As expected, Nazareth Borough Council hired acting Chief Thomas Trachta as its new Police Chief at the beginning of its meeting on Monday evening according to the Express-Times (read the article here).
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Insomniak Welcomes Jerry Spinger!?!
Received this notice through Facebook on an upcoming production at Insomniak Theatre:
"The Jerry Spinger Show: A murder-mystery musical comedy!” on Friday, October 16 at 8:00pm and Sunday, October 25 at 2:00pm.
This "spoof" will transport you to the live studio audience of the "To Hot to Handle" T.V. host Jerry Spinger. A colorful, fast moving plot features the "Whammy Family" from Alabamy. They include Tammy, Pammy, Sammy and Mammy who have all come to express their concerns about they families unexpected pregnancies.
Toss in Rafe, the flamboyant brother of the "shock jock" Howard Stern who is there to promote his famous book "Queen of all Media...Growing up with Howard", and you have a wildly funny, bold, brassy, fist throwing, name calling, murderous theme. A production where even the "star" may become the victim. This show will have you chanting "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry"......to the bloody end.
*Parental guidance is suggested. This show does contain adult language, theater violence and mature subject matter. (Come on folks, It's Jerry Spinger)
Insomniak Theatre is located on South Main Street between Center and Belvidere.
TICKETS: $15.00 cabaret table w/ BYOB, $10.00 Stadium seating ( No BYOB) * Lite snacks and desserts available for purchase. To order call 610-759-7000 or email sueneta at aim dot com Wear your best "Jerry Spinger" outfit and join in the fun for Halloween! The wildest "Spinger" audience member costume wins a prize!!
50/50 Raffle for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
I received this note from Nazareth area resident Meghan Ochs and wanted to share it:
I am fundraising for Team in Training & the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
I have another $500 to raise to get to my goal of $4,600!! The bike ride I am raising money for is called the ‘El Tour de Tuscon’. By raising money for this event I will be raising more $$ for more research in the fight to cure blood cancers. This money will go toward supporting families affected by these diseases as well as very important research that helps fight other types of cancers as well.
Of course, I can’t do all of this own my own and I am looking for help from family & friends. This is where you come in. Currently I am selling 50/50 raffle tickets, payable up to $500. The tickets are 1 for $5.00, 3 for $10.00 & 7 for $20.00. I will be drawing the winner on November 6th 2009. So tell your friends & your family and spread the world. Let me know if you would like to buy some tickets yourself & maybe win some cash money. P.S. 50/50 raffle tickets are not tax deductible.
If you are looking to make a deduction that is tax deductible you can always send me a check made out to “The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society” @ 1851A Bushkill Drive. Easton PA 18040 or you can go online to my website http://pages.teamintraining.org/lv/tucson09/mochs to donate or track my progress.
Please let me know if you would like any raffle tickets. I really appreciate ANY and ALL help that you can offer!!
Martin Guitar Featured on CNN.com
The Martin Guitar Company is featured in an article on CNN.com (read it here).
The article mentions the history, the new facilities, and more important the companies ability to withstand the current economic downturn. Chris Martin is quoted as saying, "Every time we celebrated a 25th anniversary, within a year or two, the economy was in shambles. I use that as a way to communicate with my colleagues to say that 'the odds are that we're going to survive this one, too, because we've survived all the others.”
Blue Eagle Soundfest
This Saturday October 10, 2009 the Nazareth Band Parent Organization will be hosting the 27th Annual Soundfest. It will be held at Andrew S. Leh Stadium. This musical event begins at 6 PM and we invite everyone to come out and enjoy a lovely evening of musical enjoyment. There are 12 bands performing and the National Award Winning Nazareth Blue Eagle Marching Band will be closing the evening with their 2009 Field Show "Earth, Nature's Canvas". So we invite you to come out and have dinner at the Nazareth Band Parents Wahoo Bistro and then enjoy the show!
Monday, October 05, 2009
LV Non-Profit Professionals
Okay, this post is a bit self-serving, but I know there are a lot of people in the Nazareth area who are non-profit professionals. Today I set up a new group on LinkedIn for non-profit professionals in the Greater Lehigh Valley.
The group is called the Greater Lehigh Valley Non-Profit Network, and below is a brief description:
The non-profit networking resource for the greater Lehigh Valley. Members either live or work in Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, or Northampton County in PA or Warren County, NJ. Members can be students or they can be professionals who are employed by or provide service to non-profit entities.
To join the group visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/GLVNPN
Please forward this info to any non-profit professionals you may know, thanks!
New Borough Police Chief?
The Express-Times reports that Borough Council may name deputy police chief Trachta to replace Chief Sinclair who left for a position in West Conshohocken (read the article here).
The article also notes there are no candidates other than Trachta. This is a bit surprising considering the large number of candidates who applied two years ago.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
"College" Students Door to Door for Cash
Yesterday there were at least a few young men claiming to be college students going door to door to raise money for school.
