Columns
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•June 4, 2020
It’s All About Treading Water; North End Coyotes Rearing Up Again
How do we know if we’ve achieved the new normal … or if we’re treading water in some vague transitional phase? I leaked in some personal preference by alluding to “treading water.” For the time being…
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•June 3, 2020
Jersey Giant Travels the Country
Most good fish stories are based on the premise “the one that got away,” but there’s proof to back up the Jersey Shore story about the capture of the great manta ray in August 1933. A reporter from…
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•June 3, 2020
How Do You Write a Surf Column When the World Is Ablaze?
It’s usually a pretty good month around here, as we enjoy an energetic bustle between the long months of late winter that seem to get later each year and the full blast of summer. Waves arrive to…
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•May 28, 2020
A People-Packed Weekend; Delaware Leads in Crowd Control Droning
Memorial Day Sunday on LBI had to be the coolest ever. Unfortunately, I’m speaking in weather terms and not colloquially. I might even rate it as the coldest on anecdotal record. As such, it was…
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•May 27, 2020
One Really Big Fish Tale
In August 1933, the United States was in the throes of the Great Depression and the East Coast had suffered through a devastating nor’easter followed by a tropical hurricane. With this as a backdrop…
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•May 21, 2020
May Holiday Beachiness Reign; Weirdest Methods of Selling Distancing
COVID-19 circumstances might make this the most significant Memorial Day weekend since it was invented in 1868. While there will hopefully be no diminishing from the sanctity of “Decoration Day” –…
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•May 21, 2020
The Other Effect of the Pandemic and an Early Tropical Storm
A pandemic, a tropical storm and a summer holiday weekend walk into a bar ….
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•May 20, 2020
Fishing Bonanza at the Jersey Shore
It was the summer of 1933; the nation was in the grip of the Great Depression and looking desperately for any good news. In August of that year, the Jersey Shore would produce one of the greatest…
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•May 17, 2020
Becoming New Nation of Hippies; Garter Snakes Have Feel for Brotherhood
I’m starting to see us as a nation of hippies: long-haired, hanging out in single-family communes, home-educating children, profusely sewing things, sowing outback veggies and, lately, pondering…
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•May 13, 2020
Cranberry Industry Dealt Mortal Blow
The year 1959 is one that the few surviving cranberry growers in Ocean County want to forget. Sales of their crop rested squarely on the traditional holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just…
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•May 7, 2020
Remember Who Your Business Buddies Are; Beach Accident Ends Up a Miracle of Miracles
THE NEW ESSENTIAL: The entire COVID-19 essentiality-picking process put extraordinarily little emphasis on the also-ran: the nonessential. As tens of millions know, the nonessential boot to the ass…
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•April 30, 2020
Longing for the Day When We’re all 60-Percenters; Resurrecting Protest Times by Boycotting the Beach
PRESENTING AS PERCENTAGES: Are you a 60-percenter? No, that is not a gang member … or maybe it is. It’s the exposure percentage science now deems necessary to indicate ’rona is on the run, at least…
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•April 30, 2020
The Month Time Stood Still (Numbers to Prove It)
I want to start this week by stating that Ship Bottom has opened its beaches. Well, sort of …
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•April 29, 2020
Cranberry Fears Hit the Table
As Thanksgiving 1959, approached the U.S. cranberry industry was hoping for a miracle to save it from financial ruin. Locally, the small bog owners were desperate. The Tuckerton Beacon editorialized…
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•April 24, 2020
It’s Two Pandemics in One; Onward to a Soft Reopening
I’m here to encourage an enhanced sympathy for the suffering pandemic masses. Oddly, I am not referencing that awful COVID creature. I’m seeking sympathy for those showing symptoms of the rapidly…
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•April 23, 2020
Running Down to the Wire
In November 1959, the cranberry industry was dealt a devastating blow when Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Arthur Flemming announced there had been seizures of cranberries grown in the…
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•April 16, 2020
Have Another Hit … of Sweet Air; Guv Taking Flak Over Parks Ban
So, are we having fun yet … you buncha shaggy dogs? Hey, I have no room to talk. My mane, never a thing of beauty to begin with, looks like something even the cat wouldn’t drag in. Can you imagine…
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•April 16, 2020
How to Fit in With the Locals If You’re Second-Home Quarantining, Plus Surf and Beach Closure Ethics in Time of Crisis
I don’t know why everyone is making such a big deal about a shortage of gloves. As far as I can see, they are all over. Just go grab a pair off the street, out of the parking lot or off the beach. I…
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•April 16, 2020
Cranberry Industry Threat Continues
For the inland residents of the Jersey Shore, the cranberry was as important to their livelihood as clams, oysters and tourists were to their coastal counterparts. This industry was dealt a nearly…
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•April 9, 2020
Beaches All But Dead in the Water; Perfect Time to Ruin Everything
I gave it my best shot – to keep beaches open, that is. But, science and sensibility fell prey to what amounts to shutdown hysteria. The near Island-wide shutdown of “water activities” was admittedly…
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•April 8, 2020
Jersey Fights to Save Cranberry Business
New Jersey and its citizens have been in many battles as the underdog, among them having its name on a sports team or getting credit for designing the American flag. However, none may have been more…
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•April 2, 2020
With Quarantine, Plenty More to Come; Bluefish 2020 Telling in Big Picture Way
A good and proper quarantine needs plenty of outs, literally. Be it trips out back for a breath of fresh backyard air or a lengthy trip to the outback for a walkabout – and maybe a pickerel hunt or…
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•April 2, 2020
Pandemic and Perspectives: Surfing Intertwined With Virus and Social Responsibility
Have you gotten this email yet? Subject: COVID 19 UPDATE
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•April 1, 2020
Are Cranberries Safe to Eat?
Never has the World War II warning “loose lips sink ships” been more appropriate than during the events of November 1959 that almost totally destroyed one of New Jersey’s and Ocean County’s most…
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•March 28, 2020
This Is No Time to Abandon the Beach; Ticks Are Popping Up Faster Than Daffodils
BEACHBORNE HEALTH: I hate change beyond the average soul; therefore, these are insanely trying times for me. Face it: For the moment, everything in the world has changed. In fact, there are many who…
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•March 26, 2020
Hadrosaurus Foulkii’s Long Journey
Today if you wish to see the restored replica of America’s first dinosaur discovery, uncovered in Haddonfield, N.J., in 1858, you can simply drive to the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton. The story…
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•March 19, 2020
Distance Yourself Huddled at Home – Or Go Where Killer Sun Shines Brightest
It’s a Blizzard of the Century without snow, a 500-year flood without water, a Cat. 5 hurricane without wind, a Superstorm Sandy without evacuation. In fact, what’s the total opposite of an…
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•March 19, 2020
The Great Quarantine of 2020: Living in the Age of Misinformation
Well, it has been quite a week. And whenever we have one of these weeks that changes the course of history we sure do learn a lot.
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•March 19, 2020
Reconstructing NJ Dinosaurs
The most complete dinosaur skeleton ever found had been discovered in New Jersey before the Civil War, but while it had been interesting to scientists, the general public took little notice.
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•March 11, 2020
Fishing to Stave Off Sundry Viruses; LBI Surf Classic Growing in Off-Season
Sorry, but I can’t avoid the 900-pound virus in the room – hopefully not in the room itself.
