup kitchen were thrilled and grateful for this generosity.

We are extremely proud to be a part of such a close-knit, benevolent community, and thank you all for your incredible support of this cause.

Happy Holidays!

Jack Morrison

AvalonBay Proposal Does Not Comply With Guidelines of 2006 Borough Code

To the Editor:

The redevelopment of the hospital site will have a permanent impact on our community. Unfortunately, years of thoughtful planning by the community, government, and hospital have not been incorporated into AvalonBay’s proposal.

The 2006 Princeton Borough Code added requirements for a Mixed Residential-Retail-Office, or MRRO, zone as “the Witherspoon Street Campus.” This MRRO zone was created for an urban campus, not a single building. It was intended to reintegrate the hospital site into the existing neighborhood through smart, rejuvenating urban design, with affordable housing and sustainable design. AvalonBay has presented drawings of 1 large building, a figure eight in plan, with 280 residential units. Not only does AvalonBay’s proposal not satisfy the 2006 Master Plan’s intent, it simply ignores the existing neighborhood.

Section 17A-193B of 2006 Princeton Borough Code includes guidelines that are not being met in AvalonBay’s proposal. To name just a few:

The Code’s paragraph A.6: “Buildings should be designed to avoid a monolithic appearance.” The proposal: Drawings show a continuous 3-story high wall running along Franklin Ave, almost two blocks long. From Witherspoon St, the wall runs 250 ft, jogs 15 feet back, then continues for another 240 feet.

The Code’s paragraph C.3: “Careful consideration should be given to the mass and bulk of any buildings to ensure they are harmonious with their surroundings and improve the present conditions.” The proposal: Drawings show one building and have not demonstrated any consideration of the surroundings.

The Code’s paragraph D.1: “Any applicant must document that the open space provides linkages between and through the development as well as the surrounding neighborhood.” The proposal: Drawings do not indicate any public walkways crossing the whole site. An archway from Witherspoon St permits access only to the smaller of two internal courtyards, which is a dead-end without any link beyond.

The Code’s paragraph E.1: “A new neighborhood street is envisioned. Access points should be open and accessible by the public.” The proposal: No new street is proposed crossing the site.

The Code’s paragraph E.4: “A private gated community is not allowed for the site.” The proposal: The larger of two internal courtyards is not accessible to the public, rendering the majority of the site as a private gated community.

For an urban plan such as this, a developer must either follow the existing zoning in place or the developer can modify the existing zoning on the basis of a new master plan. In the second scenario, the master plan becomes the de facto code for the urban design, similar to how the building code is the basis for building design.

The Planning Board is responsible for making sure that this design complies with the 2006 Master Plan’s intentions and guidelines. According to the Planning Board’s on-line mission statement, its first of 6 listed responsibilities is:

“to assure that all permitted development is designed so as to be as harmonious as possible with the surrounding neighborhood.”

Yaron Inbar

Harris Road

Planning Board Must Not Be Duped By AvalonBay’s “Disingenuous Rhetoric”

To the Editor:

Tomorrow, December 6, critical Planning Board hearings continue on AvalonBay’s proposal to stick a gated “private community” into Princeton’s emerging downtown. Hearing dates are December 6 (Thursday), 10 (Monday), and 13 (Thursday), all at 7:30 p.m. (Township Complex). Come, speak out; help our Planning Board deny AvalonBay’s effort to violate Borough Code and the Master Plan, which both aim at a rejuvenated, diversified neighborhood.

From the outset, AvalonBay has ignored design standards, which Code pointedly characterizes as “a framework within which” any developer must work. The term “framework” does not allow dismissal. While AvalonBay has slurred design standards as “vague” (“subjective”), legal practice insists that each individual design standard be evaluated on its own merits. Furthermore, the developer (not the Planning Board) must prove that a specific standard is “vague”; only a judge may give a final ruling. Planning Board members may rightfully maintain that AvalonBay must heed a specific design standard — or they can deny the application. This situation also obtains if a developer claims that following a design standard is “cost-generative” (thereby governed by laws for developments with affordable housing components): the developer must present a baseline cost before claiming that adhering to a specific standard is cost-generative, and a judge must rule on that claim in court.

An important design standard reads: “Any applicant must document that the open space provides linkages between and through the development …” (17A-193B.d.1; see also 17A-193B.e.3). Requiring documentation from a developer is not a “vague” stipulation, nor is the phrase “through the development.” AvalonBay might fight the standard — and lose. The corollary to both standards, added late in the drafting of Borough Code, belongs to “legislative history”: “The development shall have [note that the verb mandates] an enhanced system of public open spaces and pathways” (17A-193B.d.4). “Enhanced”: a comparative adjective. “Enhanced” over what? — the hospital’s present footprint. AvalonBay disregards plain English — and has, indeed, subtracted the present walkway from Witherspoon to Harris.

Sometimes Mr. Ladell has shimmied, affirming that his development does indeed comply with a specific design standard. Can he really switch back and forth between honoring and trashing design standards en masse, claiming they are “vague”? On November 15, he claimed compliance with this standard: “New construction should be concentrated in the central portion of the site and building setback should increase as building height increases” (17A-193B.a.8). To manage this claim, he included the entire garage as part of the site — though he has otherwise argued that the “site” is only what’s in his major site plan application (the new residences). His argument that the northerly wall of apartments (abutting the garage) would be the highest point was deceptive. The real center is the swimming pool — and there are no changes in building height (setbacks) throughout a perimeter structure that is always 52 feet high (not counting additional lofts).

Planning Board members will doubtless not be duped by Mr. Ladell’s disingenuous rhetoric. They should deny his application and vote to weave a renewed site back into a welcoming neighborhood.

Daniel Harris

Dodds Lane

Offensive Graffiti Should Be Removed From Signage at Entrance to Princeton

To the Editor:

Recently I learned that a graffiti outlaw wrote an expletive on signage at the entrance of Princeton Township. Even though this sign will most likely be removed and replaced with a new one when the consolidation becomes official, I firmly believe that the graffiti should be removed as quickly as possible. I have written letters to two members of Princeton Township Committee that I sincerely hope will result in the quick removal of the graffiti. Studies have shown that when graffiti goes uncorrected it creates more graffiti.

Ethan C. Finley

Princeton Community Village

Obituaries 12/5/12

Bernice Lampert

Bernice Lampert, age 90, passed away peacefully on Thursday, November 29, 2012 at her home at Edenwald in Towson, Md. She was born on January 27, 1922 in Philadelphia, Pa. to Rachel and Herman Finkel and was the middle child of two other sisters, Sylvia and Martha.

By the age of 11, Bernice fell in love with ballet and began to learn and perform with the Littlefield Ballet in Philadelphia, Pa., also known at different times as Philadelphia Ballet and also the ballet troupe of the Chicago City Opera.

On June 27, 1947 she married her sweetheart, Dr. A. Bruce Lampert (Buzz) and they chose Princeton as a place to begin their life together. As a young bride, Bernice danced with the Cannon Ballet Company and performed every role from Swan Lake to the Sugar Plum Fairy. Alongside raising her two daughters and managing her husband’s dental practice, she taught ballet at her own home studio as well as the Princeton Ballet Society and performed with the PJ&B Players, founded and directed by the late Milton Lyon. Many will remember her many years of contribution to the Princeton Regional Ballet, not the least of which was her daughter Maxine, who danced with the Princeton Regional Ballet and went on to a professional career with major ballet companies, achieving principal dancer status.

“Bernie” will be remembered as a bright spark to her two daughters, Lori Lampert and Maxine Lampert and her partner Dana William Rath and her “adopted” daughter, Barbara Feigh as well as the many others who unite in the afterglow of happy times and the echoes of treasured memories. Her girls are eternally grateful for the intangible abundance with which they’ve been blessed.

The memorial service and celebration of Bernice Lampert’s life will be held at the Nassau Inn, 10 Palmer Square, on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 12:30 p.m.

Please extend condolences at www.TheKimbleFuneralHome.com.

———

James S. Gaspari

James S. Gaspari died Saturday, December 1, 2012, at his home in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was 79.

Born in New York City to the late Charles J. and Bertha (Cohn) Gaspari he lived in North Brunswick, New Jersey for over 50 years before retiring to Florida. He was a 1956 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania school of architecture and planning where he was a member of Beta Sigma Rho Fraternity, Hexagon Senior Honorary Society and the Architecture Society. He was a member of the track team, which competed at the international track and field meet at Oxford and Cambridge in 1955 and was an Ivy League champion in the shot put.

