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Vol. LXIV, No. 5
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Wednesday, February 3, 2010
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Vol. LXIV, No. 5
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Wednesday, February 3, 2010
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 (Photo by Emily Reeves)
EVEN THE TREES ARE DANCING: At Terhune Orchards’s Sunday event, “Wassailing the Apple Trees,” the Molly Dancers have everyone and everything dancing, not to mention singing, cider drinking, marshmallow toasting, donut dunking, wagon riding, merry making, and listening to music from Spice Punch.
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Residents are questioning trends seen in revaluation outcomes. During last week’s Borough Council meeting, resident Chris Baldwin shared his calculations, which suggested that in his neighborhood lower-priced homes were taking on a larger share of the total tax burden as a result of the new assessment, while higher valued homes seemed to be assessed for a smaller proportion of the share.
Progress on the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro continues to move at a steady pace, reported Princeton HealthCare System President and CEO Barry Rabner. The new hospital will be located on a 160-acre campus at the intersection of Scudders Mill Road and Route 1 North, 2.5 miles away from the current hospital location on Witherspoon Street.
At its monthly meeting last week, the Princeton Regional Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution calling for a “dialogue with the Township, Borough, and University leaders in order to seek resources for the continuation of services that make our school community one of the nation’s best public systems and our towns desirable places in which to learn and live.”
Members of Township Committee, Township staff, and the Princeton Environmental Commission met with residents on Monday to address concerns about autumn leaf collection, complying with existing ordinances, and how to best manage problems caused by leaves in the streets.
“As I continue to meet with New Jersey families, it’s clear that our first priority is creating jobs, and we can do that best by investing in innovative research and supporting small businesses,” observed Congressman Rush Holt (D-12) on the eve of the president’s State of the Union address last week. As evidence of this belief, Mr. Holt chose Marshall J. Cohen, president and CEO of Princeton Power Systems (PPS), as his only guest to hear the speech.
It will come as no surprise that the reclusive J.D. Salinger is not among the 100 representations of writers in “The Author’s Portrait,” the newest exhibit in Firestone Library’s Main Gallery.
With the Princeton University women’s basketball team riding an eight-game winning streak as it hit the fall exam period and semester break earlier this month, Lauren Edwards and her teammates were determined not to lose their edge during the hiatus.
For Washington Post sportswriter Kathy Orton, getting assigned to cover the Princeton-Penn men’s basketball game in Philadelphia in February, 1999 seemed to be a nice change of pace from her normal beat of Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference hoops.
Sean MacKenzie experienced early success in his career with the Princeton High boys’ swimming team.
My father has, indeed, spent his life busy writing his heart out.Margaret Salinger in Dream Catcher
With the January 27 death of J.D. Salinger at 91, it’s not a question of “R.I.P.” or “The End” but “What now? What next?” In other words, hold on: you don’t wrap this writer’s life and work into a tidy obituary. Nor can you simply dismiss the silent years between 1965 and 2010 (“one of the strangest and saddest stories in recent literary history”) as David Lodge does on the Op-Ed page of Saturday’s New York Times. Gary Giddins has it right when he calls Salinger’s demise “the most poignant and pregnant literary death since Hemingway.” The key word is “pregnant.” How sad a story will it be if during those years Salinger was planting the seeds of a magnificent harvest? Assuming new books appear in the new decade while his existing work continues to be read and reread, he’ll be as alive to his readers as he ever was or at least no more dead than he was in his exile.
For its winter concert, the Princeton Girlchoir actually presented two performances. Last Sunday, the organization’s younger ensembles performed, and this past Sunday in Richardson Auditorium, the Princeton Girlchoir’s Concert Choir and Cantores took the stage. Newly-appointed Artistic Director Lynnel Joy Jenkins and Cantores conductor Raegan Ruiz oversaw a concert entitled “(Re)Kindle Hope.” The title of this concert (as well as that of last week’s program) seemed to reflect a message the Girlchoir was imparting to its singers — the younger choirs “sang for joy” last week and the ensembles of older girls sought to “kindle hope” in what the Girlchoir recognized as “today’s challenging times.”
“Not fer the likes of us,” said Gwen Southgate’s mother when Gwen wanted to apply for a library card in London in the 1930s.
“Why do yew say the Public Lib’ry ain’t for the likes of us?’ questioned Gwen.
“ ’Cos yew ’ave to pay fines if yew ferget to take lib’ry books back on time. An’ we ain’t got money fer no fines. It’s ‘ard enough puttin’ food on the table ev’ry day without that, thank yew very much!” replied May Redfern to her daughter.
“Not for the likes of us” is a recurrent theme throughout Gwen Southgate’s book Coin Street Chronicles. The memoir recounts her girlhood in the then impoverished south bank in London’s Waterloo area, her experiences as an evacuee during World War II, which took her out of London, offering her new experiences and opportunities, and ultimately, the revelation of education, the saving grace to a girl who was curious, aware, and eager to learn.