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Vol. LXV, No. 31
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Wednesday, August 3, 2011
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Vol. LXV, No. 31
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Wednesday, August 3, 2011
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 (Photo by Emily Reeves)
GET IN LINE: With temperatures in the 90’s over the weekend, people flocked to local ice cream shops like The Bent Spoon.
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At a special meeting last Thursday night, the Regional Planning Board continued an ongoing discussion about the arts and transit zoning proposed by Princeton University. No vote was taken at the three-and-a-half-hour session.
Due to a heat wave that peaked at 104° on July 22 and overall persistent warmth, July ranked as the ninth warmest across New Jersey since records began in 1895,” according to the Office of the N.J. State Climatologist. “The 72.2° average temperature was 2.8° above the 1971-2000 mean. Remarkably, nine of the past sixteen months have ranked in the top ten for warmth. Only December 2010 and January 2011 had below-average temperatures during this period.”
If a plan presented to Princeton Borough Council last week were to be realized, streetcars or light rail would carry passengers between Princeton Junction station and Nassau Street. Three stops would be made along the route, which would run on the track currently used by the Dinky, veering off through the former Grover Lumber property and then connecting to Alexander Street and up into town.
Only an hour ago, Sidney Helfen’s hand was shaking with the umistakable tremor of Parkinson’s disease. But here he was, strutting the length of a dance studio to the music of “All That Jazz.” Moving with the athleticism of a dancer, the retired dentist from Westfield bowed to his partner, dropping to his knees at one point and then effortlessly rising back up.
Young listeners and their families recently visited several continents without ever leaving the Princeton Public Library’s Community Room. Their guide was the aptly named storyteller Helen Wise who, using no notes or books and only a very few props, transported them from Africa to North America to Asia with “Stories From Around the World.” A tall, angular woman with a wonderfully expressive face, Ms. Wise trembled in fear, rubbed her hungry stomach, channeled a witch and was otherwise totally believable as she enacted the characters — not all them friendly — who people her stories. A portable microphone attached to Ms. Wise’s neck amplified nuances (loud and soft voices, and sound effects), and kept her hands and arms free to gesture.