I saw two kids walking from a neighbor’s front door in the afternoon and they did make their way to our home. They made the mistake of ringing the doorbell, which sets our dog off something fierce. At 95 pounds, barking, growling, and trying to go through the storm door, about all I heard was “we are earning points for college” before I said not interested and they were happy to walk away.
This was early afternoon and I didn’t think much of it. Last night, however, I got an email from a reader in Upper Nazareth who was approached at 8:30 p.m. by two men using the same pitch. Understandably it freaked her out a bit and she called police.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they are around again today, so keep an eye out and don’t provide any funds to these individuals.
Weekly Blogosphere Round-Up
Andy has the expected run down of high school and college football schedules and results along with coverage of the state budget. He also had a few reports of news about the news industry and he shared some posts from NOC. Thanks Andy!
House to home discusses fall and why she loves the season, complete with many photos of fall décor inside the home.
Lehigh Valley Ramblings has a few posts on Northampton County including the sheriff applicants, department, and a budget increase of 9.3% for next year. There are also some posts on Allentown affairs, Lehigh County, and one on Tony Phillips hiring a new campaign manager.
Tatamy Happenings have a pair of posts of importance to local residents, one announced a special election that was held Tuesday and the other was a link to an article highlighting the candidates running for Tatamy Council this fall.
Weird Nazareth has a story on a ghost in Gracedale and a reminder – after you carve your pumpkins this year, be sure to submit a photo to their site for the pumpkin carving contest!
Saturday, October 03, 2009
H1N1 Update
NASD repoted on their website the following H1N1 Update As of 10/2:
Cumulative Count:
High School - 20 (18 prior, 2 new this week) - All but 1 have returned to school
Middle School - 9 (5 prior, 4 new this week) - All but 2 have returned to school
Intermediate School - 31 (14 prior, 17 new this week) - All but 9 have returned to school
Bushkill Elementary - 2 (2 prior, 0 new this week) - All have returned to school
LNES - 2 (0 prior, 2 new this week) - None have returned to school
Shafer - 4 (1 prior, 3 new this week) - All but 3 have returned to school.
Total - 68 reported cases to date - 17 out of school district-wide - all others have recuperated and returned to school.
Cumulative Count:
High School - 20 (18 prior, 2 new this week) - All but 1 have returned to school
Middle School - 9 (5 prior, 4 new this week) - All but 2 have returned to school
Intermediate School - 31 (14 prior, 17 new this week) - All but 9 have returned to school
Bushkill Elementary - 2 (2 prior, 0 new this week) - All have returned to school
LNES - 2 (0 prior, 2 new this week) - None have returned to school
Shafer - 4 (1 prior, 3 new this week) - All but 3 have returned to school.
Total - 68 reported cases to date - 17 out of school district-wide - all others have recuperated and returned to school.
Homecoming at Nazareth
Friday night was homecoming at Nazareth and the Blue Eagles hosted undefeated Central Catholic. The Morning Call reports on the game (read it here), which Nazareth lost 38-21, and the Express-Times has a nice article on Alyssa Bray being crowned homecoming queen (read it here).
Last year Bray had serious medical issues that resulted in her being in a coma and she has since had three brain surgeries to treat AVM. Her recovery to date has been remarkable considering it has been less than one year since she collapsed waiting for a school bus that led to the diagnosis.
More Book Reviews Courtesy of the Library
Thanks to Memorial Library of Nazareth and Vicinity’s Director, Lynn Snodgrass-Pilla, for forwarding along two more book reviews:
Two novels take a compelling look at race relations in America in the 1960’s.
Kathryn Stockett’s The Help and Pat Conroy’s South Beach are two new novels that both explore living and surviving in the segregated South.
Stockett’s, The Help takes place a century after the Emancipation Proclamation, black maids are raising white children and running households but are being paid poorly, and watching the children they are caring for turn into bigots. The story is narrated by Miss Skeeter, a young white woman, a naive, and aspiring writer who wants to create a series of interviews with local black maids. Even if they're published anonymously, the risk is great to the maids who agree to take part; still, Aibileen and Minny agree to participate. Tension runs high in this novel as its events are told by these three memorable women. It’s not an easy book to read but it is well worth the effort. It may leave you with the same questions about discrimination and intolerance in the past and present, as it does the fictional characters of Jackson MS. Try it and explore the complicated theme of blacks and whites living in a segregated South. This is the first novel by Kathryn Stockett and I’m looking forward to more.
Pat Conroy is back with his first novel since 1995’s Beach Music. And it was worth the wait. South Beach switches between the 1960s and the 1980s, the narrative follows a group of friends whose relationship began in Charleston, SC. The narrator is Leopold Bloom King (his mother was a Joyce scholar, poor fellow), a likable but troubled kid dealing with the suicide of a beloved brother. Leo finds himself the central character of a gang of friends whose lives are tied to the town of Charleston, S.C. Conroy is a master at presenting the good, and the bad ff the South, as usual he’s caught between reveling its warts and admiring its survival. The book is impossible to put down, the fast paced and shifting settings will snag you even when the story occasionally gets a bit far fetched. The language sings its pure southern comfort.
