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Vol. LXII, No. 3
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008
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Vol. LXII, No. 3
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008
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 (Photo by E.J. Greenblat)
FIRE STRIKES UNIVERSITY HOUSING: A four-alarm fire broke out Thursday in a College Road apartment building owned by Princeton University. No cause has been determined, but the blaze displaced 34 people and pets, according to the Princeton Fire Department. Princeton University has made temporary arrangements for displaced residents living in the 13-unit complex that was built in 1922. Along with the Princeton Fire Department, fire companies from Plainsboro, South Brunswick, West Windsor, Rocky Hill, Montgomery, Hopewell, Lawrence, Hamilton, and Ewing assisted in fighting the blaze.
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A petition with more than 1,900 signatures opposing further development along a northeastern tract of the Princeton Ridge was presented to Princeton Township Committee Monday night as the governing body examined, and eventually introduced, an ordinance that would open the area to a wider age demographic than had been previously allowed.
The prospect of the Princeton Borough Council entering into a new, three-year salary agreement establishing pay rates for senior-level officers on the 34-member police has left Council members concerned about rising salaries and calling for legislative aid from the state.
After a month-long delay, representatives of the Nassau Inn are expected to present an expansion concept plan to the Regional Planning Board of Princeton this Thursday, taking on a project that was first floated nearly 10 years ago.
Was it a dark and stormy night? Perhaps not, but it was still a memorable Halloween for Princeton High School (PHS) junior Kan (“Edward”) Wang after he rang the doorbell, in trick-or-treat mode, at the Mercer Street home of Eric S. Maskin, the 2007 Nobel Prize winner for Economics.
“HiTops is not a Shoe Store,” declared the headline for the cover story of the most recent issue of the not-for-profit group’s newsletter, “The HiTops Guardian,” alluding to the popular sneakers. What it is is an organization that deals with adolescent health and sexuality.
“Life comes at you fast.” — at least that’s what the insurance commercial tells us. Perhaps no one knows this better this year than Mark Laycock, whose musical life at the end of 2007 bore little resemblance to his professional activities at the beginning of that year. In January of 2007, Mr. Laycock was enjoying his 21st year as Music Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra while guest conducting throughout the world. Eight months later his tenure with the ensemble was over, and September found him both looking for new opportunities and reflecting on his legacy. Add a new marriage and turning fifty, and 2007 was truly a “watershed” year.
Jessica Berry was on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean this past October when the Princeton University women’s basketball team started preseason practice.
For much of last weekend, the Princeton University women’s hockey team was frustrated as it failed to cash in on one scoring opportunity after another.
Matt Young and his teammates on the Princeton High boys’ basketball team started last week on a major high.
According to Wikipedia, “embarrassment of riches” (“an over abundance of something, or too much of a good thing”) originated in 1738 in John Ozell’s translation of a French play from 1726, L’Embarras des richesses. Used here, it simply means that the riches at the Zimmerli challenge my ability to do justice to them in the space of a single column.
On view from now through March 16 in the Voorhees Special Exhibition Galleries, “The Magyar Imagination” is billed as “the largest and most important representation of Hungarian art of the 19th and 20th centuries outside of Central Europe” and the “first overview” that has ever been presented to the public.
Opera companies nationwide are struggling with how to get younger music lovers interested in opera; a recent survey by the Metropolitan Opera found that the Met’s audience was aging right along with the company. Survey takers and opera doomsayers needed only to attend this past weekend’s performances by the Princeton University Opera Theatre of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro to see the next generation of opera aficionados in action, cheering their classmate cast members as if they had scored the winning basket in an Ivy championship game.
“Did you feel that? If you say no, we have to start all over!” Barbara Griggs, Director of the Aquatics program at the Princeton YWCA, means business. Among the many classes she teaches, “Aqua Dynamics,” a combination of fast-paced shallow water aerobics and deep-water workouts, is one of her favorites. She puts participants through their paces, cajoling them to “tighten your stomach!” and “squeeze your buttocks!” Is she a marine drill sergeant in disguise? Hardly. Ms. Griggs has a definite gleam in her eye, and devoted participants who return year after year know that behind the you-will-do-this façade is a deeply committed professional who loves her work.