Author: hankkalet

Micawber Books is closing.

The Princeton book store has for many years been a personal landmark in the borough and a barrier against the encroachment of the big-box bookstores into my literary world.

Don’t get me wrong, I buy books at Borders and Barnes & Noble — it’s tough not to in this day and age — but Micawber has always been the place I could go to find on the shelves a new poet or essayist I’d yet to read, or an earlier edition of a book with its original artwork.

I can’t even begin to list the books I discovered there, though I did find a signed copy of Robert Stone’s A Flag for Sunrise and Micawber was one of the bookstores at which you could find copies of the magazine-CD my organization Voices of Reason.

I’ve been shopping at the bookstore on and off for years — probably since shortly after it opened. I lived in Princeton in 1983, worked there as a reporter for two years in the 1990s, and loved spending time in the poetry section. I still do that — before meetings at our main office, sometimes afterward, and whenever I get into the borough.

That the shop has managed to stand for as long as it has is remarkable given the competition from the big boxes, but its location in downtown Princeton has been a plus — which is why Princeton University is taking over the block and opening a second U-Store location and why another, larger independent (Labyrinth Books) will be opening as part of a larger reconfiguration of the stretch of Nassau Street where Micawber does business.

Citing the university’s dependence on Micawber, Princeton University President Shirley M. Tilghman said when university officials were notified Micawber’s owners were investigating the sale of their business, it was imperative for Princeton’s academic community to identify “a worthy successor.”

Nearly a year ago, university officials said, they began the pursuit of an adequate replacement.

“It is virtually impossible to be a world-class research university if you do not have a
world-class scholarly bookstore,” President Tilghman said Monday.

“This is a community that needs and deserves an absolutely first-rate bookstore, and I can’t imagine a better successor to Micawber than Labyrinth,” she added in a prepared statement.

The Labyrith Web site makes it seem a good fit, similar in its catalogue to Micawber, but for me it won’t be Micawber.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Two tankas for the absent dog
for Honey

1.
rabbit in backyard
startled by crunch of dry leaves
white tail shooting off
as I drop bag in trash pail
yard empty with her absence

2.
rabbit in backyard
sitting grazing undisturbed
no bark, no mad chase
rabbit in quiet darkness
a squatter in your absence

Update on Honey’s condition: As of this moment, she remains at the South Brunswick Animal Hospital, where she apparently ate a little bit this morning. Our veterinarian is unsure if that is a good sign or not and is hoping to entice her into eating by giving her a hamburger a bit later. Honey is not what anyone would consider picky about food — she’ll eat anything, including onions, paper, twigs, other items not worth mentioning, pretty much anything, really. We are hoping to hear something more at about noon, the question being whether she comes home, stays at SBAH or has to see a specialist.

I’m cautiously optimistic, but worried and confused.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

The games begin. Mets, Scott Boras, Barry Zito (pictured) — this is what this offseason is supposed to be about.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

It’s been a rough week in the Kalet household.

Those of you who read this blog on a somewhat regular basis — there are a few — know I generally only write about my personal life if there is a good reason. I write about running, for instance, when there is a race and about my nephews when we take them to local events.

But my mind is elsewhere right now, focused far away from the drama that is local, state and federal politics, away from John Bolton’s resignation, away from the war and tax reform and Route 92.

My dog is sick and I’m a bit preoccupied.

There are those out there who might view my concern as rank sentimentality, who would dismiss my concern for a dog as just wanton silliness. But I am a dog lover. Honey, my dog, is like my kid. She’s always there and offers nothing but unconditional love.

Honey became sick last week — Nov. 26 — and stopped eating. I won’t go into the gory details, but suffice to say that she has not eaten since, not fresh-cooked chicken, not baby food, not crackers, nothing more than a morsel here and there, and she has dropped about 10 pounds, giving her a gaunt and pathetically lost look.

We had her to the vet twice last week, once for a two-night stay, and she’s back there for another overnight tonight. She’s not the kind of dog who likes the sleepaways — she’s never been kenneled or in the vet for more than an afternoon — and she’s completely attached to Annie and me.

All of the tests — blood tests, x-rays, ultrasound — have come back normal, but she still won’t eat. If things don’t improve overnight, we’ll have to take her to a specialist.

I’m beginning to wonder, having had some college psychology, if she is not proving Pavlov and Skinner correct, if she has not conditioned her own response to food, associating it with her sour stomach and essentially teaching herself not to eat.

But I don’t know. I’m hoping the vet will call and things will have turned, but I’m also growing pessimistic despite myself.

Last night, in the middle of the night, I woke up. She wasn’t moving and I couldn’t tell if she was breathing. I got down on the floor with her, but didn’t feel the soft heave of her abdomen inhaling or exhaling. I leaned toward her snout, heard a breath and climbed back into bed. Then I grew unsure of what I’d just witnessed, so climbed back out and checked again.

This is what we do for our pets.

So forgive me if I seem a bit out of it or if this blog seems a little more random than usual (could it really be any more random?).

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Consider it official. The N.J. Turnpike Authority has asked the state Department of Environmental Protection to withdraw all pending permits for Route 92, essentially killing the project.

In a letter to the DEP dated Dec. 1, Turnpike Executive Director Michael Lapolla write that “we have decided to cancel the Route 92 project” and “consider all applications pending or on record with the DEP as withdrawn.”

The action puts an end to the current chapter of the horror novel that has been Route 92, though it remains possible that like so many horror-story ghosts it could return in the future. That’s why we — the South Brunswick Post — continue our call for adoption of Assembly Bill A685 (sponsored by Assemblyman Bill Baroni, R-14) and S883 (sponsored by state Sen. Peter Inverso, R-14). The legislation — essentially the same bill introduced in both houses of the state Legislature — would strip the Turnpike Authority of its “authorization to build the Route 92,” putting the final nail in the project’s coffin.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick