October 2010 Archives

From: Chief James T. Keane

The police dept. will have extra patrols out on Mischief Night and Halloween. We are also asking that in the interest of safety that those trick or treating follow some safety recommendations.

• Carry a flashlight.
• Be alert at all times
• Go out with a grown-up or responsible teenager
• Watch for cars backing up in driveways
• Walk don't run

• Use sidewalks, if there are none, stay to the left side of the road
• Cross at corners, not between parked cars
• Listen and Look all ways for traffic before crossing
• Obey traffic signals
• Be safe and have fun

Steve Johnson, a Metuchen father and active community volunteer is battling cancer and will undergo a bone marrow transplant in a few weeks.  The community has united to help Steve and his family. There will be a fund raising dinner in his honor on Friday, November 19th, at the Metuchen Golf & Country Club. 

Click here for registration and/or donation information.  Or visit the Fuce5 website for more information. 

Want to donate a turkey to help the needy? Here's how:

You can help New Jersey families in need this Thanksgiving by donating a turkey or dry food to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, Hillside NJ. The Community Food Bank uses Saint Francis Cathedral as a drop off site in Middlesex County.

Date:               November 20, 2010

Time:              9 to 1 pm

Place:              Parking lot of St. Francis Cathedral.  Turn off Main Street onto Library Place.  Drive up to the white truck and volunteers will take the turkey and dry food directly from you.  You don't even have to get out of the car. Questions?  Call social concerns at St. Francis.  (732) 548-0100 x 225.

Jacqueline Sanin of Salta stopped by to give us some info on the new programs this year and their continuing objectives for their popular Spanish language programs:

What are the new objectives for the Salta program this year? 

We actually have quite a few!  This year, we have launched Salta! Kinder Program which offers classes two hours each morning and afternoon on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays.  I created the Salta! Kinder curriculum to mirror the New Jersey core curriculum kindergarten standards.  The lessons include science, calendar, mathematics, reading and writing - all in Spanish.   We feel this is a strong complement to many half day Kindergarten programs.  It's a lot of fun and extremely interactive.

Salta! also expanded on its cultural class offerings.   We want to instill a love of the Spanish culture as well as the language.  Art, Soccer, Cooking, Latin Dance, Theater Arts classes help children develop their fine and gross motor skills, coordination and boost self confidence. 

Ned Vizzini is the author of two novels: the award-winning It's Kind of a Funny Story (2006), now a major motion picture in theaters (starring Emma Roberts and Zach Galifanakis), and Be More Chill (2004) which takes place in Metuchen, NJ. Vizzini's first book, Teen Angst? Naaah . . . (2000), is a compilation of humorous essays which focus on the middle school and high school years. All three books will be available for purchase and for the author to sign at the event.

An hour before the event, a local Piscataway TV show called YA VISIONS will be taping an interview with Vizzini at the Metuchen LIbrary. 

The author visit is a program for teens, preteens, and adults. It is free and open to the public. This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Metuchen Public Library. For more information, call 732.632.8526 or check out http://www.metuchenlibraryteens.org/

The Saint Francis Cathedral School's 8th Annual Golf Outing will take place on Monday October 25, 2010 at the picturesque Mercer Oaks Golf Club in West Windsor, NJ.

Registration is 8:00 AM followed by a continental breakfast prior to the 9:00 AM shot-gun start. Contest on the course include closest to the pin, hit the green and longest drive.  The day will conclude with awards and a delicious buffet lunch.

 Registration fee per golfer is $175.

If you are interested in enjoying a day of golf and helping the children of Saint Francis please email: kevinblake13@optimum.net

Alex Dawson of the Raconteur gives Metuchen Matters the lowdown on his new adaptation of NOSFERATU at Middlesex County College, opening this weekend:

I've always been a werewolf man. For three Halloweens running, from second to fifth grade, I loped and howled, I blackened my nose and did my best, with fake fur and crepe wool, to imitate the yak fro of Lon Chaney's Wolf Man. My stepfather was a trapper (I grew up on a farm in Alabama), and one year I even hung gray pelts, rabbit and squirrel, from the shoulders and chest of my costume (I kid you not). But no one cares about werewolves. Vampires, on the other hand, are everywhere. Long the staple of fringe culture (genre fiction, comic books, B movies, Goth clubs), they have since permeated the mainstream. Indeed, Sookie Stackhouse scribe Charlaine Harris is the first author to have eight novels concurrently in the top ten, and, just this week, scientists discovered a new fanged fish which they named, you guessed it, Dracula.

