Volume LXXVII, Number 49
Program on Old School Baptist Meeting in Hopewell . . . . . . . . . . 5 Time Travel, Love, and Mozart In Novel by Conductor Michael Pratt . . . . . . . . 8 Historic and Cultural Events on Tap for Trenton’s Patriots Week . . . . . . . 10 Let it Roll: The Ballad of George Harrison . . . . 15 PU Ensembles Come Together for Joint Concert . . . . . . . . . . . 16 PU Men’s Hoops Stuns Furman on Allocco’s Buzzer-Beater . . . . . . 24 Tiger Men’s Water Polo Falls to UCLA in NCAA Semis . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Brendan Beatty Looking To Shine as PHS Boys’ Hockey Gets Season Underway . . . . . . . . . 28 Art . . . . . . . . . . . .20, 21 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 22 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 33 December Arts . . . .18, 19 Holiday Magic. . . . . . 2, 3 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 14 New to Us . . . . . . . . . . 23 Performing Arts . . . . . 17 Real Estate. . . . . . . . . 33 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
Likely Rabid Raccoon Encountered on Hibben And University Campus On Monday, December 4 at approximately 8:42 p.m. near Dillion Gym on the Princeton University campus, a University student was attacked by a raccoon with suspected rabies, according to Princeton Deputy Administrator/Health Officer Jeffrey Grosser. The student received post-exposure treatment. The raccoon was exhibiting behaviors commonly associated with rabies, such as chirping noises, unprovoked aggressive behavior, and no fear of humans. Additionally, on Tuesday, December 5, at around 6 a.m., a resident on Hibben Road reported they were attacked by a raccoon that was sitting on their door mat. That resident was able to escape without injury, but did report behavior associated with rabies in the raccoon they encountered. The Municipality of Princeton’s Animal Control Officer James Ferry, who is working closely with Princeton University to locate and capture the raccoon, noted, “The behavior described was exactly the same. We’re assuming that it’s the same animal.” Ferry pointed out that, because a rabid animal will not eat or drink and will not go into a trap, trapping a rabid animal is impossible. “It has to be a manual capture. The only way to catch it is with nets and catch poles,” he said. He emphasized that even though he sees about five cases a year of animals that test positive for rabies, this is an unusual case. “Rabies has always been with us,” he said, “but in my experience we don’t see this kind of aggressiveness.” The woman who confronted the raccoon at her home on Hibben Road reported that it was between her and her doorstep when it turned to her and came right at her. “I’m pretty concerned about this animal,” Ferry said. On a more positive note, Ferry pointed out that the raccoon will probably die in one to three days and will not be able to spread the virus through biting in the meantime. He added that the animal is likely to be confused and unpredictable in behavior and will probably approach any movement or sound. “My recommendation is that if you go for a walk at night have a flashlight,” Ferry stated. “If you have dogs keep them Continued on Page 12
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Master Plan Approved After Lengthy Public Hearings Princeton Planning Board’s unanimous vote last week to approve the municipal Master Plan came after more than five hours of public testimony, mostly from residents who urged the board to delay voting until more research and public discussion. But the board, which presented the plan after more than a year and a half of work including open house events, surveys, interviews, and special listening sessions, opted to proceed. More than 225 people attended the Zoom meeting, which was the second of two public hearings on the issue. The November 30 hearing was scheduled because time ran out before all of those signed up at the first one on November 9 had a chance to comment. The meeting began with a presentation by the town’s planning director Justin Lesko, outlining some tweaks based on meetings with Historic Preservation Commission and historian Clifford Zink. Lesko also said he had met with residents from Battle Road, Ober Road, and Newlin Road to address concerns about proposed density. “We’re not calling for a major change in density,” he said. “I think we caused some of the confusion by labelling for lot rather than for acre. We’re not advocating for an increase in units on each lot. The plan does not advocate upzoning.”
That being said, he continued, there are places throughout the country that are doing that. “So this does happen in places, but in this plan it does not. It does recommend up front that growth is happening in Princeton as we speak. We are growing and need to coordinate that growth intelligently.” Among those expressing doubts about the plan was Bank Street resident Chip Crider, who also spoke about it at the most recent Princeton Council meeting.
“I’m concerned about what’s not been considered in the plan,” he said, referring specifically to service zones. He suggested the document limit the type of uses in the service zones, “so we actually get service.” Nicholas Garrison, an architect who lives on Ober Road, said the public was not given enough time to review and comment on the plan. “My biggest concern is about land use, specifically about accelerating growth,” he said. “We already have Continued on Page 12
Seventh Grade Entrepreneurs Sell Wares As Business Booms at PMS Winter Fest Twenty-eight pop-up shops — each a carefully structured business venture — are filling the main commons at Princeton Middle School (PMS) this week, offering an appealing array of foods, clothing items, crafts, jewelry, origami, holiday ornaments, and much more. Run by teams of highly motivated seventh graders, these shops are commercial ventures to be sure, but they are also exercises in social activism and hands-on entrepreneurial education. In just the first day, Monday, of the school’s Winter Festival, the businesses raised more than $700, with all the earnings going to social causes chosen by the students. The event has raised many
thousands of dollars in past years, according to “entrepreneurship, career, and readiness” teacher Kelly Riely, who leads the project as part of the PMS extracurricular program. “It’s a really cool project,” she said. “It really is a tribute to the student entrepreneurs and their selection of their favorite social causes. It’s effective social activism and entrepreneurship in one.” She noted that the students chose many different recipients for their earnings, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, HomeFront, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and others. Some of the seventh grade businesses have chosen Continued on Page 13
JAMMIN’ WITH SANTA: The PHS Studio Band and PHS Jazz Ensemble performed on Saturday at the annual event in the Princeton High School cafeteria. The festivities also included games, food, activities for all ages, and a visit with Santa. Attendees share their favorite holiday songs in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Charles R. Plohn) 138 Nassau St FL 2, GIFT A FINE ART CLASS Princeton NJ 08542 THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!
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Town Topics
TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 4
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LAURIE PELLICHERO, Editor BILL ALDEN, Sports Editor DONALD GILPIN, WENDY GREENBERG, ANNE LEVIN, STUART MITCHNER, NANCY PLUM, DONALD H. SANBORN III, JUSTIN FEIL, JEAN STRATTON, WILLIAM UHL Contributing Editors FRANK WOJCIECHOWSKI, CHARLES R. PLOHN, WERONIKA A. PLOHN Photographers USPS #635-500, Published Weekly Subscription Rates: $60/yr (Princeton area); $65/yr (NJ, NY & PA); $68/yr (all other areas) Single Issues $5.00 First Class Mail per copy; 75¢ at newsstands For additional information, please write or call:
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Winter Farmers Market Returns to Hinds Plaza
T h e P r i n c e t o n Fa r m ers Market has announced opening dates for the next few months, at Hinds Plaza from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. L ocally g row n produce, pasture-raised meats, fresh baked breads, homemade treats and handmade gifts will be available. Dates are December 7, 14, and 21; January 11 and 25; February 8 and 22; March 7 and 21; and April 11 and 25. Buying from the market supports local employment, reduces carbon footprint by reducing the distance food travels, and emphasizes the importance of eating fresh foods. For more information, visit princetonfarmersmarket.com.
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COOKIES AND MORE: A highlight of the annual St. Nicholas Bazaar at Trinity Church is the cookie walk and bake sale. This year’s event is on Saturday, December 9 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the church, 33 Mercer Street. In addition to homemade goodies, there will be balsam wreaths and decorated boxwood trees, special old books, handmade knitted items, an antique quilt, and a Junior Shoppers room.
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Topics In Brief
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Winter Coat Drive: The Princeton Police Department is seeking gently used or new winter coats, hats, and gloves, to be donated to the Princeton Cornerstone Community Kitchen. A collection box is located outside the department’s headquarters, 1 Valley Road, through December 17. Call Sergeant Daniel Federico at (609) 921-2100 ext. 2124 with any questions. Donate Handmade Scarves and Hats: HomeFront is collecting these items for those in need. Drop them off at the Lawrence Headquarters Branch of Mercer County Library System, 2751 Brunswick Pike, through December 15. Visit mcl.org for more information. Mercer County Holiday Toy Drive: At 18 locations including Princeton Country Club and Mercer Oaks Golf Course. New and unwrapped toys and gifts are accepted through Monday, December 11. (609) 303-0700. Skating on the Square: Through February 25, on the outdoor synthetic skating rink. Thursdays and Fridays, 4-7 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 12-3 p.m. and 4-7 p.m. Palmersquare.com. Experience Princeton Digital Gift Cards: For use at local retailers, restaurants, service providers, and venues, these cards are available in amounts ranging from $5 to $250. More than 50 local businesses are participating. Visit experienceprinceton. org to purchase. Call for Volunteers: Join Friends of Princeton Open Space at the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve on Saturday, December 9 at 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. to help preserve trees damaged by the work of beavers and deer. Visit fopos.org to sign up. Princeton Flu Vaccine Clinics: Through December, Princeton is hosting a clinic for those age 3 and older. There is no charge, but bring insurance information if you have coverage. Visit princetonnj.gov for locations and more details. Food and Gift Donations at Princeton Airport: Through December 18, unwrapped gifts and canned or boxed food can be donated in the lobby of the airport, 41 Airpark Road. Visit princetonairport.com for more information. Volunteer for Meals on Wheels: Help deliver meals to homebound seniors in Mercer County. The 90-minute routes include Ewing, Trenton, Lawrenceville, Hamilton, Princeton, East Windsor, West Windsor, and Hightstown. Visit mealsonwheelsmercer. org. Winter Trip to Longwood Gardens: The Princeton Recreation Department’s annual trip for “A Very Retro Christmas” is Friday, December 8 from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; open to all. The $80 fee includes round-trip motorcoach transportation, entrance to Longwood Gardens, and a 60-minute guided tour. Lunch options are available. Princetonnj.gov/1451/Community-Trips.
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Researchers and Historic Preservation Experts Presentprincetonmagazine.com Findings on Significant Hopewell Site
When Hopewell Public Library Director Barbara Merry was planning the library’s December Speaker Series, formerly known as Wednesday Night Out, she asked some past participants if they had any ideas for a presentation.
Among them was archaeologist Ian Burrow, who suggested doing a talk on the history of the Old School Baptist Meeting on Broad Street in Hopewell Borough. Since then, what started out as a single lecture has grown into an evening program with six presentations on different aspects of ongoing efforts to preserve the key historic site. “The Old School Baptist Meeting of Hopewell: New Research, Investigations, and Plans,” will take place at Hopewell Presbyterian Church on Wednesday, December 13 from 7-8:30 p.m. Burrow, who will talk about the 1747 graveyard associated with the church, is also the moderator.
“The meeting house in Hopewell Borough was one of the first structures to be built,” said Burrow. “It formed the core of what became Hopewell. The present building dates to 1822 and was a rebuild of the first, which was from the 1740s. The congregation was established in 1715 and met at first in people’s houses.” In the late 1740s, the congregation was given a piece of land for a cemetery by John Hart, a signer of the Declaration of Indepen dence. The meeting house was built at that site. The present-day graveyard has been expanded several
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“After Barbara asked me to talk, I started thinking it would be better to pull together everyone who has been working on this,” said Burrow. “There is really quite a lot going on.” Bur row’s research has been focused on the cemetery, especially an area where there are no heads to n e s . T h i s p a s t f a l l , ground-penetrating radar was used to try to identify any graves and remains of the original structure. He plans to reveal some of the findings at the presentation. Joining him will be Christie Alderman, who is preparing a nomination of the building for the National Register of Historic Places; local historian Cynthia O’Connor, who will reveal her findings in researching related historic documents; architect Michael Mills, who will talk about preserving the building for the future; and Elaine Buck and Beverly Mills, authors of If These Stones Could Talk, who will focus on the African American connections to the Old School Baptist Meeting, and why it is an important African American site. In the last few years, local historical researchers and preservation experts have been finding out more about the history of the building and its congregation, which was founded in the early 18th century.
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5 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
One-Year Subscription: $20 Two-Year Subscription: $25
One-Year Subscription: $20 Two-Year $25 Meeting on Broad Street in Hopewell was the subject THE WAY IT WAS: The OldSubscription: School Baptist of a painting done in 1869.
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TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 6
Hopewell Site Continued from Preceding Page
times and includes several old stones, the earliest of which is from 1749. “They were a very interesting group, called the old school Baptists,” Burrow said of the congregants. “They were very traditional and conservative.” The building has not been used since the 1970s, when the last male member of the congregation died. Since then, it has been run by a small board of trustees with a certain amount of endowment funds for maintenance. “That source of revenue is coming to an end, so there has been a lot of interest in the last few years in preserving it for the future,” Burrow said. “The board has been looking for ways to get more interest in revenue. A few years ago, the mayor managed to get a grant from the State of New Jersey for $150,000, so that made it possible to do a range of studies of different aspects of the building. The records are in the Hopewell Museum.” The building is also worth preserving because of its interior. “It has magnificent woodwork,” said Burrow. “It is a very well-preserved example of early 19th-century style. It was the only game in town as far as churches, until 1872 when another Baptist church appeared in town. They were very influential in the early history of the village of Hopewell.” A major point of interest is the association of the African American community with the congregation. Friday Truehart, who was brought from South Carolina at age 13 as a slave to the Rev. Oliver Hart, is memorialized at the meeting house with a plaque that says he worshipped there from 1780 to 1845. Buck, and Mills, who is among his descendants, will talk about Truehart, who was eventually freed and became a la n dow n er on S ou rla n d Mountain. “There will hopefully be a nice range of people at the presentation, which will give people a sense of the place and what we’re doing to preserve it,” said Burrow. “We’re very fortunate in this area that there are so many people who are good at history, and have the skills. All of the strands came together.” —Anne Levin
well loved and well read since 1946
© TOWN TALK A forum for the expression of opinions about local and national issues.
Question of the Week:
“What is your favorite holiday song?” (Asked Saturday at Jammin’ with Santa at Princeton High School) (Photos by Charles R. Plohn)
Carson: “‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town,’ because I have a lot of great memories of listening to that song when I was growing up.” Emily: “I like ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ because I really love the singer and we are playing that song in today’s performance. I play clarinet.” —Carson Lew-Williams and Emily Kim, Princeton
Gabe: “‘Dominick the Donkey’ is my favorite. It is just so silly.” Maga: “‘Jingle Bell Rock’ is my favorite holiday song! It is very catchy, and I sing it every time I hear it.” —Gabe and Maga Vecchi, Princeton
Noah: “‘Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer’ is my favorite. I have liked it since I was little.” Isabelle: “I like all holiday songs, but if I must choose, ‘Jingle Bells’ would be my favorite.” —Noah and Isabelle Breaux, Princeton
Alex: “‘All I Want for Christmas is You,’ because my sisters and I listen to it all the time on full volume and sing our hearts out. I love how catchy it is.” Ella: “‘My favorite song is ‘Sleigh Ride’ because I love the instrumentals, and it just makes me so happy every time I listen to it. ” —Alex Woodbury and Ella Bardzilowski, Princeton
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Vivian: “I like ‘Silver Bells’ because I listen to it with my grandparents every holiday season.” Denise: “My favorite is ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’ I love it because it was sung by Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis, which is one of my favorite movies that I used to watch with my parents growing up.” —Vivian Clayton, Princeton with Denise Bongiovi, Chesterfield
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WE BRI NG THE WORLD TO YOU AND MA KE SURE Y OU FI T I N I T
WE BRI NG THE WORLD TO YOU
Time Travel, Love, and Mozart In Novel by Conductor Michael Pratt Since becoming the conductor of the Princeton University Orchestra in 1977, Michael Pratt has written countless program notes for the concerts the ensemble performs at Richardson Auditorium and on tours throughout the world. But he had never written fiction — more specifically, historical fiction — until the pandemic put a pause to his regular routine.
