Columns
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•April 15, 2026
Canned Sardines Becoming Life of Party for Aging Gen Z’ers
Those Generation Z kids and their … sardines. Talk about a fully freaky generational craze.
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•April 9, 2026
When in a Pica Mood, Folks Prefer Talcum Over Lobster Bisque
Ever get this overwhelming urge to chew on toy cars or jetty rocks? You just might be a pica person.
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•April 8, 2026
Frustration Sets in on Parkway Murders
Memorial Day weekend 1969 at the Jersey Shore is remembered for more than great weather and sandy beaches. That year two college girls were found brutally stabbed to death just a few yards from…
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•April 2, 2026
Turn Up the Volume: Spring Can Get Loud, Led By High-dB Frogs
FROGS KICK UP THE dB: With the arising warmth on the mainland, season-harbingering spring peepers are already sounding off. Their piercing mating calls resonating even during near-freezing nights.
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•April 1, 2026
March Is Never Out Like a Lamb
From time to time in Liquid Lines, I have written about social issues and marginalized people. Well, I recently learned about a group of people who are facing some of the toughest hardships on the…
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•April 1, 2026
Reward Offered in Parkway Murders
Memorial Day weekend 1969 saw the brutal murder of two coeds near mile post 31 on the Garden State Parkway. The search for the murderer dragged on for days; then weeks turned into months as the…
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•March 25, 2026
Fertilizer Fear Strikes 2026 Farming Season Taking a Hormuz Hit
Spring has finally arrived, landing upon quite a blowdown landscape. Be it yards, streetscapes or, most obviously, woodlands, there is an uncommon showing of downed trees and branches.
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•March 25, 2026
Searching for Clues in Parkway Murders
On Friday, May 30, 1969, two college girls left the Somers Point Diner for Pennsylvania. Their car was found on the Garden State Parkway a few miles away.
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•March 19, 2026
A Lifetime at a Red Light; the Most Marchy March Ever
I wrote the first half of this week’s column while sitting at the light on Central Avenue and Eighth Street in Ship Bottom. I was headed southbound when I got caught at the red light.
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•March 19, 2026
Niños/Niñas Resting, Leaving Our Weather to Its Own Devices
We’re about to begin a rarish Swiss spring and summer. I’ll explain.
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•March 18, 2026
Search for Clues in Parkway Murders
Memorial Day weekend 1969 is remembered for one of the most famous unsolved murder cases in New Jersey history.
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•March 12, 2026
Dutch Fish Doorbell Needs Lock Watchers to Ring Up the Keeper
In a bit of escapism this week, I’m steering the column away from the heavier topics of recent weeks – dead birds, ocean bottom mining, broken elbows – by doing some virtual traveling.
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•March 11, 2026
Mysterious Disappearance Grips the Shore
It was Memorial Day weekend 1969. Students were home from college, and the Jersey Shore was preparing for the biggest summer season since the March 1962 nor’easter. When that weekend was over, many…
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•March 9, 2026
Firing Winter Barrels Amid a Snowstorm – How Much More Can We Take?
Winter 2026 will be a season we talk about around the fire pit for years to come.
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•March 5, 2026
Birds Just Keep Falling as State Now Suggests Public Perform Pickups
Ongoing bird deaths beg a columnistic follow-up.
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•February 26, 2026
Dismal Walkabout: Inlet Area’s Deceased Birdlife
It snowed decently enough. However, and not meaning to be demeaning, the much pre-ballyhooed blizzard lacked a certain pizzazz – nothing near what one expects from a “cyclone bomb.” Nonetheless, some…
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•February 25, 2026
Washington’s Army Lays Siege to Boston
Boston in the 1700s was basically an island connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land known as “the Neck.” Following the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, the British army under Gen.…
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•February 19, 2026
Emerging From Historic Cold With More Waves and a Shout to Big 4WD Trucks
I want to give a shout-out to the guys in big 4WD trucks.
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•February 18, 2026
What to Do With Ethan Allen?
In September 1775 Ethan Allen found himself and his command surrounded and outnumbered outside of Montreal. He was taking part in an ill-conceived colonial invasion of Canada that hoped to convince…
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•February 18, 2026
Will Current Music Events Close a Decade of Chaos Unleashed in 2016? An Optimistic Conspiracy Theory for the Indie Kids
When David Bowie died in 2016, it seemed to spark a domino effect of chaotic events, from the subsequent deaths of music giants Prince, Tom Petty and Leonard Cohen, to major political shifts. There…
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•February 18, 2026
Why Issuing Shower Songs Comes Down to Dopamine and Loads of Negative Ions
As I run on midwinter blah time, I opt to explore some of life’s unsung questions, like why so many of us sing in the shower.
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•February 12, 2026
Ice Takes a Toll as Island Folks Just Keep Falling
A few dreary midnights back, I found my mood up … and then down. No, it wasn’t a bipolar episode, it was merely a polar one.
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•February 11, 2026
Ethan Allen: Prisoner of War or Traitor?
Following the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in the spring of 1775 by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, they both took part in the invasion of Canada by the newly formed Continental Army. It was wrongly…
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•February 8, 2026
An Executive Order Is All It Would Take to Fend Off the Cold
Just this morning I was standing at my back door, dining upon a blue Pyrex bowl of multiflavored Cheerios and pensively pondering the going-nowhere snow. I idly wondered if snow can eventually die of…
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•February 4, 2026
Jersey’s Governor Keeps Delicate Balance
During the winter of 1776, as thousands of colonists were reading and being influenced by the words written in “Common Sense,” choices were being made. Nowhere was this more evident than in the Royal…
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•February 4, 2026
Two Great Swells That May Have Been The Coldest Stretch of Waves Ever
Well, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. Six more weeks of winter means at least 16 more on the Island, even though it seems silly to put a lot of faith in a fat little rodent giving us a weather…
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•February 1, 2026
Never Has There Been as Phantasmagorical a School Cancellation
With school cancellations in play, it’s the perfect time to wax poetic on our nation’s strangest school closing. It took place within a nearby area now called Galloway Township. Specifically, it…
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•January 28, 2026
Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ Goes Viral
Today in the world of instant communication, a post can go viral and reach millions of people within hours. But in the 18th century, one post went what was viral for the times, and it affected the…
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•January 22, 2026
Deep-Sixing Socks Is Pairing Perfectly With 2026 Protocol
Depending on how one reads the cards and stars, we’ve entered into either the Year of the Wooden Snake or – as was recently forwarded to me – the Year to Throw Away Single Socks.
