Columns
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•February 20, 2025
Lures as Geniuses: Intellectual Plugs Ready to Launch; Command of Executive Orders Is a Must
A shoutout to the wind for proving it’s always a prime player in our coastal weather game. Sunday evening saw local gusts over 70 mph. I took an unofficial 72 mph reading. By Monday, a solid showing…
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•February 20, 2025
A Surfing Winter of Misses, Stafford Skate Park Talk and Uncovered History
Well, ladies and gentleman, you will be happy to know that in the quest to make America tough, strong and ultimately great again, the president has signed the all-important “Ending Procurement and…
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•February 19, 2025
Spreading the News From Lexington
Today we live in a world of instant communication and social media; 250 years ago some things were different, others the same.
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•February 18, 2025
And EO Times Begin: Donald Does the Gulf, Orders Americanizing
On the surface, those wouldn’t seem like fighting words … unless being aggressively bandied about by a White Housed world leader inclined to readily stir the international pot.
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•February 13, 2025
Lighting the Flame of Rebellion
This is the first in a series to mark the 250 years of American independence.
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•February 12, 2025
Upbeat Anthems for Anti-Valentines
Valentine’s Day has arrived and it’s only right to reminisce back on the days of the mixtape – that sweet, sonic love letter we so meticulously put together for our best friends and crushes in days…
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•February 8, 2025
Six More Weeks of Winter? That Will Feel Like Six Months Near the Ocean
Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter. Anywhere near that terribly cold Atlantic Ocean, it will be more like six months.
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•February 6, 2025
Dismissing the Drones Can’t Bring Full Closure
The midwinter thaw didn’t arrive a minute too soon for me and the lifelong thin skin I sport.
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•February 5, 2025
‘Los Angeles’ Wins Battle With Winds
In the spring of 1925, a shortage of helium kept the U.S. built USS Shenandoah in her Lakehurst, N.J. hangar. The valuable gas had been given to the newer, German-built USS Los Angeles.
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•February 1, 2025
With Mission Dance, J.P. LaStella Backs Gavin DeGraw for Presidential Inaugural Ball
For the last decade, the entire shore region has gotten to know the LaStella Brothers, who have practically grown up on stage. Bassist J.P., now 26, and guitarist Jake, now 22, shared candidly with…
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•January 29, 2025
‘USS Los Angeles’ Takes to the Sky
As January 1925 ended, the giant hangar at Lakehurst, N.J. housed two of the world’s most modern dirigibles. Each was over two football fields long.
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•January 29, 2025
Cow Gallstone Cartels Find Gold Within Bile; Tons of Chemical Fallout From Turbines
To show what lengths I’ll go to for winter column fodder, I’ve turned to gallstones as both subject matter and a last gasp retirement plan. I speak not of human “stones,” made of bad cholesterol, but…
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•January 27, 2025
Winter Is Here and Not Messing Around for Surfers and Workers
Oh, so this is what a real winter feels like (shivers and pulls on hood …)
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•January 26, 2025
Obsolete Munitions Arise Within Wind Turbine Sands
Excuse me while I bemoan this deplorable stint of indooredness being forced upon me, compliments of the Arctic. Frostbite potential notwithstanding, I will likely venture out to do some heavily…
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•January 22, 2025
Taking Steps Toward Rebellion
In the fall of 1774, 12 British colonies (Georgia did not attend) sent representatives to the first Continental Congress, in Philadelphia, to respond to Parliament passing the Intolerable Acts…
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•January 22, 2025
Local Open Mics to Maintain Vibrant Winter Music Scene
Long Beach Island is an environment of opportunity for any and every enthusiast of music. Even when tourism business slows down in the dead of winter, live music continues to grow and thrive.
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•January 16, 2025
Drone Enigma Solved: They’re Just Not Real
Let’s give a warm Jersey welcome to the visiting polar vortices. That, of course, smacks of insincerity since there’s nothing warm about these frigid spin-off swirls as they uninvitingly drop down…
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•January 15, 2025
The Saga of the Lighthouse Continues
January is a time for resolutions and looking forward the year’s topics to write about. In the plan for 2025 there are several: the drift from rebellion to revolution 250 years ago, the summer of…
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•January 14, 2025
When Manahawkin Bay Ice Consumed a Model-A Ford
Somehow or other, it’s suddenly 2025. Must be global warming.
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•January 9, 2025
Flat and Cold to Start the Year With a Pretty Little Snowfall
I went out into my snowy yard on Monday morning in just a pair of board shorts to take a cold plunge … and then remembered that I don’t have a cold plunge.
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•January 8, 2025
Welcome Back! Did You Pass?
It’s finally 2025 and the talk about who is running for president has stopped – at least until Groundhog Day in February. That also means it’s the first column of the year as The SandPaper comes back…
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•December 19, 2024
Drones Just Keep Showing, Uncle Sam Keeps Denying
I remain inextricably fascinated by the whole sky-high drone affair, which has shown brightly within social media, sparking a back and forth frenzy between those who have seen (and believe) and those…
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•December 19, 2024
Worst Christmas Song of All Time? Plus, Holiday Wrap on 2024 Waves
This week, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. That make it the most loved … and probably most hated holiday song of all time. If it’s still…
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•December 18, 2024
Magic Pattie’s Holiday Playlist for Haters of Holiday Music
The final Sound Waves of the year is fittingly dedicated to the unsung hero of The SandPaper: Layout Supervisor Pattie McIntyre, also known as Pattie Mac, Magic Pattie, Goddess of Positivity and…
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•December 18, 2024
How Good a Student Are You?
2024 is finally coming to an end. Judging from the polls, over half of you are smiling, but a large number have tears in your eyes.
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•December 12, 2024
The Skies Come Alive With Mystery Drones
I have to drone on from the get-go this week, based on a skyload of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sightings seen across the state – a pinch worth spotted in our Southern Ocean County skies. I’m in…
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•December 11, 2024
One Thing We Can All Agree On, and Smattering of December Swell
Let’s make a distinction right off the bat here. Liquid Lines is a newspaper “column.” While it is full of facts, it’s also threaded with commentary, which is the nature of a column. It seems some…
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•December 11, 2024
… and a Merry Christmas to All!
The story of how modern Christmas in America emerged is the result of many factors, but the influence of one New Jersey man must be conceded. Lorraine Boissoneault gave some background in a 2018…
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•December 5, 2024
In Search of Stress-Free Sashimi, the Japanese Getting Inventive
In my never-ending, worldwide hunt for the weirdest of column fodder, I can count on the Japanese to be fully foddersome. In fact, those fine Rising Sun folks recently reached a rare level of…
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•December 4, 2024
Christmas in Colonial Times
What was Christmas like in colonial America? In Colonial Williamsburg, Va., historians have worked to re-create life as it was during that time. Ivor Noel Hume, who was director of the archaeological…