Mr. Gaspari opened his own architectural and planning office in North Brunswick in 1967, James S. Gaspari, AIA, where he worked for 40 years before retiring in 2009. He was a member of the American Institute of Architects and designed many commercial, religious, and residential projects all over New Jersey and in 14 other states. He served on the New Jersey State Board of Architects and Landscape Architects for 11 years and served two years on the National Council of Architectural Registration Board. He was also an adjunct professor of the landscape architecture department at Cook College of Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

He was a member of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick for over 50 years. He had served as a captain in the United States Army in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In addition to his love for his profession of architecture, he was an avid sculptor, painter, and musician. Many of his works competed in juried exhibitions and won prizes, including the Trenton
State Museum.

His wife of 44 years Florence (Miller) Gaspari died in 2000. Surviving are two daughters — Carol Gaspari Lerner and her husband Robert L. Lerner of Princeton, and Jennifer M. Gaspari of Orlando, Fla.; a son Charles M. “Chuck” Gaspari and his wife Kristen H. Gaspari of Delray Beach, Fla.; four grandchildren — Dana and Jordan Lerner and Jonas and James Gaspari; two brothers-in-law — Kalman Miller of Somerset and Robert S. Miller of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and his companion Glenna Gundel.

Funeral services took place at noon on Tuesday, December 4 at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple, 222 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, N.J. Burial followed in Elmwood Cemetery in North Brunswick. Arrangements are under the direction of Selover Funeral Home, 555 Georges Road, North Brunswick.

———

Anne Bobo

Anne Bobo, my mother, died on November 4, 2012 at 5:29 p.m. She was 63 years old. To most of the folks who knew her casually, she was an artist, an educator, and an historian. I am not here to commemorate her career because it ended with her, and her end robbed us of things more important than her professional life. Instead, I want to talk about her laughter, her sense of mischief, and the joy she took from simple pleasures.

My father and I have hundreds of pictures of the three of us together, overlooking canyons and oceans, standing at the bases of mountains and at the edges of plains. In that way, she remains with us: a vision at twenty-two, a frazzled yet patient mother in her 40s, a warm and determined survivor into her 60s. Circumstances, careers, and clothes changed across that period, but the one constant is also the only thing truly lost to us: her laughter.

As a child playing in the break room at Mercer County Community College, I heard a coworker tell my mother that he wanted her in the audience of every play he put on; her laughter was better than any paid shill. She had a way of turning an entire room into co-conspirators, making everyone complicit in her delight. Beyond being bubbly, rich, and warm, her laughter was
unselfconscious. It unraveled the artifice of entertainment — seats, lights, chairs, companions — and took people out of themselves in the best possible way: you are here, this is funny. Why not laugh with me?

She also believed that rules were meant be nudged, so long as there was no harm done. For her, teaching was done all day, every day, and the process of learning necessarily made one a bit of a scamp; a certain amount of tut-tutting was the price to be paid for a full life. When I was a child she was always willing to keep a weather eye out for security guards when she felt I needed a closer peek at the dinosaur bones in the Museum of Natural History, or to peer at the brushwork in a Seurat or Monet. As her illnesses drew in the physical boundaries of her world, she was content to cadge an extra piece of dessert from my father — against doctor’s orders — or take a sip of red wine that, strictly speaking, she oughtn’t have.

These little rebellions were a way for my mother to hold on to the life she’d had before the demands of her health crowded out the comforts of indulgence. To my father’s credit, he filled her life with small hedonisms as best he could: breakfast in bed, engaging conversation, small gifts, and big meals. In one of the last pictures I have of them, they are standing with their backs to me, side by side, looking out over the rose bushes he planted in the garden she built. Today that garden is brown and our family meals are quieter, but she remains a warm presence in our hearts and memories, if not in our home.

Anne Bobo is survived by her husband, Nestor Arroyo of East Windsor, her son, Adrian Arroyo of Cambridge Mass., her sister, Susan D’arcy of Baltimore Md., and her brother, William Bobo of Hinsdale, Ill.

A memorial service will be held on December 8, 2012, at 1 p.m. at Princeton Monthly Meeting, Quaker Road and Mercer Street in Princeton N.J., 08540.

Please extend condolences at www.TheKimbleFuneralHome.com.

———

Virgina Dey Craig

Born and raised in Griggstown, Mrs. Craig lived on Bunker Hill Road. She attended the one room schoolhouse in Griggstown and graduated from Princeton High School. She attended New Jersey College for Women, now Douglas College, in New Brunswick. She retired in 1973 after 33 years of service in the Purchasing Department of Johnson and Johnson. Mrs. Craig was a member of the Goodwin Society and Capital Society of Colonial Williamsburg, Va. She was also a member of the Griggstown Historical Society.

Mrs. Craig’s husband, Howard M. Craig, died in 1997 after 51 years of marriage. She was the daughter of the late Madge (Fagan) Dey, a native of Griggstown, and the late Harold Dey. She is survived by her cousins and special friends.

Funeral services will be private and under the
direction of A.S. Cole Funeral Home, 22 North Main Street, Cranbury.

———

Gabriella F. Eggers

Gabriella F. Eggers, 67, of Princeton died November 25 at the University Medical Center of Princeton, surrounded by her family. The cause of her death was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Daughter of Ann T. Reed of Skillman, and the late Samuel C. Finnell, Jr., Gay was born in Charleston, S.C. and educated at the MacDuffie School, Centre College, and Hartwell House in Aylesbury, U.K. She was an editorial assistant at Scribner’s, worked for the CUNY Center for Social Research, was a field researcher for System Sciences, and spent 20 years as program manager in the linguistics program at Princeton University. She was a member of the Present Day Club of Princeton.

She is survived by her mother; her devoted husband L. Christopher B. Eggers of Princeton, and her beloved daughter Ann T. Eggers of Brooklyn, N.Y.; her sister Rebecca Finnell and brother-in-law Francois Vuilleumier of Piermont, N.Y.; sister Ann Finnell and brother-in-law Peter Tomlinson of Edison; her brother Samuel C. Finnell III and sister-in-law Molly Finnell of Skillman; and her loving nieces and nephews.

Services will be private.

———

Lucile Coffey Wade

Lucile Coffey Wade, long time resident of Princeton, passed away peacefully at her home in Princeton, after an extended period with cancer. She was 85 years old.

Her husband Alfred M. Wade, predeceased her in February 25, 1980.

Lucile was born in Plainfield, Connecticut on January 30, 1927. In 1949, she moved to Princeton and worked as a head secretary at the Textile Research Institute (TRI).

She married Alfred M. Wade on April 26, 1957, and the following year, had a son, James M. Wade, born November 26, 1958.

Lucile is survived by her son, James M. Wade, 53, of Princeton, a sister, Catherine A. Coffey, 91, residing at Ashlar Village Retirement Facility, in Wallingford, Connecticut, and a step-daughter, Molly McGrath, 74, of New York City, from a previous marriage of Alfred M. Wade.

There was a private interment and service at 1 p.m., on November 28, 2012 at All Saints Church Cemetery in Princeton.

The New Farmhouse Store in Palmer Square Offers Array of Unique Furniture and Gifts

FARMHOUSE FAVORITES: “There are furniture stores and gift stores. We combine the best of each, and many of the items we carry are exclusive to us. You won’t see them everywhere.” Kristin and Ron Menapace, owners of The Farmhouse Store on Palmer Square, are shown near a display of the store’s popular accent pillows, scarves, and intriguing miscellany.

The Farmhouse Store at 43 Hulfish Street is barely a month old, and customers can’t wait to see the latest items.

It is easy to understand why. The attractive store is filled with a variety of intriguing “conversation pieces,” from jewelry to furniture. And much, much more!

Opened the end of October by Ron and Kristin Menapace, it is the second Farmhouse Store in New Jersey. The first was opened in Westfield by Mr. Menapace’s brother.

Originally from Hillsborough, Ron Menapace had worked in the pharmaceutical business, and lived in California before changing careers.

Center of Town

Impressed with the success of The Farmhouse Store in Westfield, he decided to embark on a new adventure, and opened a similar shop in Princeton. “The big difference coming from the corporate world to this is the connection we have with the community here,” says Mr. Menapace.

Adds his wife and co-owner Kristin Menapace: “We wanted to be in the center of town, and Palmer Square was a perfect match for us. We want to make the store unique to Princeton.”

They certainly have! From jewelry to lamps to rugs to scarves, pillows, and throws to clocks and candles, dishes, trays, and mugs to farm tables, hutches, and rocking chairs, decorative stars to greeting cards to fingerless mittens, the selection is never-ending.

“Our signature is our barn wood,” explains Mr. Menapace. “We use barn wood from farm houses to make furniture, and the Farmhouse Store makes its own furniture. It can be custom-designed as to color, finish, size, etc. In just a very short time, we have already sold farm tables, coffee tables, and benches.”

