Columns
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•July 10, 2019
Fire Rips Through the Pines
Cedar Bridge Tavern today is the centerpiece for Ocean County’s Parks Department. It stands alone in a clearing surrounded by forest, but twice during the 20th century the historic site was on the…
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•July 10, 2019
Missing Waves and Missing Friends; Plus A Potential Tropical Storm and the Meat of Summer Events
I’ve decided that I miss my friends. Yes, even on a 4th of July with the humanity at 100 percent on this skinny Island, I felt a bit lonely.
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•July 3, 2019
Great Wave Pool Supposedly Coming to Jersey; Harvey Cedars Gives Surfing Outside the Flags the Green Light
You have to imagine the lack of surf is getting to people. We’ve now gone three weeks without seeing anything more than a 2-foot wave.
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•July 3, 2019
When Great Whites Become Terrified Wimps; Saving Trophy Stripers for the Wrong Reasons
When it comes to oceanic alphas, great white sharks are seemingly the alpha-est of them all. Not quite. These swimming jaws of doom routinely become haul-ass wimps. It might be seen as karmic…
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•July 3, 2019
Saving the History of Cedar Bridge
Today when we talk about Cedar Bridge, we mean the tavern building recently reopened by Ocean County after years of archaeological research and restoration as a museum depicting life in the Pine…
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•June 26, 2019
History Lives in Cedar Bridge Tavern
Located on Route 72 in Barnegat Township is a historic marker next to a dirt road. If you leave the highway and enter, it’s like traveling back in time until you come to the Cedar Bridge Tavern. Now…
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•June 26, 2019
License Plates from All Fifty States, Very Few Waves But Many Things to Do
My son has become very interested in license plates this year.
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•June 26, 2019
Wind Turbines Now Firmly on the Horizon; Japan Soon Returning to Its Whaling Ways
WINDPOWER COMETH: Through hell or high water, offshore wind farms are coming to the Garden State. There has been festering consternation over the prospect of towering turbines taking up precious…
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•June 19, 2019
Is It Too Late to Save Barney?
During the winter of 1919, it became apparent the famous Barnegat Lighthouse was in danger of being washed into the Atlantic. At first, federal officials showed little interest in saving it; instead…
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•June 19, 2019
From Corn on the Cob Injuries to Skee-Ball Elbow, Be Safe This Summer
Any surfers ever wonder what happened to the old Nose Guard that used to be advertised in surf magazines?
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•June 19, 2019
Two-Hour Forest Bathing Hits the Beach; Ancient Channels Turn the Tides Landward
FORESTY FAST FIX: Apparently, it doesn’t take much so-called forest bathing to cleanse the soul and banish the invasive evil spirits common to daily life. In case you missed it in a former “Fish…
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•June 12, 2019
Battle Waged to Save Barney
In April 1919, Associated Press articles told the country that the famed lighthouse at Barnegat Inlet was in danger of falling into the sea. This was a time before local historical societies or…
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•June 12, 2019
‘Dudes, Brahs, Strobers and Koko,’ Six Decades of LBI Surf Conversations
First light will be before 5 a.m. this week. It won’t be completely dark until 9 p.m. That’s a lot of daylight for doing all the Island-y summer things we love to do.
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•June 12, 2019
Taking a Bite Out of Bull Shark BS; Odd Place to Land a Tasty Cobia
I think I’m losing my conservational edge. My implacable desire to save vanishing forms of marine life, in this case sharks, always takes a direct hit to the placability bone when I read about things…
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•June 5, 2019
Lost in the Woods, or Lack Thereof, Plus Wave Rundown, or Lack Thereof Also
If there are two general places where we enjoy “the outdoors,” you might say they are the beach and the woods.
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•June 5, 2019
The Un-Pretty Face of the Greatest Tick-Eater of All; NJDEP Issues Warnings About Wildlife in Transition
There’s now even more proof that opossums should be gorgeous in the eyes of tick despisers, of which our region is overloaded – both tick- and despiser-wise.
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•June 5, 2019
Imminent Threat to Old Barney
The battle for Barnegat Light would be one fought with words, not bullets, but it was a David versus Goliath story of a few local citizens versus the bureaucracy of the federal government. Like all…
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•May 29, 2019
Post-War Changes in Ocean County
The spring of 1919 witnessed a war-weary country trying to return to normal. But as they say, war changes everything, and Ocean County was no exception. Over 1,000 men and women served during the…
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•May 29, 2019
Clinging Jellyfish Might Be Eying LBI; When Noah’s Ark Can’t Take the Rain
The rare clinging jellyfish is the talk of the walk, especially if you walk in parts of Barnegat Bay. Since first being found in Jersey waters in 2016, the media has gone a bit mad over the dime- to…
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•May 29, 2019
Why Memorial Day Weekend Is Awkward for Local Surfers
Man, Memorial Day is such a weird time to be a local surfer.
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•May 22, 2019
Guidelines for Getting Along, the Surf Rundown, Water Temp Plateau … and Goat Yoga
I know it’s been a long winter. Hey, they all are. But we’re here at the precipice of another LBI summer and everyone is understandably excited. Plus they just dropped the speed limit, so, like…
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•May 22, 2019
There’s Nothing to Get Rabid Over; Bass Angling Takes on a Banner Air
Let’s talk rabies. I know: What a pleasant topic on such a nice day. Hey, any day is nicer than a rabies-talkin’ kinda day.
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•May 22, 2019
Memorial Day Takes New Form
The story of Memorial Day – which, along with Labor Day, has become a government proclaimed three-day weekend, with both bookending the summer tourist season – has evolved over the years, with events…
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•May 15, 2019
Fantastically Wet Weather and a Fantasy Forecast for Hurricane Season
Hey, you found us over here in Section II. Awesome. Can you please take off your jacket and boots? You’re dripping all over the place.
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•May 15, 2019
Bitter Battle for Suffrage Finally Over
In January 1917, Alice Paul, the president of the National Woman’s Party, and other members began picketing the White House, demanding passage of a constitutional amendment granting all U.S. women…
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•May 15, 2019
Heavy Metal Seniors Escape to Rock On; Jumbo Black Drumfish Are Feline Friendly
MANN OVERBOARD: Last week, two elderly men managed to slip away from their nursing home in northern Germany. Their mission: To attend the nearby Wacken Open Air, a killer world-renowned heavy metal…
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•May 8, 2019
Suffrage for 1920 in Senate’s Hands
Alice Paul of New Jersey, head of the National Women’s Party, faced three increasingly more difficult hurdles on the road to passage of the constitutional amendment that would give all women the vote…
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•May 8, 2019
The Beach Umbrellas, My Friend, Are Blowing in the Wind; Jumbo Bass and Blues Making a Dang Decent Spring Showing
I was dubbed a bit of a hero last summer, compliments of a highly thankful gal who was that close to meeting up with the nasty pole end of a high-flying runaway beach umbrella. And it was truly a…
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•May 1, 2019
Congress Takes Up Suffrage Vote
The month of May had begun with disappointment for Alice Paul and her National Woman’s Party, who were battling to amend the Constitution to grant all women the right to vote in the 1920 presidential…
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•May 1, 2019
Island Has an Inadvertent Tsunami Dry Run; Enough Stripers to Overcome the Jinx Monster
MANN OVERBOARD: I lived through LBI’s first “Tsunami Alert!” What’s more, it afforded me an overall relief about future – and realer – tidal wave arrivals.
