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Vol. LXII, No. 48
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
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Vol. LXII, No. 48
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
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 (Photo by Dilshanie Perera)
BOARDING SCHOOL: Young skateboarders test the ramps and jumps at the new skate park that opened at Hilltop Park on Saturday. A county grant called “Mercer At Play” provided funding for the park, which involved collaborations between the Recreation Department, Borough, Township, University, Parks Alliance, and community.
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At a Board of Trustees meeting last week, Princeton Public Library Director Leslie Burger reported that “careful planning” during the last year is helping in her effort to create a no-growth budget for the coming year. The decision not to replace two full-time employees who recently resigned also figured in her calculations, along with the “red-pencilling” of non-essential items.
The unusually large turnout for Monday evening’s Township Committee meeting wasn’t because of a hot-button agenda item. In addition to being the last meeting at which Mayor Phyllis Marchand would preside, it was awards night, and the families of Township volunteers and employees who had served the community for five years and more had assembled to see them being honored with gifts.
A common theme that emerged from the park advocacy groups that came before the Environmental Commission last Wednesday was the need for more resources, more funding, and more visibility. Representatives from the Pettoranello Gardens, Rogers Refuge, Gulick Preserve, and Turning Basin Park gave presentations.
Despite freezing temperatures, some 250 young people clad in helmets and armed with boards could be seen Saturday morning taking turns on the various ramps, stairs, and quarter pipes that comprise the newly installed skating surface at Hilltop Park.
Princeton University visiting professor David Abalos spoke to the Regional Chamber of Commerce last Wednesday about the economic impact of Latino immigration on the area. Advocating for more humane policies, Mr. Abalos urged compassion toward undocumented — and indeed all — people, saying, “At our best, ours is a story of democracy where everybody is sacred and everyone is equal.”
Blaring music and periodic whoops of joy bounced off the walls of the Princeton University football team’s locker room as last Saturday afternoon turned to evening.
Last fall, the Princeton University women’s cross country team flew into the NCAA championship meet ranked fourth nationally.
Laura Johnson has gone through plenty of pregame warm-ups over the years but last Saturday night was special.
“But you’re just a boy!” According to legend, that’s what Marilyn Monroe said when she first laid eyes on photographer Milton Greene, who replied, the story goes, “And you’re just a girl.” While Greene went on to become the most prolific photographic interpreter of the movie star, siren, sex symbol called Marilyn, his spontaneous “just a girl” suggests that he saw through the 20th-Century Fox phenomenon to the essential humanity of Norma Jean. And it’s the “girl” (or gamin) in Marilyn you see in the portrait by Greene that the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown is featuring in “Saving Face: Portraits from the Collection of Robert Infarinato,” which will be on view in the Fred Beans Gallery through March 15, 2009.
Princeton University presented one of its finest assets this past weekend — the 2008-09 University Orchestra — which has always been high quality, but now is surely a major recruiting vehicle. For the first concert of the new season on Friday night in Richardson Auditorium (the concert was repeated Saturday night), conductor Michael Pratt programmed two works of “heroic” nature, together with an intriguing new piece by a University composition student. The overriding theme of the evening seemed to be steadfastness in tough times, and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 conveyed this theme quite well in musical terms.
In July of 2008, Broderick L. Boxley became the second Head of the Princeton Charter School (PCS), which was founded in 1997. Prior to coming to Princeton, Mr. Boxley, who has a doctorate in Educational and Organization Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, was the Mathematics Supervisor for the Cherry Hill Township Public Schools, and Curriculum Supervisor for the Pontiac, Michigan School District. Earlier, he was a Program Administrator, Portfolio Assessment Developer, and Teacher Facilitator at Educational Testing Service.