The range of furniture includes beds, cabinets, and hutches with different finishes. There are also handsome upholstered and slip-covered sofas and chairs. Floor lamps featuring both wrought iron bases and hand-blown bases, with beaded fabric shade catch the eye; and accent pillows, including charming farm motif and “Flying Pigs” design, are great gift ideas. Serving dishes in the shape of artist’s palette, and small orange and black cheese trays with “Princeton parking violation” design are fun to add to your entertaining mosaic.

“Many of the items are small batch artisan goods. You will find uncommon treasures,” points out Kristin Menapace. “We have unusual artwork from an Atlanta artist who emphasizes inspirational sayings with her work.”

Front Porch

For example, wooden picture frames with the following sentiment:

“It was the barn for the square dance on Saturday night.

It was the front porch to rock on.

It was the trim that said the hard work paid off.

The only thing worse than tearing down an old building

Is not re-using the wood that created its beauty.”

There are specialties for children, such as “100 Gathered Thoughts (For My Beautiful Child)”, featuring note pads with tear-off sayings.

It is also not every shop in which you will find money pots! The collection of Taramandi Etruscan money pots, hand-thrown in Italy, feature bright colors and designs. As the attached message explains: “Once the first coin is dropped, the money pot must be fed until full, upon which it must be smashed whilst making a wish. Money pots bring good fortune, and can hold up to $500 with nickels, dimes, and quarters.”

Jewelry, from delicate to dramatic, is a big favorite at the store, and includes a complete selection, with many pieces in silver. Unusual pendants feature genuine pressed flowers, leaves and herbs.

Wine stoppers and wind chimes, dish towels and glasses with states of the U.S. motif, clay pottery, soup mugs with scenes of Grand Central Station, the Empire State Building, and other NYC favorites, silk flowers, amazing “Gurgle Pots” — fish-shaped pitchers in all colors that actually gurgle when filled with water … the list goes on and on.

Great Resource

“We have something for anywhere in your house,” says Ms. Menapace, “and we are a great resource for hostess and housewarming gifts.”

The wide price range will also please customers. From $1.99 for a little sequin bracelet to $2000 for furniture, and everything in between. Examples include scarves, which start at $13.99, the all-important cheeseboard with dipping bowl and knife at $34.95, cheese platters made from rustic wood scrub boards under $20, and miniature vases at $19.99.

“My little daughter loves to bring me dandelions, and we never had a vase small enough for them,” reports Ms. Menapace. “Now, we have very tiny vases, which are just fine for dandelions!

“I really enjoy talking with all our customers,” she adds. “I like to know where they’re from and what they’re looking for. Personal service is very important, and either Ron or I are always here.”

The Farmhouse Store offers complimentary gift packaging and wrapping, and is open Monday-Wednesday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 10 to 8:30, Sunday 12 to 5. (609) 688-0777 www.facebook.com/thefarmhousestoreprinceton.

“Holiday Adornments” Unique Jewelry Showcase Will Be Held at Beth Ann Designs in Hopewell

INSPIRED DESIGN: “Jewelry is very personal. It’s a special part of a person’s life. People have always loved to adorn themselves with jewelry to add beauty.” Beth Judge of Beth Ann Designs in Hopewell is wearing one of her own designs, a pendant with a Peruvian opal set in sterling silver accented with an orange garnet.

Creating beautiful jewelry is the specialty of Beth Judge. And she is very aware of and grateful for her ability and talent to create.

“I love doing this, and I consider it a gift given to me that I am able to do what I love.”

A graduated gemologist, goldsmith, and award-winning designer, Ms. Judge opened her new studio and showroom, Beth Ann Designs at 20 Seminary Avenue in Hopewell in November,

The beauty and creativity of design has always had a magnetism for her. “As a girl, I was always interested in art, and I loved to make things. I started designing jewelry at age 16, and I had a wonderful mentor, my high school teacher. He was also a jewelry designer on the side. I went on to get a BA in fine art, majoring in metals.”

Bench Jeweler

Before going into business for herself, Ms. Judge honed her skills by working for other jewelry firms in the area. “I was a bench jeweler for retail stores, and I did repair and custom design,” she says. “I always wanted to make my own jewelry, and I have been doing that for the past 12 years.

“When the opportunity to open here came along, it was just what I wanted, which was to be in a more accessible location. This space was small enough to show my work in an intimate setting, but also with room for my workshop. My stones, my raw materials are right here in my workshop. I have a huge selection of loose stones. I can tell a customer exactly what is possible, and it was also important for me to offer a very comfortable setting for clients to sit down and talk about what they want.”

It is indeed a charming showroom for Ms. Judge’s creations. Display cabinets are filled with her one-of-kind necklaces, pendants, earrings, bracelets, and brooches. Her pendants are a specialty, featuring graceful designs reminiscent of feathers or leaves that seem to float in the air. She is even able to create reversible pieces, such as a pendant with orange and blue enamel in sterling silver on one side, and sterling silver cut-out with black background on the other, on a carnelian chain.

“I really like to work with stones,” she notes. “Right now, I am working on a pendant with a pink drusy stone, with tanzanite.”

Ms. Judge creates all of her pieces in her workshop in the back of the studio, where, as she says, “I enjoy the creative process of visualizing something and then having it actually in my hand. I also very much like working with someone to create a design for them, whether it is new or a re-design of an older piece.”

This can often begin with a drawing, and Ms. Judge will frequently have questions for the client. “When and where will they wear it? To a formal or informal occasion? With an elegant dress or with a T-shirt and jeans?”

Expert Craftsmanship

Ms. Judge has a full selection of her pieces — including the first pair of earrings she made at 16 — on display, and they reveal expert craftsmanship and are aesthetically beautiful. A series of delicate and graceful bracelets are particularly intriguing. “They are hand-forged silver with one-of-a-kind stones, and hand-made settings,” she points out. “The stones vary and can include malachite and dalmation stones, among others.”

A more dramatic large link bracelet features candy stripe jasper with sterling silver, and is sure to be a conversation piece. An especially lovely amethyst necklace includes sterling silver, accented with gold, and with a drop of ametrine.

“I also have a lot of freshwater pearls,” notes Ms. Judge. “They can be dyed, and I often include them as part of a piece. I also try to make things as versatile as possible. For example, I could have a pendant on a strand of pearls, or it could be placed on a gold chain, and work as well with either.”

An award-winning designer, Ms. Judge has received the highly prestigious DeBeers award for design three times, twice for her brooches, and also for a necklace when she was still a student. One of the brooches  was eventually auctioned by Christie’s.

On Saturday, December 8, Ms. Judge, in collaboration with jewelry designer Sheila Fernekes, will host a reception, “Holiday Adornments” at Beth Ann Designs Studio.

“This is an opportunity for people to come and see the studio and showroom and our work. Sheila specializes in beaded pieces, including necklaces, earrings, bracelets, etc. We will have refreshments, and people can browse and buy and ask questions. It will be from 10 a.m. to 4, and it’s a chance to find some great holiday gifts, which we will put in a box and wrap for you.”

Appraisal Work

Ms. Judge’s pieces are within a wide price range, with earrings from $35. Some of her silver bracelets are $179. She notes that there has been a sharp increase in the price of metals today. “Over the last four or five years, the price of gold has become extraordinarily high, and two years ago, the price of silver doubled. This is certainly a consideration for customers, and for me in how I approach a design. Of course, I will always be adding new pieces, so there will always be something new for people to see.”

In addition to her designs, Ms. Judge, as a gemologist, does appraisal work. “I will look at the stone under the microscope, and check for inclusions (little lines or marks).

“I really enjoy everything — all the different aspects of my work,” she adds. “I believe that what I can offer no one else in the area does. I wear so many hats. I’m a designer, with extensive background in repair, custom-design, and re-design of older pieces. I am very encouraged since I opened. The word-of-mouth has been great, and I have developed a base of many regular customers. I look forward to introducing even more people to my work.”

Beth Ann Designs is open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and by appointment. (609) 466-6467. www.bethannjudge.com.


A Holiday’s Holiday: The Beatles’ Magical But Embattled Tour Is Reborn in Blu-Ray

If you think of “holiday” as an enhanced departure from routine, the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour (Apple Blu-Ray DVD) qualifies as the ultimate holiday movie, in spite of what happened when it was first shown on the BBC, Boxing Day, December 26, 1967. Besides being savaged by critics as “tasteless nonsense” and “blatant rubbish,” the 50-odd minutes of surreal psychedelic vaudeville appalled and alienated the British public. “Beatles mystery tour baffles viewers” was the headline in the Mirror. The show scored the lowest-ever rating (23 out of 100) on a viewer’s survey known as the BBC’s Reaction Index. Thousands actually called in to protest. Of course it didn’t help that a film made in color had been shown in black and white. (There was at least one positive notice, from the Guardian, which called it “an inspired freewheeling achievement.”)

