Speakers from WNYC and the New York Times

New York Times reporter discusses leaked war documents at SOPL

 New York Times reporter Andrew Lehren  is today's featured speaker at the South Orange Public Library. Lehren, who lives in South Orange, will discuss the Times' series called The War Logs, based on hundreds of thousands of secret field reports from the battlegrounds of Iraq leaked by WikiLeaks, a whistle blowing website that made the reports available to news organizations this year. The discussion begins at 1 p.m. today.

WNYC's Leonard Lopate to lecture on "Tales of Public Radio"

The South Orange Maplewood Adult school will host WNYC's Leonard Lopate  for a look inside public radio on Monday, Nov. 15 at Columbia High School.

Lopate has been a WNYC fixture for close to 25 years. As host of the Leonard Lopate Show, he has let listeners in on great conversations with writers, actors, ex-presidents, dancers, scientists, comedians, historians, grammarians, and curators.

In that time, his show has received three James Beard Awards and three Associated Press Awards.  Radio was not Lopate's first love. Trained as a serious painter and needing a job to support his art habit, Lopate worked in advertising for 15 years. But when he was given the opportunity to host his first talk show in 1977, he took it and was hooked – what started as a whim became his life's work. The Adult School is registering for this special event. The cost is $15. His lecture, "Tales of Public Radio," will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Columbia High School. For information and registration, www.somadultschool.org or (973) 378-7620.

School district all atwitter with news and upcoming events

The School District of South Orange & Maplewood  has joined the ranks of the  Twitterati. You can now follow the comings and goings of the district on Twitter, but never fear, district spokeswoman Judith Levy promises not to tweet updates about what Superintendent Brian Osborne had for lunch.

 "I only plan to use it for information that affects the community at large," she said. "We'll see how many follow us and if it's worth doing."

For the record, in the two weeks and six tweets SOMSDK12 got on Twitter, it has gained 64 followers. To get the district's tweets, you have to sign up on at www.twitter.com and become a follower.

 OLS Food Pantry needs food and donations for Thanksgiving

The folks at the at Our Lady of Sorrows want to remind you about the needs of people in surrounding communities as well as our own with Thanksgiving less than two weeks away.

The food pantry at OLS, whose stock was depleted over the summer, needs turkeys, hams, stuffing mix/stove top, gravy (canned), sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, juice, coffee, veggies, rolls, bread, cornbread, dessert items (cake, pie, cookies, candy). "Remind your friends, neighbors, family members and any boy scouts, girl scouts, community groups, and other churches that we need them to help us collect," food pantry operators pleaded.

Two events over the weekend will help the food pantry -- on Friday night $45 admission) will benefit both OLS and St. Joe food pantries, and admission to the CHS Scholarship Fundraiser Bingo Day on Saturday is a non-perishable item for OLS.

The weekend ahead

From the major to a CHS scholarship bingo fundraiser to a free dance class at Ladies Express Workout, there's a lot going on this weekend. Check back here tomorrow for more details.