Columns
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•August 15, 2020
Fatter Sandbars Are Coming to Greet Us; Isaias Leads to Brownouts of Vegetation
Are you/we ready for sandbar replenishment? Heck, we’ve gotten quite accustomed to tons of beach and dune replenishment. Why not pump in sand to buttress the first line of defense against ocean…
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•August 12, 2020
Conspiracy Crazed Summer, Waves of Strength Spreads Good Vibes and the Calm Before the Storms
I found out that you can order a lab coat on Amazon for $14. Stethoscopes run from $25 to $80. Figure on another $17 for a pair of glasses that make you look smart. (Don’t really need the lenses.)
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•August 12, 2020
S-5 Submarine Takes Shape
The summer of 1920 focused national attention on the Jersey Shore – first for the construction of the huge hangar at Lakehurst, and then for a daring rescue of the crew of the submarine S- 5. The…
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•August 9, 2020
Quest for Coffee Brings Island to Its Knees, Wonderful Weekend Waves and a Hurricane We Can’t Pronounce
I will admit to being a little caught off guard by this hurricane whose name I still cannot pronounce (ees-ah-EE-ahs, from what I am told.) However, I am more caught off guard by the fact that folks…
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•August 8, 2020
Surfer Gives a Hand to Feeding Shark; DOA Great White Gets Big Lift
We have not one but two shark episodes to talk about this week, the closer-in of the two being a decently deep hand wound suffered over the weekend by waverider and professional photographer Michael…
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•August 5, 2020
Lakehurst Prepares for Airships
In 1920, as people on Long Beach Island and beyond were trying to save historic Barnegat Lighthouse, another iconic symbol of Ocean County was rising in the pinelands of Lakehurst.
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•July 31, 2020
Causeway Wreck for the Ages; Crab Pieces No Cause for Concern
Loads to talk about this week. I’ll start by getting wrecked. No, not that way – though it might help, all things considered. Instead, I’m compelled to speak on the three-vehicle wreck on the…
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•July 30, 2020
What Could Be More 2020 Than Sea Gulls Eating Sharks?
The beach had that summer Sunday night feel.
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•July 29, 2020
Lighthouse Bureau Finally Gives In – Sort Of
During the first half of 1920, a battle had raged between the U.S. Lighthouse Bureau and citizens who wanted to prevent Barnegat Lighthouse from falling into the sea. Led by the tiny village of…
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•July 27, 2020
Skills and Experience Gained Through Surfing Are Useless to the Rest of the World … Except in This Case
One of my friends has surf journals going back 15 years. He has recorded, charted and studied his observations of the ocean every day. Another friend wakes up early pretty much every morning, goes to…
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•July 26, 2020
The Case of the Dead-Duck Dolphin; Adages That Wrack a Young Mind
The viral video of last week’s graphic shark attack/feast upon a down-and-out dolphin offered a reality check on nature’s methodologies, which can become as savage as slashing, serrated-edge sharks’…
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•July 22, 2020
A Win in Lighthouse Battle
As July 1920 ended, those interested in preventing the Barnegat Lighthouse from being allowed to fall into the sea had, with the help of U.S. Sen. Joseph Frelinghuysen, organized a meeting with the…
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•July 19, 2020
When Great Whites Become Chickens of the Sea; Arriving Cow-Nosed Stingrays: Winged Pizza for Sharks
It’s “Shark Week” time on television, when slo-mo clips of massive, profoundly terrifyingly great whites are close-upped going airborne to crunch the midair life out of hapless seals and sea lions.…
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•July 16, 2020
Kerfuffle Over Bathing Costumes in Barnegat Light; Surf that Won’t Stop
We start Liquid Lines this week with a little trip into the past. Hey, who doesn’t like a little local history and lore?