“We got hammered mightily,” Sir Paul McCartney admits near the end of his commentary accompanying the new Blu-Ray edition, where his closing remark is a cynical “thank you” to the critics for their “kind reviews.” Forty-five years after the fact, the original rejection apparently still rankles, casting a shadow on a work McCartney values not only as a free-form adventure shared with his mates but as “a snapshot of the times,” and “an interesting document of where we were at.” Without it, no one “would have seen this side of the Beatles. Someone would have put us in a bag and made sense of it. A lot of what we were doing then didn’t make sense.”

Good as Gold

The unmagical BBC fiasco prompted NBC to cancel an agreement to broadcast the film, which was not widely shown here until 1974, four years after the Beatles had broken up. While this suggests one reason why Magical Mystery Tour never really registered as a debacle stateside, a more likely explanation is that before American listeners could be exposed to any negative feedback from England, they were blissing out to the truly magical album Capitol had released a month earlier. In England, people had to make do with an EP containing only songs from the film. The American version had those five tracks, plus the singles, “Hello Goodbye,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Baby You’re a Rich Man,” and two unmitigated masterpieces, “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.” As far as people on this side of the Atlantic were concerned, everything the Beatles touched was still turning to gold.

Consider the heady state of Beatles affairs at the time of their escape in a psychedelicized Bedford tour bus on a wholly irresponsible spur-of-the-moment lark with a cast of friends, fan club leaders, technicians, character actors, comedians, dwarfs, and cameramen. In the aftermath of the storied summer of 1967, they can do no wrong, Sgt. Pepper having exploded on the scene in May, with songs like “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” a hallucinatory anthem, and the closing track, “A Day in the Life,” which blew a hole as big as Blackburn Lancashire through the conventions of rock and roll.

On June 25, 400 million people in 26 countries would see the live feed of the Beatles’ debut performance of “All You Need Is Love” broadcast worldwide as the U.K.’s contribution to Our World, the first live global television link. A fortnight after the August 27th death of the group’s guiding light, Brian Epstein, the lads from Liverpool take off for the West country on their holiday adventure with no plan, no script. In the DVD commentary, McCartney says he simply suggested they each “come up with some ideas and go somewhere and film them.” They would make up the movie as they went along. Like putting a childhood fantasy into play. In one sense, as hard as Epstein’s death was on them, it symbolically set them free: “We wanted to have control over what we were doing. We were fed up with everything taking so long.”

As Paul admits in the commentary, the result led to a nightmare in the editing room. He thought they could shape a film from all that footage in one week; it took eleven.

Surreal Chaos

Sometimes I think a library angel is looking out for me, putting the right thing in the right place at the right moment. As soon as this week’s Town Talk question was decided on (that old standby, “What’s your favorite holiday movie?”), I went to the “community’s living room” figuring I might check out White Christmas or anything that struck the right note for a holiday theme. Then there it was displayed atop the Blu-Ray shelves, looming bold and bright with its fanfare rainbow and yellow stars, and Paul, John, George, and Ringo disguised in “I Am the Walrus” regalia.

After two viewings of Magical Mystery Tour and its special features, I put Irving Berlin’s White Christmas in the DVD player. When Paul says in his commentary that “what happened with the Beatles had to do with our memories,” he’s not just talking about growing up with the BBC, or acts like Morecombe & Wise, the Goon Show, and the ambience of the music hall, but of the enlightened affection he and John Lennon shared for classic American songs and songwriters like Irving Berlin. This becomes clear when Paul is discussing the making of the concluding number, “Your Mother Should Know,” an evocation of grandiose Hollywood musicals in which the Beatles, attired in white tuxedos, descend a grand stairway while dancing couples spin and twirl below, the girls’ skirts whirling and flaring. It’s an exhilarating sequence, the atmosphere is both formal and free like the spirited, buoyant music that makes this arguably Paul’s most effective homage to “the songs that were a hit before your mother was born.”

The surreal chaos of Magical Mystery Tour, even at its sloppiest, has a Cinéma vérité panache. In White Christmas, the highest grossing film of 1954, the gloss of the production is so polished and insistent it offends the eye. It’s all surface and the opening scene on the front lines in 1944 looks as staged and static as a display in a department store show window with mannikins dressed as soldiers. It’s a relief when the film leaves the war zone for the familiar show biz milieu of a musical comedy team (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) with love interest in the form of two sisters (Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen), who were singing “Sisters” at the point when I turned it off to go back to Magical Mystery Tour for another look at the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band performing “Death Cab for Cutie.”

Wizards

I keep hearing “Ooh you’re a holiday, such a holiday,” from the song of the same name, one of the most irresistible melodies ever recorded by the Bee Gees. What appeals to me is the idea of a human holiday, and given the pleasure they’ve brought to millions of people around the world for the past 50 years, it’s safe to say that the Beatles are a holiday. Which means this resplendently revised film of a trip they once took (a holiday’s holiday) is worth going along on for any number of reasons, including the wonders performed on a hitherto shabby print by high-definition Blu-Ray production. Another reason: the special features, notably the one on the making of the film with appearances by 70-year-old Sir Paul looking magisterial and saggy about the jowls and Ringo who seems in fine fettle watching his 27-year-old self bickering with his fat Aunt Jessie (Jessie Robins). In the fast and loose fluidity of the film, 2012 and 1967 interact in an element open to the old and young Paul (his wide-eyed Dorian Gray charisma on display in the “Fool on the Hill” sequence) and the old and young Ringo. Plus George and John, alive again, commenting on the film years after its fraught release and present in the moment it’s being made, passengers with the rest of the oddballs from the 20th century British vaudeville of fat and lean, freak and clown, and little kids like the girl sitting next to John on the bus, the two of them playing with a red balloon in one of the film’s most charming moments (showing, as Paul says, “a side of John you never really saw”). George may seem at times to be enduring the ride, dour in shades and a wide-shouldered gangster suit jacket two sizes too big for him, but he lightens up, having fun, singing along when everyone on the bus is bellowing “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” (one of the special feature highlights is Ringo’s tomcat-on-the-fence version of “Yesterday”).

No doubt we could do without Victor Spinetti’s stacatto top sergeant gibberish and the love scene on the beach with Aunt Jessie and Buster Bloodvessel (Ivor Cutler). But after all, it’s only 53 minutes long, and there’s easily enough charm and color and movement to make up for the longeurs. Blu-Ray does amazing things with the Beatles’ richly hued magician’s regalia, worn while they’re cooking up spells and exchanging Hard Day’s Night-style one-liners. Only now there’s no Richard Lester telling them what to do, and no one’s feeding them lines. Remember, they’re on a lark, “at liberty to play,” as Paul says.

The main reason to see Magical Mystery Tour, no surprise, is the music, most of all the “I Am the Walrus” sequence, captured in one of the greatest music videos ever (and accomplished before MTV was a gleam in anyone’s eye). Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye are wonderful performers, Irving Berlin a great songwriter. But the Beatles do it all. They write the songs they sing. They make the moves and carry the movies. As Paul says near the end of his commentary, “We did the trip and we came back singing songs. Who were the wizards? The wizards were us.”


Popular Artist Visits His Ex-Lover and Muse After Fifteen Years, In “Sight Unseen,” 1991 Obie-Winning Drama at Theatre Intime

REPEAT THE PAST?: Jonathan (Jordan Adelson) visits his former lover Patricia (Rachel Saunders) after fifteen years, as he tries to understand and recover something he has lost, as an artist and human being, in Theatre Intime’s production of Donald Margulies “Sight Unseen” at the Hamilton Murray Theater on the Princeton University campus through December 8.

It’s about lost love, the role of the artist, and anti-Semitism. It’s about an identity crisis that strikes as middle-age approaches and brings with it the inevitable compromises of life.

Jonathan Waxman is a rising mega-star in the international art scene of twenty years ago. His controversial modern paintings are sold “sight unseen,” even before they are completed, to wealthy patrons in New York City and throughout the world. In Sight Unseen, Donald Margulies’ 1991 Off-Broadway hit, Jonathan, in London for the first overseas exhibition of his work, journeys out to the country to visit his former lover Patricia and her husband Nick.

