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Vol. LXV, No. 19
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Wednesday, May 11, 2011
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Vol. LXV, No. 19
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Wednesday, May 11, 2011
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 (Photo by Stephen Goldsmith)
LAST TO FIRST: Players on the Princeton University baseball team celebrate after they topped visiting Dartmouth 8-5 last Sunday at Clarke Field in the decisive game of the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series. The win culminated a remarkable turnaround for Princeton, which finished last in the Ivy League’s Gehrig Division in 2010. The Tigers, now 23-22, qualified for the NCAA tournament, which will start on the first weekend of June.
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The “memorandum of understanding” resulting from the closed-door negotiations between Princeton Borough, Princeton Township, and Princeton University that was made public last week revealed more details about the fate of the Dinky. The location of the Dinky’s terminus in the University Place/Alexander Road area has been a main focus of the public discussion of the University’s Arts and Transit Neighborhood proposal.
A discussion about the status of a recently released draft memorandum of agreement on the University’s proposed arts and transit neighborhood was front and center at Monday evening’s Township Committee Meeting. No formal action was taken on what was described on the agenda as a “work session.” Members of “Save the Dinky” (savethedinky.org) were also given an opportunity at the meeting to present their case for keeping the Dinky in its present location.
Borough Council introduced an ordinance at its meeting last week that may rezone much of the University Place/Alexander Road corridor area for “Arts, Education, and Transit” (AET) uses. If passed, the AET zone would allow for Princeton University’s proposed Arts and Transit Neighborhood to be built in that area.
Rebecca Cox and Tim Quinn were reelected as president and vice president of the School Board at last Tuesday’s meeting.
Following their recent reelection as board members, Mr. Quinn and Dan Haughton were sworn in for second, three-year terms, and newly elected member Afsheen Shamsi was welcomed and sworn in for her first term.
Implementing the recommendations of the Options Report of the Consolidation and Shared Services Study Commission could yield a total of $3.321 million in savings annually for the consolidated Borough and Township. The report, authored by Project Director Joe Stefko of the Center for Governmental Analysis, was made available to the public last week, ahead of Wednesday’s public meeting.
It seems wonderfully appropriate that Alice Ozma’s first public appearance to promote her new book, The Reading Promise, was at an American Library Association meeting.
One is known for his quick hands and the other has a rubber arm.
Erin Tochihara has kept busy this spring for the Princeton University women’s lacrosse team.
One year away from the NCAA Tournament was too long for the Princeton Tigers.
Most of the assumptions we have about bin Laden … are dead wrong. He affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves.—Michael Scheuer, from Osama bin Laden
He will never be captured. He’s not Saddam Hussein. He’s Osama. Osama loves death.—quoted in Peter L. Bergen’s The Osama bin Laden I Know
The day after the news of Osama bin Laden’s death, a friend sent me a translated excerpt from a Spanish website (elpais.com internacianal) contending that “the U.S. worships a strange tale of horror, obsession, purity, vengeance and catharsis written by Herman Melville in 1851.” Enric Gonzáles goes on to suggest that “the white whale was transformed into a tall, soft-spoken man” on September 11. As bin Laden became “the cruel and elusive monster,” Americans “were put in the shoes of Captain Ahab: there was no other purpose than revenge.” It was “a moral issue with absolutely no possibility of nuance,” a story that with bin Laden “took on a dark mystique.” Now, “as in Moby-Dick, the end of the ‘monster’ provokes a certain bitter stupor. As if waking from a nightmare and finding that the nightmare is still there.”
Had any trouble sleeping lately? Any problems staying awake during the day? Any interesting dreams to tell us about? Worried that you’re less than fully awake to the events of your life as they speed by?
Sleeping Beauty Wakes, at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre through June 5 then moving on to La Jolla Playhouse in California, brings the romantic magic of the classic Charles Perrault fairy tale to the incongruous setting of a contemporary sleep disorder clinic. With book by Rachel Sheinkin, 2005 Tony Award winner for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, score by husband and wife team Brendan Milburn (music) and Valerie Vigoda (lyrics) of GrooveLily, and direction by Rebecca Taichman (Twelfth Night at McCarter, 2009) — this off-beat material is surely in good hands.
Princeton Singers stepped out of their usual orbit this past weekend with “A Night at the Opera,” an evening of arias and scenes designed to showcase the ensemble’s singers outside the choral realm. Grouped together in themes of text, the concert’s vocal selections also strayed far in deviously romantic themes from the performance venue of Trinity Church in Princeton. Despite the unusual setting for saucy and humorous operatic portrayals, the evening showed that the members of the Princeton Singers can hold a solo stage as well as fit into an ensemble.
Princeton is known and admired for its many assets: its unique place in American history, in education, its desirable location, the charm and convenience of its shopping scene. It was and is home to famous people. Now, it will add still another “first” to its list of accomplishments — this in the important area of environmental protection.
It’s like adding another room to your house, says Alan “Gordy” Techner, co-owner of Awning Design West. Indeed, the addition of an awning over a deck or patio can certainly extend living space.