AND MA KE SURE Y OU FI T I N I T WE BRI NG THE WORLD TO YOU WNE DB RM I NAG L DU TFOI T YIO A K ET HSEU RWEOYRO N UI T AND MA KE SURE Y OU FI T I N I T
Michael Pratt
The book contains a scene in which Stefan and the countess perform the piano concerto that Mozart wrote for two era, technically, but what is pianos, to be performed by romantic is his dramatic writ- him and his sister, who wasn’t ing, his understanding of ev- permitted to pursue a musical ery little shade and foible of career. the human heart, and the way “But the two protagonists he expresses it all in musical perform this concerto,” Pratt ways.” said. “And they have an exWhat makes the countess perience that musicians don’t interesting, aside from being talk a lot about. It’s rare — a beautiful and wealthy noble- becoming at one with your woman, is her musical talent. fellow performer, and at one “She is almost on the order of with the music so that the self, Mozart,” Pratt said. “She is a the ego, is gone. It’s the most blinding genius, both as a pia- extraordinary thrill. After nist and a composer. Stefan playing this, they go back and wonders why we haven’t heard consummate their relationship of her in his time. He takes it and realize that the two exupon himself, as a mission, to periences are almost one and see that her music is heard. the same.” He is in 1785 to 1791, and The Copyists is available doesn’t know if he is altering from Amazon and Barnes & history or not.” Noble. “I’ve had four really Mozart wrote some 600 nice five-star reviews,” Pratt compositions before dying said. “People probably have to at the age of 35. Pratt has have some kind of relationship read and researched him to music in order to enjoy the extensively. “I included the book, but they don’t have to not-so-appealing parts of his be experts. There is an appersonality as well as the less pendix in the back that lists Princeton Chapel appealing stuff,” he said,University add- and gives the page number ing that the rivalry with com- of every composition that’s poser Antonio Salieri, which talked about. I worked very was the basis for the 1979 hard not to make people feel play Amadeus by Peter Shaf- intimidated. But you do have fer, was fiction. “Salieri and to be at least kindly disposed he were on very good terms, to the concert repertoire — which is in my book,” he said. particularly Mozart.” “They weren’t fighting.” —Anne Levin
SATURDAY | DECEMBER 16, 2023 | 4
That’s when he began to imagine a story that would combine the two most important things in his life: music and love. The Copyists, about a 21st century pianist who travels back in time to 1785, where he works for his idol, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, came out this past fall. Describing the book as “Outlander meets Amadeus,” Pratt said that the book “kind Espresso FROM: 12:00 every day of wrote itself.” The first version was 110,000 words, and 9 Hulfish Street, Palmer Square he hired someone to get it Princeton University Chapel down to 95,000. Being sidelined by the pan| DECEMBER 16, 2023 | 4:00 p.m SATURDAY demic coincided with some Ice Cream UNTIL: Sun -Thu 11:00, Fri-Sat 11:30 significant health issues. “I Princeton University Chapel Princeton University Chapel Princeton University Chapel came out on the other end of several years of someSATURDAY pretty SATURDAY | DECEMBER | 4:00 | DECEMBER | 4:00 16, 2023 p.m. 2023 p.m | DECEMBER | 4:00 SATURDAY 16, 16, 2023 p.m. serious health problems,” Princeton University Chapel Pratt said. “I’m a two-time cancer survivor, and I also SATURDAY | DECEMBER 16, 2023 | 4:00 p.m. lost some conducting time Princeton Princeton University Chapel University Chapel with a ripped-up rotator cuff. I had heart rhythm problems, too. I found myself inventing a scenario, and then at the computer writing this story. And it flowed from there.” Pratt cites several inspirations for the story. Chief among them is his passion for time travel. “I love Outlander,” he said. “It’s bloody and gory, but it’s also a love story, a romance. And now, FEATURING FEATURING many authors have taken that FEATURING FEATURING FEATURING Rutter’s Gloria, Finzi’s In Terra Pax, as their inspiration. In OutGloria, Finzi’s InFinzi’s Terra Pax, Rutter’s Gloria, In Terra lander, a woman goes back Rutter’s Gloria, Finzi’s In Terra Pax,Pax, andRutter’s Festive Carols for Organ, Brass, Carols for Organ, Brass, in time and meets a Scottish and Festive and Festive Carols for Organ, Brass, and Festive Carolsand for Organ, Brass, Percussion, Choir! hunk. In my book, a musician Percussion, and Choir! Percussion, Choir! FEATURING Percussion, and and Choir! goes back in time and meets Mozart. His music has always Rutter’s Gloria, Finzi’s In Terra Pax, been at my core. As [composand Festive Carols for Organ, Brass, er Anton] Dvorak said, ‘MoPercussion, and Choir! zart is the sun,’ and I’d agree with that.” In The Copyists, 20-yearREBECCA REBECCARyan J. Br andau,EDMUND EDMUN old pianist Stefan Radowitz isREBECCA EDMUND FARLEY REBECCA REBECCA EDMUN J. BrRyan andau, Br andau, MILLYMILLY FARLEY FARLEY RyanRyan MILLY pulled back to 18th century J. BrJ. andau, FARLEY Ryan J. Br andau, SOPRANO FARLEY MILLY SOPRANO BARITO Artistic Director Artistic DirectorBARITONE SOPRANO Vienna. While working forSOPRANO BARITONE Artistic Director Artistic Director BARITON Artistic Director Mozart, he meets and SOPRANO falls in Visit princetonpromusica.org code for tickets Visit princetonpromusica.org or scan QR scan QRfor code for tickets Visit princetonpromusica.org or scanorQR code tickets love with the widowed CountREBECCA EDMUND O F CA Visit QR code for tickets ess Elisabetta Grunewald, a princetonpromusica.org Visit princetonpromusica.org orPersons scan QR code for SSTT OF CRAOLRSOL or scan EA FA S requiring Persons requiring Ryan J. Brandau, made possible FE Programs made possible FARLEY MILLY Persons requiring Programs made possible composer and pianist Programs who is special assistance or special assistance or in part by funds from: in part by funds from: special assistance or BARITONE in part bySOPRANO funds from: Artistic Director accommodations are asked accommodations are asked a rival of Mozart. accommodations are asked Persons requiring Programs made possible to contact Princeton Pro Musica to contact Princeton Pro Musica to contact Princeton Pro Musica special assistance or two weeks in advance. two weeks in advance. I s Programs t h e b o omade k aint part a by l l funds from: Perso two weeks in advance. possible Visit princetonpromusica.org or scan QR683-5122 code for tickets accommodations are asked Call (609) with questions Call (609) 683-5122 with ques Call (609) 683-5122 with questions autobiographical? orcontact requests Princeton for assistance. to Prospecial Musica or requests for assista in part by funds from: or requests for assistance. SC two weeks in advance. accommodatio TS AN “Stefan is a pianist, but I am Persons requiring FOR TICKE Programs made possible Call (609) 683-5122 with questio special or not. I am a conductor,” Pratt in part by funds from: to assistance contact Princeto or requests for assistan accommodations are asked said. “ButREBECCA it is autobiographiSC two week REBECCA to contact Princeton Pro Musica EDMUND S AN ET two weeks inCall advance.(609) 683-5 F O RRyan TICK cal in the FARLEY sense that Mozart’s J. Call Br andau, Ryan J. Br andau, FARLEY MILLY (609) 683-5122 with questions greatest SOPRANO music pierces my orBARITONE requests for assistance. or requ SOPRANO Artistic Director Artistic Director heart in a way that nobody Visit princetonpromusica.org else does. As for the beautiorOFscan QR code for tickets O F CA O CA R O Visit princetonpromusica.org or scan QR code princetonpromusica.org or scan QR code AST for Rtickets LS AS T LS FE ful widowedVisit countess, I’m FE not looking for one. I have P Persons requiring a lovely Programs wife. Butmade I’ve possible always Programs made possible spec special assistance or in part by funds from: in part to by funds from: I been drawn romance. accommod accommodations are asked think most musicians are. to contact Princeton Pro Musica to contact Princ S C weeks in advance. two w SC two And the music we love the TS AN TS AN FOR TICKE FOR TICKE Call (609) 683-5122 with questionsCall (609) 68 most is from the Romantic or r or requests for assistance. era. 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9 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 10
Array of Historic and Cultural Events On Tap for Trenton’s Patriots Week Shop Holiday Lighting at
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The Colonial Ball, the Patriots’ Pub Crawl, battle reenactments, the Assunpink Firewalk, the Hogmanay Scottish New Year celebration, lectures, historical tours, puppet shows and more — Patriots Week in Trenton is back and bigger than ever this year with dozens of events taking place throughout the city from December 26-31, celebrating history and culture, while providing a rich array of entertainments for all ages. Sponsored by the City of Trenton, Trenton Downtown Association, and the Old Barracks Museum in partnership with many different local groups, the festivities give participants multiple opportunities to engage with the city and its extraordinary role in the American Revolution and the shaping of the nation’s history. A sort of preview of the Trenton celebration will take place just nine miles up Route 29 at noon on December 25 with the annual Christmas Day Washington Crossing reenactment at Washington Crossing Historic Park. Then on Tuesday, December 26, five different events will launch the week’s activities in Trenton, starting with a Trenton Battlefield tour, including the Trenton Battle Monument; then New Jersey State House tours, visiting the home of the New Jersey State Legislature, including General Assembly and Senate Chambers; a “Hidden History” tour and “Tea, Sugar, and Chocolate in 18th Century America” presentations at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church on North
Warren Street; and “The Stars of 1776” planetarium shows at the New Jersey State Museum. Among the many highlights on the Wednesday, December 27 agenda are “A Revolutionary Conversation: Whose freedom anyway? ” at the Trenton Free Public Library on Academy Street; musket demonstrations and tours at the Old Barracks Museum on Barrack Street; and “Make a Quill Pen and Write like John Hancock” at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church; along with a discussion of the Hessian soldiers in the American Revolution at the Masonic Temple on Barrack Street, and more. On Thursday, December 28, the New Jersey State Museum will be holding a Civil War Flag Unveiling, featuring the history and unveiling of five new flags in the museum’s Civil War Flag Collection of New Jersey exhibition. “Tavern Beverages of the American Revolution” will be the topic of a talk by historian and mixologist David Emerson, who promises to include some recipes and what Benjamin Franklin considered “the proof of God’s love.” Other events will be taking place throughout the day at the Old Barracks, the planetarium, St. Michael’s, and the State House, culminating in the Patriots’ Pub Crawl starting downtown at 5 p.m. Many of the previous days’ events will be repeated on Friday, December 29 with the additions of a walking tour, titled “A Burial Ground Comes to Life,” of the First Presbyterian Church cemetery on State Street; a presentation of colonial era songs by the
A Capella Hopewell Hall Ensemble at the Trenton Friends Meeting House on Hanover Street; and the Colonial Ball, with period dress neither discouraged nor required, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Masonic Temple. On the weekend the activities ramp up further with more planetarium shows, battle reenactments, and walking tours, as well as a celebration of Hogmanay at the William Trent House on Market Street, a puppet show “The Trouble With Trenton” at the Warren Street Plaza, and the Assunpink Firewalk at Mill Hill Park and on the Iron Bridge. Bagpipers, Scottish folk tales, and Scottish treats will highlight the Hogmanay Scottish New Year celebration. The firewalk will include traditional music, warm drinks, and cookies, followed by the dramatic lighting of 13 torches along the river bank and a reading of Thomas Paine’s “The American Crisis.” Patriots Week will continue on New Year’s Eve with a late afternoon peace sing-along with the Solidarity Singers and a candlelight peace vigil and dinner at the Trenton Friends Meeting House. A New Year’s Eve concert by the Capital Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey will wrap up the action-packed week at the Patriots Theater at the Trenton War Memorial at 8 p.m. on December 31. Visit patriotsweek.com for details on times and locations of these events and for further information. —Donald Gilpin
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continued from page one
the developments at the shopping center and Princeton University on the books, and they will have huge impacts…. I’m sincerely asking you to explain the vision better. Help me understand how my modest home and others like it will not become more endangered and disappear.” Dale Meade of Oakland Street said that his neighborhood, where he has lived for 51 years, is targeted for infill. Princeton Council’s 2020 decision to allow accessory dwelling units (ADU) on local properties “has not generated the desired lower income housing or place for retirees to get some extra income,” he said. “Instead, it has encouraged the destruction of low-to-medium housing costs in this area. Across the street from me, a huge threestory house was built with a 700-square-foot ADU. My concern is in the plans being put forward — the unintended consequences of these changes you have made. I’m worried it’s going to be gangbusters for the developers.” In between the two public hearings last month, a petition signed by nearly 1,000 residents asked the board to hold off on the plan. A FAQ explaining points of the plan written by Planning Board Chairwoman Louise Wilson, an open letter from the Princeton Board of Education saying leaders of the School District were not given enough opportunity to provide input on the plan, and a letter from Wilson in response were part
of the back-and-forth in recent weeks. Resident Chris Sturm voiced support for the plan, citing the development of Hinds Plaza as an example of “how much people were freaked out about it,” she said. “But it has turned into a center that everyone loves.” After the last member of the public commented at the November 30 hearing, members of the Planning Board issued comments of their own. David Cohen, who is also a member of Council, said change is inevitable, “and if we don’t plan for the change we want, we get the change we don’t want. “I’ve seen exactly this happening and lamented over the 36 years I have lived in Princeton.” The demolition of modest homes on properties where pricey McMansions are built in their place has caused skyrocketing housing prices “and an inexorable trend towards becoming a golden ghetto, already unaffordable to all but the top five percent and the lucky few who qualify for subsidized affordable housing,” he said. Cohen added that his support for the plan is from “a deeply conservative place.” When he first moved to Princeton, he appreciated the diversity in generations and income. He misses the days when members of the police force, teachers, and others who served the town could afford to live here. He is not surprised to have encountered resistance to the plan. “Princeton is not alone in facing the challenges we face,
and we are not reinventing the wheel with the proposed changes to the Master Plan,” he said. “The recommendations reflect tested and true development patterns already common in some of the nicest neighborhoods, and they fall squarely within the bounds of best practices espoused by the vast majority in the planning profession, and being adopted by similar communities across the country.” Board member Phillip Chao said he was in favor of the plan because of the focus on the environment. Earlier in the meeting, board member Zenon Tech-Czarny read a letter from the Princeton Environmental Commission supporting the plan. Board member and Council President Mia Sacks commented that the plan does not affect neighborhoods where some residents have expressed concerns — specifically the Western Section, the Riverside neighborhood, and the neighborhood near the Institute for Advanced Study. “I served on the land use committee, and my understanding of the plan and what we decided in that committee was that there was no impact of this plan whatsoever to the neighborhoods,” she said. “And when this plan passes, it will make no difference.” Sacks said the plan emphasizes “sustainability, equity, economic vitality, and environmental responsibility, which are what I believe to be the core values of this town’s residents, and of this Planning Board and governing body.” —Anne Levin
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Rabid Raccoon
reminder for pet owners to ensure their animals are up continued from page one to date with rabies vaccinaon a leash, at least for a few tion. Rabies occurs throughdays.” If no further sightings out New Jersey, including are reported in the next few Princeton. Bats are the anidays, the raccoon is prob- mals most commonly found ably dead, he said. to have rabies. Skunks, foxGrosser noted, in a mu- es, raccoons, and unvaccinicipal press release, “If nated domestic animals can you come across a domes- also develop rabies. Human tic animal such as a cat or rabies cases in the United dog that is sick, injured, States are rare. dead, orphaned, or behavBehavioral signs of rabid ing oddly, it is best to leave animals, wild or domestic, it alone and contact Princ- may include stagger ing, eton Animal Control.” Do- restlessness, aggression, a mestic animals with known change of the tone of their or suspected exposure must barks or growls, or choking. receive booster vaccinations Passive animals sometimes and must be quarantined by become fierce and aggresthe Princeton Health De- sive. Noct ur nal an imals partment. Questions about sometimes appear during suspected exposure should the day. be directed to Animal ConIf you or a loved one are trol at (609) 924-2728. bitten or scratched by an Similarly, if a wild ani- unfamiliar animal, or an mal such as a fox, skunk, animal suspected of having raccoon, or any other wild rabies, immediately wash animal that is sick, injured, the wound thoroughly with orphaned, or behaving oddly soap and water and then is spotted, it is best to leave s eek m e d ic a l at tent ion. it alone and contact the Po- Ask your medical provider lice Department dispatch at to report and coordinate (609) 921-2100. with the Princeton Health The press release also pro- Department. Not all expovided the following informa- sures require post exposure treatment. Health Departtion on rabies: Rabies is a fatal viral dis- ment and Animal Control ease that can be prevented staff will work to locate, by avoiding contact with capture, and test suspected animals that may be rabid. animals to definitively idenIf a person has significant tify if the animal is infecexposure, get ting vacci- tious. Reporting bites is a nated right away can also legal obligation of exposed prevent disease. Rabies can individuals and medical probe spread from the bite of fessionals to assure any/all a rabid animal, or when the actions are taken to protect animal’s saliva contacts a the individuals involved and person’s mouth, eyes, or an the public at large. Take these steps to proopen sore. Rabies poses a real threat, tect your family and pets especially to unvaccinated from rabies: Make sure your pets and domestic animals domestic animals. This in- Subscription: One-Year $20 are up to date on their rabies cident should serve as a Subscription: Two-Year $25 Subscription Information: 609.924.5400 ext. 30 or subscriptions@ witherspoonmediagroup.com
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vaccinations; keep children and pets from approaching or touching wild or strange animals; make sure that any openings to your home such as crawl spaces, chimneys, attics, porches, or garages are sealed or covered with thick wire screen to prevent entry by wild animals; discourage wild animal foraging by not leaving pet food outside and by securing garbage cans; avoid feeding, touching, or housing stray or wild animals; and if you see a domestic or wild animal that is sick, injured, dead, orphaned or behaving oddly, leave it alone and contact the Police Department dispatch at (609) 921- 2100. Do not handle the animal yourself. —Donald Gilpin
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to use their funds to purchase holiday gifts for needy local children. Riely described the business teams as “super-organized.” Each day the seventh graders set up their tables in the Main Commons. When the other PMS students arrive in the morning they go to a ticket booth to purchase tickets, and they shop the stores with their tickets. The businesses must keep track of their tickets each day to make sure they can cover their expenses. “If they took out a loan from me, they have to pay it back,” Riely said. By the end of the week the entrepreneurs will have all their tickets. They’ll total up their earnings, pay back their loans, and present their final results on their website. “We’ll go over what went well and what they need to work on,” Riely said. “Then they’ll write a letter to the organization they’re donating to, sharing their experience and why they believe the selected organization aligns with their store’s brand.” Riely emphasized the complexity of the process and the value of the learning experience. “They utilize different skills,” she said. “There will be one in each group who does the accounting and the calculations and works on all the math. Then you’ll have somebody on the sales side, organizing how they’re going to sell everything, what the set-up of the store is going to look like, when they’re going to make announcements, and who’s going to be out there selling.” R iely continued, “The
marketing team comes up with a slogan and a logo, and also designs the store front and the posters and the flier. Then there’s quality control. They have to make sure everything is packaged correctly, with nothing broken, nothing out of order. They’ll check everything every day to make sure all of their items are ready to be sold. They join all of their skills and expertise together to work on the project.” Noting the excitement and focus that the Winter Festival brings to the school at this time of year, Riely added, “It really becomes a marketplace where the kids can shop and interact with each other, and they support causes that are important.” Riely, who has taught at PMS for 20 years, explained that the Winter Festival project is the culmination of a two-month introduction to entrepreneurship for half the seventh graders. In the second half of the year, she organizes a Spring Carnival for the other half of the seventh grade, with students taking on similar entrepreneurial roles to create games, raffles, and prizes for what Riely described
as a “circus-type” event. Princeton Public Schools Acting Superintendent Kathleen Foster is one of the many fans of the PMS Winter Festival. “We’re always working on 21st century skills, and we know that many of the jobs that our children will have don’t even exist yet,” she said. “Creativity, problem-solving, and communication are a few of the entrepreneurial skills they will need, and the middle school is working to create business opportunities and to put some of these entrepreneurial skills into action.” She continued, “These students who are pursuing these real-world problem-solving ideas are promoting and getting support for their businesses and learning real-world skills in the process.” Riely reflected on the particular qualities of middle schoolers that help to make this project successful. “They’re super-creative, and it’s a good opportunity for them to learn now,” she said. “You’re never too young to start a business. You’re never too young to take your skills and apply them. Now’s the time.” —Donald Gilpin
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Roasted Shrimp Cocktail & Sauce • $29.95/lb ( 2 lb. min.) Seafood Bisque • $10.25/24 oz. Spinach & Artichoke Dip in a Bread Bowl • $21.95 (Serves 10) Appetizers We also carry Grab & Go Hors d’Oeuvers! Roasted Shrimp Cocktail & Sauce • $29.95/lb ( 2 lb. min.) Seafood Bisque • $10.25/24 oz. Entrees Spinach & Shrimp Artichoke in a•Bread Roasted Cocktail $33/lbBowl • $21.95 (Serves 10) Beef Bourguignon • Dip $95.00/tray We also carry Grab d’Oeuvers! Imported Cheese Platter •Go $85Hors Roasted Center Cut Pork&Loin wrapped with Pancetta • $15.25/lb.
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Entrees We also Grab & Go Hors• $29.95/lb. d’Oeuvers! Salmon encarry Croute w/ Leek Sauce (order by the piece or whole) Beef Bourguignon • $95.00/tray Chicken Picatta, Parmesan, or Marsala • $85.00/tray (feeds 8-10) Roasted Center Cut Pork Loin wrapped with Pancetta • $15.25/lb. Polenta & Swiss Chard Casserole • $60.00/tray Whole Beef Tenderloin Herb Crusted • $185.00 (cooked medium rare) Individual Beef Wellington • $21.95 Beef Bourguignon $135.00/tray (feeds 8-10) Salmon en Croute w/• Leek Sauce • $29.95/lb. (order by the piece or whole) Lamb Shanks • $18.95/ea. Whole Beef Tenderloin • $315.00 (cooked medium rare) Chicken Picatta, Parmesan, or Marsala • $85.00/tray (feeds 8-10) Lobster Mac & Cheese • $95.00/tray Salmon en Croute • $20/each (order by the piece or whole) Polenta & Swiss Chard Casserole • $60.00/tray Chicken Picatta or Marsala • $90.00/tray (feeds 8-10) Individual Beef Wellington • $21.95
13 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
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TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 14
Mailbox The views of the letters do not necessarily reflect the views of Town Topics.
Books
Price Tag Seems Too High for Proposed Community Park South Concept Design
To the Editor: As a resident of Princeton and a dog lover, I have enjoyed the benefits of the new dog park in Community Park, but last week Town Topics reported that “the two existing dog parks would be improved (in the new park design), at a cost of $1,350,000” [“Proposed Concept Design for Community Park South is Presented to Council,” November 29, page 1]. This is an astounding figure — do the improvements include a concierge and a day spa? I’m all for upgrades for the park, my neighbors and I use it every day for exercise and dog walking, but this price tag of $24-28 million seems over the top. I would urge Council to reel this budget back in, keep the park simple (and accessible to the neighborhood), and spend the extra money on local arts and community events and we’ll all be wagging with joy. MARIA EVANS Leigh Avenue
BOE Candidate Tuck-Ponder Thanks Supporters; Hopes Needs of All Learners are Considered
To the Editor: When asked, my father would always tell me that resilience was the most important characteristic a person could have. What a wise man he was! While I am disappointed at the outcome of the November Board of Education election, I am neither discouraged, or deterred, from seeking equity and equality, not only in Princeton Public Schools, but throughout our community. I deeply appreciate the support and confidence that Princeton voters have placed in me during my 30 years in public service and offer my best wishes to the new and reelected School Board members. It is indeed a very tough job that requires significant time, energy, integrity, and courage. I can only hope that the needs of all of our learners are considered in the fulfillment of their duties. Thanks to all who signed letters, made contributions, generously placed signs on their lawns and otherwise endorsed my candidacy. I am grateful for your friendship and assistance. MICHELE TUCK-PONDER Laurel Circle
Letters to the Editor Policy Town Topics welcomes letters to the Editor, preferably on subjects related to Princeton. Letters must have a valid street address (only the street name will be printed with the writer’s name). Priority will be given to letters that are received for publication no later than Monday noon for publication in that week’s Wednesday edition. Letters must be no longer than 500 words and have no more than four signatures. All letters are subject to editing and to available space. At least a month’s time must pass before another letter from the same writer can be considered for publication. Letters are welcome with views about actions, policies, ordinances, events, performances, buildings, etc. However, we will not publish letters that include content that is, or may be perceived as, negative towards local figures, politicians, or political candidates as individuals. When necessary, letters with negative content may be shared with the person/group in question in order to allow them the courtesy of a response, with the understanding that the communications end there. Letters to the Editor may be submitted, preferably by email, to editor@towntopics.com, or by post to Town Topics, PO Box 125, Kingston, N.J. 08528. Letters submitted via mail must have a valid signature.
PU Science Professor on The Search for Exoplanets
Author Spins Tale of Communist China As Seen Through Life of Stage Director
The National Book Awardwinning author Ha Jin will be in conversation with Princeton Professor Yiyun Li on Wednesday, December 6, at 7 p.m. to discuss Jin’s book, The Woman Back from Moscow, a historical novel of communist China. The event, in the Princeton Public Library Community Room, is presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. A book signing will follow the discussion. The Woman Back from Moscow : In Pursuit of Beauty (Other Press, $21.99 paperback) is based on the pioneering stage director Sun Weishi (1921–1968), and immerses the reader in the multifaceted history of China’s Communist Party.