Throughout the ensuing eight scenes of Sight Unseen, currently playing in an uneven, though at times luminous and engaging, production at Theatre Intime on the Princeton University campus, Jonathan (Jordan Adelson) and Patricia (Rachel Saunders) seek resolution to a welter of interwoven issues, romantic, aesthetic, and personal. These include their abruptly-terminated relationship of fifteen years earlier, the artist’s role as a public figure in a commercial world, and disputes over anti-Semitism.

Patricia, now an expatriate and her British husband Nick (Peter Giovine) live a modest life in their cold farmhouse, pursuing their archeological explorations of Roman ruins. Jonathan comes upon his painting of Patricia, a gift to her, from 15 years earlier, now hanging prominently in Patricia and Nick’s house. Jonathan recognizes in that painting the inspiration and integrity that, amidst all his success and fame, he has lost. Patricia is still bitter over Jonathan’s rejection of her. Nick, socially awkward and hostile both to Jonathan and the art he creates, clashes with Jonathan over his relationship with Patricia and over the very nature of his artistic work.

The scenes jump forward and backwards in time, from the farmhouse in the present to an interview between Jonathan and a German journalist four days later in London, then back, 15 years to the break-up of Jonathan and Patricia’s relationship, and finally to the college painting studio where the relationship began. The fragmented chronology provides fascinating perspective on the relationship between Jonathan and Patricia, life compromises of both protagonists, and on Jonathan’s controversial evolution as an artist.

Under the direction of Princeton University junior Eric Traub, this Theatre Intime production of Sight Unseen effectively brings out much of Mr. Margulies’ sharp, provocative dialogue, his intriguingly complex characterizations and his troubling themes.

The four–member ensemble is generally well rehearsed, but an emergency session on projection and diction would be helpful. Ms. Saunders, when playing the settled, married, late-thirties Patricia, is so subdued that she is difficult to hear. Also problematic is Ms. Erin O’Brien’s German-accented, rapidly articulated dialogue with Jonathan, as she spars over his Jewishness, his commercialism, and his authenticity as an artist in the second scenes of both acts.

Ms. Saunders is at her best in the two powerful flashback scenes with Jonathan — their meeting in the painting studio at a New York college and their break-up soon after graduation, as Jonathan is mourning his mother’s death. Thoroughly convincing and in character in these scenes, Ms. Saunders offers a striking, warmly human stage presence and a worthy artist’s muse. It is not surprising that these undergraduate performers would have a less firm a grasp on the more ambiguous and disillusioned late thirties versions of these characters.

Mr. Adelson’s Jonathan is focused, articulate, and expressive in showing his range of emotions, from desire and confidence to frustration, regret and sadness, as he struggles in his quest to understand and reconnect with his past.

Mr. Giovine, as the ill at ease British archeologist, successfully portrays an eccentric, angry presence — resentful of Jonathan’s past relationship with Patricia and scornful of Jonathan’s artistic accomplishments. He becomes strongly outspoken and manifestly hostile when he goes on the attack in the second of two acts.

Ms. O’Brien presents the aggressive journalist, who puts Jonathan on the defensive, artistically and personally. Her complex interrogations, complete with heavy German accent, do need to be delivered more slowly and clearly.

Michaela Karis’s set design, with lighting by Laura Hildebrand, is efficient and successful in portraying the four different locales represented in the eight scenes — farmhouse, London art gallery, Jonathan’s family home in Brooklyn, and the college art studio. Mr. Traub has staged the action clearly and intelligently, with necessary scenery sliding on and off swiftly. A screen at far stage right with brief film footage and labels for dates and times helps to create the world of the play and clarify the shifts as the action moves back and forth between city and country, 1990s, and 1970s.

Despite frequent moments of humor, Sight Unseen is ultimately a poignantly sad story of loss. “You’re an artist! An artist has to experience the world!” Patricia exhorts Jonathan during their first romantic encounter, finally presented in the closing moments of the play. “How can you experience the world if you say ‘no’ to things you shouldn’t have to say ‘no’ to?!” Seventeen years later they may both have experienced the world. They may both be wiser. But the loss has been greater than the gain. Mr. Margulies and this Theatre Intime production of Sight Unseen invite their audiences to engage with these interesting characters in this exploration of their tangled lives and their uneasy world.


Westminster Community Orchestra Honors Esteemed Piano Pedagogue

In every musical community there are unsung heroes who do not necessarily take the spotlight, but who, through their teachings over a long period of time, influence countless musicians. The Westminster Community Orchestra honored one of these individuals in a performance this past Sunday afternoon at Richardson Auditorium. Led by Conductor Ruth Ochs, the Community Orchestra presented music of Mozart and Brahms and paid tribute to long-time Westminster Choir College faculty member Phyllis Alpert Lehrer. A member of the Westminster piano faculty for the past 40 years, Ms. Lehrer showed her impressive performance capabilities in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor.

Throughout her 40-year association with Westminster Choir College, Ms. Lehrer has surely taught exactly the kind of musician who plays in the community orchestra. Often trained as professional musicians and working in other fields, these players rise to the challenge of the great orchestral masterworks. The collaboration between the orchestra and Ms. Lehrer brought out the best in everyone.

Ms. Lehrer began the first solo lines of the C minor concerto thoughtfully, with clean phrasing and chords. Deceptively delicate and reserved at the keyboard, Ms. Lehrer took off with the music in short order to display even fluidity in both hands over very rapid passages. Every note of the rolling lines was clear and audible, with elegant ends to phrases. Ms. Lehrer’s freely-composed cadenzas to the movements showed strength of hands, building drama through lyrical passages and interpolating a harmonic flavor leaning clearly toward Beethoven.

Ochs led the orchestra in an exacting accompaniment in which the players were exactly in time with the piano soloist. The wind sections gained confidence as the first movement progressed, with especially graceful playing from oboists Helen Ackley and Sandra Moskovitz and bassoonists Greg Rewoldt and Linda Balavram. Ms. Ackley and Mr. Rewoldt also had a number of solo passages which were well executed.

Ochs paired the Mozart work with another piece of celebratory nature, as well as a classical orchestral piece which the orchestra clearly enjoyed playing. Olga Gorelli’s Celebration was a one movement piece on an appropriate theme from a local composer, but was probably the hardest for the audience to grasp. Seemingly in two keys at once at times, Celebration had a joyous feel well conveyed by Ochs to the players. The more substantial and familiar work was Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major, a piece which the orchestra could sinks its collective teeth into with vigor.

Opening with a nice pastoral pair of horns played by Deborah Crow and Jan Fish Lewis, the Brahms symphony was full of rich melodies and Viennese lilt. In the first movement, the violas and celli presented the third melody smoothly, with a well-handled transition to passages of clean wind and pizzicato strings. Brahms symphonies require a great deal of musical intensity and stamina, and tuning did start to fade a bit in the middle movements, but the orchestra came back to life in the closing Allegro, taking the con spirito marking to heart. Throughout the symphony, the winds were very solid, ranging from oboes and bassoons to flutists Judy Singleton and Alexander Lissé, and clarinetists Daniel Beerbohm and Russ Labe. Ms. Singleton had a number of solo passages well played on the flute, joined by hornist Ms. Crow playing long Brahms melodies.

The Westminster Community Orchestra gives local musicians a chance to spread their wings a bit as a musical reprieve from their other lives. The chance to perform with a classic performer like Ms. Lehrer no doubt made the afternoon that much more special.


Keira Knightley Stars in Adaptation of Tolstoy’s Tale of Forbidden Love

SHALL WE DANCE?: Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley, right) finds herself falling hopelessly and shamelessly in love with the young and dashing cavalry officer Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The initially giddy attraction between the lovers ultimately results in Anna descending into madness as the pressures exerted by society on her forbidden love affair take their toll.

First published between 1873 and 1877 as a series of installments in a literary magazine, Anna Karenina is a more than one thousand page opus about the ill-fated affair between a St. Petersburg socialite and a young soldier. Despite the soap opera at the heart of the story, the novel is actually much deeper because it explores many motifs, including feminism, family, forgiveness, and fate.

Leo Tolstoy’s tale of forbidden love has been brought to the screen over 20 times, most notably starring Greta Garbo (1935) and Vivien Leigh (1948) in the title role. Here, Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley (for Pride & Prejudice) delivers a fresh interpretation of the flawed heroine in a bold adaptation directed by Joe Wright.

The movie is the pair’s third collaboration, which includes the critically acclaimed Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007), costume dramas which together received a total of 11 Oscar nominations. Similar accolades are likely in store for this movie as well, primarily as a consequence of Knightley’s powerful performance and Wright’s daring and dazzling interpretation of the Russian classic.