But before Twilight and True Blood, before Dracula even, there was Nosferatu. Nosferatu is a 1923 German Expressionist film by F.W. Murnau (one of the most influential directors of the silent era). Released ten years before the iconic Bela Lugosi movie, Nosferatu a.k.a. Count Orlock is sometimes labeled "The First Vampire." Dracula is handsome and aristocratic, a satin lined cape and hair as black and shiny as the back of a beetle; Orlock, quite simply, is not. But this physical distinction, while the most obvious, is decidedly superficial. On the other hand, the addition of the bubonic rats, which Orlock shepherds and, with his medial incisors, resembles, is profound. The vermin tie Nosferatu to the Black Death, couching the story in world history and suggesting an epic context that Dracula, I don't think, has. But it's a silent film, the plague references are brief and few, just a handful of exclamatory title cards ("The plague!"); the context needed cultivating.

The Forum Theatre New Jersey's Only Not for Profit Art House Specializing in
Foreign and Independent Films

Starts tonite on our screen we present one of the most highly acclaimed films of the year,  WINTERS BONE
Winner Best Picture and Screenplay at the Sundance Film Festival.
An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.

"Winter’s Bone is straightforward and suspenseful but also surprising and subtle. As memorable and vivid a heroine as you are likely to see on screen this season"
New York Times
Showtimes Friday at 7:30 Saturday & Sunday 6pm & 8pm
Running Time is 1hr 40m Rated R

Jackie Masons New Film ONE ANGRY MAN will be shown on Sunday at 3pm
This is the only NJ Showing of the film. In this satire written from the perspective of the fictional defendant in the film 12 Angry Men, the arguments used by the dissenting juror to prove the possibility that the defendant is innocent are explained in ways that actually support his guilt.

All seats are $8 at all times
732.548.5600
www.forumtheatrearts.org
This message was sent by: Forum Theatre Arts Center, 314 Main Street, Metuchen, NJ 08840

As you may know, Charming Nails, the nail salon at 441 Main Street, was robbed this past August and the owner, Linda, was dragged down Main Street by the get-away car.  Linda had just moved to her new location and invested in sprucing-up the building and buying new equipment.  She lost a good portion of the week's revenue and was hospitalized for her injuries. 

A group of concerned citizen-patrons is organizing a fund-raising day for Linda this Sunday,October 10th.  "So the bad guys don't win," said organizer Deanna Manzo.  Please stop in for a mani-pedi or another of the cosmetic procedures they offer, maybe purchase a gift card as a holiday gift for a teacher or babysitter, or simply throw a few dollars into a collection jar.

As a long-time resident once told me "it's in times of adversity when our little town really rises to the occasion." Please give Linda a call at (732) 548-5660 if you're planning to stop-by so that the shop can be prepared for your visit. Even if you can't make it this Sunday, treat yourself to some pampering for a good cause soon. 

Project Porchlight visited Metuchen on Saturday, September 25, 2010. An enthusiastic youthful crowd of twenty-one (21) consisting of Boy Scouts from Troops 17 and 216, and Girl Scouts from Troop 81645 offered their time to deliver one free compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb door to door to a select group of homes in Metuchen.  The volunteers were full of energy despite the hot weather,  as well as their their sports and Townwide Garage sale shopping activities from earlier in the day. Perhaps it was the free shirts and wristbands they received, or the promise of pizza afterwards that kept them shining. The volunteers received training from the Project Porchlight professionals and were told how to approach each household, the information they should convey, and to be polite.

From David Wheeler at WildNewJersey:

No better time than autumn to fall in love with nature in New Jersey. The gold and crimson palettes of oaks and maples.  The refreshing chill to the air after so many months of heat and humidity.  That timeless first night of wood smoke from fireplaces down the street.  And the crunch of freshly fallen leaves underfoot. 

Fall outdoors in New Jersey is special for so many well-known reasons, but dig a little deeper and you'll find that we humans aren't the only ones appreciating autumn in all its glory. The great fall migrations in the birding world are well underway, but will go strong until late November.  New Jersey is hard to beat for bird spotting during these times.  Large raptors like hawks, falcons, and eagles fly south in hard-to-believe numbers on their way to winter warmth.  Millions of songbirds add color to the New Jersey skyscape each fall, with neotropical songbirds like Baltimore orioles and scarlet tanagers flying as far south as South America.  And along our coasts, great blue herons, egrets, and waterfowl ascend from our waterways en masse to reach more temperate nesting grounds.