As a promising young actress, Weishi made the critical decision to pursue her studies in Moscow. The insights she gained there during World War II would enable her to excel back in China, where she produced works by Chekhov and Gogol, and other socially progressive dramas. Her striking career as China’s first female director of modern spoken drama (Huaju) would be derailed with the advent of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. According to Kirkus Reviews, the book is “an epic historical novel of communist China, illuminated through the life of an extraordinary real-life woman. . . . The redemption of a historical figure whose life ended in political disgrace.” Jin grew up in mainland China and served in the People’s
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Joshua N. Winn, professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, delivers a talk with slides about his recent book, The Little Book of Exoplanets, on Thursday, December 7 at 7 p.m. in the Princeton Public Library Community Room. A book signing will follow. For centuries, people have speculated about the possibility of planets orbiting distant stars, but only since the 1990s has technology allowed astronomers to detect them. More than 5,000 such exoplanets have been identified, with the pace of discovery accelerating after the launch of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the Webb Space Telescope. In The Little Book of Exoplanets (Princeton University Press, $22.95), Winn offers an introduction to the search for exoplanets and the cutting-edge science behind recent findings, chronicling a new age of discovery. “In this spellbinding survey, [Joshua Winn ] . . . proves more than up to the task of making astrophysics accessible and enjoyable for lay readers,” according to Publishers Weekly. “This inspires wonder at the eccentricities of the universe.” Winn is a coinvestigator in NASA’s ongoing Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission. Winn’s research goals are to explore the properties of planets around other stars, understand how planets form and evolve, and make progress on the age-old question of whether there are other planets capable of supporting life. For more information, visit prinetonlibrary.org.
Coviello’s Latest Essays Are Topic of Labyrinth Talk
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Liberation Army in his teens for five years. He left in 1985 to attend Brandeis University. He is the author of eight novels, four story collections, four volumes of poetry, a biography of Li Bai, and a book of essays. He has received the National Book Award, two PEN/ Faulkner Awards, the PEN/ Hemingway Award, and the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. He is a professor in the creative writing program at Boston University. Li is a professor of creative writing at Princeton University and director of the University’s Program in Creative Writing at Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts. Her works include Wednesday’s Child, Where Reasons End, and Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life. She is the recipient of many awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction in 2022 for her most recent novel, The Book of Goose. For more information, visit princetonlibrary.org.
A weekly opportunity for the Princeton Community to enjoy performances by local, national, and international organists. Performing December 7 is Alexander Straus-Fausto, Student, Yale University Open to all.
Peter Coviello’s new collection of essays considers what it means to love art, culture, and people in an age of accelerating disaster. He joins literary scholar Lindsay Reckson on Thursday, December 7 at 6 p.m. at Labyrinth Books, 122 Nassau Street, for a discussion on his book, Is There God after Prince? Dispatches from an Age of Last Things (University of Chicago Press, $99 hardcover; $18 paperback). This event is cosponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study.
Through lyrical, funny, heart-wrenching essays, Coviello considers pieces of culture across a fantastic range, setting them inside the vivid scenes of friendship, dispute, romance, talk, and loss, where they enter our lives. Alongside him, we re-encounter movies like The Shining; television shows like The Sopranos; videos; poems; novels by Sam Lipsyte, Sally Rooney, and Paula Fox; as well as songs by Joni Mitchell, Gladys Knight, Steely Dan, Pavement, and Prince. Coviello illuminates the strange ways the things we cherish help us to hold on to life and to its turbulent joys. Coviello is the author of five previously acclaimed books, including Tomorrow’s Parties; the memoir Long Players; and Make Yourselves Gods. His essays have appeared in Frieze, Chicago Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Raritan, Elle, and Believer, among other publications. He is a professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Reckson is professor and chair of English at Haverford College, working at the intersection of American and African American literary studies, performance studies, media studies, and religion. She is the author of Realist Ecstasy: Religion, Race, and Performance in American Literature. Her current book project is Notes on Gesture.
Zoom Talk Takes a Look Inside James Webb Space Telescope
Photographer Chris Gunn and writer Christopher Wanjek discuss their book, Inside the Star Factory: The Creation of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s Largest and Most Powerful Space Observatory, on Zoom on Tuesday, December 12 at 7 p.m. The talk is presented by the Princeton Public Library. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s largest orbiting astronomy observatory, is now nearly a million miles from Earth, probing the first stars and galaxies, documenting the structure and evolution of the universe, and searching for signs of life in other solar systems. In a series of extraordinary photographs, Inside the Star Factory (MIT Press, $44.95) tells the story of the Webb Telescope from conception to launch — a marvel of ingenuity and engineering that entailed more than 100 million people hours over a span of 30 years. Gunn, the lead photographer, was there from the start, documenting the Webb’s tumultuous history — the behind-the-scenes details of its construction, from the cutting-edge technology required for an observatory operating at temperatures as low as –370°F, beyond reach for repair, to the human story of an engineering team pursuing an unprecedented goal under incomparable pressure. He is a Washington, D.C.-based photographer whose photographs have been featured in Scientific American, Wired, National Geographic, and The New York Times. Wanjek is the author of Bad Medicine, Food at Work, and Spacefarers: How Humans Will Settle the Moon, Mars, and Beyond. He offers an overview of the Webb’s history and profiles of the scientists and engineers who built it. Register for the Zoom Link at princetonlibrary.libnet.info/ event/9603529.
Let It Roll: The Ballad of George Harrison
I
love this time of day, 1:30 to 3 a.m., kitchen to myself, cleaning up to music from the Bose Wave. I turn on WWFM in time to hear the first two movements of Haydn’s string quartet No. 23 in F minor, which creates a nice slow weaving motion that goes surprisingly well with sweeping the floor. According to his biographer Albert Christoph Dies, Joseph Haydn (17321809) once claimed that musical ideas were pursuing him: “If it’s an allegro that pursues me, my pulse keeps beating faster, I can get no sleep. If it’s an adagio, then I notice my pulse beating slowly. My imagination plays on me as if I were a clavier.... I am really just a living clavier.” Basie the Piano Pondering the idea of a composer or a player becoming the embodiment of their instrument, my thoughts turn first to Red Bank’s favorite son Count Basie. If anyone this side of Glenn Gould or Duke Ellington qualified as “a living piano” it was Basie playing one or two incandescent notes between the heaves of big band storm. Listening to the 1975 RCA session with Basie and tenor man Zoot Sims while sweeping the tile dance floor in my night club kitchen at 3 a.m., the number I keep coming back to is a medium slow blues Basie calls “Captain Bligh.” After much looking online I’ve given up trying to find out why he named a blues after the deposed commander of HMS Bounty. In my search of the Net, however, what I found was a smile: of course, Basie’s big band recorded two albums of Beatles songs in the 1960s, one of them with liner notes by Ringo Starr. A New Biography In Beatles World the period between late November and late December could be called Time of the Assassin. George Harrison died of cancer on November 29, 2001, after barely surviving a murderous attack a day before the millennium, on December 30, 1999, and John Lennon was murdered on December 8, 1980, 43 years ago this Friday. This fall, along with “Now and Then,” the so-called last Beatles song, there’s a newly released biography of George Harrison: The Reluctant Beatle (Scribner $35) by Philip Norman, author of Shout, the Beatles in Their Generation (1996), plus biographies of Paul McCartney (2016) and John Lennon (2008). In the acknowledgments, Norman explains why it’s taken him until 2023 to deliver his life of Harrison and why he was denied interviews with
George’s wife Olivia and son Dhani. The culprit, he says, is his long London Sunday Times obituary for Harrison, which was “unremittingly negative, in places crudely insulting.” If you have the stomach for it, you can read the obit online (“a troubling blot on my record given seemingly everlasting life,” Norman admits). His hope is that, with this book, he has redeemed himself. “Wah-Wah” Still, I have my doubts about the value of a redemptive biography by someone who could write a “crudely insulting” obituary about any true hero of the culture, let alone George Harrison, especially after labeling him the “reluctant” Beatle. This is St. George, knight of the slide guitar, and “a living guitar” if ever there ever was one. Not only the lead guitarist of the most celebrated rock group in history, he delivered the prodigious 3-LP epic, All Things Must Pass, generally rated the most impressive Beatles solo album. I have to admit I’m subject to the aftereffects of experiencing, at top-volume, the guitar-driven, reverb-nirvana juggernaut of Phil Spector’s production of “Wah-Wah,” Harrison’s magnificent retort to Lennon and McCartney after their snide dismissal of his songs during the Get Back sessions captured in Peter Jackson’s recent documentary. “Wah-Wah” was composed the very day “reluctant” George abruptly announced “I’m leaving the band” and went home to make this scathing declaration, in effect, “I am the guitar!” The way George plays and sings it, as if he had a whole multitracked army of guitarists at his command, he’s liberated, defiant, joyous, his message, hastily summarized; “Wah-wah, you’ve given me a wah-wah ... You made me such a big star ... Being there at the right time ... Cheaper than a dime ... Wah-wah, wah-wah, you’ve given me your wahwah, wah-wah ... Oh, you don’t see me crying Oh, you don’t hear me sighing ... Wah-wah ... I don’t need no wah-wah ... And I know how sweet life can be ... So I’ll keep myself free of wah-wah wah-wah wah-wah.”
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“Let It Roll” Norman’s last chapter is indelicately titled with a quote from George’s ordeal: “I’m being murdered in my own home.” Actually, he could have said “in my own song,” since one of the glories of All Things Must Pass is “Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll),” a celebration of George’s residence Friar Park, the Victorian Gothic mansion built in 1898 by the eccentric Sir Frankie (described by George as a cross between Lewis Carroll and Walt Disney). Powered by Spector’s most brilliant arrangement, with the power of reverb used to haunting effect, the song rolls mysteriously “across the floor, through the hall and out the door” and ends with “Fools illusions everywhere” as “Joan and Molly sweep the stairs.” All the elements are in play in Norman’s summation of the horror: George and his second wife, Olivia, soon to be the heroine of the evening, are asleep when she hears the sound of breaking glass “which at first she thought was a falling chandelier” (only the Lady of the Manor would assume a chandelier). It turns out that “a wing from the St. George and the Dragon statue” was used to smash the glass patio door. After George spots the stone wing, he’s on his way back “along the gallery” to the master bedroom when he sees a man below in “the great hall, holding the stone sword from the statue in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other.” The man shouts “Get down here!” to which George shouts “Hare Krishna!” When the intruder starts running up the stairs (swept by Joan and Molly in the song), the biographer gets into the spirit of the moment, transforming “reluctant” George into “St. George” rushing the dragon and trying to grab the knife. When the two fall battling onto “a heap of meditation cushions,” it begins to seem that George’s Monty Python buddy Michael Palin is putting his Pythonesque sense of humor and horror into play. It’s at that moment, with the assailant on top of him, stabbing him repeatedly, that George thinks “I’m being murdered in my own home.”
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Now here comes Olivia, “woman of action” (“Good thing you married a Mexican girl,” Tom Petty told George), who first hacks the attacker with a brass-handled Agatha Christie poker and then bludgeons him with the heavy base of a lamp. By then, thanks to Olivia calling the Henleyon-Thames police as soon as she hears the breaking glass, the constables arrive, as does George’s 22-year-old son Dhani, who finds his mother lying at the bottom of the staircase “with a nasty head wound.” Norman’s description of the attack is based on interviews with George’s first wife Pattie Boyd, Michael Palin, and “Kingsize Taylor,” a name not found in the index. The last paragraph of the account is at once grim and gracious: “In the minutes before the paramedics arrived and took over, George nearly died four times and was pulled back from the brink by the sound of his son’s voice.” “Looking for my life After reading the last chapter of Norman’s biography, I listened with special attention to certain songs on Harrison’s posthumous album Brainwashed, struck by the raw, verge-of-death lyrics: “I never knew that things exploded / I only found it out when I was down upon my knees, looking for my life” and “I was almost a statistic inside a doctor’s case / when I heard a messenger from inner space.” There’s a poignant truth in the notion that Harrison is his instrument when you hear the music he makes with the slide guitar in “Rising Sun” and “Marwan Blues.” The idea of being haunted by “a living guitar” may sound like a contradiction in terms, except that George’s characteristic genius is to play with such focused melodic intensity that the music both holds and haunts even as it’s happening, in the moment, not just as it follows you around in your memory or when you hear his distinctive sound still being echoed by others in the 21st century. This Friday My son is fixated on December 8, which is this Friday. Although he was only 4 when John Lennon was murdered, he still remembers the 10 minutes of worldwide silence when the radiators in our garage apartment all began coincidentally banging, stopping only when the vigil was over. hen John was musically resurrected by the living Beatles in “Free As a Bird,” what brought him most spectacularly into the moment was the melodic intensity of George Harrison’s slide guitar solo toward the end, John given fiery life, the living John by the living George. —Stuart Mitchner
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15 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
BOOK/RECORD REVIEW
TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 16
A Princeton Holiday Tradition!
PR INCETON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA RO SSEN MIL ANOV , MU S I C D I RE C TO R
2023-2024
MUSIC REVIEW
PU Ensembles Come Together for Joint Concert of Orchestral and Choral Music
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Saturday, December 16 3PM and 6PM Performances Richardson Auditorium
Morgan James, vocalist John Devlin, conductor With The Princeton High School Choir Vincent Metallo, director
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princetonsymphony.org 609/497-0020 Dates, times, artists, and programs subject to change.
Accessibility: For information on available services, please contact ADA Coordinator Kitanya Khateri at least two weeks prior at (609) 905-0937.
he Princeton University Orchestra and Glee Club joined forces this past weekend at Richardson Auditorium to present an unusual gem of a concerto from one of the most creative periods of French musical history. Orchestra conductor Michael Pratt and Glee Club director Gabriel Crouch brought together the two ensembles to perform a concerto for two pianos, multiple saxophones, orchestra and chorus by 20th-century composer Germaine Tailleferre, whose compositional output has remained largely unexplored until recent decades. Combined with the music of Brahms and Mozart, the Tailleferre work created a solid anchor for the Orchestra’s annual tribute to former University faculty member and composer Peter Westergaard. The University Orchestra opened Friday night’s concert (the performance was repeated Saturday evening) with one of the University music department’s talented students leading the ensemble. Senior Aster Zhang has performed extensively as a cellist both nationally and worldwide and is also trained as a conductor. For her portion of the program, Zhang led the Orchestra in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Overture” to The Magic Flute. Conducting without a baton, Zhang was poised and professional from the outset, leading a stately opening and smooth transition to the quick-moving passages. The string sound was consistently light, and musical punctuation clear. Taking her time in slower sections, Zhang showed Mozart’s drama well, aided by elegant wind solos. A shor t Joha n ne s Bra h m s motet conducted by Gabriel Crouch and sung by the Glee Club served as a warmup to the Tailleferre concerto, with a choral sound from the Glee Club well suited to both pieces. “Unsere Väter hofften auf dich” was originally part of Brahms’ 1889 Fest- und Gedenksprüche collection of psalm settings. The text was steeped in reassurance, and the 90-voice Glee Club conveyed the words with a well-unified vocal tone. The chorus successfully revealed Brahms’ trademark cou nter point, and t he homophonic chordal passages came together as solid blocks of sound. Tailleferre was born into a renowned era of French music and was acquainted with all the greats of early 20th-century French composition. Much of her music was either lost in World War II or otherwise unknown until after her death, with her 1934 Concerto for Two Pianos, Saxophones, Chorus, and Orchestra only receiving its second performance in 2015. Conductor Michael Pratt led the Orchestra and Glee Club in an animated performance of this work with piano soloists Margaret Kampmeier and Geoffrey Burleson, as well as a quartet of saxophonists. Kampmeier and Burleson, both Princeton
University music faculty members, had their hands full with continual and percussive piano lines. Following a chipper and jazzy opening, both pianists sustained the steady rhythm of the piano parts within the orchestral texture throughout the first movement. Saxophonists Rachel Chen, Jacob Jackson, A lessandro Troncoso, and Marcello Troncoso each played a saxophone of a different register, adding an orchestral color which Tailleferre might have come across during her stay in the United States in the 1920s. Her close collaboration with Impressionist composer Maurice Ravel was evident throughout the Concerto, especially in the use of a wordless chorus, solidly performed by the University Glee Club. While the opening movement depicted an almost circus-like atmosphere, the second movement “L arghet to” was dramatic in its deliberate and pointed keyboard lines, punctuated by Milo Salvucci’s celeste playing. The choral passages were reverent, effectively sung with a light texture by the Glee Club. Soprano saxophonist Jacob Jackson added a clean solo contrasting a brass section which was playing with flair. Mysterious celli and double basses opened the closing movement, answered by the tenors and basses of the chorus singing swing-like non-word syllables. Kampmeier and Burleson provided definitive piano lines against syncopated fugal orchestral passages, and the Orchestra and soloists well handled the harmonic shifts as led by Pratt. This was an unconventional concerto in that the pianos were almost never heard on their own, but the overall orchestral effect was much like Paris between the world wars — full of vivid colors with an underlying turmoil. he University Orchestra closed the concert with a Brahms symphony, which was well w ithin the ensemble’s wheelhouse. A tower of classicism, Symphony No. 3 began much like the Magic Flute overture, but rather than create drama, the first movement took off orchestrally. Conductor Pratt maintained a graceful flow to the music, with refined wind passages contrasting with rich string playing. The second movement “Andante” was marked by elegant wind solos, including oboist Abigail Kim, flutist Alessandro Troncoso and bassoonist Annie Jain. Clara Conatser and Spencer Bauman provided clean horn lines as the brass joined together for a regal close to the movement. The Orchestra closed Friday night’s concert heroically, with sharp and decisive forte sections complemented by reflective passages to close the work. —Nancy Plum
T
The Princeton University Orchestra will present its next pair of concerts on Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2 at Richardson Auditorium. These performances will feature the winners of the Orchestra’s Concerto Competition, in collaboration with the Princeton University African Music Ensemble. Ticket information can be obtained by visiting tickets.princeton.edu.
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Victorian Yuletide Evening Event at Phillips’ Mill
townspeople, circa 1822, as lives and artistry of 19th Clement Moore’s Poem Is Subject of Kelsey Show they wait and watch for the century Americans, bring-
Santa will be arriving a little early this year when the holiday classic ’Twas the Night Before Christmas comes to life on the stage of Mercer County Community College’s ( MCCC ) Kelsey Theatre on December 8-10. Show times are Friday, December 8 at 7 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, December 9 and 10, at 1 and 4 p.m. Children are invited to have their picture taken with Santa after the show. Kelsey Theatre is located on MCCC’s West Windsor Campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road. T he excitement of the long-awaited midnight visit by Santa Claus, made famous in Clement Moore’s beloved poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” is the focus of this musical, geared to the entire family. Santa’s annual visit features singing reindeer, sugar plums, and a mouse that will definitely be stirring. Audiences will join the Moore f a m i l y, n e i g h b o r s , a n d
highly-anticipated midnight visitor. In addition, Kelsey Theatre is returning as a partner with the U.S. Marine Corps for the annual “Toys for Tots” campaign. During all five performances, as well as other shows at Kelsey during the holiday season, patrons can donate a new, unwrapped toy in the lobby. Tickets are $16 for adults, and $14 for children/students and seniors. Visit kelsey theatre.org or call (609) 570-3333.