The highly stylized production has a stagy feel to it rather reminiscent of Moulin Rouge! (2001). Most of the film unfolds in a dingy dilapidated theater, which might sound at first like a disappointing downsizing of the sweeping source material. But this surreal treatment, replete with stampeding horses and a host of other surprises lying in wait in the wings and up in the rafters, is nothing short of magical without diminishing the Tolstoy epic one iota.

At the point of departure, we find unhappily married Anna falling in love with dashing Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a bachelor serving in the cavalry. The two proceed to carry on shamelessly, much to the chagrin of her older cuckolded husband, Alexei Karenin (Jude Law), who is a boring government bureaucrat.

In addition, the picture devotes its attention to a couple of lesser-developed subplots. One involves Anna’s brother (Matthew Macfadyen), a womanizer who has been cheating on his wife Dolly (Kelly Macdonald). The other is about wealthy Konstantin Levin’s (Domhnall Gleeson) pursuit of Dolly’s teenage sister Kitty (Alicia Vikander), a debutante who has hopes of being courted by Vronsky.

Ultimately, Anna’s mind gradually unravels, as she is tragically undone by a mixture of jealousy, bitterness, and assorted social pressures. All of the above transpires before a visually arresting backdrop as envisioned and brilliantly executed by the gifted Wright.

A sumptuous cinematic feast!

Excellent (****). Rated R for sexuality and violence. Running time: 130 minutes. Distributor: Focus Features.


Wilson School Hosts Auction December 13 To Support Initiative for Trenton Youth at Risk

SUCCESS STORY: After participating in the Greater Donnelly Neighborhood Initiative, this smiling alumnus of the program was admitted to a selective high school military academy where he is class president. Shown with him are (from left) last years Service Auction Co-Chair Katie DeSalvo and GDI Board of Trustees members Joe Woodby and Princeton student Phil Hannam.

Most weekdays during the school year, a group of graduate students from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School spend late afternoons in Trenton with teenagers at a local church. As part of the Greater Donnelly Neighborhood Initiative, they help with homework, assist with recreational activities, and foster relationships with young urban residents whose lives are a far cry from those of their mentors on the leafy Princeton campus.

On Thursday, December 13 from 4:30 to 7 p.m., members of the Princeton community will have a chance to aid the program by attending an auction in its support. Held at the Wilson School’s Robertson Hall, the fundraiser is open to the public, with refreshments, entertainment, a silent auction, and a live auction.

“This is our biggest annual event, and the culmination of a year’s worth of service,” said Logan Clark, a second-year graduate student and the co-chair of the Graduate Student Government’s Community Service Committee at the Wilson School. “For years, the program relied on federal funding, but that has been phased out. So they really depend, in large part, on proceeds that come out of this auction for their annual operating budget.”

Last year, the auction raised $15,700. The non-profit Greater Donnelly Neighborhood Initiative grew out of a U.S. Department of Justice “weed and seed” anti-crime program begun in 2007. Students from the Wilson School have volunteered with the program since its inception.

Mr. Clark said he and his colleagues work on combating gang influences, helping students with reading and writing skills, and building relationships. “There is a core group of about 30 to 40 students who come in every day after school, and we’re their main support system,” he said. “We provide a safe haven for them, where they might otherwise be drawn into negative things.”

The Wilson School students are currently canvassing shopkeepers in Princeton and at local malls for donations of auction items. The students also offer their own services as auction items, ranging from cooking lessons and dance instruction to architectural tours of the campus. Last year, several stores donated goods, and students provided such prizes as catering, chauffeuring, and private language lessons.

Students and alumni from the Donnelly program will be on hand at the event. “They’ll be there to speak and perform,” said Mr. Clark, “and mostly to express their thanks.”

Robertson Hall is on the Princeton University campus at the corner of Washington Road and Prospect Street. Call Logan Clark at (609) 954-8614 for information.


Board Announces Make-Up Days for Sandy; April vs. November Election Debated Again

Princeton public school children will be attending three additional days of school in 2013 — February 15, April 1, and June 20 — to make up for days lost during Hurricane Sandy.

In the event of more cancelled school days, the Board of Education has identified May 24, June 21, and June 24 as potential make up days.

In addition to approval of these dates, last week’s meeting of the Board of Education included a discussion of annual election dates. Offered the choice once before, the school board opted, by a five to four vote, to keep elections for new and returning school board members and budget approval in April. The Board’s discussion last week anticipated voting once again on the April-or-November question at its next meeting, on December 18. As they did before, members of the Board spoke to both sides of the issue.

Superintendent Judy Wilson offered some background on the question, noting that, for many decades, every public school district in New Jersey was required to hold April elections. Princeton was joined by about 70 other districts that kept April elections in 2012; she suggested that this year, “we may be the only district staying in April.”

By opting to move to the November general election Princeton would save about $40,000. The downside of that, according to some, is loss of the municipality’s ability to vote on the year’s proposed budget, and an overshadowing of educational concerns by other elections occurring at the same time. Ms. Wilson noted that only between nine and eleven percent of Princeton’s potential voters usually participate in the April election, and that the coming election will be the first time that Princeton voters will be voting as one entity, rather than electing Borough and Township representatives.

“I still believe that the public has a right to vote on any part of their tax bill, since we are up to 50 percent of the local property tax,” said Board President Tim Quinn, defending April elections. “It’s an exercise in democracy.”

Mr. Quinn pointed out that a particularly well-qualified candidate for the Montgomery school board was defeated in November because the excitement of the presidential election overshadowed an opportunity for the community to get to know her. Giving Perth Amboy as an example, Mr. Quinn also expressed concern about “the presence of outside groups” and “outside money” that have “tried to undo the action of duly elected board members.”

Noting that she is the last school board member to have been elected by the Borough, nine-year board veteran Rebecca Cox said that she would like to see the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) “look at each and every ballot and determine whether quality vs. quantity informs who is elected.” She suggested that being in a minority of districts still holding elections in April may make it difficult for Princeton to get the NJEA’s attention. Typically, she reported, the NJEA responds to arguments that November elections become “too political” by saying that most school boards are already “heavily political,” and being run by local machines. She said that NJEA regards the practice of staying in April as “quaint.”

Citing the cost savings and the fact that more voters turn out for the general election, Board member Dan Haughton spoke in favor of moving the election to November, “if we really want to encourage democracy,” while Afsheen Shamsi, spoke in favor of April elections, and focusing “solely on education issues.”

Mr. Haughton said that since recent budgets have been limited by a two-percent cap, the loss of the community’s ability to vote on the budget “won’t make a lot of difference; it’s pretty much a given what the budget is going to be.” Ms. Wilson and Ms. Cox countered by saying that maintaining the public budget vote (i.e., keeping the April election) is “risky,” because when a budget is voted down, it goes to the governing body. Dorothy Bedford seemed to support keeping an April election by suggesting that the Board wouldn’t “want the public to have the impression” that the Board is “cavalier” and budgets all the way up to the two percent cap. “We’re usually somewhat below,” she observed.

Ms. Cox worried, however,
that time spent promoting each year’s budget takes school officials away from time spent educating students.

Community input on the election question is encouraged, and comments can be made on school district’s website, www.princetonk12.org.

In other business at the Board meeting, Student Achievement Committee Chair Andrea Spall reported on Princeton High School Principal Gary Snyder’s request that asterisks indicating levels of achievement be removed from students’ names on graduation programs.


Princeton Task Force Prepares for “Day One”

With “day one” of consolidation fast approaching, the Princeton Transition Task Force hosted an informational “town hall” meeting on Monday evening at the Princeton Public Library.

Center for Governmental Research (CGR) President Joe Stefko presented an overview of the 100-plus page document described by Chairman Mark Freda as the Task Force’s “almost final” report. The current version, in its entirety, is available online at cgr.org/princeton; a final report is due to be completed by the end of this year.

Mr. Stefko has been a project manager and consultant on consolidation and transition since 2010 (“I still love to come to Princeton,” he joked on Monday). The report, he noted, includes “a process overview” detailing the identification of priority tasks and subsequent recommendations by Task Force subcommittees.

The report will serve as “an informational resource” for residents, other stakeholders, and the new governing body as they go forward with consolidation, observed Mr. Stefko. “So much of Task Force’s work was focused on the immediate, but January 1 is just day one of a new era.” By detailing each subcommittee’s responsibilities, recommendations, and the processes through which they reached their recommendations, the report provides a basis for “what should be on participants’ radar screens” after January 1. Transition Task Force subcommittees included Boards, Commissions and Committees; Communications; Facilities and other Assets; Infrastructure and Operations; Informational Technology; Personnel; and Public Safety.

Future consolidation efforts by other communities also stand to profit from the report, suggested Mr. Tefko. “When they go through this process, there’s a lot that they can learn.”

