News Updates as of 11 November 2009

• Matawan's Giaimo twins and their mom can be seen cheering the Yankees at the 2009 World Series parade in Manhattan last Friday in an APP photograph. Click here to read the article.
• My Central Jersey.com provides a detailed report on the Spotlight Players and their upcoming performances of the musical Pajama Game. See this blog's discussion of Pajama Game from late last month.
• Kevin Cook of Matawan is one of several people helping out a friend in North Jersey whose teenage son was seriously injured in a 2006 baseball game, according to North Jersey.com. (Sorry, but North Jersey.com throws a banner ad at you when you visit their site. You can click to close it or wait ten seconds.)
  
• Gordon Felt, President of Families of Flight 93, is a key player in the push for development of a 2,200 acre park and memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the plane came down on September 11, 2001. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mr Felt's brother, Edward Porter Felt, who was among the 40 who perished aboard that ill-fated flight, was a resident of Matawan.
• Anthony Sesely of Matawan competed last Saturday in both the tour type Modified and SK Modified features at the seventh North-South Shootout at Concord Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, according to Courant.com. Sesely placed tenth in Modified and 21st in SK Type, according to the published results. North South Shootout shows Sesely to have grabbed the King's Crown and qualified to compete in the Shootout by winning Sundance's King of the Crown event. Drivers from Red Bank and Oakhurst, New Jersey won vintage events at the Shootout. Sesely won over $6,000 at the Tommy Comerford Memorial at Wall Stadium a couple of weeks ago, according to South Jersey Dirt Racing. Sundance Vacations Speedway shows Sesely ranked 41st in Tour Type Modifieds and 16th in Sport Modifieds as of 16 October.
• This writer has been contributing a series of articles on the history of the First Presbyterian Church of Matawan for that church's blog. So far the topics have included: the Reverend J Henry Kaufman, who had a heart attack in the pulpit in 1873 and died the next day;  the Reverend John M Rogers, who was the local pastor from 1850 to 1867, owned a local dairy farm, and went on to serve as Chaplain at the NJ State Prison in Trenton (1878 to 1893); the Reverend Edwin I Stearns, who was pastor from 1909 to 1912; the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and the time leading up to the construction of the second Mount Pleasant Church (1777 -1820); New Year's Eve after the Christmas 1955 fire; women named to church boards (1950s); and the Reverend Robert Berger (1936 - 1949).
• The Super Foodtown and Bethany Wine and Liquors are doing brisk business at Bayshore Plaza at Route 35 and Hazlet Avenue in nearby Hazlet. After shopping at Staples, I dropped around the corner to the liquor store, which moved from a much smaller location on Bethany Road and has been open in this new location for about five weeks, and was pleasantly surprised at the huge assortment of chilled beers and the nice selection of wines and liquors. I picked up a six pack of Rogue Dead Guy and a bottle of white zinfandel. I'm resigned to the market prices for microbrews -- about $12 for RDG, but the wine was comparable in price to my local store. They should give the well-stocked but messy and poorly situated Spirits Unlimited more than a run for its money. Garden Commercial Properties announced the signing of these two Hazlet shopping center leases back in April. The Hazlet Business Owners Association is talking up Bethany Liquors' new digs.