Jeff Warner in Concert Of American Folk Music
On Friday, December 15 at 8 p.m., The Princeton Folk Music Society presents Jeff Warner in an evening of traditional American folksong at Christ Congregational Church, 50 Walnut Lane. Warner is considered to be among the nation’s foremost performer/interpreters of traditional music. His songs connect 21st century audiences with the everyday
ing us “the latest news from the distant past.” Warner is the son of folk song collectors Frank and Anne Warner, and he grew up listening to the songs and stories of the traditional singers his parents met during their collecting trips through rural America. He accompanied them on their later field trips and is the editor of his mother’s book, Traditional American Folk Songs from the Anne and Frank Warner Collection. He plays concertina, banjo, guitar, and several “pocket” instruments, including bones and spoons. “Jeff is my nominee for the best folk singer in America,” said Bob Bossin, founder of the Canadian folk group Stringband. “He has a mischievous sense of humor, he plays most any instrument you can name, and his reper toire is encyclop e d ic, ranging from Black gospel to shanties to music hall. In a time when most folk singers rarely sing a folk song,
“Gaucho: A New Musical” At PU’s Wallace Theater
MOVING NORTH: American Repertory Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” continues its holiday tour of New Jersey venues with five performances at State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick December 15-17. Accompanied by a live orchestra and the Princeton Girlchoir, the holiday classic tells the magical story of Clara and her Nutcracker Prince and their adventure in the Land of Sweets. Tickets are $29-$69. Visit Stnj.org for times and tickets. (Photo by Leighton Chen)
Gaucho: A New Musical is presented December 8-10 at Princeton University’s Wallace Theater in the Lewis Arts complex. Admission is free. The show, by seniors Aaron and Emma Ventresca, is set in 19th-century Argentina as the gaucho community of San Antonio de Areco faces growing threats to its traditional way of life from large landowners’ newest technology — barbed wire fencing. With horseback r i d i n g a n d s to r y te l l i n g
FOLK TRADITIONS: The Princeton Folk Music Society will bring folksinger Jeff Warner to Christ Congregational Church for a concert on December 15. (Photo by Ralph Morang) buffeting under the pressure of progress, a young gaucho na m e d Mate o s t r u g gle s to bre a k f re e f rom h is family’s dying cowboy way of life to become a writer. But with some unexpected help, Mateo escapes to the alluring promises of Buenos Aires. The show’s book, music,
and lyrics are by Aaron and Emma Ventresca. It is directed by alumnus and Lecturer in Theater Nico Krell, with music direction by guest artist Gia Gan. Admission is free. Shows are at 8 p.m. on December 8 and 9, and 2 p.m. on December 10. Visit arts.princeton.edu for more information.
BREAKING FREE: Sydney Mullin ’24 as Sofia and Aaron Ventresca ’24 as Mateo in rehearsal for “Gaucho: A New Musical.” (Photo by Dylan Tran)
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SANTA EXPLAINS: The classic poem “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” comes to life on the stage of Mercer County Community College’s Kelsey Theatre in West Windsor for five shows December 8-10.
An evening of Victorian winter traditions will be presented by Drama at the Mill at Phillips’ Mill Inn just nor th of New Hope, Pa. “Promises To Keep: A Yuletide Ceremony” takes place on Thursday, December 21 at 7 p.m. The evening takes visitors back to a time before electricity illuminated the long winter nights, when families gathered around the hearth to tell ghost stories. The tradition was a popular aspect of Victorian life and provided an entertaining evening of fantastical tales. “As the nights get longer, the shadows get darker and our lives fill up with wrapping paper and Hallmark movies, wouldn’t it be nice to take a breath and shiver for some reason other than family travel plans going wrong at the last second? That’s how the Victorians did it! ‘Promises to Keep: A Yuletide Ceremony’ will revive the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories during the winter holidays,” said Valerie Eastburn, chairman of the drama department. There will be warm cider, a troupe of actors reading short stories, and a playful candlelight vigil to ward off the chaos of the holiday season before heading back out into the night. “At Phillip’s Mill, we’re attempting to revive the tradition Dickens drew from, not so we can retell A Christmas Carol, but so we can playfully confront our own ghosts the way the Victorians did, together,” said host Griffin Horn. The ghostly stories and tales of the unusual are appropriate for adults and children ages 10 and up. (Parents are asked to use their discretion in deciding whether their children will be comfortable with ghost tales.) This new drama event for the holidays is part of a new residency program at Phillips’ Mill, with Philadelphia-based playwright Horn serving as theater resident. Horn is a graduate of New Hope-Solebury High School with a BA in drama from Kenyon College and an MFA in playwriting from Temple University. Tickets are $10 for adults and free for children 17 and under. Visit phillipsmill.org for more information.
17 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
Performing Arts
Warner sings, almost entirely, old songs.” Tickets at the door are $25 ($20 for members, $10 for students 12-22, and $5 children 11 and under. Ample free parking. For more information, visit princetonfolk.org.
TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 18
Town Topics
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Members Holiday Exhibit and Boutique December 9, to December 17, 2023
Phillips’ Mill is calling student writers, grades 7 to 12, to submit original one-act plays with 2 to 4 characters and a maximum of 12 pages. › See your work performed on the historic Mill stage › All submissions critiqued by a published writer › $100 prize for every winning play
Joel Blum
Scott R. Hoerl
John Clarke • Larry Parsons • Charles Miller • Philip “Dutch” Bagley • Martin Schwartz Joel Blum • John Strintzinger • Mary Leck • Barbara Warren • David Ackerman • Bennett Povlow
Artist Meet & Greet: Sunday, December 10 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm
DEADLINE: Midnight January 15, 2024
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19 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
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see our full schedule of shows nbpac.org 11 LIVINGSTON AVE., NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ proud home of
TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 20
audience to engage with this history so it no longer lives only in the memory of those who lived it. The Erdman Art Gallery at Princeton Theological Seminary is located at 20 Library Place. For more information, visit lourdesbernard.com.
Art
Annual Holiday Festivities at Mercer Museum, Fonthill Castle
“THE TRUCE OF THE MAMMALS”: This work by Lourdes Bernard is featured in “The Women of April and Selected Works,” on view at the Erdman Art Gallery at Princeton Theological Seminary through December 15.
“The Women of April” At Erdman Art Gallery
“The Women of April and Selected Works,” a researchbased exhibition by Brooklyn artist Lourdes Bernard, is on view at the Erdman Art Gallery at Princeton Theological Seminary through December 15. Bernard is a visiting scholar and the current artist in residence at the Overseas Ministries Study Center at the Seminary. According to the artist, the narrative images celebrate and highlight the role of “The Women of April,”
untrained civilian resistance fighters who fought against the 42,000 U.S. Marines ordered by President Lyndon B. Johnson to invade the Dominican Republic in April 1965. In 2017, shortly after attending the D.C. Women’s March and as the previous administration rolled out controversial immigration policies, she began to research her family’s migration journey from the Dominican Republic in 1965. It was through this research that she discovered “L as Mujere s de Abr i l ”
( “The Women of April” ), and learned of the invasion that displaced thousands of Dominicans, including her family. “The Women of April” were attorneys, journalists, artists, teachers, academics, housewives, and students. Bernard excavates this hidden history through her work, reimagining their stories and struggle for freedom. The depictions, created with bold outlines and blocks of washy color in watercolor, acrylic flash paint, and pen and ink on paper, invite the
The Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle are presenting programs for the holiday season at Fonthill Castle, located at 525 East Court Street in Doylestown, Pa. Fonthill Castle, the home of Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930), is a National Historic Landmark operated by the Bucks County Historical Society. Every year, the inside of the castle is transformed into a winter wonderland with all new themes for its 15 festive holiday trees. On weekdays through December 31, daily one-hour guided tours of Fonthill Castle showcase Henry Mercer’s home decked for the holidays while sharing the history of Mercer and the construction of this unique property. Fonthill Castle’s interior features Mercer’s renowned, handcrafted ceramic tiles designed at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement, and the castle serves as an early example of reinforced concrete architecture with 44 rooms, 200 windows, and 18 fireplaces. Tickets are $15 for adults, $13 for seniors (65+), $10 for students, $8 for youths (6-17), and free for children (5 and under) and BCHS members. Holiday Lights Meander Days are on Saturdays and Sundays through December 31, at which visitors can explore the 2023 Holiday Lights Meander Tour route at their own pace. Tour guides are available along the route to answer questions. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for BCHS members, $10 for youths (6-17), and $5 for children (5 and under). Guided evening tours of Fonthill Castle (45-minutes) are on December 7, 14, 20, 21, 27, and 28. Tour times begin at 5:00 p.m., last tour time varies. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for member adults, $10 for youths (6-17), and $5 for children (5 and under). A d v a n c e d t i c ke t s a r e highly recommended for all of these holiday events. For up-to-date schedules, tickets, and more information, visit mercermuseum.org / holidays.
HOLIDAYS AT FONTHILL CASTLE: Historic Fonthill Castle in Doylestown, Pa., is transformed into a winter wonderland for tours during the holiday season.
Holiday Open House, Art over a decade in building trails on preserved lands. Sale at D&R Greenway
The public is invited to a Holiday Open House and Art Sale on Saturday, December 9 from 1 to 4 p.m. at D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Johnson Education Center at One Preservation Place. MUTTS cartoons by Patrick McDonnell, watercolors by James Fiorentino, botanical florals by artist Liz Cutler, and landscape quilts by Deb Brockway will be on display in a new exhibit. Sales benefit the land trust’s work to preserve and care for land, maintain public trails, grow food for the hungry, and inspire a conservation ethic. Attendees can enjoy cider, hot chocolate, and cookies at the free event. McD on nell w i ll b e on hand to sign his books as holiday gifts. Twenty-five of his MUTTS cartoon prints, feat ur ing env iron mental and animal themes, signed and remarqued with original drawings, are available for sale. These specially selected artworks illustrate McDonnell’s overriding message of compassion and kindness. His comic strip, begun in 1994, is now in over 700 newspapers and 20 countries. Fiorentino began painting as a child and had his art featured in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., when he was just 15 years of age. He has created a set of baseball cards, as well as portraits of world heroes and celebrities. He is showing his wildlife art in the Marie L. Matthews Gallery at D&R Greenway, with an emphasis on conservation of species. He will be available to talk with visitors on December 9 about his experiences banding birds, observing wildlife, and meeting celebrities. Brockway is know n to many locally as a trail builder. She has participated for
An accomplished quilter, she turned to landscape quilting to depict the beauty she found in nature. Quilts on display show a butterfly alighting on a flower, a hiker walking past spring ephemerals on a forest path, a kayak nosing into the water with wildlife, and a cardinal attempting to camouflage among the trees. Retired Pr inceton Day School teacher Cutler, who led the school’s sustainability club to inspire students to obser ve and care for nature, is showing her botanical art in memory of her son, Isaac. Together, they walked Greenway Meadows park throughout his lifetime. Cutler turned to the meditative art of collecting and pressing flowers into unique artistic expressions during his illness. She follows the flower pressers ethos to ensure that anything she collects will do no harm to the species or environment. Plein air paintings created by the Garden State Watercolor Society will be available for purchase through a silent auction. These paintings depict different scenes from Hillside Farm, an 800-acre property with expansive views of Hopewell Valley. For more information, visit drgreenway.org or call (609) 924-4646.
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“ON THE EDGE – POLAR BEAR”: This work by James Fiorentino is featured in a display of his wildlife art in the Marie L. Matthews Gallery at D&R Greenway Land Trust.
Area Exhibits Ar t @ Bainbr idge, 158 Nassau Street, has “Threading Memories” through January 7. artmuseum.princeton.edu. A r t i s t s’ G a l l e r y, 18 Bridge Street, Lambertville, has “Small Works Showcase” December 7 through December 31. An opening reception is on December 9 from 1-3 p.m. Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. lambertvillearts.com. Art on Hulfish, 11 Hulfish Street, has “The Ten Commandments of Renée Cox” through January 28. artmuseum.princeton.edu. Arts Council of Princeton, 102 Witherspoon Street, has “Annual Member Show” December 9 through Decem“WOW”: This work by Beverly Keese-Kelley is featured in “NEXT: Reimagining the Future ber 21 in the Taplin Gallery. Through Art,” on view in the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie and online December 8 through An opening reception is on February 11. An opening reception is on December 10 from 4 to 6 p.m.
“NEXT: Reimagining the Future Pope’s short video AWAKE, the artwork is available for Through Art” Exhibit at Ellarslie inspired by the Afrofutru- purchase.
To close out its year of 50th anniversary programming and celebrations, the Trenton Museum Society looks forward with the juried exhibition “NEXT: Reimagining the Future Through Art.” Featuring 40 pieces by 30 artists, the show will be on view in the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie and online December 8 through February 11. An opening reception is on Sunday, December 10 from 4 to 6 p.m. Artists were asked to submit work that demonstrated how they used their art to explore new tech n ique s or materials or to depict their view the future. The result is an eclectic mix of works in digital art, sculpture, photography, painting, and — for the first time in a Trenton City Museum juried show — video. Examples of works in the show include New York City audiovisual artist Kaya
rist exploration of Sankofa “looking back to go forward” and envisioning a boundless, liberated future for Black people. Lake Newton, of Memphis, Tenn., in the archival pigment print NOWHERE BUT HERE, says that the images are a reflection on our layered past and a meditation on our indeterminate future. The “NEXT” exhibition will include a slate of related events, including a Curators’ Talk with Diane Ciccone and Jane Malloy on Saturday, January 6 from 2 to 4 p.m.; a “NEXT” Children’s Art Workshop on Sunday, January 7; a Virtual Artists’ Talk on Sunday, January 21 from 2 to 4 p.m.; “NEXT” Freedom Friday Spoken Word on Friday, February 11 from 7 to 9 p.m.; and a Closing Reception on Sunday, February 11 from 2 to 4 p.m. Visit ellarlsie.org/next for the “NEXT” online gallery and store, where most of
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Located in Cadwalader Park, Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie is open Fridays and Saturdays from 12 to 4 pm and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. While there is no admission charge, donations in support of the museum’s mission and programs are welcomed. Visit ellarslie.org for more information.
Gallery 14 Members Holiday Exhibit and Boutique Sale
The Gallery 14 Fine Art Photo g raphy G a l ler y i n Hopewell New Jersey continues its season of exhibits with a special Members Holiday Exhibit and Boutique Sale from December 9 to December 17. The opening on Saturday, December 9 will be at noon. There will also be an artist meet and greet on Sunday, December 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. The exhibit will include fine art photographs both on the walls and in the artists’ bins along with many smaller gift items including calendars, note cards, purses, scarves, and jewelry accessories. There will also be items for sale from the “Watercolor Women of Gallery 14” exhibit. The holiday exhibit will feature works by all of the member artists: John Clarke, Pennington; Larry Parsons, Princeton; Charles Miller, R ingoes ; Philip “Dutch ” Bagley, Elkins Park, Pa.; Martin Schwartz, East Windsor; Joel Blum, East Windsor; John Strintzinger, Elkins Park, Pa.; Mary Leck, Kendall Park,; Barbara Warren, Yardley, Pa.; David Ackerman, Hopewell; and Bennett Povlow, Elkins Park, Pa.
December 16 from 3 to 5 p.m. artscouncilofprinceton.org. Erdman Ar t G aller y, Princeton Theological Seminar y, 20 Librar y Place, has “The Women of April” t h r o u g h D e c e m b e r 15. lourdesbernard.com. Ficus, 235 Nassau Street, has “Playful Medley” through January 8. ficusbv.com. Gourgaud Gallery, 23-A North Main Street, Cranbury, has “Trees, Flowers, and Water” through December 28. cranburyartscouncil.org. G roun d s For S c ul p ture, 80 Sculptors Way, Hamilton, has “Local Voices: Memories, Stories, and Portraits” and “Spiral Q : The Parade” through January 7, “Night Forms” through April 7, and “That’s Worth Celebrating: The Life and Work of the Johnson Family” through the end of 2024, among other exhibits. groundsforsculpture.org. Historical Society of Princeton, Updike Farmstead, 354 Quaker Road, has “Einstein Salon and Innovator’s Gallery,” “Princeton’s Portrait,” and other exhibits. Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 12 to 4 p.m., Thursday to 7 p.m. princetonhistory.org. Michener Art Museum, 138 South Pine Street, Doylestown, Pa., has “Never Broken: Visualizing Lenape Histories” through January 14, “Ethel Wallace: Moder n Rebel ” through March 10, and “Renewal and Change: New Acquisitions” through April 28. michenerartmuseum.org. Mor ven Museum & G a rd e n , 55 Stockton St reet, has “Fest ival of Trees” through January 7,
“Striking Beauty” through February 18, and the online exhibits “Slavery at Morven,” “Portrait of Place: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints of New Jersey, 1761–1898,” and others. morven.org. Pr inceton P ubl ic Libra r y, 65 Wit herspoon Street, has “Through the S to r m , F i n d i n g H o m e” through December 31 and “Earth Song Refrain: BIPOC Artists on the Climate and Environment” through January 12. princetonlibrary.org. Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton Universit y, has “Nobody Turn Us Around: The Freedom Rides and Selma to Montgomery Marches: Selections from the John Doar Papers” through March 31. library.princeton.edu. S ma l l World Cof fee, 14 Wit h e r s p o on S t r e e t, has paintings by Meredith Remz and Marissa Woodrow through January 2. Prints and illustrations by Brett Martin are at the 254 Nassau Street location through January 2. smallworldcoffee.com. Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, Cadwalader Park, Trenton, has “NEXT: Reimag in ing t he Fut ure Through Art” December 8 through February 11. An opening reception is on December 10 from 4 to 6 p.m. ellarslie.org. We s t W i n d s o r A r t s C e n te r, 952 A lexander Road, West Windsor, has “Off the Wall Holiday Market” through December 23. westwindsorarts.org.
21 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
Gallery 14 is a co-op gallery of like-minded artists that want to promote photography as a fine art medium. Each artist has their own style and approach to working photographically, everything from traditional images to highly manipulated or abstract works. This exhibit will include the full range of photographic possibilities. Gallery 14 is located at 14 Mercer Street in Hopewell and is open on Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. Additionally, appointments can also be made by email to galleryfourteen@yahoo. com. For more information, visit gallery14.org.
IS ON
TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 22
Mark Your Calendar TOWN TOPICS Wednesday, December 6 7 p.m.: National Book Award-winner Ha Jin is j oi n e d i n c onve r s at ion w it h P r inceton Un iversity professor Yiyun Li at Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon Street. Princetonlibrary.org. 7-8 p.m.: Meeting of the League of Women Voters of the Greater Princeton A re a, at We s t Wi n d s or Librar y, 333 Nor th Post Road, Princeton Junction. Lwvprinceton.org. 7:30 p.m.: “The Illusionists: Magic of the Holidays” is at the State Theatre New Jersey, 15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick. $39$129. Stnj.org. Thursday, December 7 10 a.m. : The 55 -Plus Club of Princeton meets at The Jewish Center Princeton, 435 Nassau Street. A lain L . Kor n haus er of Princeton University speaks on “The Real Case for Driverless Mobility: Putting Driverless Vehicles to Use for Those Who Really Need a Ride.” Free, with suggested donation of $5. In person and via Zoom. Princetonol. com/groups/55plus. 5:30 p.m.: Pam Mount and Reuwai Mount Hanewald lead a holiday arrangement workshop and wine tasting
7:30 p.m.: Christmastown, a staged reading of a new musical by Sydney Hwang, at Drapkin Studio at the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton University campus. Free. Tickets.princeton.edu. 8 p.m.: “An Evening of Readings and Carols,” holiday concert at Princeton University Chapel by Westminster Choir College of Rider University’s Chapel Choir, Symphonic Choir, Jubilee Singers, Concert Bell Choir, and Westminster Choir. $25$70. Rider.edu. 8 p.m.: The Vienna Boys Choir presents “Christmas in Vienna” at State Theatre Friday, December 8 5:30 p.m.: Pam Mount New Jersey, 15 Livingston and Reuwai Mount Hanewald Avenue, New Brunswick. lead a holiday arrangement $29-$69. Stnj.org. workshop and wine tasting Saturday, December 9 at Terhune Orchards, 330 Cold Soil Road. $45. Regis9 a.m.-1 p.m.: St. Nichoter at terhuneorchards.com. las Bazaar, cookie walk and 7 p.m.: ’Twas the Night bake sale at Trinity Church, Before Christmas at Kelsey 33 Mercer Street. Balsam Theatre, Mercer County Com- wreaths, decorated boxwood munity College, 1200 Old trees, old books, knitted Trenton Road, West Windsor. items, and more. $14-$16. Kelseytheatre.org. 10 a.m.: “Festival of Trees” 7: 3 0 p . m . : Na ta s ha Family Morning and Storytime Pierre and the Great Comet at Morven, 55 Stockton Street. of 1812, by Dave Malloy. An Winter folk tales and holiday electropop opera based on stories. $5-$15. Morven.org. Tolstoy’s War and Peace, at 10 a.m.-5 p.m.: TrenRider University’s Bart Lu- ton Punk Rock Flea Market, edeke Center Theater, Law- Cure Insurance Arena, Trenrence Township. $5- $25. ton. $15. Vendors, live mu(609) 896-7775. sic, live tattooing, and more. Trentonprmf.com. at Terhune Orchards, 330 Cold Soil Road. $45. Register at terhuneorchards.com. 6 p.m.: Peter Coviello and Lindsay Reckson discuss Is There God After Prince?: Dispatches from an Age of Last Things, at Labyrinth Books, 122 Nassau Street. Labyrinthbooks.com. 7 p.m. Princeton University astrophysics professor Joshua N. Winn talks about his book The Little Book of Exoplanets at Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon Street. Princetonlibrary.org.