A “Guide to Municipal Offices” distributed at the Monday meeting listed the offices that are, or will be, situated in both municipal buildings. Township Hall, which is identified in the brochure as “400 Witherspoon Street,” will house the mayor and Council; Clerk’s Office; Administrator’s Office; Finance Department; Police Department; Court and Violations Bureau; and Department of Engineering. Borough Hall, or “One Monument Drive,” will be home to the Health Department; Human Services; Affordable Housing; Department of Public Works and Infrastructure; Parking Operations; and an additional office for the mayor and Administration.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” said Administrator Bob Bruschi describing the move. “Most of the offices have been relocated and we’re a little ahead of where we anticipated we’d be. I have to say it’s gone amazingly well.” Updates on office locations are also available at the consolidation website.

The Township and Borough voted in favor on consolidation on November 8, 2011. The Transition Task Force was established by the two municipalities’ governing bodies in January, 2012. Consolidation will officially begin on January 1, 2013. A party marking this historic occasion, will follow an organizational meeting. Details of the day’s events have not yet been announced.

There will be a joint meeting of the Consolidation Commission and the Transition Task Force on Monday, December 17, at 7 p.m. in Township Hall.


PHS Boys’ Soccer Shares State Title

It didn’t look like Chase Ealy was going to be able to help the Princeton High boys’ soccer team last week as it pursued the Group III state title.

The sophomore midfielder’s temperature spiked to 104 as he was hit with a viral illness and woke up in the hospital on Wednesday, the day PHS was facing Moorestown in the Group III state semis.

Ealy did get released and was a spectator that evening as PHS topped Moorestown 2-0 to earn its first trip to the state championship game since winning the title in 2009.

On Saturday afternoon, Ealy was in uniform as PHS took on defending state champion and undefeated Ramapo in the championship game at The College of New Jersey.

Looking pale and wan as he warmed up, Ealy was hoping to come off the bench. “I came into the game with the expectation of playing as much as coach would play me,” said Ealy.

“I couldn’t handle as much as I normally could but I was going to give it my all. I just did what I could. I couldn’t run as much as I usually do.”

With PHS trailing Ramapo 1-0 early in the second half, Ealy was subbed into the game and made an immediate impact. Using his speed and guile, Ealy corralled several balls in the offensive end for PHS.

Then with just under 18 minutes left in the half, Ealy danced the ball around a Ramapo defender and launched a cross that Scott Bechler headed home to knot the game at 1-1.

“I knew that I had boys in the box that I can always look for,” recalled Ealy. “As long as I toss up an accurate ball, I know I will have someone on the post and they were there for me.”

At the other end of the cross, senior defender Bechler finally converted on a move he has been trying for a while.

“All year I have been crashing back post hoping that one is going to slip through and finally it did,” said Bechler.

The Little Tigers kept up the heat after the tally, generating several chances, including a rocket by Bechler that was just fisted over the crossbar by Ramapo goalie Will Shiel, as the game escalated into a pulsating hand-to-hand battle with the Raiders hanging on for dear life as PHS threw everything it could at them.

The combatants ended up knotted at 1-1 after regulation play and 20 minutes of overtime with the teams being crowned as co-champions under NJSIAA rules.

While Bechler and his teammates desperately wanted the title for themselves, they were proud of their achievement as they ended the season at 18-3-1.

“No one likes to share;” Zach [Halliday] said before overtime, “I never liked sharing since I was a kid and I am not about to start sharing now,” said Bechler with a laugh.

“Looking back on it, we are kind of sorry right now because we thought we could have won it. I guess they could have won it too so sharing is alright.”

Early on it looked like Ramapo was going to make it two straight titles as it took a 1-0 lead with 23:09 left in the first half, displaying some imperious form in the process.

Even though PHS trailed 1-0 at intermission, the team was confident it could pull out the title.

“I think we were really confident coming off halftime,” said Ealy. “We have come back from being down before. We know if we get our heads in it, we can win every game. After working all season, we really weren’t going to let this game go.”

Ealy provided some sparkling work once he was inserted into the contest. “I just knew I could really help the guys,” said Ealy.

“I love to push the ball forward and that’s what we strive to do on attack. I came in and I just tried to morally pick everybody up as much as I could. They were already there, physically and mentally.”

PHS head coach Wayne Sutcliffe thought his team gave its all, mentally and physically.

“It was two good teams, I thought we really had the better in terms of possession, a higher percentage of possession, and certainly a lot more quality chances during the run of play,” said Sutcliffe, whose team outshot Ramapo 17-4 on the day.

“Ramapo had one goal off of a restart, I think most of their top chances came from restarts. I just thought that our urgency and our experience and our quality just came through in the second half.”

Sutcliffe lauded the special urgency that Ealy displayed as he made the most of his limited minutes.

“He was in the hospital for three days and he found a way to recover,” said Sut-cliffe.

“He was with us at the state semifinal on Wednesday evening with none of us ever thinking he would be back on this season. He turned up at practice the other day and he felt pretty good. We inserted him into training yesterday, kept a close eye on him, and he was fantastic. So we felt if we can get him on for 10-to-15 minutes, he could make a difference and he did. What a contribution with his commitment and his quality.”

Senior defender Bechler displayed his special qualities all day long. “Throughout the 100 minutes, Scott didn’t make a mistake,” maintained Sutcliffe.

“Certainly to tie the game with a header is fantastic. Just having the  wherewithal to be on the other end of that delivery from Chase and he hit it with such authority. And then he could have won the game with that volley, credit to Ramapo’s keeper for just pulling one out of his pocket.”

Although PHS didn’t win the game, Sutcliffe is happy to have a piece of the title in his pocket.

“My brother’s team Moorestown High had a share in 2000 and in 1997 they won it; it was just a little different but it is still a state championship,” said Sutcliffe, whose team topped brother Mike Sutcliffe and his Moorestown side 2-0 in the Group III semis on Wednesday evening to punch its ticket to the title game.

“It is still a state championship and I am so proud of our guys. It has been a really demanding season with the hurricane and the injuries and the postseason. The postseason tournament was very demanding on all of us. I am so proud of them. There are 12 seniors and they gave us everything we had.”

Sutcliffe is not surprised that his players were able to meet those demands.

“First of all, the whole team is basically full-time soccer players,” said Sutcliffe, who has been guiding the PHS program for 17 years.

“It is in their blood, they love it. They are fortunate enough to grow up in a great soccer environment. They are so passionate about the Princeton shirt. These seniors when they were freshmen, they were here and we won it too. With that said, they tried to just make their mark. Beyond that, off the field, they are all very close. I think that goes a long way for them.”

Bechler, who didn’t have a shirt for the title game in 2009 as a freshman,     enjoyed making his way back to the championship summit.

“I am playing with all of my best friends; I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out,” said Bechler.

“I was on the team as a freshman. I was rostered but I didn’t have a jersey so I was over in the corner playing some juggling with the other kids who weren’t playing. I was wearing Princeton warm-ups. Ever since that year, I was thinking if I was a little bit better I could have had that ring. It has always been about getting one of my own and now I finally have the chance.”

For Ealy, who moved to the area from South Carolina this summer, getting the chance to be part of the PHS team has been special.

“I would tell you that it is the legacy; it is the history in the school and the soccer,” said Ealy, reflecting on the qualities that set the program apart. “You want to represent it and make every last wearer of the shirt proud.”

And by overcoming illness to help PHS earn a title, Ealy certainly did his shirt proud.


Planning Board Hears Testimony, Discussion Of Arts and Transit Plan

Arguments for and against Princeton University’s plan to move the Dinky station as part of its $300 million Arts and Transit plan continued at a meeting of the Regional Planning Board last Thursday. The board is hoping to wrap up discussions of the final site plan for the project before consolidation goes into effect on January 1.

Opposition has been expressed not so much for the plan itself, which would bring a complex of performance, rehearsal, and other spaces to the campus, but for the relocation of the train station some 480 feet south of its present location. The Lewis Center for the Arts project would turn the existing station buildings, opposite McCarter Theatre, into a restaurant and cafe.

Attorney Bruce Afran, who represents a group of citizens opposed to the move, spent much of the meeting questioning officials about such issues as pedestrian safety and traffic impact. The opposition maintains that the University does not have the legal right to move the station because of an easement that allows public transportation access over its land, and that the plans for pedestrian crossings in the area are unsafe.

But Board member Peter Madison said it was not the Board’s job to rule on those points. “We have an application here that is in full compliance with the legal zoning,” he said. “If it is, I don’t see that I have an alternative to turning this application down.” Mr. Afran disagreed, saying the Board was not limited to the question of zoning compliance, and could deny approval if they feel public safety is at risk.

