JUNE 2019 FREE
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Rocket man
Laffcon spotlights ‘unique’ sci-fi author
Ewing entrepreneur wants to launch wishes, memories into space By MaDeleIne MaccaR
By MIcHele alPeRIn For people outside the world of science fiction aficionados, the idea of a yearly conference on an obscure writer Raphael Aloysius Lafferty may be difficult to understand. To tantalize the uninitiated, two organizers of the fourth Laffcon conference at the Lawrence library try to capture the uniqueness of Lafferty’s work. Laffcon4, the world’s only conference dedicated to Lafferty, takes place Saturday, June 8, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the Lawrence Library. The free conference, cosponsored by the library and the Northeast Lafferty League, includes a pizza lunch and a convention booklet for each attendee. Robert Bee, a Ewing resident who is a Laffcon event organizer, offers a summary of Lafferty’s novel Past Master, which demonstrates both Lafferty’s approach and his devout Catholicism. People living in a future world that is a struggling utopia decide to bring Sir Thomas More, author of the 16th-century work Utopia, back from the past to become the ruler, who they hope will fix their problems. Bee said More is a historic See BEE, Page 8
Ewing High School’s Top 10 ranked graduates are Sterly Deracy, Ziara Jones-Coston, David Treder, Devon Kueny, Anna Gaylord, Amelia Baffuto, Henr y Hutchinson, Isabella Falzone, Alex Medwick and Caitlyn Rodriguez. For student profiles, turn to Page 14. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
EHS top 10 share their future plans From planned careers in the ministry and professional pool cleaning, to environmental science and fashion, Ewing High School’s Top 10 academically ranked seniors are pursuing a diversity of different fields of study when they head off to college this year. Each of the students, who are ranked in the Top 10 based on their GPAs, filled out a questionnaire detailing future plans
and reflecting on their time in high school. Their responses begin on Page 14. All of the students will be attending schools in the tristate area, including Eastern University, Lehigh University, The College of New Jersey, Drexel University, Dickinson College, Fordham University, Steven’s Institute of Technology, Montclair State and Rutgers University.
The students will be studying a diversity of majors, including accounting, philosophy and theology, computer science, health sciences, biology, communications, speech pathology and audiology, theater and engineering. The Top 10 students will graduate—along with the rest of the Class of 2019—on Tuesday, June 18, at Cure Insurance Center in Trenton at 7 p.m.
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In the time since SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket launched into space February 2018, the bright red Tesla Roadster has exceeded its 36,000-mile warranty easily more than 17,000 times over, and its mannequindriver Starman has listened to “Space Oddity” more than 127,100 times as the distinctive payload of Elon Musk’s highprofile project continues on its journey through our solar system. Back on Earth over that same span of time, life-long Ewing resident Joe Rego went from nurturing the spark of an idea that the launch inspired in him to getting his own pet project off the ground. After more than a year of planning, inquiring and fervently chasing a dream, his nascent aerospace company Launch-A-Wish was finally ready for takeoff. Launch-A-Wish, which Rego says formally got its start this April, encourages private citizens all over the world to cast anything from a birthday wish, to a photograph, to a memorial tribute into the heavens. “People have sent messages into space before, NASA has sent messages into space, but it’s never really been done by or open to the public like this,” he See LAUNCH, Page 7
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