Book and audio book versions of both novels are available at the Memorial Library of Nazareth & Vicinity. www.nazarethlibrary.org
Friday, October 02, 2009
Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford
I’m the first to admit, most of the fiction I read anymore is pretty much action/suspense based, so I was very happy to get a note from a reader willing to share her reviews from Goodreads here on NOC. Karen is a librarian at Palisades and the book review I stole from her account is “Carter Finally Gets It” by Brent Crawford. She gave it 5 stars (out of 5). Unfortunately, I couldn’t see a way to grab the HTML with the cover shot:
At first I thought reading this book would be like watching the movie, The Graduate (intense discomfort while witnessing a protagonist’s growing pains) but it turned out to be more like the experience of being taken on a surprise joyride. Carter is a character many students will identify with; he is hilarious (“laugh out loud while riding a bike at the gym making me look like a crazy person” hilarious), full of adventure, über cool, and surprisingly sensitive. Carter takes us through his freshmen year as he gets his first girlfriend, loses his first girlfriend, and ultimately follows his own path. Author, Brent Crawford, has written a book that will keep boys authentically interested in reading a book – just the type libraries need to purchase (with a little disclaimer: strong language is often used.)
If you have books you want to share, feel free to send me the review or if you are also on Goodreads, let me know and I can grab the review from there. Have a great weekend!
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Nazareth HS Wall of Fame Inductees
The Blue Eagle Foundation will honor the latest entrants to the Nazareth HS Wall of Fame this evening, October 1, with a social mixer at 7:00 and the program will begin at 7:30 in the HS Cafeteria. If attending, please use the gym lobby to enter the building.
The 2009 inductees are Alan B. McNear, class of 1964, and William J. Sandbrook, class of 1975.
McNear, an Air Force Academy graduate is currently a Professor of Education and Administration at Wayland Baptist University in San Antonio, Texas. He will be introduced by David Lobach ‘67, President and Chairman of the Board of Embassy Bank.
Sandbrook, a West Point Military Academy graduate is currently Chief Executive of Oldcastle Products and Distribution. He will be introduced by his father, Dean Sandbrook, retired CEO of Tilicon.
Nazareth - Everything to Meet State Standards
The Express-Times has an article on the NASD’s program to meet state standards at the Middle and High Schools (read it here) that was presented at Monday’s School Board Meeting.
It mostly involves pre-testing and intervention. They pre-test students, see what areas that are on the PSSA test in which they might struggle, and teach to it.
“Superintendent Victor Lesky said the district continuously searches for ways to help students learn, but he cautioned it was important 11th graders take the required testing more seriously.”
It has come to be taken for granted that HS students don’t perform well on PSSA tests because they don’t care about the tests. When a quarter of the student body is on honor roll, but not that many are advanced or proficient, there appears to be a disconnect. The kids obviously can do the work (or they wouldn’t make honor roll), they simply don’t try.
Another potential reason students struggle in 11th grade is that they’ve not had the proper courses to prepare them for the test. A parent relayed to me that in 11th grade, Algebra 2 is the college prep track course. Meaning any level below college prep has not yet had Algebra 2, but Algebra 2 coursework is in the PSSA test. By extension, regardless of how much pre-testing and intervention we hold, it will be difficult for students to do well if they haven’t taken the classes needed to be successful.
I also wonder how much teaching can get done in a regular classroom environment when there is so much testing and intervention being conducted.
Another change made to meet state standards is to have a new grading system on the elementary level. I received two booklets, one for grades 2-3 and one for the intermediate school. Each had a hard stock cover on front and back and they were comprised of 20 and 26 pages of explanation.
Twenty pages or more to explain to a parent what the report card means?
Donate to For-Profit Company - Huh?
Interesting article in the Morning Call today about Clothing Collection bins (read it here). Apparently there are several in Nazareth run by an outfit called U’SAgain. The company places red and white checkered bins and calls for clothing donations. The company is national, has apparently offered to pay $50 rent per month to the businesses who ‘host’ them, has mostly failed to pay the rent based on the article, and is a for-profit entity.
A Google search on U’SAgain shows more than a few complaints across several states.
The corporate web site: http://www.usagain2.com/, touts the company’s environmental as well as social benefit.
What they do is collect and resell the clothing, about half goes over-seas. The environmental benefit is that the clothes don’t go in the garbage and the social benefit is they sell them for pennies on the dollar over-seas so people who otherwise couldn’t afford clothing can.
I’ve not dropped clothes at these particular bins and based on their business model, I think I’ll continue to use Salvation Army or Good Shepherd, where the benefit is local.
Halloween Parade
The Nazareth Halloween Parade will take place on October 17 beginning at 1:00 p.m. (Rain date is Oct. 18.).
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