Welcome to About Town: Football Follies, Tech Tantrum

Welcome to About Town, our new daily column dedicated to the news that has you talking. It's not cops, courts, political wrangling or more bad news from cash-strapped municipal coffers. We're never going to stop being your home for breaking news from all of these sources, because that news shapes your town and helps you be a good neighbor, a good resident.

But you want to have some fun — and so do we — so we're going to give you the scoop on the things you're hearing over the back fence, at Starbucks (now that it's opening again) and on the sidelines of the local soccer games. About Town is about you, your friends and neighbors. Did your son or daughter do something great on the field or in the classroom? Did you finally get that promotion? Are you and your friends dishing about a new store or a longtime favorite business downtown? Got a fun fact on a new teacher, something offbeat from town hall or news from one of the many clubs in town? Want to give a shout-out to a selfless volunteer? Let us know — and we'll share it with the Westfield residents smart enough to know that Patch is the place to get all their Westfield news!

WHAT'S IN A GAME ... ?

Think fast, where are you going to watch Westfield High football destroy Scotch Plains this Saturday? Don't know? Neither do school officials... Hard to believe, but a scheduling snafu has left our Blue Devils one home game short. The athletic supervisor, Sandy Mamary, is trying to get the game moved from Scotch Plains to the Kehler Stadium, so keep checking back here to see if you'll need to gas up for the trip... 

PIZZA MIND

Music may soothe the savage beast, but pizza might be the best hedge against emotional meltdowns. Friday night, during a tense standoff with a woman threatening to jump from the roof of 31 Elm Street, the WPD  crisis team quickly called Ferraro's to order a large cheese pizza and water, according to restaurant owner Giuseppe di Pietro. He thought the food was for the police, but when he rushed the pizza to the roof, di Pietro found that the cops fed the woman before she came down.

PAGING PRESIDENT OBAMA

Comments overheard in the crowd watching the woman threatening to jump off an Elm Street building on Friday night. Complaints that President Obama and Congress did not help the woman, requests that the crowd move closer to the action, high schoolers convinced it was the most exciting thing to happen in town all summer and a couple saying their order was mixed up at the Mojave Grille.

TECH TANTRUM

First-graders around Westfield are facing a major adjustment this year. Well, okay, it seems their parents are shocked. The kids haven't lost recess or been forced to take geometry. According to parents, the first graders are upset over giving up the air conditioning and flat screen TVs at Lincoln! We should show them a film strip to make them appreciate what they've got...

COFFEE ADDICTS REGAIN MEETING SPOT

Just in time for the start of the school year, Starbucks on Central Avenue has reopened to provide caffeine to soccer moms and students after school. The second-oldest Starbucks in the state has been closed for two weeks, causing many in town to seek out new options for their caffeine fix.

The reopening appears right in time for some caffeine addicted WHS students who were bristling at the thought of life without Starbucks as they get into the swing of things at school.

"Some of my friends and I really like Starbucks' coffee, especially right before school on a Monday," said Noah Rosenberg, a high school sophomore. "Instead, I had to make my own coffee. It wasn't as good."

Editor's Note: Westfield Patch intern Joseph Leopold contributed to this report.