Columns
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•November 22, 2023
Awaiting the Welcome Arrival of a Huge Spider; Communicative Jellyfish Are Offering Memories
I just got wind of a remarkable winter word: apricity. No, your mother didn’t use it all the time!
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•November 16, 2023
It’s Time to Give a Hay About Things; Anti-Turbiners Need to Meet Siemens Energy
The fading of agrarian smarts today finds many folks unaware of the significant difference between straw and hay.
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•November 16, 2023
Holidays Are Upon Us … Already; Flat Surf Looks to Turn On
I have to apologize for my last column. Liquid Lines runs every other week after October, so this would have been my column from Nov. 1.
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•November 15, 2023
Slippery Slope to Safety
Sometimes as I do research for a series I come across an unrelated but interesting article that gets me to thinking. That’s what happened as the series on detective Ellis Parker was drawing to a…
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•November 8, 2023
Trying to Get That Old Standard Rhythm Back; Terrible Turbines Times Might Impact Atlantic Shores
Welcome back to the dark side of the year. The one-hour time change makes that switch official. We’re once again standardized, in a laid-back winterish way. Standard time has also been called winter…
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•November 8, 2023
And Now the End of the Story …
Last week’s column on the 1930 trial of Hattie Evans for the murder of her husband and a friend in a Lakehurst apartment ended with a guilty verdict for her and her lover, the actual shooter in the…
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•November 2, 2023
A Dang Decent Show of Autumn-Toned Leaves; Woolly Bears to the Prognostication Rescue
On Monday, the HVAC went on at work and it took a second to figure out if it was the air conditioning or heat. It has been that sorta fall. It was the AC. The heat sounded off the very next day.
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•November 1, 2023
The Verdict: Guilty or Not?
In June 1930, the nation’s newspapers descended upon the Ocean County courthouse to cover a sensational murder trial.
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•November 1, 2023
Pumpkin Treats, Unpopular Offshore Wind Opinions and Fantastic Weather With Waves
I guess we should have known this, but if you carve a pumpkin in the middle of October and then we have a few late October days in the 80s, said jack-o-lantern is going to rot out in a hurry and…
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•October 30, 2023
Though Our Waves Can Be Challenging, LBI Has It Good in an Ever-Crowded Surf World
On pretty much any given day, you can pull up Surfline’s Malibu First Point camera and see no fewer than 30 black dots moving around in the water. Scroll over to Third Point and there are a few dozen…
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•October 26, 2023
Stealing a Look at Island Crime Sprees; Money Is Set Aside for Bay Bottom Damages
While LBI is generally blessed with a low showing of criminality, there remains the well-advertised risk of vehicle swipings. Island police departments are ongoingly warning about leaving vehicles…
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•October 25, 2023
Marine’s Testimony Tells the Tale
In May 1930, two sailors were found dead in a Lakehurst, N.J. apartment from a beating and gunshot wounds. At first the widow of one of them, Hattie Evans, told a story of a drunken battle leading to…
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•October 19, 2023
When Waves, Fall Commitments Collide; Another Weekend Swell Keeps Run Going
I am starting this week’s column off with a story. And there is a good moral here.
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•October 18, 2023
One Wind Farm Array Sinks as Another Re-Arises; Ode to a Banner Showing of Glorious Goldenrods
MORE TURBINE TURBIDITY: Once again, there are significant stirrings in the offshore wind power realm.
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•October 18, 2023
Bullets and Casings Don’t Add Up
In May 1930, two sailors were found dead in a Lakehurst apartment by Hattie Evans, the wife of one of the men. At first it was termed a murder suicide, but Ocean County Prosecutor James Davis turned…
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•October 12, 2023
Family Scavenger Hunt for Weeknight Dinner Is Autumn Adventure
Life around here lately (since the great eight-day nor’easter, anyway) has been that October dream that we relish all year long. We’ve been standing on dunes as the goldenrod blooms, watching little…
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•October 12, 2023
State Park Readies for Ørsted’s Cables; Planting Trees Outshines Planting Turbines
THERE AND NOW: As cable work for Ørsted’s Wind 1 commences at Island Beach State Park, the company held a two-hour, explanatory town meeting. Questions were fielded and answered by experts. Responses…
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•October 11, 2023
New Mystery Comes to Lakehurst
It was the spring of 1930. The effects of the great stock market crash the year before were just filtering down to the common man.
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•October 5, 2023
The 35-Miles-Out Lobby Gets Turbine Lift; Record Rains Could Send Us Gotham Fallout
What a difference a week to 10 days makes. Sky things went from constant NE-wind crappiness to crazy gorgeous – with a touch of autumnal icing on top.
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•October 4, 2023
Ophelia Is Gone … So Are the Sandbars; Trying to Resume Local Summer After the Battering
Last week’s extended storm was a real kick in the teeth.
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•September 28, 2023
Fall Love Letter Interrupted by Hate Mail to Tropical Storm Ophelia
I’m going to take the risk of sounding a bit sexist here, but my aim is not to be offensive.
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•September 27, 2023
A Time the Pinelands Almost Took Flight; Ophelia Lights Fire Under Marine Life
What the cyclonic Lady Ophelia lacked in arrival strength, she made up for in staying power, lasting for many windy days on end. She fattened up on beach sand before finally moseying off to the…
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•September 27, 2023
Widow’s Claims Don’t Match Evidence
By the summer of 1922, Burlington County Detective Ellis Parker was one of the best known in the country. His ties to the Jersey Shore were strong, having been married in the Manahawkin Methodist…
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•September 21, 2023
Fruit Flies Tackle Closed-Head Traumatic Brain Injuries; It’s a Fine Time to Ponder Small Modular Reactors
Watching any football lately? For aficionados, there’s little doubt that the game has never been played at such brain-rattling levels. Now, coming to the rescue of players’ white matter comes … the…
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•September 21, 2023
While Workers Go on Strike, the Ocean Does Not; Notes From a Scorching Tropical Surf Season
It almost seemed like the tropics were on strike earlier this season. Thankfully they decided to come back in full force.
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•September 14, 2023
Inflation Batters Nation’s Only Turbine-Building Vessel; There’s No Place for Sovereign Anglers When Buggying
I’ll commence by bemoaning the overplaying of hurricanes, referencing Lee of a Thousand Spaghetti Strands.
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•September 14, 2023
This September Is Truly Time for Islanders; Hurricane Lee Rocks This Weekend
If you’re holding this paper and still on or around LBI, then good for you. Welcome to week two of Local Summer. This is when things get good. All surfers’ eyes – the ones with the crow’s feet sun…
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•September 13, 2023
What Will the Verdict Be?
One of the cases that catapulted Burlington County detective Ellis Parker to national fame as the Sherlock Holmes of the Pines was the murder of circus owner John Brunen, as he sat reading his…
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•September 13, 2023
These Are Most Definitely Not Unprecedented Political Times
The constant use of the word “unprecedented” by TV’s talking heads these days is nothing short of ridiculous.
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•September 7, 2023
Surf Culture Need Not Come From Big Surf Companies; It’s Ours to Create
There was a bit of business news in the surf world last week that didn’t really get much attention, nor should it have. Both the West and East Coast have been busy with much more important things –…