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10 a.m.-3 p.m.: Annual Christmas Bazaar at St. Matthew’s Church, 300 South Main Street, Pennington. Santa and elves, homemade treats, handmade gifts, holiday lunch with Norwegian waffles, quilt raffle, and more. (609) 737-0985. 12-2 p.m.: Weekend holiday entertainment and strolling Santa, at Palmer Square. Palmersquare.com/events. 1-4 p.m.: Holiday Open House and Art Sale at D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center, 1 Preservation Place. Works by Patrick McDonnell, James Fiorentino, Liz Cutler, and Deb Brockway will be on display. Refreshments provided. Free. Drgreenway.org. 1 and 4 p.m.: ’Twas the Night Before Christmas at Kelsey Theatre, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor. $14-$16. Kelseytheatre.org. 1 and 5 p.m.: American Repertory Ballet’s The Nutcracker, at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial, Lafayette Street, Trenton. Arballet.org. 1-4 p.m.: Winery with music, firepits, and mulled wine, at Terhune Orchards, 330 Cold Soil Road. Music by Carmen Marranco. Terhuneorchards.com. 2 and 7:30 p.m.: Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, by Dave Malloy. An electropop opera based on Tolstoy’s War and Peace, at Rider University’s Bart Luedeke Center Theater, Lawrence Township. $5-$25. (609) 896-7775. 2 and 7:30 p.m.: Christmastown, a staged reading of a new musical by Sydney Hwang, at Drapkin Studio at the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton University campus. Free. Tickets.princeton.edu. 3 p.m.: Sensory-friendly performance of The Nutcracker by Roxey Ballet at Mill Ballet, 46 Sugan Road, New Hope, Pa. roxeyballet. org/nutcracker. 4 p.m.: Voices Chorale NJ performs Camille SaintSaens’ Christmas Oratorio and arrangements of Christmas and Hanukkah holiday classics at Trinity Church, 33 Mercer Street. Voiceschoralenj.org. 4 p.m.: Princeton Youth Ballet presents The Nutcracker at Princeton High School Performing Arts Center, 16 Walnut Lane. Choreographed by Risa Kaplowitz. $30-$35. Princetonyouthballet.org. 5 p.m.: Holiday concert by Capital Harmony Works at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 801 West State Street, Trenton. Capitalharmony.works. 8 p.m.: “A Very Kelsey Christmas Cabaret,” at Kelsey Theatre, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor. $20-$22. Kelsey.mccc.edu. Sunday, December 10 10 a.m.-5 p.m.: Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market, Cure Insurance Arena, Trenton. $10. Vendors, live music, live tattooing, and more. Trentonprmf.com.
10 a.m.-3 p.m.: Art and Community Holiday Market at Hopewell Train Station, 2 Railroad Place, Hopewell. Works by local artists, also live music and holiday photos. Ig@hopewellartandcommunity. 11 a.m.-1 p.m.: Hunterdon Land Trust’s Winter Farmers’ Market is at Dvoor Farm, 111 Mine Street, Flemington. Hunterdonlandtrust.org. 11 a.m.-4 p.m.: Open studios at The Art Station, 148 Monmouth Street, Hightstown. Sculpture, jewelry, mixed media, and video. Artstationstudios.com. 11 a.m.-3 p.m.: “Washington’s Landing in New Jersey” at Washington Crossing State Park, Titusville. With historians, reenactors, and the First Rhode Island Regiment. Wcpa-nj.com/landing. 12-2 p.m.: Weekend holiday entertainment and strolling Santa, at Palmer Square. Palmersquare.com/events. 12 and 4 p.m.: Princeton Youth Ballet presents The Nutcracker at Princeton High School Performing Arts Center, 16 Walnut Lane. Choreographed by Risa Kaplowitz. $30-$35. Princetonyouthballet.org. 1 p.m.: Princeton University carillon concert at Cleveland Tower; listen to holiday favorites from outside the tower. Free; rain or shine. Arts.princeton.edu. 1 p.m.: James Mackay speaks about the life of merchant William Trent during the 1600s, at a virtual lecture sponsored by the Trent House Association. Tinyurl.com/TrentHouseTalkDec10. 1-4 p.m.: Winery with music, firepits, and mulled wine, at Terhune Orchards, 330 Cold Soil Road. Music by Jerry Steele. Terhuneorchards.com. 1 p.m.: In the Kitchen with PPL, at Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon Street. Part 1 from 1-3 p.m. is a display of tools and devices. Part 2 is led by Jen Carson of LiLLiPiEs Bakery, who discusses her new books and gives a baking demonstration with samples. Princetonlibrary.org. 1 and 4 p.m.: ’Twas the Night Before Christmas at Kelsey Theatre, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor. $14-$16. Kelseytheatre.org. 2 p.m.: Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, by Dave Malloy. An electropop opera based on Tolstoy’s War and Peace, at Rider University’s Bart Luedeke Center Theater, Lawrence Township. $5-$25. (609) 896-7775. 4 p.m. : Gathering in solidarity with the October 7 hostages, and a call for their release. Organized by a grassroots group of Israelis in Princeton. Tiger Park in Palmer Square. 8 p.m.: “An Evening of Readings and Carols,” holiday concert at Princeton University Chapel by Westminster Choir College of Rider University’s Chapel Choir, Symphonic Choir, Jubilee Singers, Concert Bell Choir, and Westminster Choir. $25-$70. Rider.edu.
Monday, December 11 7:30 p.m.: Faculty scholarship concert by Mercer County Community College Jazz Band at Kelsey Theatre, on the campus in West Windsor. Kelsey.mccc.edu/events. Tuesday, December 12 2 p.m.: “Book Flood” at Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon Street. Based on the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod, attendees and library staff gather to discuss their favorite recent books and find their next great read. Princetonlibrary.org. 4 p.m.: Annual Menorah Lighting on the patio of the Nassau Inn, Palmer Square. Music and celebrations. Palmersquare.com. 7 p.m.: Photographer Chris Gunn and writer Christopher Wanjek discuss their book Inside the Star Factory: The Creation of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s Largest and Most Powerful Space Observatory. On Zoom. Visit Princetonlibrary. org to register for link. Wednesday, December 13 4 p.m.: Meeting of the Princeton Special Improvement District (Experience Princeton) Board of Directors, at the Nassau Inn, Palmer Square. 6 p.m.: Holiday paper quilling workshop at Morven, 55 Stockton Street. Inspired by the museum’s Festival of Trees, taught by April Zay of Hummingbird Arts. $10-$20; space is limited. Morven.org. 7:30 p.m.: Westminster Community Orchestra’s annual “Holiday Favorites and Sing-along” at Hillman Hall, the Cullen Center, Westminster Choir College, Walnut Lane. Free, but donations to benefi t local food pantries are welcome. Rider.edu/ about/events. 7:30 p.m.: Mercer County Community College Jazz Band performs its winter concert at Kelsey Theatre, on the campus in West Windsor. Kelsey.mccc.edu/events. Thursday, December 14 5-6 p.m.: The Coalition for Peace Action holds a Holiday Peace Gathering including a candlelight vigil, a potluck for peace at Nassau Presbyterian Church, and a program honoring Irene Goldman. Peacecoalition.org. 6-7 p.m.: Hanukkah celebration at Lawrence Headquarters Branch of Mercer County Library System, 2751 Brunswick Pike. Rabbi Benjamin Adler of Adath Israel Congregation leads the event. Register at mcl.org. 6 p.m.: Festival of Trees After Hours Tour, at Morven, 55 Stockton Street. Led by interim director and curator Beth Allan. Light refreshments. Space is limited. $10$20. Morven.org. 7:30 p.m. The Reduced Shakespeare Company presents “The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged)” at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre, 91 University Place. Not recommended for children under 12. McCarter.org.
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visit to Hidden Spring Lavender & Alpaca Farm engages on many levels. It’s a chance to spend time in the relaxing atmosphere of a country setting with fields of fragrant lavender. Opportunities for shopping are abundant in the special Gift Shoppe, and then there are the alpacas!
With the lavender flourishing, the next step was to open a shop, offering a variety of lavender-related products, which she made by hand herself. “People began asking for lavender products like lotions and creams, and I learned how to make them. I had known how to make soap, and I had done a lot of sewing, and one thing led to another.” Charming Showcase The former cow barn was transformed into a charming showcase to display Voorhees’ handiwork, and now there is an amazing selection of 200 Twenty-three alpacas live at different items. Aromatherapy the Hidden Spring Farm and lotions, creams, moisturizers, are a captivating attraction a variety of beauty products, for enthusiastic visitors, who shampoos, carpet freshenmay even schedule a 20-miners, dried lavender wreaths, ute walk with one of these apsachets, candles, plush Buena pealing animals. Bear teddy bears filled with Opened in 2014, and locatlavender, culinary lavender ed at 890 County Route 601 for cooking, a special lavender in Skillman, it was the dream tea blend, and even lavender of Marie Voorhees. After a caspecialties for pets, including reer in the corporate world, pet shampoo and pet spritz she decided to head in a new — all of these and more are direction. She and her huson hand. band Steven purchased her “All our products are made parents’ 25-acre farm, and it of 100 percent pure lavender was the perfect spot for a new essential oil and from lavenadventure. der grown right here,” reports “When we came to live Voorhees. here, I wanted to have someIn addition to the lavender, thing pretty out front,” she she has introduced a number explains. “It had to be animal of beehives throughout the property, which she oversees. The honey from the hives is available in the shop, and is extremely popular. With the arrival of the alpacas, who are sheared for their fiber (as their fleece is known), there are now many alpaca-related products in the shop. Sweaters, hats, headbands, scarves, socks, gloves, yarn, and pillows are all available. Incredibly soft to the touch, all these items are favorites, especially now for holiday shopping. Custom gift baskets filled with assorted lavender items are also available for all occasions. POPULAR TWOSOME: Three-month-old Penelope (left) and Rental Opportunities In addition, the farm has 5-month-old Ophelia enjoy life at Hidden Spring Lavender & Alpaca Farm in Skillman, where they live with 21 other alpacas. become a popular spot for
IT’S NEW To Us
resistant because of the deer and rabbits, and lavender is resistant.” Soothing and Relaxing “I had also always loved gardening,” Voorhees continues, “but I had no experience with lavender, although I had always liked it and its clean, refreshing scent. It also has soothing and relaxing properties. I thought I’d like to try it” She started with 1,000 plants, and once the lavender began to bloom, people started stopping at the farm and wanting to purchase the lavender. Each year more plants were added, and now there are more than 5,000. “I was particular about including different species and fragrances, and all have individual character.” points out Voorhees. “We grow 15 different types of lavender, including English and French, and we combine several different varieties to get our own distinctive scent. We plant it in the spring, and it is harvested in June and July. “Strangers kept coming up the driveway, asking about the lavender. They said the farm was a ‘hidden treasure,’ and we decided to call it Hidden Spring Lavender Farm,” she adds.
demand especially from April through October. The arrival of the alpacas is a story all its own. Originally, for 20 years, a number of horses were stabled at the farm. In time, as Voorhees explains, “I needed to transition from the horses, and since we had the stables, we could have other animals. I knew friends who had alpacas. I became interested in them, and my friends mentored me.” And there was a lot to learn! Alpacas are herd animals, so Voorhees began with four, two males and two females. Gradually, she began to add more. “We started to breed them for their fiber, and we also take them to shows, typically to Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. They are judged for the quality of their fiber and body conformation, and our alpacas have won many awards. “They have become a big attraction for all our visitors. Children love them, and so do adults. Really, all ages love the alpacas. They are shy animals, but can be friendly when they get to know you.” Baby Alpacas A great deal of work is involved in their care, and Voorhees has learned to tend to their needs in many ways. “They need regular health checks, have to be weighed, have worming injections, nail trims, and dental exams, all of which I do,” she says. In addition, she even oversees the deliveries of the baby alpacas! She also selects names for each alpaca resident. When Voorhees started on that new adventure almost 10 years ago, she did not know what to expect — other than it would be something new. “I thought it would be nice to have my own business, but the success is more than I ever imagined. It’s wonderful! I love the chance to be creative and see people enjoy my products. And now, of course,
23 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
anniversary and Visit Hidden Spring Lavender & Alpaca Farm weddings, birthday parties, showers, other events. Rental opFor Lavender Products and Fun with Alpacas and portunities are especially in
’TIS THE SEASON: Montgomery, the 2 1/2-year-old alpaca, and Marie Voorhees, owner of Hidden Spring Lavender & Alpaca Farm, are all decked out for the holidays. Montgomery was the first baby alpaca born at the farm. they get to meet the alpacas. “I enjoy the variety of what I do,” she continues. “Meeting the people, making the products, and I love taking care of the animals. It has really evolved into quite a story.” Customers are sharing that story, and are coming from all over the area — from Princeton and Hopewell, all across New Jersey and beyond. As the word spreads, the numbers continue to grow, as people arrive from New York, Pennsylvania, and farther away. The word-of-mouth has been remarkable, adds Voorhees, and there are many regular customers. They seem to like everything, she points out, including the wide price range, which extends from $4 to $50 and more. A typical price for many customers is in the $9 to $15 range. For All Seasons Voorhees is unquestionably a woman for all seasons! Lavender expert, product creator, seamstress, beekeeper, alpaca caretaker, businesswoman — and more. She finds a way to do it all.
“I love what I make, and I take pride in what I have done,” she says. “I love to see everyone enjoying themselves when they come to our farm. It is a special place, and we are happy to share it with all our visitors.” And indeed, an important part of Hidden Spring’s appeal is its lovely rural setting. The farm’s location invites customers to spend time in what is almost another world, filled with natural beauty, a relaxed and restorative atmosphere. It is open to visitors yearround on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and also on Friday until Christmas. From January through March, it is open Saturday only. special event will take place on Saturday, December 9 from 12 to 3 p.m., when Santa will be at the farm. Visitors may have their picture taken with him and an alpaca! For further information, call (609) 558-7034. Visit the website at hiddenspringlavender.com. —Jean Stratton
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TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 24
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Enjoying Banner Day as NCAA Sweet 16 Run Celebrated, PU Men’s Hoops Rallies to Edge Furman on Allocco Shot
T
he cheers started early Saturday afternoon as the Princeton University men’s basketball team hosted Furman. In a pregame ceremony, Princeton’s magical run to the NCAA Sweet 16 this past March was celebrated and a banner memorializing the achievement was unfurled from the rafters at Jadwin Gym to the applause of the 2,142 on hand for the contest. About two hours later, the Jadwin crowd erupted in a frenzy with a full-throated roar after the Tigers, displaying the mettle that exemplified their March Madness success, rallied from a 61-50 deficit late in the second half to stun the Paladins 70-69 on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by senior star Matt Allocco. In reflecting on his dramatic shot which improved Princeton to 8-0, Allocco credited sophomore forward Caden Pierce with making it possible as he grabbed a rebound and fired a pass out behind the arc. “That might be a question for CP, was his head at the rim on the rebound,?” said Allocco with a laugh. “There was traffic, he ripped it out and found me. I had the easy job. He did all of the work right there, it was an unbelievable play.” For Pierce, the dramatic final sequence happened
in a flash. “It was kind of a blur for me, I don’t exactly know who had the shot,” said Pierce. “I kept telling Zach Martini keep crashing the glass, we are going to get rebounds. We are missing a lot of shots, we are going to get some. That was my mindset. I was going straight to the rim and try to get it and the ball bounced my way. I got it out to him and I knew it was good as soon he as got it.” Afterward, Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson wasn’t quite sure how his team pulled it out the stunner. “That never happens, we have been fortunate to win some of those games here of late,” said Henderson. “I would say that it’s a testament to the fight in the group. I think we were down eight with 2:25 left. We were trying everything. We guarded them strongly but it is the weirdest stat sheet, they shot almost 50 percent from the field and we shot 35. We turned them over in the last couple of minutes and the crowd got in favor of us. It was a big factor. We made some huge plays. The offensive rebound at the end and the kick out to Mush (Allocco) was just gigantic. I still don’t know exactly what happened. ” In Henderson’s view, the experience gained from the Sweet 16 run has steeled his returning players for dealing with adversity.
“There is zero fear in the group, starting with Mush,” said Henderson. “There are four minutes left in the game and he is talking to the bench saying what, you guys can’t talk. He is relentlessly positive towards winning.” Allocco, who ended up with 13 points and three assists in the win, was confident that the Tigers would come through even on an afternoon which saw them go 4-for-31 from 3-point range. “I think we always believe that,” said Allocco. “We are a good team and even when we get down, we keep saying to each other, just chip away, chip away. We are going to make a run. We are going to make shots and we did.” Pierce saw the rally as a carryover from last March’s heroics. “I think absolutely, playing in front of big crowds, dealing with adversity,” said Pierce. “Just being older, experienced guys who have played in big-time games, helps so much.” The support of the Jadwin crowd, which hit high volume down the stretch with many fans standing through the last two minutes of the contest, helped spur the Tigers. “I think especially playing at home in front of a good crowd, if a team has a lead and you start to make a little comeback, there are some nerves on the other
GOING TO THE MATT: Princeton University men’s basketball player Matt Allocco heads to the hoop in a game earlier this season. Last Saturday, senior guard Allocco drained a buzzerbeating 3-pointer to give Princeton a dramatic come-from-behind 70-69 win over Furman. The Tigers, who moved to 8-0 with the victory, were slated to host Drexel on December 5 before playing at Saint Joseph’s on December 10. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski) side,” said Pierce, who tallied 22 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the win, later getting named as the Co-Ivy League Player of the Week along with Penn’s Clark Slajchert. “The crowd played a huge part in the win. We really feed off of the crowd. I feel like if the crowd is into it, big plays happen, you hit shots.” Henderson credited Pierce with making a slew of big plays against Furman. “He is amazing, he has got a nose for the ball unlike anything I have ever seen; he just seems to know exactly where it is going to go and when it is going to go,” said Henderson. “It is like Dennis Rodman because he is right there every time; 22 and 15, how many times have
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we seen that in the history of Princeton basketball? It is regularly happening. He was hard on himself about missing some free throws but at least he is getting their team in foul trouble. We are in the double bonus with six minutes left which helped us. Then he made the two that really counted and then he made the huge three at the top of the key.” Pierce’s scrappy play personified the grit the Tigers displayed collectively in overcoming the Paladins. “We are adjustable but I think today we figured out we can’t be too adjustable,” said Henderson. “We have got to have some guts and some north-south type basketball. We have got to get ourselves to the rim.”
With the Tigers slated to host Drexel on December 5 before playing at Saint Joseph’s on December 10, Henderson is looking forward to seeing his players produce some more gutsy basketball. “Everybody is good and getting better as well,” said Henderson. “I love these games. It is two Philly teams who are well coached and both playing well. St Joe’s has had some really good wins. I said to the guys today look you are playing three games in a row that if you are a college basketball fan, these are fun games to watch.” The fans at Jadwin certainly had a lot of fun last Saturday. —Bill Alden
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M a s o n K i l l i o n’s g o a l brought the Princeton University men’s water polo team even with top-seeded UCLA in the fourth quarter of the NCAA semifinals Saturday. The fourth-seeded Tigers stood seven minutes away from reaching the championship game where they could play for the national title goal they had been aiming for all season. UCLA, though, responded with the next three goals to put the Tigers in a deficit that they couldn’t claw back from in a 17-13 loss in a game played at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Princeton drew as close as 14-12 with 2:52 before UCLA scored twice in the next 24 seconds to end the Tigers year at 28-6 overall after securing their third straight Northeast Water Polo Conference Championship to earn another trip to the NCAAs. “It’s pretty bittersweet, we were right there, and that’s what makes it even tougher,” said Princeton head coach Dusty Litvak, who spent five seasons at UCLA, working with the men’s and women’s water polo teams, before taking the helm of the Tigers in 2018. “We really could see the possibility of achieving that goal. UCLA is a phenomenal team with so many weapons, and they were so resilient and so disciplined that they never really crack. We were really hoping if we put some fear into their minds that they may lose the game, that they might crack under the pressure, and they never did. That’s a credit to their coaching staff and their players.” Pr inceton reached t he semifinals with a convincing 12-7 win over UC Irvine in the NCAA quarterfinals Friday. Vlad Mitrovic scored three goals and Killion, Yurian Quinones and Finn LeSieur each scored two goals. Kristof Kovacs made eight saves. Princeton built a 7-4 halftime lead and stretched it to 10-6 by the end of the third quarter. “Our experience really paid off in having played in those situations in past years,” said Litvak. “I think most of our team understood how to play at that level. Our 5 on 6 was excellent in that game. I think defensively to hold them to seven goals, that’s a really potent team, and we were really intentional about not letting their centers beat us, and I think their centers scored one goal. That was a big difference from the last time we played them. Their centers gave us a lot of trouble the last time we played them.” UCLA found more ways to solve the Tigers defense, although the game started in promising fashion with Princeton jumping out to a 3-1 lead on Roko Pozaric’s first goal of the NCAAs. After Quinones scored with five seconds left in the second quarter, Princeton took an 8-7 lead into halftime to reward the Tigers fans in attendance. “Our energy was excellent in the first half,” said Litvak.
