Middlesex County Freeholder Director Dies

MIDDLESEX COUNTY – Freeholder Director David B. Crabiel died Monday after being rushed to Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Center in New Brunswick from his Milltown home.

Voters re-elected the 78-year-old freeholder to another three-year term as a member of the county’s governing body last month. Crabiel had served as an elected official since 1960, and had been a freeholder for 27 of the past 30 years.

Deputy Freeholder Director Stephen J. “Pete” Dalina said that Crabiel’s death was a “big shock.” “I lost good friend,’” he said. “He was good for the people of Middlesex County. He was a hard-working freeholder.”

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Gang Member Sentenced To 45 Years For Killing

ELIZABETH – A member of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang was sentenced to a 45 year prison term for killing a man he thought had insulted him, according to the Union County Prosecutor’s Office.

Juan Jose Castillo, 23, was convicted of first-degree murder after a 10-day trial in September. He stabbed Manuel Rodriguez to death after a confrontation at the El Quixote Bar in Elizabeth on Sept. 25, 2005.

Rodriguez bumped into Castillo on the way out of the bathroom.

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Trinh Earns Rookie Of The Year Award

 

Felice Trinh

EWING—Felice Trinh, a graduate of Linden High School, was honored as the 2008 NJAC Women’s Tennis Rookie of the Year. 

 

Trihn, teamed at second doubles with junior Stefanie Haar to go 5-0 in dual matches in her freshman year at The College of New Jersey. Trihn went 9-1 overall this fall in singles action and was 10-2 overall in doubles action.

Trinh was also named to the NJAC All-Star First Team in singles. On the fall, the Lions won the 2008 New Jersey Athletic Conference Championship after going 5-0 in dual action. The Lions have now won 126 straight NJAC matches and have never lost a conference match since women’s tennis was introduced as a league sport in the fall of 1982. With the 2008 victory, the Lions wrapped their 26th consecutive NJAC women’s tennis championship.

 

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Middlesex Athlete Named National Player of the Week

 

Middlesex Athlete Named National Player of the Week—Angelina Dill of Matawan was named the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for Nov. 17-23. The 5’10” forward posted a double-double in four games. She had 21 points and 10 rebounds against Delaware Tech-Stanton and 35 points and 15 rebounds in a win over Gloucester County College. Over the weekend, she added 13 points and 10 rebounds against Howard and 23 points and 10 rebounds in a win over County College of Morris. Dill, pictured here in a file photo from last season, was named to the All-Tournament team at the County College of Morris Tournament.

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“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” – Dressed for Nightmares – 3 & ½ popcorns

 

By Michael S. Goldberger, film critic 

If a reincarnated Aesop were inclined to pen a parable about the Holocaust, odds are it would resemble “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.”  The story of an eight-year-old German boy, circa 1943, whose father is promoted to commandant of a concentration camp, its triumph is in how it dissects so monumental a tragedy with such simplicity. 

On the surface the military family—a mom, dad, sis and bro, doing what families do—seems blissfully unaware of its role in history. But we sense an unspoken secret…an unnamed complicity. Only a cast this competent could relate the hypocritical dynamic that might exist between one’s conscious and subconscious when survival is at issue.

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Memories From Around Woodbridge

by Diane Norek Harrison

WOODBRIDGE—Here are some memories from reader Lillian Sawyer: “Back in 1917-1918, there was an Orthopedic Hospital for Servicemen on New Dover Road. The injured men were brought to the facility from the Colonia Train Station. They were rehabilitated, and if they could not do all they had done before, they were taught a new craft and then returned home. After World War I, the hospital was torn down, In the same area, at the end of New Dover Road, was a nunnery. It was torn town and replaced by three homes.

“The old Colonia Library was at the corner of New Dover Road and Chain of Hills Road. The old Woodbridge Library was on Rahway Avenue, replaced by a restaurant. The old Iselin Library was on Middlesex Avenue.

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Breakfast With Santa

CARTERET – The Carteret Boy Scout Troop will hold its third annual breakfast with Santa on Dec. 6 at the American Legion, 1155 Roosevelt Avenue, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Tickets $7 each and include breakfast, a photo with Santa, as well as crafts and games. To purchase tickets, call Amy at 732-541-1749 after 6 p.m.

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