Among those testifying against the proposal were planner and University transportation professor Alain Kornhauser and local architect Michael Landau. Mr. Kornhauser delivered a power point presentation in which he said the project could proceed without moving the Dinky terminus. “Princeton University can even extend Blair Walk without moving the Dinky station or the tracks,” he said, adding that traffic flow and pedestrian safety would be compromised by the proposed plan.

Mr. Landau said that the design for the new Dinky station by architect Rick Joy keeps it “hidden from the public.” He cited New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to give in to public pressure and cancel the New York Marathon after Hurricane Sandy as an example to be followed. “Why can’t we accommodate the public?” he asked, saying it wasn’t too late for changes to be made to the Lewis Center plan.

Earlier in the meeting, University Secretary and Vice-President Bob Durkee took issue with statements made at the previous Planning Board meeting by a member of the public. “We were chastised for not listening to the community,” he said. “I can tell you that we have listened … and the design reflects that.” Mr. Durkee added that other proposals were studied in detail, and that the project is consistent with the master plan.

Members of the public testifying in favor of the project included Peter Crowley, president and CEO of the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce; David Newton, vice president of Palmer Square Management; and former Township Mayor Phyllis Marchand. “The plan you have before you complies with recently adopted zoning,” she said. “I think it is your obligation to move ahead.”

There will be further opportunity for public comment at the Planning Board meeting scheduled for December 19, at which there is expected to be a vote on whether to approve the plan.


Shared Leadership

Members of the Princeton High boys’ soccer team celebrate after tying Ramapo 1-1 in the Group III state championship game last Saturday at The College of New Jersey to earn a share of the title. PHS ended the season with an 18-3-1 record as it earned its first state crown since 2009. For more details on the game, see the front page story as well as pages 40 and 41. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

November 28, 2012

Trustee of Battlefield Society Grateful For Support of Veterans Groups, Scouts

To the Editor:

It has been months since the Planning Board approved the Institute for Advanced Study building application to construct 15 units on a piece of the Princeton Battlefield the IAS owns. As a Trustee of the Battlefield Society, I was horrified and pictured bulldozers cutting into the battle ground. With the vote, I was re-energized and sought ways to make people aware of this significant historical loss. I saw the battlefield differently.

It could not be business as usual for me and fortunately thousands of others who felt the same way. At this time of Thanksgiving, I am grateful that so many have come out to support the Princeton Battlefield Society. From Veterans groups, Boy and Girl Scouts, descendants of the men who fought the Revolution, history societies, students, enthusiasts, and all the other Americans who see what is to be lost and what is to be gained, I have met with many of them and am so grateful for the chance.

I do not know today what the future will hold for the Princeton Battlefield, one of the “11 Most Endangered Historical Sites” in the country. It still amazes me that the IAS, a good organization, wants a black mark like this on their record. Regardless, the Battlefield Society will continue to work to preserve our American Heritage. We will schedule period-appropriate educational, theatrical, and musical events. Maybe the IAS will see the battlefield differently too.

J. Carney

Glenwood N.J.

Proposed Redevelopment of Hospital Site A Disaster for Broader Princeton Community

To the Editor:

I wish to express concerns about the proposed redevelopment of the Princeton Hospital site on Witherspoon Street. I believe realization of the proposal from AvalonBay would represent a disaster for the broader Princeton community, and for the Witherspoon Street neighborhood in particular. In brief, here are my concerns.

The Reed Plans: The plan from Avalon Bay fails to meet the letter and spirit of the plans developed through the leadership of former Borough Mayor Marvin Reed in the mid-2000s. The Reed Plans were developed with extensive community involvement and represent an exciting and once-in-a-generation opportunity for Princeton to bring forth a green/sustainable/open community development that would inspire and lead in the region and world. The AvalonBay plan, in contrast, gives nearly zero consideration to the Reed Plans. AvalonBay instead offers Princeton a throwback to the cookie-cutter strip mall attitude of the 1970s that leaves so much of America with orphaned developments of designed obsolescence. Princeton should collaborate with a developer capable of meeting the letter and spirit of the Reed Plans using sustainable methods that will leave a wonderful legacy for decades if not centuries.

Potential Contamination: The hospital site has the potential of having significant hazardous wastes that must be remediated. Many older hospital sites have mercury contamination, as well as radiation leaks, broken sewer/septic lines, and leaking fuel tanks. I heard rather unsatisfying statements at the recent Planning Board meetings to address these concerns. The present citizens of Princeton, and those who will live in the new apartments, must be assured that development will occur only after a full and open process of environmental testing, with the follow-on remediation as required.

What struck me during the recent Planning Board meetings was the clear voice of the many citizens in attendance who oppose the AvalonBay plan. In essence, what brings the people together in their opposition is that the AvalonBay plan in no way meets Princeton standards. Instead, AvalonBay proposes to introduce a soulless structure into a unique town whose history in people and buildings is world class, and the envy of nearly every community in America. Princeton deserves far better. Should you, the Planning Board, insist that the developer of the hospital site maintain the letter and spirit of the Reed Plans, I conjecture that nearly all Princeton citizens will be wholeheartedly in favor. Please stand firm in your commitment to the Reed Plans.

For those interested in the ongoing discussions, please attend the Planning Board hearings December 6, 10, and 13. It is important that all voices be heard.

Stephen Griffies

Maple Street

Town-Gown Relationship Failures Should Not Be Blamed on Tilghman

To the Editor:

The University had a recent meeting with members of the community seeking advice in the selection of a new president to replace Shirley Tilghman. Their comments confirm that Princeton is not much different from other college towns that don’t know how to deal with the “elephant in the room.” Relationship failures between town and gown should not be laid at the feet of President Tilghman nor should we ask the Trustees to pick a president whose prime responsibility is to smooth over those relationships.

The problem as I see it has to do with the missions of the two entities. The mission of the University is to be the best University in the world. By contrast, towns don’t seem to have a mission other than to satisfy the wishes of the electorate with plans that are limited to preserving the status quo. The contrast in planning efforts between the town and the University reveals the tremendous disparity. The University should not consider moves that are harmful to the town even though certain conflicts are to be expected. It appears that the town considers that its mission is to constrain and prohibit growth and expansion.

I am not optimistic that town and gown will reach accord on all issues. It would be helpful if the town rearranged its priorities so the missions were compatible and that the dialogue move beyond the issues of “payments in lieu of taxes” are whether The University has the right to relocate the Dinky.

As a proud Princeton Alumni, I want our next president to be a great educator, in the mold of Woodrow Wilson. I think Shirley Tilghman has been a great president and I am glad she didn’t come from the world of politics or business.

Jeremiah Ford III, AlA

Ford 3 Architects, Nassau Street

Deer Victim of Hit and Run Event Should Alert Drivers to Be Careful

To the Editor:

I write in anger. Driving home today along Faculty Road, I approached two deer standing right in the middle of the road. Fortunately, there was plenty of time to slow to a halt, but the car coming in the opposite direction didn’t slow down for a second, struck and hurled one of the deer to the side of the road, and sped on undeterred. On its back, the deer’s legs spasmed as if it were dying. I turned around and parked and was surprised to find the animal, a big handsome two-pronged buck, back on his feet, but badly injured and severely hobbled. There was nothing to do but watch it suffer and wonder whether it can survive and recover. I am tired of hearing that these beautiful creatures are pests. It is we who are the pests, especially ones who would cause such needless, cruel, and sickening suffering. I can only hope that others who saw or who will read of this will pay closer attention to our much-ignored speed laws, which are there for good reason, and will show deeper respect to the other creatures that live in our small community.

Jerome Silbergeld

Philip Drive

Elm Court and Harriet Bryan House Express Gratitude to Princeton Police

To the Editor:

As time has passed since the impact of Hurricane Sandy, we have been able to contemplate how very fortunate the residents of Elm Court and Harriet Bryan House are to live in Princeton. Elm Court (EC) and Harriet Bryan House (HBH) are affordable apartment buildings managed by Princeton Community Housing.

We would like to express our gratitude for the kind and patient response of the Princeton Borough and Township Police to our senior citizens in the midst of a very trying time for our community during our weeklong power outage.

This past Sunday, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our annual “Thanksgiving Sunday Dinner.” In keeping with tradition, police from both municipalities, along with members of their families, were here to serve the meal to our residents. This unique celebration is the highlight of the year and also serves as a warm hearted kick-off to the holiday season.

On behalf of all EC and HBH staff, we sincerely thank the members of the soon to be united Princeton Police for their outstanding service. Their dedication and commitment to ensuring the safety of our residents is truly commendable.

Kerri Philhower

Fay Reiter

Ed Truscelli