Saturday, August 06, 2005
Notes from Princeton
The city fathers of West Windsor punctuated their campaign to authorize tract housing on the last farms of Mercer County by permitting the construction of a new P.F. Chang's China Bistro at the MarketFair mall on Route One. P.F. Chang's is great, and its arrival in Princeton will effect a step-function improvement in the quality of the national chain restaurants in town. (Yes, I just claimed a "step-function improvement in the quality of national chain restaurants." Leave me alone.)
The Princeton University Store (the "U-Store" to afficionados) is the only college bookstore on the East Coast participating in an otherwise "nationwide" pilot Universal Digital Textbooks program. (The Princeton Packet helpfully adds that Princeton is "the only school in the Ivy League participating in the program." One would have thought that being the only participating college on the "East Coast" would have subsumed the Ivy League, but perhaps the Packet's editors assume that Cornell is in the Midwest. It is, sort of.)
The U-Store already offers free wireless Internet access to students. Starting in the fall semester, students will also find cards for eBooks on bookstore shelves alongside new and used textbooks.
The cards will be activated at the cash register and will allow students a one-time download of the textbook and free Adobe Reader software to use it when they visit a special Web site — www.digitaltextbooks.net — that is managed by MBS.
Small note to file for locals: the U-Store's wireless internet access works for non-students, too. I used it to blog Paul Krugman's appearance there in May, for example.
As in most local papers, the Princeton Packet's best stuff is in the police blotter, which is not available on-line. As usual, Princeton is an absurdly safe town, so the police blotter reports stuff that only reinforces the perception that huge parts of the country -- including big chunks of New Jersey -- are astonishingly free of crime. There was one Latino guy busted with a forged green card, one case of slashed tires in the middle of the night, one DUI, and one case of alleged skateboard scuff:
Police said they responded to an incident 4:10 p.m. July 25 in which the Witherspoon House apartment superintendent confronted a 12-year-old male Princeton Township resident at the Princeton Public Library for skateboarding in the adjacent plaza. Borough Police Chief Anthony Federico [This case called for senior intervention. - ed.] said the superintendent believed the buttom of the child's skateboard had left blue marks on the plaza's bricks. He went over to question the child, who was accompanied by a male 12-year-old Hamilton Township resident, and tried to grab his skateboard to see whether the bottom of his skateboard was blue. Chief Federico said the 12-year-old Princeton male alleges the superintendent alleges the 12-year-old pushed him, and the superintendent alleges the 12-year-old pushed him. No charges were pressed, and Chief Federico said the superintendent has been instructed to call the police if he sees children skateboarding in the plaza.
If Princeton's tweens had any soul at all they would organize a mass skate-in at the Public Library just to freak out the super. That would force Chief Federico to call in some back-up, and that might leave the rest of the Borough unprotected. All hell would break loose. There'd be Latino guys with false green cards all over the damn place.
Oh. And I got a parking ticket yesterday.
3 Comments:
By 
Sharon GR, at
Sun Aug 07, 10:07:00 PM:
The Princeton Packet has local town versions all over central NJ, including one for my town. If I don't have time to read the whole thing, I skip to the police blotter first. Ours usually has a couple drunk driving offenses, and people picked up after the cops ran their plate numbers and discovered an outstanding warrant. Our police force must just sit in the center of town and watch cars all day.
PS Is P.F Changs really that good? I abhor all chain restaurants, but I've heard good things about there before.
By Elisson, at
Tue Aug 09, 09:28:00 AM:
What? Decent food in Princeton?
OK, P.F. Chang's is a chain, but it's pretty good as far as chains go.
I may get nostalgic about my days in TigerTown, but food nostalgia is not a part of it. The Porn Shop? PJ's Pancake House? Feh.
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