“There was a huge crowd there for us. Honestly, I kind of didn’t expect it. I didn’t know how well our fan base would travel compared to the West Coast teams. But both Friday against Irvine and Saturday against UCLA, I’m sure they had more numbers than we did, but I think our fans were louder. It was incredible how many fans we had — alums, family, friends, that were there.” The Tigers were following their plan through the first half. Their patient play on offense enabled them to take good shots and they kept UCLA from transitioning quickly. The Bruins got their transition game going more in the second half. “The tough part in the third quarter was a couple non-calls that we were getting earlier in the game, and it’s not just not getting that call in the offensive end, but as soon as you don’t get that call you’re down in transition,” said Litvak. “We knew we had to control their transition. They’re just so good on counter attack. The way you control transition is not turning the ball over, not committing offensive fouls, not taking unorthodox crazy shots that no one is expecting. And we did that for the first half.” Princeton overcame adversity to stay with UCLA. The Tigers were at an early disadvantage due to fouls even as they built the halftime lead. The Bruins showed their versatility and explosiveness in the second half. “They were able to score a couple center goals in the second half from players that are not actually centers,” said Litvak. “They just posted up. Of course, when Vlad got his second foul, that really put us in a tough spot. He’d just been playing so well the second half of the year at both ends of the pool, and for him to pick up his second foul in the second quarter, you have to protect him the rest of the game. That’s tough to do, to have one of your go-to guys on the bench so he doesn’t pick up his third foul.” Princeton never trailed by more than two goals in the third quarter, and when George Caras scored with 33 seconds left it brought the Tigers within a goal. Killion tied the game up, but the Tigers couldn’t get any thing more going as UCLA pulled away to end the Princeton dreams of a title chance. “For us, I think this is a really great shot for us to make the final,” said Litvak. “We were leading at halftime, we were down one going into the fourth. We were able to keep it within two at least halfway through the fourth. When they went up three late, we started to go goalie out and they scored two goals with no goalie in the cage and seven field players in, so that made the score look a little worse than it was.” The trip to the NCA As gives the Tigers more biggame exper ience. T heir previous trips paid dividends, particularly in their quarterfinal matchup with Irvine which had not played in the NCAAs in decades. Princeton also had seen
both Irvine and UCLA earlier in the season with the same outcomes, a win over Irvine (11-9 on October 15) and a loss to UCLA (12-10 on October 18). “Hav ing t wo weeks to prepare, in retrospect personally I think if I had to do it differently I’d probably set us up too much in those two weeks for Irvine and not enough for UCLA, and I should have balanced it a bit more,” said Litvak. “I wanted to of cours e make sure we got through that first round to get into the final four. With UCLA, it definitely helped us, but it also helped them. They were also very prepared for anything we threw at them. They knew last time what we did to hurt them and what hurt us at our end of the pool. I think it was pretty mutual in terms of helping and hurting us. I think you still have to play these games. As we go to set our schedule for next year, we’re going to keep in mind trying to get all those top teams on our schedule.” The Tigers now turn to ref lecting on this year’s success and planning how they can go further next year. Princeton proved itself among the top teams in the country, and will be looking to do the same again next year. “W hen you get to this point in the season, and you’re that close, and it takes that much energy — physical, mental, emotional — that as much as all of us are ready to get right back at it today, which next year started today, at the same time we’re exhausted,” said Lit vak. “T he thought of starting back over at square one is also daunting. But I’m really, really proud of this group and their resiliency and belief, setting a goal that high for a team that only trained part of the year and the other restrictions and things that other teams in the country don’t have.” W hile other Division I programs are practicing year-round, the Tigers are limited to the end of August through the close of the season in December. Princeton saw great gains throughout the year to put itself in position to reach the national semifinals. “I’m very, very satisfied with the group with how much better we got over the course of the year,” said Litvak. “It’s really remarkable. Again, when you think about it, when you have 90 percent of the teams are training nine to 12 months out of the year — maybe they take a month or two off — and we are a team that trains three months out of the year. We do train the second semester, but it’s very minimal. And we’re off in the summer. So it’s rough to compete at that level with such a short amount of time. I think it’s remarkable.” The Tigers never stopped growing through the year. They sorted out lineups and styles throughout the season and even in the final weeks had to overcome illnesses in their preparation for the NCAAs while fine-tuning for NCAAs. “There are certain areas we need to grow if we want
25 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
PU Men’s Water Polo Falls to UCLA in NCAA Semis, Making Progress Toward Ultimate Goal of National Title
SEMI-TOUGH: Princeton University men’s water polo player George Caras races up the pool in recent action. Junior Caras starred as fourth-seeded Princeton topped UC Irvine 12-7 in the NCAA quarterfinals last Friday before falling 17-13 to top-seeded UCLA in the semis a day later at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The Tigers finished the season with a 28-6 record. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski) to get over that hump and get to that final game and contend for the national championship,” said Litvak. “There are things we’ll address and discuss as a team because if we’re serious about our goal, we have to continue to grow.” The Tigers will have a great starting point to grow further from after this year. They graduate just Pierce Maloney and Quinones from their main rotation. The rest of the group that returns along with an anticipated strong incoming class will be building on the step forward for the program. “Last year, we had that big win over Stanford and everyone points to that,” said Litvak. “There were also some circumstances in that game that worked to our favor. Stanford really did not prepare for us. We were a good program,
but people didn’t know how good we could be. This year, no matter who we play, they’re preparing for us. We played UCLA the first time at their pool, and they were very prepared for us. To get to the national semifinal is a huge first step. And to have the guys have the experience playing on that stage with that kind of pressure, that kind of environment, you can’t replicate that in practice.” Princeton’s performance this season gives it confidence going forward. The Tigers want to be in the national title conversation every year, and this year’s trip to the national semis and their competitiveness with UCLA is a sign that they are on track. “I can’t say enough about this group and how hard they work; I pushed this group harder than any group I’ve
had since I’ve been at Princeton in practice, mentally, physically and emotionally,” said Litvak. “As soon as they set their sights on the national championship, I told them that means that we as a staff have to establish a standard that’s going to put you on a stage to play at that level. That means bringing you out of your comfor t zone every day. Every time you think we’ve arrived, we have to raise the bar. There are so many positive things about this group and how hard they worked and how much they actually believed. We’re right there. I don’t think people can say this is some crazy hyperbole that an East Coast Ivy team wants to compete for a national championship. We were right there with UCLA. It was really close to the end.” —Justin Feil
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that things come to A Pair of Sarahs, Paul and Fillier, Lead the Way forget an end at some point. I am just trying to embrace it and leave the program As Tiger Women’s Hockey Defeats RPI 6-0 hopefully in a better place.”
It was the tale of t wo Sarahs as the Princeton University women’s hockey team hosted RPI last Friday evening. Continuing her comeback from missing last season due to injury, sophomore forward Sarah Paul scored two goals while senior forward Sarah Fillier, an Olympic gold medalist with the Canadian women’s national team who recently returned from a Rivalry Series against the U.S., chipped in two goals and an assist. The heroics of Paul and Fillier helped spark Princeton to a 6-0 win over the Engineers. For Paul, just getting back on the ice for the Tigers has meant a lot. “It has been interesting, obviously I am so happy to be here, I am grateful ” said Paul, a 5’8 native of West Kelowna, British Columbia, who played just seven games as a freshman in 2021-22 before getting sidelined by a shoulder injury and then had two knee operations as she missed all of last season. “It is a lot of fun, I am just happy to be healthy and be here again as a studentathlete. It has definitely had its challenges as well being physically ready and skillwise ready is very different from being game ready. I am starting to feel in the last few weekends that I am turning a corner and am more gameready than I was before.” After her struggles with injury, Paul is bringing a new mindset to the game.
“When you are out that long, you take a step back and look at things a little bit differently,” said Paul. “I am trying to make the most of every moment and not take anything for granted. I am really happy to be back and grateful for my health.” Against RPI, Paul made the most of an opportunity as she scored a goal late in the first period to put Princeton up 1-0. “I think their defender was trying to block the shot but wasn’t in the shooting lane so I just decided to use her as a screen,” said Paul. “I saw some space on that low block and I just went for it and it went in. It was nice.” Developing a nice connection with her linemates the Kuehl sisters, senior Annie and sophomore Jane, Paul added her second goal of the night in the third period on an assist from Annie Kuehl. “It is fun for sure, I just try to fit in with them and their chemistry a little bit,” said Paul, who now has six goals and five assists this season. “This week in practice we were doing great. It was fun and I think it showed today. We are jelling and working well together.” Fillier, for her part, sensed that that Princeton’s 4-3 victory over No. 6 Cornell on November 18 in its last action before the RPI game would help the Tigers come together. “It was a great win, it is even better coming off of a really tough loss to see us regroup like that in less than
24 hours,” said Fillier, who scored two goals in the win which came after the Tigers fell 7-1 to No. 3 Colgate. “We had a lot of girls on the third and fourth lines step up in big ways.” Fillier has been connecting with her line which includes sophomore s tars Emerson O’Leary and Issy Wunder. Moving to wing with O’Leary taking over center duties has opened things up for the trio. “I have never played wing before; I came back from the Rivalry Series and I was like, put me wherever you think our lineup needs me so I get the opportunity to play wing,” said Fillier, who scored twice in the second period against R PI w ith O’Leary and Wunder assisting on both goals. “It is kind of fun and new for me. Emmy is a great center and super smart and I am really comfortable with Issy. I have a little less of a defensive responsibility. I think it helps our line when defenders see us on the wings, me and Issy. They are hesitant to pinch and make risky plays on the blue line. I feel like its gives us a lot more room to get breakouts and attack their D.” As Fillier heads down the homestretch of her Princeton career, she is determined to savor the experience. “It is weird, when we were at Cor nell and Colgate, someone said this is your last time ever going there,” said Fillier. “Sometimes you
The high-scoring Fillier is leaving a legacy as she moves up the program’s career scoring charts. “I watch the stats a little bit as I think everyone does,” said Fillier, who has tallied nine goals and four assists so far this season and has 164 points in her Princeton career on 72 goals and 92 assists, currently standing sixth all-time in scoring in program history. “I think if I play well and I play my game, things will come. It is just taking it weekend by weekend. I definitely want to see my name climb up the leaderboard and if I can help out Emmy and Issy at the same time too that would be great.” P r i nce ton h e ad coach Cara Morey is hoping that the win over Cornell will prove to be a harbinger of good things to come for the Tigers. “It was huge, we needed that win so bad,” said Morey, reflecting on the win over the Big Red. “We have been beating the teams we are supposed to beat and losing to teams we are supposed to lose to. You need to upset a team to be a great team. We needed that upset.” In the contest last Friday, it took a while for the Tigers to get rolling in their first action since the Cornell game. “We had a whole week off so we weren’t sure, — I think we started off a bit slow,” and Morey. “We had to work out way through this game. We got better and better as the game went on.” Morey believes Paul is getting better and better as she gets back in rhythm after her injury issues. “She got two tonight which was nice, I think she has Atl antis Acco unting | Personable | Professional | Proactive scored in every game over the last three,” said Morey. AA t ltalna tn i s tAicsc o i nu g n t| i nPg e r s o n| a b lPee| rPsro o fne a s sbi o P roofae c st s i vi eo n a l | P r o a c t i v e A ucncto l ne a |l P| r “She is goal scorer, so Atl antis Acco unting | Personable | Professional | Proactive we need her doing that. It helps her confidence. She has a ridiculous release. I think her body is better and back. 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Email correspondence would be excellent Princeton NJ | Princeton Forrestal Village | 116 Village Blvd., Suite 200 | Princeton, NJ 08540 | Tel. 609.212.4119 Engineers, making 22 saves Paramus NJ | Mack Cali Center III (South Tower) | 140 E Ridgewood Ave., Suite 415 | Paramus, NJ 07652 | Tel. 201.694.6251 in earning the shutout. support documentation should he be audited. Annie Hung, CPA,The MBA,information CKA Disclosure: provided here is for your information only. Personal tax and the financial situation “She vary and didrequire great,a I am happy www.atlantiscpa.com | www.linkedin.com/in/anniehungcpa | email: annie@atlantiscpa.com Princeton NJ | Princeton Forrestal Village | 116 Village Blvd., Suite 200 | Princeton, NJ 08540 | Tel. 609.212.4119 one-on-one consultation and planning to make it yours. for her,” said Morey of OlnoIn summary, expenses, you need to have business function in mind. Youwich, can “supplement” the Paramus NJ | Mack to Calideduct Center IIIbusiness (South Tower) | 140 E Ridgewood Ave., Suite 415 | aParamus, NJ 07652 | Tel. 201.694.6251 who made 23 saves a day later as Princeton personal portion of it. You can mix business withannie@atlantiscpa.com personal pleasure when you put business at the front and center. skatwww.atlantiscpa.com | www.linkedin.com/in/anniehungcpa | email: ed to a 1-1 tie with Union, moving to 8 - 4 -2 overall and 4-4-2 ECAC Hockey.
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SARAH SMILE: Princeton University women’s hockey player Sarah Paul controls the puck in recent action. Last Friday, sophomore forward Paul tallied two goals to help Princeton defeat RPI 6-0 last Friday. Then Tigers, who tied Union 1-1 on Saturday to move 8-4-2 overall and 4-4-2 ECAC Hockey, host Quinnipiac on December 9 in their last action before the holiday break. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski) “She is more confident now than I have ever seen her before. It is perfect.” Going forward, Morey is cautiously optimistic about her team’s prospects as it is now ranked 12th nationally in the USCHO Division I Women’s Poll. “I don’t want to speak too soon, I would like to see us play a couple of more really good teams,” said Morey, whose team hosts No. 7 Quinnipiac on December 9 in its last action before the holiday break. “We started off with a really tough schedule, we had five top-10 teams in the first eight games. I would like to see us play some more good games together.” Paul believes that the Tigers are headed in the right direction.
“I am really excited about us and especially how we showed after Cornell,” said Paul. “I know that we can do more than just that, it is nice moving forward.” Fillier, for her part, is sensing a higher level of commitment within the squad. “It just feels different after that Cornell win, I think we found a lot of belief in our locker room and that things are going to take an entire team game,” said Fillier. “People have bought into building chemistry with their line and filling roles that are going to help our team best and buying into that.” —Bill Alden
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PU Sports Displaying its balance and ries at the meet as Eleanor PU Women’s Hoops depth, the Princeton Univer- Sun won the 200-meter inRoundup Edged by Rhode Island sity men’s swimming team dividual medley and 400 IM, Heidi Smithwick took first in
Madison St. Rose scored 17 points in a losing cause as the No. 25 Princeton University women’s basketball team fell 60-58 to Rhode Island last Sunday. The Tigers, now 5-3, host Quinnipiac on December 6 before playing at Villanova on December 11.
PU Men’s Hockey Defeats RPI 6-4
David Jacobs and Adam Robbins sparked the offense to help the Princeton University men’s hockey team defeat RPI 6-4 last Saturday. Sophomore forward Jacobs and senior for ward Robbins each tallied a goal and an assist as the Tigers improved to 4-5-1 overall and 4-3-1 ECAC Hockey. In upcoming action, Princeton faces Sacred Heart in a home-and-home set, taking on the Pioneers in Fairfield, Conn., on December 8 before hosting them a night later at Hobey Baker Rink.
placed first at its annual Big Al Invitational last weekend at DeNunzio Pool. I n d i v i d u a l v i c tor s for Princeton at the three-day event included Tyler Hong in the 200-meter individual medley, Mitchell Schott in the 200 free, Noah Sech in the 400 IM, Arthur Balva in the 200 butterfly, and John Ehling in the 500 free. In the team standings, Princeton had a winning score of 891.5 points with Penn State coming in second at 817. Princeton is next in action when it faces Notre Dame and Navy on January 12 and 13 at South Bend, Ind.
PU Women’s Swimming Prevails at Al Invitational
Producing a dom inant performance, the Princeton University women’s swimming team finished first at its annual Big Al Invitational last weekend at DeNunzio Pool.
both the 100 and 200 butterfly, and Ellie Marquardt prevailed in the 100 and 200 freestyle. The Tigers piled up 803.5 points in winning the threeday, 10 -team meet, well ahead of runner-up Penn State who came in at 594.5. Princeton will face Notre Dame and Navy on January 12 and 13 at South Bend, Ind.
PU Women’s Soccer Stars Earn All-East Recognition
A pair of Princeton Unive r s i t y wo m e n’s s o c c e r stars, senior defender Madison Curry and sophomore forward Pietra Tordin, have earned All-East Region recognition from United Soccer Coaches as both were named to the region’s second team. Curry, a first-team All-Region honoree in 2021 when she helped lead the Tigers to the second round of the NCAA tournament, did so again this season on the way to earning All-Region honors. Curry played the second-most minutes of any field player on the team, behind only fellow backline senior Morgan Wiese, and helped keep opponents to a 1.21 goals-per-game average over the course of the season. Tordin is an All-Region honoree for the second time in as many seasons with the program after earning third-team honors in 2022. Tordin led the Ivy League in shots (82), shots on goal ( 38 ) a n d ga m e - w i n n i n g goals (seven) while finishing second in the league with 12 goals. Halfway through her Princeton career, Tordin stands 14th on the program’s career scoring list with 20 goals over her first two seasons. The All-Region honors add to both Curr y’s and Tordin’s accolades this fall as first-team All-Ivy League performers as Princeton qualified for the inaugural four-team Ivy League Tournament and earned an atlarge NCAA bid. The pair helped Princeton advance to the second round of the NCAAs for the fourth time in eight competitive seasons under head coach Sean Driscoll.
WILD DEBUT: Princeton University wrestler Eligh Rivera, right, celebrates with new Princeton head coach Joe Dubuque after defeating No. 8 Graham Rooks of Indiana 7-4 in overtime at 149 pounds last Sunday at Jadwin Gym. It was first home dual for freshman Rivera, who rallied from a 3-1 third period deficit to pull out the win. His match exemplified a day of tight matches as Indiana edged Princeton 17-14 with each team winning five bouts, but bonus points in favor of the Hoosiers at 174 pounds and in the final bout at 141 made the difference. Other victors for Princeton against the Hoosiers included Nate Dugan at 184, Luke Stout at 197, Matt Cover at 285, and Drew Heethuis at 125. Coach Dubuque, a two-time NCAA champion at Indiana in his college days, promised a wild opening match Princeton Men’s Squash against his alma mater and the Tigers delivered as the dual went down to the final bout. Princeton wrestles at Rutgers on Defeats Williams College Five players posted 3-0 December 8. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski) victories as the fifth-ranked Princeton University men’s Daniel Downs squash team defeated 11thOwner ranked Williams College 9-0 last Saturday. Karim Elbarbary, Hollis Robertson, Alastair Cho, T homas Rosin i, G ordon ANTIQUES & USED FURNITURE Lam, Federico Sosa, and Justin Rosini each came 609-306-0613 through with 3-0 sweeps as Antiques • Jewelry • Watches • Guitars • Cameras the Tigers improved to 3-0. Books • Coins • Artwork • Diamonds • Furniture Princeton is next in action Unique Items when it hosts Columbia on Over 30 Years Experience Serving All Of Mercer County January 19.
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Winning each match by 3-0 scores, the third-ranked Princeton University women’s squash team rolled to therapy QP Fall 2023.indd 1 innovative a 9-0 win over 14th-ranked Williams College last Saturday. The Tigers, now 2-0, are next in action when they play at Amherst College on January 14.
