Richard Skelly, informed me that U.S. 1 itself was mentioned in an

obituary in the Star-Ledger newspaper. The deceased was Marianne

Previte

of Milltown, who died June 28. Previte was a nurse who had worked

for Johnson & Johnson and later taught health in the East Brunswick

public school system. After chronicling her many career landmarks,

the obituary commented on her life outside of work:

"An avid ballroom dancer, Mrs. Previte and her dance partner were

featured on the cover of U.S. 1 Newspaper."

Sure enough, Marianne Previte and her partner were featured in the

April 6, 1988, issue of U.S. 1, flying across the dance floor at the

Nottingham Ballroom and illustrating Barbara Fox’s story about

"Dirty

Dancing," the now classic movie. In addition, Skelly pointed out,

Previte is the mother of Franke Previte, who wrote the movie’s

signature

song, "The Time of My Life," which won an Oscar.

Other U.S. 1 staffers, meanwhile, pointed out that I did not have

to stray from that same issue of the paper to uncover yet another

wonderful way of expressing the passage from here to there, or from

life to death. In the article on the rebirth of the Doors, the 1960s

rock group, freelancer Barry Gutman referred to Paris as the place

where singer Jim Morrison left this mortal coil. The reference is

from Hamlet, referring to death as "when we have shuffled off

this mortal coil."

In other words, in the 21st century as in the 16th, you may not simply

die in peace. But whether you shuffle off or are plucked from above,

it doesn’t hurt to keep on the dancing in the meantime.

which a fictional character attempts to write a grand opening to his

novel and begins with "It was a dark and stormy night — or

was it?" E. E. Whiting, a contributor to the Summer Fiction issue

(the third chapter of her novel, The Seven O’Clock Train of Thought,

appeared this year), immediately recognized the reference as something

more than a catch phrase from a Peanuts cartoon. The genesis of the

line, Whiting noted, is the 1830 novel by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

titled "Paul Clifford," which opens like this:

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents —

except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust

of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene

lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty

flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

Bulwer-Lytton’s opening sentence has become such a poster boy for

purple prose that a fiction contest now exists in his name, dedicated

to celebrating the worst pieces of writing that can be concocted.

Fortunately for U.S. 1 readers, no other parts of this legacy appeared

in the Summer Fiction issue. For more consult

www.bulwer-lytton.com

the Sarnoff property, which may be the site of a four-lane highway

to divert traffic from Washington Road in West Windsor, I suggested

that the "bluffs" that environmental groups want to preserve

might be more rhetorical than topographical.

The ink was barely dry before I was reminded by Lincoln Hollister,

the Princeton professor and environmentalist, that he had offered

to take me on a canoe ride up the Millstone to see the river for

myself.

Hollister gave me a second chance, but my schedule did not permit

me to take advantage.

Meanwhile, though, Sue Parris of West Windsor sent me a Ruth Rendell

novel, "Road Rage," set in an English town torn by a debate

over a bypass.

Parris also sent a 1985 column in a historical society newsletter,

written by a Florida retiree reminiscing about his days 50 years

before

swimming in the area known as the "sheepwash." Way back then,

interestingly, the swimming hole was a principal recreation site and

it was much more accessible than it is today: "A whole lace-work

of braided roads [led] to the banks of the Millstone. As cars came

to the river they would be parked under trees 10 to 15 feet above

the water."

Whether the banks of the Millstone are truly bluffs, or 10 feet high

as the retiree recalled from his youth, or maybe five feet high as

I measured them a few weeks ago, they are worth saving. The good news

is that Sarnoff already has agreed to site the bypass road 200 feet

further away from the river than was originally planned.

At that distance even people without a canoe tied to their car might

be able to amble on over and enjoy it. Obviously reports of the

sheepwash’s

"passing" are grossly exaggerated.

Corrections or additions?

— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.