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•July 15, 2020
Battle at the Sunset Hotel
The date July 27, 1920, is seldom mentioned in local history books or found on any historic sign, but on that date the battle of the Sunset Hotel would determine the fate of Long Beach Island and its…
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•July 9, 2020
Local Surf Gets Fun as Traffic Backs Up, Summer Heats Up
Your face is beet red. Your eyebrows bleached blond. You passed out exhausted the other night while there was still a faint pink hue in the sky. Your shoulders are sore from all the paddling, and…
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•July 9, 2020
TVs Are Suddenly Becoming Quite Clear to Dogs, Chipmunks Are Bearing Disease-Carrying Riders
HEED AND RESPECT: Emergency vehicle lights and sirens also apply to you as a pedestrian, bicyclist, jogger, skateboarder or someone waiting for an Island trolley.
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•July 2, 2020
Kids Who Lost Out On High School High Jinks Looking at a Wild Summer
I want to throw a fist bump, a shaka or some kind of elbow bash (“whatever you’re comfortable with,” as we say in 2020) to the teenagers who were riding waves on a big, inflatable rubber ducky on…
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•July 2, 2020
LBI Ocean Temps Quickly Go North and South; Midges, Sucking Blood Since Dino Times
I was asked a beach question that’s right up my alley – my alley being anything below the high-water mark. “Can water temperatures be different up and down Long Beach Island?” So, how much time ya…
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•July 1, 2020
Fight to Save Barney Intensifies
By June 1920, it appeared the battle lines over Barnegat Lighthouse had been drawn. On one side was the Washington, D.C.-based Lighthouse Bureau, on the other, the growing cries of citizens.
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•June 29, 2020
Awaiting Impacts of a Solar Minimum; Wind Farms Will Positively Be Upon Us
Staying gorgeous out there during the week. It’s good to be here post-weekend – or should that be pre-weekend? I’ll take both.
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•June 27, 2020
Are Warm Surf Temps the Best News? In 2020, You Take What You Can Get
OK, hold on to your hat – your ultra-tech full-brimmed vented fishing hat, Boston-style scallycap, Banana Republic straw fedora, Gillgan-style bucket hat, vintage-washed pastel crossed-oars cap or…
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•June 24, 2020
Locals Fight to Save Lighthouse
There is nothing better than a good David versus Goliath story. In this one, a few locals living on a New Jersey island face off against the might of Washington, D.C., and its experts.
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•June 22, 2020
When Deer Aren’t So Dear; Spring Angling Hits Its Stride
It hit me like a ton of furry lead. Say what!? I’m referencing the time (mid-1990s) when I was mountain biking and got brutally blindsided by a large female white-tailed deer. It happened on a narrow…
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•June 20, 2020
‘Al Fresco’ – Did Outdoor Seating Go From Outlawed to Welcomed in a Few Short Years?
Does anyone remember that little joint Ravioli & More in Ship Bottom? It closed about three years ago. Tiny place, like a shoebox. Maybe two dozen people could sit in there at a time. Almost felt…
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•June 17, 2020
Was Old Barney a Lost Cause?
For locals, the term “lighthouse” can mean only one: Barnegat Lighthouse. The 100-year-old story of what it took to protect Old Barney should be retold, for it has its own message.
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•June 11, 2020
Freight Train Derecho Shakes Things Up; Black Bear Meanders Into Manahawkin
DERECHOS BLOW: I’ve been phasing myself out of the weather forecasting business, after realizing some readers actually listened intently when I’d call for “hurriquakes and lightning.” What I now wax…
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•June 11, 2020
Decade’s Worth of Unusual Events in Single Week; Try to Keep Up
Last Wednesday, a personal weather station on a Brant Beach home recorded a 101-mph gust of wind. Beach Haven had an official weather station recording of 93 mph. It took down limbs and entire trees…
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•June 10, 2020
Big News at the Jersey Shore
For New Jersey and the rest of the nation, the big stories of 1920 would be Prohibition and the fact that all American women would for the first time be permitted to cast their ballot for president…
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•June 5, 2020
In Some Respects, Tuckerton Continues Somewhat as Usual
I was watching the national news on Monday evening when I got a call from a colleague who normally reports on the Tuckerton Borough Council meetings. She couldn’t cover the June 1 meeting and asked…
