Columns
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•March 21, 2017
Coast Guard Scandal Spreads on LBI
The LBI Coast Guard scandal of 1926 was quickly becoming a symbol of the failure of Prohibition and the Volstead Act that enforced it. As the investigations grew, those opposed to the law argued…
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•March 17, 2017
Surfers Score a Wild Ride Thanks to Winter Storm Stella
With over 300,000 views and counting, many people have already seen the dramatic surf video above that has been making the rounds on social media. The footage, shot by Dark Fall Productions, was…
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•March 15, 2017
Coast Guardsmen Caught Red-Handed
The revelation that U.S. Coast Guard on Long Beach Island had organized to conspire with the rum runners shook the nation in much the same way that the news of the 1919 World Series having been fixed…
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•March 15, 2017
Radioactive Pigs Take Over Fukushima; Little Egg Inlet Gets Channel Promise
RADIOACTIVE PORKERS: Most of you have never met a wild hog in a highly personal manner. I did, down south Florida way. It was a shocking meet-up, if based only on the fierce, wild-pig sounds that…
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•March 8, 2017
The Rum Running War Heats Up
The war between the Coast Guard and the rum runners was reaching new levels as 1925 began. The government had moved U.S. territorial waters outward from 3 to 12 miles, making it harder to operate…
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•March 8, 2017
Lost in the Winds of Winter, Ecological Death Knell and Talking Beaches
Some folks are anxious for things to start popping again, quietly waiting for those crazy weeks where in between our busy work schedules and summer sand time, we try to pack in every surf contest…
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•March 8, 2017
Tilapia Skin to the Second-Degree Rescue; I Scream, You Scream, for Fishy Ice Cream
So, you’re in Brazil and before you realize the Portuguese word for “hot!” is ardente! you’re on the way to a Rio hospital with second-degree burns. Then, before you can scream “Send me back to…
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•March 1, 2017
Coast Guard Takes on Rum Runners
Prohibition, like many other attempts at social engineering, had a noble goal but created a much different reality. Instantly the country was divided into two camps, wets and dries, and the new law…
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•February 22, 2017
Case of Missing Whiskey Never Solved
During the mid-1920s, the citizens of Ocean County found themselves baffled by a mystery and a possible political scandal. The mystery began in 1924 when Joseph Holman, the Republican sheriff…
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•February 15, 2017
Case of the Disappearing Liquor
On Feb. 11, 1923, John Holman, the Republican sheriff of Ocean County, had overseen the raid on Clam Island that netted a huge cache of expensive imported liquor. The island, in the bay below…
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•February 8, 2017
The Secret of Clam Island
The story of the largest Prohibition raid to take place on Barnegat Bay began years before the 18th Amendment had been ratified, when on Dec. 18, 1898, The New York Times announced a millionaire…
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•February 1, 2017
Whiskey Impounded in New County Jail
On Saturday, Aug. 6, 1921, Ocean County officials made one of their first big raids of the Prohibition era when they uncovered over 1,000 bottles of high-quality imported alcohol buried on a farm in…
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•January 25, 2017
Prohibition ‘Pirates’ Hit the Shore
For the citizens of New Jersey, Prohibition would not only create a big thirst, but also shake their faith in government and the institutions that it created. As 1920 began, the state had refused to…
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•January 19, 2017
‘Wet’ NJ Governor Takes Over on Eve of Prohibition
The story of Prohibition in New Jersey is unique among the states. Before you get into the stories of Ocean County at this time period, some background is needed. During World War I Congress enacted…
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•January 17, 2017
Alligator Filets Great for Lenten Friday; Pretty Scenes Won’t Float in Floods
GATOR MEAT DISPENSATION: I have to share a weirdish little experience I had in the Manahawkin ShopRite. It occurred as I was covertly taking a sneak cell phone photo of the frozen seafood section.
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•January 11, 2017
Are You a True History Student?
We’re back! It’s 2017 and the dawn of the New Year. If you listen to some pundits, we are about to be “great again” while others are saying it’s the brink of the new “dark age.” But that’s the…
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•December 21, 2016
Can You Pass the Yearly Challenge?
It’s time to put a period on the year 2016 for The SandPaper as it goes silent for the next two weeks. The year will go down in history books as one of great interest, but that is too recent to be…
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•December 21, 2016
Mirrors Tell More Than They Reflect; Angling Year That Was ‘the Dickens’
THAT’S ME, RIGHT?: Is a mirror a reflection of intelligence? It depends how you look at it.
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•December 14, 2016
Historic Tales of Turtle Soup
The story of New Jersey and turtle soup goes back to the earliest colonists. Teagan Schweitzer of the Pennsylvania Museum explains, “Turtle soup in particular developed as a high-status dish, first…
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•December 7, 2016
Can You Believe Your Ears?
There are two major myths centering on the famed Hindenburg disaster broadcast of 1937. The first is especially popular in South Jersey. It states that a person heard Herb Morrison live on the radio…
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•November 30, 2016
New Age Comes to Lakehurst
The first great myth surrounding the airship Hindenburg was that, like the Titanic, it was on its maiden voyage when it crashed at Lakehurst, N.J., on May 6, 1937. The fact is that the dirigible made…
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•November 23, 2016
Was ‘War of the Worlds’ Panic Real?
Recently several articles have been published challenging the popular story surrounding the Oct. 30, 1938, radio broadcast adaptationof H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The articles claim there wasn’t…
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•November 22, 2016
Hot Bite Cooled Down in a Flash; Chilled Clams In It for the Long Run
I need to commence by mentioning the season’s first spurt of bite-ness. I’m referencing the kinda-impressive burst of bass and blues late last week, mainly Spray Beach and Beach Haven beachfronts.
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•November 16, 2016
Were Newspapers In on ‘War of Worlds’ Hoax?
Every Halloween, two places return to the national spotlight: Salem, Mass., for its witch trials, and New Jersey, for the Martian invasion of 1938. “The War of the Worlds” radio broadcast of Oct. 30…
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•November 9, 2016
‘He Kept Us Out of War’
In the presidential election of 1916, Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican candidate, was counting heavily on the support of women in the states where they were permitted to vote. Hughes supported…
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•November 2, 2016
Considering Our Hearing, It’s Very Deer; Bullets and Coffee Beans Don’t Always Mix
LAST CALL: Make sure to fish the Maximilian Foundation’s Striped Bass Boat Tournament & Fish Fry. This year it’s based out of Manahawkin Elks Lodge #2340. Still time to climb aboard. Weather looks…
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•November 2, 2016
Wilson No Fan of Women’s Suffrage
Woodrow Wilson had won the presidency in 1912 with a minority of the votes, because the Republican Party had split. In 1916, he would need to gather as many votes as possible. A key to his strategy…
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•October 26, 2016
The Summer White House
The story of Woodrow Wilson’s 1916 Shadow Lawn campaign for president began a year earlier when the Asbury Park Press broke a story stating, “TRENTON, Oct. 13. – It became known here today that a…
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•October 26, 2016
Anglers a Bit Fangshengish Every Time We Catch and Release
Did you know we’re being a bit Buddhist when practicing our catch-and-release beliefs? It’s a distant form of a highly venerable Buddhist practice called fangsheng. No, fangsheng has nothing to do…
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•October 19, 2016
Segregation Roils 1916 Election
In 1912, Woodrow Wilson had won a three-way race for the White House with 42 percent of the votes. His promise of fair treatment for African-Americans had won over many of them to support a…