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TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 28
With Younger Players Breaking Into the Rotation, PHS Boys’ Hockey Aiming to Maintain Winning Ways In taking the helm of the Princeton High boys’ hockey team last winter, Rik Johnson benefited from a stellar senior group that provided leadership and production. The team’s Class of 2023, headlined by high-scoring forwards Cooper Zullo and Ethan Garlock, led the way as PHS won the Mercer County Tournament for the first time since 2020 and advanced the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Public A quarterfinals on the way to a 15-7-1 record. As PHS head coach Johnson looks ahead to the 202324 campaign, he acknowledges that his squad may have to rely on its battle-tested blue line unit to maintain the program’s winning ways. “It is going to be an interesting year in that we lost a lot of firepower from last year but the entire defense is
back,” said Johnson, whose team opens its 2023-24 campaign by facing Notre Dame High on December 11 at the Mercer County Skating Center. Johnson believes that a trio of veterans — junior Brendan Beatty (10 goals and 23 assists in 2022-23), senior T.T. Zhao (12 goals, 19 assists), and senior Charles Ross (8 goals, 12 assists) — can provide plenty of firepower this winter. “Brendan’s focus is definitely lacrosse, — he comes out here and he is loose and has fun,” said Johnson. “I think it makes him a lot more dangerous in hockey. TT is good, he splits time with club hockey but when he is on the ice for us he is effective. Ross is looking good, he is going to be one of the captains. He was that wing on the top line last, he was with Cooper a lot. He will be holding that
same position this year.” The team’s sophomore line of Liam Campbell (3 goals, 2 assists), Anders Hedin (1 goal, 1 assist), and Ryan Garlock (2 goals, 2 assists) is looking very good. “I can swap them with my first line,” said Johnson. “In size, speed, and ability, they have grown. They have certainly been playing in the offseason so they really look good. The three of them — Garlock, Hedin, and Campbell — work real well together.” On defense, a pair of seniors, Graham Baird ( 4 goals, 4 assists) and Michael Prete (2 goals, 2 assists), work well together and lead the way along the blue line. “Graham brings his leadership obviously,” said Johnson of Baird, who is one of the team’s captains along with senior Oisin O’Dell and Ross. “He had a beautiful
ON THE STICK: Princeton High boys’ hockey player Brendan Beatty brings the puck up the ice in action last winter. Junior forward Beatty is the leading returning scorer for PHS, having tallied 33 points on 10 goals and 23 assists last season. The Tigers open their 2023-24 campaign by facing Notre Dame High on December 11 at the Mercer County Skating Center. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski) goal last night in our scrimmage and the pass was from Mike. When the defense is checking in like that, it is
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“He did a lot of work over the course of the summer and it is pretty evident. It is some of the small things, the way he is covering the puck and tracking it. He is standing big in the net. He does feel more confident.” Johnson is confident that PHS can have another big campaign as long as it plays a disciplined brand of hockey. “It is going to be a wait and see kind of season,” said Johnson. “I think because we are so green, it is going to be a defensive kind of mindset. If we can go out there and minimize our mistakes and capitalize on the opposing teams, that is really going to be the best balance.” —Bill Alden
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Showing flashes of brilliance, the Princeton Day School boys’ hockey team has proven that it can compete with the elite programs in New Jersey as a member of the Gordon Conference. But PDS has fallen short of breaking into the upper echelon, struggling in the Gordon Cup and New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Non-Public postseason competition. “I felt like our first two years in that conference, we hung with teams, we were around in third periods,” said PDS head coach Scott Bertoli, whose team went 7-11-3 last season. “We didn’t have the difference makers that the other teams had, being Delbarton, CBA ( Christian Brothers Academy), and Don Bosco. We haven’t gotten over that hurdle since we have been in that conference. We have had tremendous games, we have tied some of those teams, but we haven’t beaten any of those three teams. Ultimately to get where we want to be we have got to figure that out. Heading into the 202324, Bertoli believes he has the talent on hand to make a difference. “I think now we are equipped, having the best kids on the ice,” said Bertoli, whose team opens its 2023-24 season by hosting the Delbarton School on December 7. “Those are the kids late in games who get on a power play, they get
odd-man chances and they get grade-A opportunities. I feel really good about the fact that they are going to do what they need to do to change the games in our favor.” Bertoli feels good about his group of battle-tested forwards that features senior Liam Jackson (10 goals and 20 assists in 2022-23), sophomore Brady Logue (11 goals, 9 assists), junior Wyatt Ewanchyna (10 assists), sophomore Jake Harrison (1 goal, 4 assists), sophomore Filip Kacmarsky (3 goals), and junior Colton Simonds (1 goal, 2 assists). We have got six returning forwards that are going to play a role,” said Bertoli. “They are all very capable 200-foot players who can play in ever y sit uat ion. Liam and Brady are our two returning leading scorers, those guys look good. We know what we are going to get from them offensively. They produced last year and they will be leaned on this year, as will the other four returning kids. We feel really good about the top six and the ability of those kids to play to perform and score and do what they need to win hockey games.” The Panthers also boast a group of skilled young players in freshman Chase Logue, freshman Marshall Matyszczak, freshman Lucas Hsuan, freshman Holden Change, and sophomore Fred Ringblom. “We are filling out the t h ird line w it h you nger
kids who are talented and play at a high-level on their club teams. Chase Logue, Brady’s younger brother, is a very, very talented kid — he plays with an edge. In the one scrimmage with CBA, he scored a really nice goal. He had a ton of chances, the puck just seems to find him.” After rolling four lines most of the time last season, Bertoli is adjusting his approach this winter to get the most out of his talent. “We are commit ted to playing primarily three lines and playing our top kids a ton at the forward position and on defense,” said Bertoli. “When I think about playing at the collegiate level as a skilled forward, you need to get into a rhythm. The only way you get into a rhythm is playing.” Seniors Han Shin (8 goals, 5 assists) and Connor Stratton (2 goals, 5 assists) will be the top kids along the blue line for the Panthers. “Han and Connor have been top four defensemen since they have been freshmen,” said Bertoli. “They have looked great. They have done a lot of things we need from our older players so they are going to be relied on heavily. They are going to play on the power play and the penalty kill. They are going to play a ton of minutes.” Bertoli will be relying on junior Max Guche (3 assists), sophomore Hubert Shin (1 goal, 1 assist), junior newcomer Reilly Gilligan, and freshman Tyler
will play with Han or Connor,” said Bertoli. “Hubert is a younger version of Han, he has come a long way. He got hurt last year, so we didn’t see a lot of him. We have a physical type of junior transfer who came in from a Philadelphia area high school in Reilly. That is something we haven’t had in a long time, he is a kid who likes to play physical. It is really nice to see that and the older kids like to see that. They recognize that has been a deficiency, you think about going in front of the net, in scrums and winning those puck battles and changing the momentum of the game just through physicality. Tyler is our sixth defenseman, he is huge kid. He is probably 6’2, he is a talented kid. He has a really high skill level for a big kid.” At goalie, junior Calvin Fenton (214 saves, .826 save percentage in 2022-23) and senior Mason Watson (156 saves, .862 save percentage) bring skill between the pipes. “Calvin has made a jump, I know he has done a lot at the club level,” said Bertoli. “He is year older, he is bigger, he is stronger. He has looked good. Mason is a physical presence, he has looked very good too. He is a very talented kid. I think we are in a really good position — they will dictate ultimately who is the guy when it counts. It may go to the other situation where it doesn’t happen and they continue to share.”
29 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
give the Panthers Putting an Emphasis on Disciplined Defensive Play, Nevrotski some good minutes on defense. “Max is a very reliable PDS Boys’ Hockey Aiming for Breakthrough Season defensive-minded kid who
SHIN GUARD: Princeton Day School boys’ hockey player Han Shin controls the puck in a game last winter. Senior defenseman Shin is primed for a big final campaign for the Panthers. PDS opens its 2023-24 season by hosting the Delbarton School on December 7. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski) Looking ahead to the season, Bertoli believes the key to success will come down to dictating things through disciplined play. “I think the biggest thing is the commitment to playing better defensive hockey,” said Bertoli. “There philosophically needs to be a shift where we need to get pucks deep, we need to play in the offensive zone, we need to limit odd-man chances and just be way better. I feel more comfortable winning games 3-2 than 6 - 4. Come playoff time, that is what wins. You just limit odd-man chances and you are disciplined. Your penalty kill is good, you are
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opportunistic when you get chances and you have a good power play.” In addition, the PDS players will need to develop a comfort level with each other in order to excel. “I am excited, from a culture perspective, it is very encouraging to see and hear what is going on,” said Bertoli. “You need to be positive, supportive, and an endearing teammate. The more of them that we have, the more success we are going to have and the more fun these kids are going to have. Their experience is going to drive any success that we have.” — Bill Alden
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TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 30
“The transition has Szeker Taking Helm of Hun Boys’ Hockey, Szeker. gone extremely well. I was nervous for certain things aspects of it, but evFired Up to be Coaching at his Alma Mater and erything has seemed to go
For Eric Szeker, playing for the Hun School boys’ hockey team a decade ago left him with the memories of a lifetime. “I have played on a lot of great teams, I have played in a lot of awesome places across the country and in t he Nor t heast ; honest ly looking back, it was some of the best times I ever had in hockey,” said Szeker, a 2013 Hun alum who served as the captain of the Raiders in his senior season. “You get to spend eight hours a day with some of your best friends. You get to wear your school logo. We had that locker room over at Ice Land. It is no NHL locker room, but it is still your place where you get to hang out with friends, have lunch, and do homework.” After playing juniors for the Cape Cod Islanders, Szeker went on to play four years at Western New England University, a Division III program based in Springfield, Mass. “I enjoyed every second of it, it was a lot,” said Szeker, reflecting on his college career. “It was like a second full time job in school along with the academics. It was great learning lessons along the way for sure. I loved every moment I got to play there as well.” After graduating in 2020, Szeker took a hiatus from hockey but realized that he missed the game. He moved back to New Jersey from New England and contacted his Hun coach Ian McNally to
seek coaching opportunities. “I reached out to Ian and asked if he had any availability at Princeton Youth to start coaching,” recalled Szeker. “He was like, ‘I got one team for you.’ It was a Pee Wee B team so I hopped on. I started out as an assistant coach and it took on a life of its own. I wanted to help with learn to skate and learn to play. I have always loved working with the super young kids, getting kids into hockey and teaching them the basics.” Last winter, Szeker started working with the Hun program. “Ian said, ‘I need help with the JV guys. Do you want be an assistant with them and taking over as the main hockey guy with them?’ He said, ‘If you want to work with the varsity team sure, you can come out.’ Like with other coaching things, that took a life of its own. It went from once or twice a week I was with varsity to I seem to have a good bond with a couple of the kids. Ian said, You can come to as much as you want.’ I was happy to be there, so I showed up to every game or practice I was able to go to.” With McNally stepping down as head coach this past spring, Szeker put his hat in the ring and ended up getting the job. “Hun opened up the job to everybody and I went through the process, and a couple of months ago I got the call and I was through the roof,” said Szeker, 28, who does analytical chemistry for
a water company when he isn’t on the ice. “It is almost humbling in a way. It is one of these things where you have such great memories of being a player there and for them to recognize you to be able to take over is just incredible. I want to be able to give back like my coaches did.” In taking the helm, Szeker wants to maintain the staples of the program that have meant so much to him. “My message to them was that a lot of things are going to remain the same,” said Szeker. “The biggest thing as I learn the whole process as a coach is that the culture has to remain the same. It is being good to the younger kids, making it a place that everybody wants to come to every day and every day trying to make the program a little bit better than it was the day before. Your skills aren’t always going to be there. But I have a couple of things that I ask for every day — come to the rink with a great attitude ready to learn, ready to be coached. If things go wrong, be the guy who lifts somebody up. Those are the things we can control, work ethic and being a good teammate.” With his Hun background and a year coaching with the program, things have been going smoothly with Szeker leading the way. “There has been a little bit of an adjustment, the guys seem bought in and excited when they show up to the rink every day,” said
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pretty well.” Things went very well for Hun in its season opener last Friday as it rolled to a 14-3 win over the Haverford School ( Pa.). Sophomore Jake Beck sparked the Raiders in the win, tallying four goals and three assists. Senior Ryan Levesque chipped in three goals and two assists with senior Brendan Marino contributing three goals and one assist, sophomore Joachim Neverdal adding a goal and two assists, and senior Justin Laplante getting a goal and an assist. Coming into the opener, Szeker was confident that his senior forwards would produce. “ We have Mar i no (11 goals, 8 assists in 2022-23), Jack Neckritz (3 goals, 2 assists), Laplante (17 goals, 21 assists), and Levesque (7 goals, 16 assists), those are the four forwards who are really going to be leading the way,” said Szeker. “Just in is an absolute beast; he flies around, he has a great attitude. He is great to the younger guys and comes in with a smile ever y day. Brendan has looked incredible as well. I admire his hockey IQ and ability to play the game at different speeds and use deception to create time and space for himself. Ryan was a big guy last year and I think he was hitting the weights and he got a little bit taller, a little bit bigger. One of the biggest things I noticed is that his skating has gotten a lot better, he has added a couple of steps to his game.” T h e a d d i t i o n of s u c h younger players as Beck, Neverdal, junior Luke Rassier, junior Bailey Cook, sophomore Nate Trawinski, and sophomore Anders Van Raalte will add depth and talent to the Hun forward unit. “We are going to mix and match as we go along, we have a lot of sophomores,” said Szeker. On defense, senior Charles -Etienne Jette (4 goals, 3 assists) has moved to the blue line and figures to make a big impact.
OPENING SALVO: Hun School boys’ hockey player Ryan Levesque tracks the puck in a game last winter. On Friday, senior forward Levesque tallied three goals and two assists to help Hun defeat the Haverford School (Pa.) 14-3 in its season opener. In upcoming action, the Raiders face LaSalle College High (Pa.) on December 6 at Hatfield Ice Arena and Notre Dame High on December 8 at Grundy Ice Arena before hosting St. Joseph’s Prep (Pa.) on December 12 at Ice Land Skating Center. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski) “Charles was a forward last year for a bit, he is going to be our No. 1 guy back there,” said Szeker. “He is going to see a lot of different situations this season, he is going to see a lot of ice time.” The rest of the Hun defensive unit will feature senior Aiden Shine (3 assists), senior Alex Peek, junior Jake O’Connell (1 assist), sophomore Chase Preston (1 assist), and sophomore Andrew Darst. “We have a couple of seniors like Aiden and Alex who bring a lot of experience and veteran leadership to that group,” said Szeker. “They are older, bigger, and a little bit faster. They have played on the varsity team before on defense, so I expect them to bring a lot to the table. Jake was a forward last year, he is a smaller, feisty guy, but his ability to move the puck was something that he showed out almost from day one when we
put him back. He is super high IQ player. Chase was a JV guy last year; he is a bigger body, he skates well. Andrew played a couple of games on varsity last year. Those two guys are similar to Jake, they have a high hockey IQ and adjust to the game quickly.” Hun boasts three good guys at goalie in senior returner Julien Arseneault (307 saves, .875 save percentage in 2022-23) and a pair of newcomers in senior PJ Angotti and junior Patrick Donoghue. “Goaltending is probably where we are strongest, Julien is back and we have two other phenomenal goalies,” said Szeker. “We got a transfer from Trinity Pawling in PJ, he is an unbelievable goalie. Patrick is a Finnish native, he is incredible as well. We have three really good goalies. We are going to rotate it and go from there. It is one of those things where they are all capable of doing the job and it is going to be up to those guys to decide who takes the lead role.” With Hun facing LaSalle College High (Pa.) on December 6 at Hatfield Ice Arena and Notre Dame High on December 8 at Grundy Ice Arena before hosting St. Joseph’s Prep (Pa.) on December 12 at Ice Land Skating Center, Szeker is looking for his veterans to spark the squad in the early going. “The senior leadership is going to be super important, we have got a lot of young guys who are going to be making a big jump this year,” said Szeker. “I think the talent is there, we need our older guys to take the younger guys along with them, especially in the first couple of games to get used to the play. We are going to rely on our goaltending and our ability to keep the puck out of the net. We are going to rely on some of older guys to score some goals early while the younger guys adjust.” —Bill Alden
With the Stuart Country Day School basketball team featuring a mix of four returners and five newcomers, Tony Bowman has been providing his players with plenty of teachable moments. “It is a growing process, it is a learning process,” said Stuart head coach Bowman, who guided the Tartans to a 5-6 record last winter as he returned for his second stint with the program after coaching Stuart from 200311. “We don’t have a JV so they are going from middle school straight to varsity. It is a big transition, that is where we’re at.” Having sophomore forward Taylor States back is a big plus for the Tartans, who open their 2023 -24 c a mp a ig n by play i ng at the Peddie School on December 6. “Taylor played a lot in the summer; she is shooting better on the outside so we are going to let her play a little bit of the 3 this year,” said Bowman of States, the team’s leading scorer last winter with 177 points. “She did really, really well last season. We are looking forward to her having a great season this year as well.” Bowman likes the way his veteran guards, junior Annarose Bourgoin and sophomore Abigail Chirik, have been playing.
“A n naros e is s ho ot i ng a lot better and handling the point a lot better; I am looking for bigger things f r om h e r as we l l,” s a i d B o w m a n , w h o s e fo u r t h r e t u r n e r, j u n i o r R a c h e l Enimil-Ashun, should help out on the boards. “I am looking for Abby to be a b et ter sho oter f rom t he outside, she is shoot ing very well now. I am looking forward to seeing that as well.” A trio of freshmen — Hadassah Broughton, Ty’Ani Jone s, a nd Mya h Chen nault — figure to do some good things for the Tartans this winter. “Hadas s a h is a defen sive specialist. Ty’Ani has great speed. So I am looking for those two to help me as well,” said Bowman, whose freshmen performers are Betsy Murphy and Celia Struve-Auletta. “I am looking for Myah to grow this year.” In order to grow into a solid team this winter, Stuart will need to stick to a disciplined style of play. “For us to have a good s e as on, we nee d to r u n our offense efficiently and start our offense from the inside and work our way out,” said Bowman. “It will be more deliberate.” —Bill Alden
31 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
With Veterans, Freshmen Getting on Same Page, Stuart Basketball Undergoing Growth Process
Pennington Boys’ Basketball: Dylan Napoleon led the way as Pennington defeated host Holy Ghost Prep (Pa.) 102-79 in the final of its Tip-Off tournament last Saturday. Napoleon tallied 25 points in the win for the Red Hawks, now 2-0. Pennington plays at the Germantown Academy (Pa.) on December 6 and at the Mercersburg Academy (Pa.) on December 9.
Hun B oys’ B asketba l l : Sparked by A.J. Mickens and Mac Kelly, Hun defeated George School (Pa.) 90-86 last Sunday in the Coaches vs. Cancer event at the Blair Academy. Mickens tallied 26 points and Kelly added 21 to help the Raiders improve to 2-2. Hun hosts the Friends Select School (Pa.) on December 6 before heading to New England to compete in the Scholar Roundball Classic where they will play the Brewster Academy (N.H.) on December 9 and Deerfield Academy (Mass.) on December 10 at the Noble and Greenough School (Mass.). Girls’ Basketball: Earning its first win of the season, Hun defeated Springdale Prep School (Md.) 66-43 at the Hill School Girls’ Basketball Tournament last Sunday. The Raiders, now 1-3, host the Perkiomen
ON THE TRAIL: Runners hit the trail last Saturday morning in the Princeton Athletic Club’s Winter Wonder Run at the Institute Woods. The 6,000-meter run drew 85 participants with Junyoub Lee, 33, of Princeton placing first in a time of 23:37.7. Aleta Budd, 40, of New Hope, Pa., was the top female finisher, taking ninth overall in 28:40.2. (Photo by Pat Budd, provided courtesy of PAC) School (Pa.) on December 6 and then head to the Washington, D.C., area to take part in the She Got Game Classic where they will face Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School (Va.) on December 8, Maryland Christian Academy on December 9, and the Bill Crothers Secondary School (Ontario) on December 10.
Local Sports Bailey Basketball Academy Offering Winter Programs
T he B ailey B asketball Academy ( BBA ) has announced details regarding registration for its upcoming winter hoops programs. Parents and players will have an oppor tunit y for compet it ive t ravel play,
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TAYLOR-MADE: Stuart Country Day School basketball player Taylor States heads to the basket in action last winter. Sophomore forward States, who led Stuart in scoring last season with 177 points, figures to be the top offensive threat for the Tartans again this winter. Stuart tips off its 2023-24 campaign by playing at the Peddie School on December 6. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)
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individualized instruction, sk ills development, and fundamentals as well as league play. BBA is led by former Princeton Day School girls’ hoops coach a n d Ph i lad elp h ia 76 e r s camp director and clinician, Kamau Bailey. The BBA winter program w ill include competitive boys’ travel teams (2nd-8th grade), weekly practices, and the Shot King shooting program and player development skill sessions for elementar y through high school players (boys and girls). BBA programs stress fundamentals and team play with emphasis on ball handling, shooting, passing, footwork, speed, agility, movement with and without the ball, one-on- one moves, defense, and other skills. The BBA winter season registration for skill development sessions for boys and girls will continue at
the Princeton Middle School on December 11 with elementar y school players from 6:15 to 7:35 p.m. and middle school players from 7:40 to 9 p.m. BBA boys team practices for interested players and parents were slated to start on December 5 for grades 2-6 from 6:15 to 7:35 p.m. and grades 7-8 from 7:40 p.m. to 9 p.m. All BBA hoop activities will be held at the Princeton Middle School or the Community Park School. For more infor mation, contact Kamau Bailey at (917) 626-5785 or kamau. bailey@gmail.com.
