Friday, March 19, 2010
In search of the truth about last weekend's 110-year storm, the writer reports on the news in South Orange in March of 1901.
"It was a hundred-year storm," said a neighbor, as we commiserated after the weekend's Nor'easter. "Maybe even 110 years until the next one." Let's hope so, I thought, as he and I contemplated a week of disruptions unknown a century ago; we had no phone, Internet or cable in my neighborhood for the next several days. With his remarks in mind, I set out to learn what was in the news and on the minds of South Orange residents 110 years ago this month. What follows are a number of concerns that were described and discussed in more than one issue of the South Orange Record in March of 1901. And what of the weather? Whether sun, rain or storm of the century, it didn't make the news in March of 1901. What I noted, though, is the prominence of …
Monday, March 15, 2010
A head massager, gingerbread-scented candle and a stash of books were among the gifts up for grabs.
The gingerbread-scented candle that a student gave you for Teacher Appreciation Day, the pendant necklace from Mom that could weigh down a dinosaur, and the head massager—or is it a dragon's claw? These things are kept out of sight, if not out of mind, gathering dust and a whiff of shame. But, one day, an invitation to a potluck women's re-gifting party arrives, and out they come from the dark recesses of the hallway closet, taking on a glimmer of hope. Perhaps you'll be able to get rid of them, with dignity. They used to be called Yankee Traders or White Elephant Parties. In tight economic times, re-gifting has taken on the allure of fiscal responsibility. There's even a National Re-gifting Day, Dec. 17, just in time for Christmas re-…
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Firefighters extinguished an arson fire on Ward Place on Thursday night, and a suspect was apprehended by South Orange police.
On Monday, three new South Orange cops were sworn in by the Village President. We had a story on the Beatles-Stones showdown at the Baird (a concert by the Rock The House collective) and a report on CHS swimmer Henry Scott's successes in the statewide Meet of Champions. We also ran an interview with Gov. Christie's chief of staff Rich Bagger, who avoided mentioning specifics of the 2010-2011 state budget, scheduled to be announced this week. On Tuesday, we ran a midlife fitness column on the compulsion to break things that sometimes results as a side effect of studying martial arts. We learned that SOPAC's executive director Ondine Landa Abramson will soon be stepping down and talked to the Fox News crew set up near the Baird to report on …
Thursday, March 11, 2010
The latest Dreamcatcher production runs for two more weekends at The Baird.
I never saw the first edition of "Parallel Lives: The Kathy and Mo Show" when it became a big off-Broadway hit some 20 years ago; I spent my weekends back then buying suits and having my power pumps re-heeled. So I don't really know what's been updated in this version of the script, which was revised by the now-famous writing and performing duo Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy in 2006. All I know is that the way Dreamcatcher Repertory presents the material at The Baird this month keeps things thoughtful, funny and fresh for most of its 90 minutes. I didn't detect a single asking-for-directions joke all night. Originally written as a two-woman play—or series of sketches, really—skewering men, women and the people who make them, Dreamcatcher's …
40.749467
-74.257661
/articles/parallel-lives-the-kathy-and-mo-show-is-funny-and-fresh
6772
/locations/305755
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Rosamond Halsey Carr married, moved to Africa in 1949 and established an orphanage in Rwanda in the wake of the genocide.
The Halsey estate faced Montrose Avenue, near what we now know as Halsey Place. It was the home of William Gurden Halsey, a Wall Street bond trader, and Rosamond Howard Halsey, an aristocratic Southerner, whose three children were born and raised in South Orange. The Halsey family had a long history and deep roots in the community; they owned the Halsey lumberyard on 3rd Street, whose sign still remains below the overpass, next to the South Orange Rescue Squad. Yet the eldest of the Halsey children, Rosamond, would make her home and reputation continents away in Rwanda. "Miss Halsey Betrothed" reads a headline in the Oct. 9, 1941 New York Times. Rosamond Halsey, born in 1912, was then a graduate of Miss Beard's School (now Morristown-Beard…
In an editorial, Joseph DiVincenzo, Jr. also urges municipalities to explore more shared service agreements.
OPINION|Wednesday, March 10
Anyone involved in governing and administrating a town or county in New Jersey understands the economic problems outlined in The Star-Ledger editorials of February 28 and March 1. The costs of labor, pensions, health benefits and binding arbitration agreements are strangling residents and administrators. Everyone is suffering. We have been addressing these issues in Essex County for more than two years, with limited support, and it is good to hear other governmental entities and public voices, such as the Ledger's editorial board, joining ours. I especially commend Governor Chris Christie, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver for addressing these serious issues, and assure them that we will assist them in …
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
The joys of breaking stuff on purpose after taking up karate.
A couple I know were recently visiting friends and were helping to clear the dishes after dinner when the chopping board in their kitchen caught the husband's eye. "Don't even think about it," his wife warned him when the hosts were out of earshot. "I couldn't break it in a million years," he assured her. "There isn't enough surface area, and the grain is all wrong. Now the new shelves upstairs are another story…" This is the kind of exchange you start having when someone you know (or thought you knew) takes up advanced karate training. Ordinary hard surfaces no longer look the same to this person, who can only think of them as opportunities to demonstrate technique. You can't, after all, hand a violinist a fine Stradivarius and not expect…
Sunday, March 7, 2010
CHS boys fencers are state champs.
On Monday, we ran stories on a SOMA Artists for Haiti fundraiser, the local band Test Patterns, the natural history of South Mountain Reservation, and Purim at a local synagogue. We also learned that five candidates (three of whom are incumbents) will be vying for three seats on the Board of Education come April. On Tuesday, we reported on the county's final accounting of this winter's South Mountain deer hunt and the firefighters' entrance exam. We also learned that the school district's current budget calls for 29 employees to be laid off, though six kindergarten teachers would be hired. On Wednesday, we had stories on the CHS boys and girls basketball teams' first-round playoff victories and the state champion boys fencers. We also had …
Friday, March 5, 2010
Matthew Carmel is the proprietor of the gun dealership Constitution Arms. His application to sponsor a team for the South Orange-Maplewood Baseball League was rejected.
OPINION|Friday, March 5
Why did the chicken cross the road? To avoid a law‐abiding gun dealer who wanted to support his local baseball team. In October of last year, I, Matthew Carmel, an NRA Certified Pistol Instructor, licensed firearm dealer and gun designer, contacted the taxpayer-supported South Orange Department of Recreation & Cultural Affairs seeking to sponsor a Little League baseball team. After months of correspondence, delays and bureaucratic avoidance, I finally received this answer: "The Executive Committee of the league voted not to accept Constitution Arms as a sponsor." Although the committee refused to provide a reason for the denial, it is fairly clear that someone has a problem with firearms and the shooting sports. But more galling is …
Thursday, March 4, 2010
A South Orange woman was present during the Boxer Uprising in China.
In 1900, South Orange feared for the fate of Grace Newton. A longtime missionary to "Pekin," China, Newton was, according to a report in the South Orange Bulletin, "one of the missionaries who was penned up" in Pekin, now known as Beijing, during what became known as the Boxer Uprising. The newspaper reported that Newton was born in South Orange in 1870 and became a Presbyterian missionary at age 17. She was the daughter of Frederick W. Newton. Grace Newton called her sister Mrs. Edward D. Shepherd's Raymond Avenue house home but spent much of her time in China. In 1893, Newton joined other Presbyterian missionaries, as well as a large delegation of Methodist missionaries, in writing to the President to ask for intervention and prayer. …
Thanks very much. I feel the same way about looking at a spot and thinking about its storied past. more ›