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Evan R. Wolarsky M.D. Evan Wolarsky died Saturday November 25 at home in Pennington, NJ, surrounded by his family. Born in The Bronx, NY, in 1942, Evan was a graduate of Horace Mann ’59, Harvard College ’63 and the University of Pennsylvania Medical S chool ’67. He completed a five-year surgical residency at Columbia Presbyterian in New York in June 1974 with a two-year break after his internship year, during which he did research on wound-healing on a NIH grant. Drafted during the Vietnam War, then deferred until the end of his residency, he served two years accompanied at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, retiring with the rank of full Commander in the USN.
He joined Hunterdon Surgical Associates in Flemington, NJ, in July 1976, where he practiced General Surgery until 1990, after which he assumed the newly created position of Medical Director of Hunterdon Medical Center. While working as Medical Director he joined the Executive MBA program at Wharton (at the time the oldest student Wharton had in the program), graduating in 1997 alongside his daughter Nina obtaining her B.A. from U Penn. Evan was a gifted photographer. When he was a boy he received a Leica camera from his father, after which he became a serious, dedicated photographer. Many of his photographs hang in the homes of his friends. He was also a terrific home chef and baker, his talents in the kitchen widely enjoyed by his friends and family. He completed the NYC Marathon twice as well as the Boston Marathon. Evan leaves his wife, Rosalie Siegel Wolarsky of Pennington, NJ; son Eric Wolarsky of Newtown PA, daughter-in-law Julia Nickles; daughter Nina Wolarsky of Los Angeles, son-in-law Hal Pohl; and grandchildren, Marcus and Yael Wolarsky and Lucy Margaret Pohl.
JUNCTION BARBER SHOP
33 Princeton-Hightstown Rd Ellsworth’s Center (Near Train Station)
799-8554 Tues-Fri: 10am-6pm; Sat 8:30am-3:30pm
Princeton’s First Tradition
Worship Service Sundays at 11am
Princeton Preaching Sunday, December 10 is University Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones Assistant Professor of Theology and Chapel
African Diaspora Studies at Boston College. Open to all. Music performed by the Princeton University Chapel Choir with Nicole Aldrich, Director of Chapel Music and Chapel Choir, and with Eric Plutz, University Organist.
DIRECTORY OF RELIGIOUS SERVICES Celebrate the Holidays with a Princeton’s First Tradition
Sunday, december 10 8 am: Holy Communion Rite I 10:30 am: Holy Communion Rite II 5:00 pm: Blue Advent Service with Jazz Music The Rev. Paul Jeanes III, Rector The Rev. Canon Dr. Kara Slade, Assoc. Rector Wesley Rowell, Lay Pastoral Associate 33 Mercer St. Princeton 609-924-2277 • www.trinityprinceton.org
ONLINE
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Worship Service in the University Chapel Sundays at 11am Rev. Alison Boden, Ph.D. Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel
Rev. Dr. Theresa Thames Associate Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel
Wherever you are in your journey of faith, come worship with us First Church of Christ, Scientist, Princeton
16 Bayard Lane, Princeton, NJ You are welcome to join us for our in-person services, Sunday Church Service and Sunday School at 10:30 am, Wednesday Testimony meetings at 7:30 pm. Audio streaming available, details at csprinceton.org. Visit the Christian Science Reading Room Monday through Saturday, 10 am - 4 pm 178 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ For free local delivery cal (609) 924-0919 www.csprinceton.org • (609) 924-5801
Mother of God Joy of All Who Sorrow Orthodox Church 904 Cherry Hill Rd • Princeton, N 08525 (609) 466-3058 Saturday Vespers 5pm • Sunday Divine Liturgy 930am • www.mogoca.org
Unitarian Universalist twist
DEC 10 10:30 am
Hanging of the Greens
Deck the halls together with the longest, handmade holiday garland in NJ
DEC 24 10:30 am
“The Solstice Badger”
A one-of-a-kind, all-ages Christmas pageant
DEC 24 7 pm
Carols and Candles
Traditional Christmas Eve service
DEC 31 10:30 am
NYE Baggage Burn
What weighs you down goes up in smoke UU Congregation of Princeton
www.uuprinceton.org
To advertise your services in our Directory of Religious Services, contact Jennifer Covill
jennifer.covill@witherspoonmediagroup.com
(609) 924-2200 ext. 31
“un” tel: 924-2200 Ext. 10 fax: 924-8818 e-mail: classifieds@towntopics.com
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DEADLINE: Tues before 12 noon tf HOME HEALTH AIDE: 25 years of experience. Available mornings to take care of your loved one, transport to appointments, run errands. I am well known in Princeton. Top care, excellent references. The best! Call (609) 356-2951 or (609) 751-1396. tf LOLIO’S WINDOW WASHING & POWER WASHING: Free estimate. Next day service. Fully insured. Gutter cleaning available. References available upon request. 30 years experience. (609) 271-8860. tf JOES LANDSCAPING INC. OF PRINCETON Property Maintenance and Specialty Jobs Commercial/Residential Over 45 Years of Experience • Fully Insured • Free Consultations Email: joeslandscapingprinceton@ gmail.com Text (only): (609) 356-9201 Office: (609) 216-7936 Princeton References • Green Company HIC #13VH07549500 tf HOME REPAIR SPECIALIST: Interior/exterior repairs, carpentry, trim, rotted wood, power washing, painting, deck work, sheet rock/ spackle, gutter & roofing repairs. Punch list is my specialty. 40 years experience. Licensed & insured. Call Creative Woodcraft (609) 586-2130 tf
KARINA’S HOUSECLEANING: Full service inside. Honest and reliable lady with references. Weekly, biweekly or monthly. Call for estimate. (609) 858-8259. 12-20 WILLIAM F. FURLONG PAINTING & DECORATING: Pressure washing. Residential, Industrial & Commercial. (609) 466-2853. Skillman. 12-13 PET SITTING IN PRINCETON Experienced Name your own rates Available through all of December Call or text: (949) 351-4609 12-13 HOME HEALTH AIDE/COMPANION AVAILABLE: NJ certified and experienced. Live-in or live-out. Driver’s license. References available. Please call Cindy, (609) 227-9873. 12-27
I BUY ALL KINDS of Old or Pretty Things: China, glass, silver, pottery, costume jewelry, evening bags, fancy linens, paintings, small furniture, etc. Local woman buyer. (609) 9217469. 10-11-24 BUYING: Antiques, paintings, Oriental rugs, coins, clocks, furniture, old toys, military, books, cameras, silver, costume & fine jewelry. Guitars & musical instruments. I buy single items to entire estates. Free appraisals. (609) 306-0613. 06-28-24
BALDWIN ACROSONIC PIANO With bench. Very good shape. Solid walnut wood. Minor scratches. $1300. (609) 651-6155. 12-13
TOWN TOPICS CLASSIFIEDS GET TOP RESULTS! Whether it’s selling furniture, finding a lost pet, or having a garage sale, TOWN TOPICS is the way to go! We deliver to ALL of Princeton as well as surrounding areas. (609) 924-2200 ext. 10; classifieds@towntopics.com
MIHAI MOS LLC. KITCHEN AND BATHROOM RENOVATIONS. Precise finish carpentry. Durable home restorations. Very considerate with environmental preservation. Licensed and insured. Serving Princeton for over 34 years. (609) 933-8880. 12-20
ESTATE LIQUIDATION SERVICE: I will clean out attics, basements, garages & houses. Single items to entire estates. No job too big or small. In business over 35 years, serving all of Mercer County. Call (609) 306-0613. 06-28-24
tf
"The ornament of a house is the people who frequent it."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Established in 1947
WATER WATER EVERYWHERE! Let's rid that water problem in your basement once and for all! Complete line of waterproofing services, drain systems, interior or exterior, foundation restoration and structural repairs. Restoring those old and decaying walls of your foundation.
Call A. Pennacchi and Sons, and put that water problem to rest!
Heidi Joseph Sales Associate, REALTOR® Office: 609.924.1600 Mobile: 609.613.1663 heidi.joseph@foxroach.com
Insist on … Heidi Joseph.
Mercer County's oldest waterproofing co. est. 1947 Deal directly with Paul from start to finish.
609-394-7354
Over 70 years of stellar excellence! Thank you for the oppportunity.
apennacchi.com
33 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
to place an order:
PRINCETON OFFICE | 253 Nassau Street | Princeton, NJ 08540
609.924.1600 | www.foxroach.com
©2013 An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.© Equal Housing Opportunity. lnformation not verified or guaranteed. If your home is currently listed with a Broker, this is not intended as a solicitation.
CLASSIFIED RATE INFO: Deadline: Noon Tuesday • Payment: All ads must be pre-paid, Cash, credit card, or check. • 25 words or less: $25 • each add’l word 15 cents • Surcharge: $15 for ads greater than 60 words in length. • 3 weeks: $65 • 4 weeks: $84 • 6 weeks: $120 • 6 month and annual discount rates available. • Employment: $35
TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 • 34
Desks, chairs, various office furniture, all free to a good home.
Rider
Furniture “Where quality still matters.”
Please contact Melissa Bilyeu at 609-924-5400 x30 melissa.bilyeu@witherspoonmediagroup.com
4621 Route 27 Kingston, NJ
609-924-0147
riderfurniture.com
4438 Route 27 North, Kingston, NJ
Mon-Fri 10-6; Sat 10-5; Sun 12-5
ENDͲOFͲYEAR CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS
with Beatrice Bloom
As the year draws to a close, many of us reflect on the past months and consider ways to make a positive impact. One impactful and meaningful way to end the year is by making charitable donations. Whether it's supporting local charities, contributing to global initiatives, or helping those in need, the spirit of giving can truly make a difference. Charitable donations not only benefit those receiving the support but also provide a sense of fulfillment and purpose to the donors. Moreover, many organizations rely on endͲofͲyear contributions to meet their annual goals and continue their vital work. So, as you celebrate the holiday season, consider allocating a portion of your resources to make a difference and spread joy to those in need.
Sales Representative/Princeton Residential Specialist, MBA, ECOͲBroker Princeton Office 609Ͳ921Ͳ1900 | 609Ͳ577Ͳ2989(cell) | info@BeatriceBloom.com | BeatriceBloom.com
Employment Opportunities in the Princeton Area Princeton Charter School A US Department of Education Blue Ribbon School Serving students in grades K-8 Seeks qualified applicants for the following 2023-2024 position: Princeton Charter School Orchestra consists of students in grades 5-8 that meet on a weekly basis for rehearsal in the evening. Interested applicants for this position must have strong leadership and communication skills and be able to inspire and motivate our students. Conductor applicants must be able to effectively lead rehearsals, manage the logistics of performances, select and prepare appropriate repertoire, set expectations, and handle any issues that may arise. Responsibilities include: 5th - 8th grade PCS Orchestra (Wednesday evenings 5:45 – 7:00 pm; January and May Concerts, Graduation accompaniment – June) and Preparatory Orchestra 3rd and 4th grade (Wednesday Strings 3:15 4:30 pm; Thursday WW, Brass, Percussion 3:15 - 4:30; May Concert -separate from 5-8). Interested candidates should send a cover letter and resume to: Head of School, Princeton Charter School, 100 Bunn Drive, Princeton, NJ 08540, or pcsoffice@ princetoncharter.org. Princeton Charter School is an equal opportunity employer. Deadline for application is December 15, 2023. Must be a resident of New Jersey or willing to relocate. For more information visit our web site at www.pcs.k12.nj.us.
WE BUY CARS Belle Mead Garage (908) 359-8131 Ask for Chris WHAT’S A GREAT GIFT FOR A FORMER PRINCETONIAN? A Gift Subscription! Call (609) 924-2200, ext 10 circulation@towntopics.com tf LOOKING TO SELL YOUR CAR? Put an ad in the TOWN TOPICS CLASSIFIEDS to get top results! Call (609) 924-2200 ext. 10; classifi eds@towntopics.com DEADLINE: Tues before 12 noon tf
CARRIER ROUTE AVAILABLE Wednesday morning delivery. If interested, please call 609.924.2200 x 30 or email melissa.bilyeu@towntopics.com
HOME HEALTH AIDE: 25 years of experience. Available mornings to take care of your loved one, transport to appointments, run errands. I am well known in Princeton. Top care, excellent references. The best! Call (609) 356-2951 or (609) 751-1396. tf LOLIO’S WINDOW WASHING & POWER WASHING: Free estimate. Next day service. Fully insured. Gutter cleaning available. References available upon request. 30 years experience. (609) 271-8860. tf
Featuring HOLIDAY gifts that are distinctly Princeton NEW PRODUCTS ADDED WEEKLY!
JOES LANDSCAPING INC. OF PRINCETON Property Maintenance and Specialty Jobs Commercial/Residential Over 45 Years of Experience • Fully Insured • Free Consultations Email: joeslandscapingprinceton@ gmail.com Text (only): (609) 356-9201 Office: (609) 216-7936 Princeton References • Green Company HIC #13VH07549500 tf HOME REPAIR SPECIALIST: Interior/exterior repairs, carpentry, trim, rotted wood, power washing, painting, deck work, sheet rock/ spackle, gutter & roofing repairs. Punch list is my specialty. 40 years experience. Licensed & insured. Call Creative Woodcraft (609) 586-2130 tf EXPERIENCED AND PROFESSIONAL CAREGIVER Available Part-Time With Excellent References in the Greater Princeton Area (609) 216-5000 tf STORAGE UNIT FOR RENT 10 minutes north of Princeton in Skillman/Montgomery. 10x21, $210 discounted monthly rent. Available now. https://princetonstorage.homestead. com or call/text (609) 333-6932. 12-20
www.princetonmagazinestore.com
KARINA’S HOUSECLEANING: Full service inside. Honest and reliable lady with references. Weekly, biweekly or monthly. Call for estimate. (609) 858-8259. 12-20
An Equal Opportunity Employer 4438 Route 27 North, Kingston, NJ 08528
The Top Spot for Real Estate Advertising Town Topics is the most comprehensive and preferred weekly Real Estate resource in the greater Central New Jersey and Bucks County areas. Every Wednesday, Town Topics reaches every home in Princeton and all high traffic business areas in town, as well as the communities of Lawrenceville, Pennington, Hopewell, Skilllman, Rocky Hill, and Montgomery. We ARE the area’s only community newspaper and most trusted resource since 1946! Call to reserve your space today! (609) 924-2200, ext 18
NOWNOW LEASING LEASING 1 & 2 BEDROOM APARTMENTS AFFORDABLE & SPACIOUS AFFORDABLE & SPACIOUS
A F F O R D A BSENIOR L E & S P A C LIVING IOUS PRINCETON
A F F APARTMENTS ORDABLE & SPACIOUS 1 & 2 BEDROOM & 22 BEDROOM BEDROOM APARTMENTS APARTMENTS 11 &
35 • TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
NOW LEASING • Fully equipped kitchens w/Energy Star rated appliances & fixtures • Patio or balcony available • Elevator(s) • Central air • Great Room • Smart card laundry center • Gazebo / Courtyard • Fully equipped fitness room • 24-hour maintenance • Small pets welcome restrictions apply • Ample parking • Handicap accessible
VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO REQUEST MORE INFORMATION
WWW.PRINCETON-SENIOR.COM PRINCETON SENIOR LIVING PRINCETON SENIOR SENIOR LIVING LIVING PRINCETON PRINCETON SENIOR LIVING
•
• Fully equipped kitchens w/Energy Star rated appliances & fixtures Fully equipped kitchens w/Energy Star rated appliances & fixtures • Patio or balcony •• available • Elevator(s) • Central air Star Fully equipped kitchens w/Energy & fixtures 1 Br. 1 Ba.• Patio 687 - 728 Sq. Ft.rated appliances $653 - $1,363 or balcony available • Elevator(s) • Central air • Great Room • Smart card laundry center • Gazebo / Courtyard • Patio or balcony available • Elevator(s) • Central air • Fully equipped kitchens w/Energy Star rated appliances & fixtures • Great Room • Smart card laundry center • Gazebo / Courtyard 2 Br. 1fitness Ba. 800 840 Sq. Ft. $782 $1,634 • Fully equipped room • 24-hour maintenance • Great Room • Smart card laundry center • Gazebo / Courtyard Fully equipped fitness room••Elevator(s) 24-hour maintenance • Patio or balcony • Central air • Small pets welcome restrictions apply •• parking •available Handicap •Ample Fully equipped fitness roomaccessible • 24-hour maintenance • Small pets welcome restrictions apply • Ample parking • Handicap accessible and• Occupancy restrictions apply for all apartment apply • Ample parking ••Handicap •Income Small pets welcome • Great Room Smartrestrictions card laundry center Gazeboaccessible /homes Courtyard
V I S I
Please call current rentalMORE rates. A variety of affordability programming is offered. VISIT OUR WEBSITE TOforREQUEST INFORMATION • Fully fitness room • 24-hour VISIT OURequipped WEBSITE TO REQUEST MOREmaintenance INFORMATION VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO REQUEST MORE INFORMATION WWW.PRINCETON-SENIOR.COM
restrictions apply • Ample parking • Handicap accessible • Small pets welcome WWW.PRINCETON-SENIOR.COM
WWW.PRINCETON-SENIOR.COM Visit our temporary leasing office at: Income and Occupancy restrictions
1 Br. 1 Ba. OUR 687 -WEBSITE 728 Sq. Ft. $653 - York $1,363 apply INFORMATION for all apartment homes VISIT TO REQUEST 975 Old Road, MORE Please call for current rental rates. A variety Br. 1Sq. Ba.Ft. 687 - 728 Sq. Ft. $653 - $1,363 2 Br. 1 Ba. 800 -11840 $782 $1,634 of affordability programming is offered. Br. 1 Ba. 687 - 728 Sq.NJ Ft.08853$653 - $1,363 Branchburg, WWW.PRINCETON-SENIOR.COM 2 Br. 1 Ba. 800 - 840 Sq. Ft. $782 - $1,634 2 Br. 1 Ba. 800 840 Sq. Ft. $782 - $1,634 Please call in advance. No walk ins are currently being accepted.
Income and Occupancy restrictions apply for all apartment homes Visit our temporary office at: 975 Old York Road • Branchburg, NJ 08853 Please call for current rental rates. A varietyleasing of affordability programming is offered. Income and Occupancy restrictions apply for all apartment homes Please Please call call in advance. No walk insapply are being accepted. Income and Occupancy forcurrently all apartment homes for current rental rates.restrictions A variety of affordability programming is offered. Please call for current rental rates. A variety of affordability programming is offered.
500 Thanet Circle, NJ$653 08540 Br.temporary 1 Ba. 687office - 728 Sq. Ft. - $1,363 Visit1our leasing at:Princeton, Visit our temporary leasing office at: 975 Old York Road, Visit our leasing at: 2 Br. 1 Ba. 800temporary - 840 Sq. Ft. office$782 - $1,634
975 Old York Road,(800) 852-7899 Branchburg, NJ 08853 [P] (609) 874-7267 [TTY] 975 Old York Road, Branchburg, 08853 Please call in advance. walk ins are currently beingNJ accepted. [E]NoPRINCETONSENIORLIVING@CONIFERLLC.COM Branchburg, NJ 08853
Please call in advance. No walk ins apply are currently being accepted. Income Occupancy for all apartment homes Please call and in advance. Norestrictions walk ins are currently being accepted.
Please call for current rental rates. A variety of affordability programming is offered.
500 Thanet Circle, Princeton, NJ 08540 500 Thanet Circle, Princeton, NJ 08540 Plea 500 Thanet Circle, Princeton, NJ 08540 [P] (609) 874-7267 [TTY] (800) 852-7899
Reflecting On Unparalleled Success in 2023 EXPERI EN CE CLIENT-DRIVEN , EXCEPTIONAL RESU LTS Looking back on the past year, I’m deeply appreciative of the trust my clients placed in me, contributing to a successful 2023. Leveraging Compass’s advanced technology and top-notch marketing resources, I’m thrilled to share some of the notable sales that highlight my unwavering commitment to excellence in the local market. If you’re considering a property transaction in 2024, I encourage you to explore these remarkable sales and reach out to me. Together, we can navigate your real estate journey with confidence and success.
102 Grandview Avenue ∙ Hopewell, NJ
210 Brookstone Drive ∙ Princeton, NJ
563 Cherry Valley Road ∙ Princeton, NJ
Yael Lax Zakut RE AL ESTATE SALES PERSO N
yael.zakut@compass.com M 609.933.0880 | O 609.710.2021 Yael Zakut is a real estate salesperson affiliated with Compass RE. Compass RE is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. 90 Nassau Street, 2nd Floor. Princeton NJ 08542. O 609.710.2021.