The New York Public Library is a place I considered an educational institution before I even entered kindergarten. I have vague memories of sitting below stacks of shelves, looking at the spines, trying to make sense of the jumbled letters.

Sweet librarians would wander my way, and pat me on the head,… Read full post »

Let’s just say I needed a few million bucks. So me and (my make-believe) husband decide “Hey! Here’s an idea. Let’s kidnap that show-off Exxon executive.  Sidney Reso in Morris Township.” (Yes, New Jersey, where else?)

 So there’s 57-year-old Sid in h… Read full post »

When “Rice to Riches” opened on Spring Street a few years ago, I was giddy. I’m solely responsible for the success of the cool rice pudding shop on the outskirts of SoHo.

 “Come with me to the rice pudding place,” I would suggest/command.

 And off… Read full post »

We’re all sitting around the large kitchen table in the rear of our 22^nd Street home in Union City, NJ. It’s stew night, and who’s excited?

 My mom. Because stew is a cook-it-all-in-one-pot meal. My dad, because he loves meat and potatoes. My sister, because she loves just ab… Read full post »

There’s no better meal than breakfast. I wake-up hungry, and though a simple slice of Arnold’s Oat Bran toast with melted Irish sweet butter sprinkled with organic sugar mixed with Saigon cinnamon will usually suffice, there’s nothing like a real breakfast. Yes, the kind you sit dow… Read full post »

When Jets’ owner Woody Johnson went to bed on Sunday night, he was probably feeling good about himself. The team he paid $635 million for in 2000 – the most money ever paid for a New York team -- a team with way more losses than wins over the years, upsets… Read full post »

A December AP-GFK poll says Americans are looking forward to bidding farewell to 2009, calling it a bad year for the nation, and themselves personally. Job loss, foreclosures and economic downturn have left people begging for 2010 to hurry up and get here.

But we’re ever… Read full post »

New Jersey is in the national news again, this time for making a third grader cry during free reading time.

A teacher at Madison Park Elementary School in Old Bridge told Mariah to put away her Bible, that it wasn’t appropriate free-time reading material. The kid… Read full post »

I’m probably dying of the bubonic plague. Or Swine Flu. Likely both. And because I know it’s ridiculous to starve anything, let alone a cold or pneumonia, I got up at 5 a.m. (I can’t sleep when I’m coughing to death) and decided to cook.

Soup.… Read full post »

We email our nieces advice and tell them “when I was your age …” and then Tweet links to Bay City Roller fan pages that (shockingly) still exist. Then find youtube videos and sing along to “Saturday Night” so many times, even the cat looks up embarrassed, horrified, and… Read full post »

Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari knew he was screwed when the Iranian captors who held his life in their hands at the notorious Evin prison accused him of having been to New Jersey.

Bahari, a dual citizen of Canada and Iran who lives in London, was jailed for 118… Read full post »

Well, you actually have less than 30 days now. National Novel Writing Month started Nov. 1 and the goal is to complete a book – a short one, just 50,000 words – by Nov. 30. Hey, if you jump in now, that’s only 2,500 words a day.

 I’m… Read full post »

 So yes, you should find the nearest journalist and give her a great big bear hug and say “thanks for fighting the good fight.” And then go out and buy a newspaper – one of those harbingers of aged news still sold in every convenience store.

 C’mon now. Thank… Read full post »

Esquire magazine is rather brilliant and I make it a point to not only subscribe, but get its e-newletters and Tweets. (And they get my Tweets, which really makes me feel rather cool.)

My subscription to Esquire has puzzled some people, because it is, after all, a magazine for… Read full post »

When I read about the new iPhone app that tracks the swine flu, I thought it was a joke. But it’s not. The free app was developed by Childrens Hospital Boston and the MIT Media Lab. Reports are sourced from both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control… Read full post »

His long ponytail hit my shoulder as he leaned to yell into my ear, “Can you believe this? I can’t believe it. Fuck, man!”

He punched the air in a hi-five, victorious way and I stepped back to eyeball him.… Read full post »

New York Times editor Frank LaForge retweeted a link to an article that posed a question I never thought I’d ponder: Who owns my Twitter identity?

 Of course a mere three years ago, twitter was a verb, not a proper noun, and it certainly didn’t have an… Read full post »

At first, news of the big FBI round-up of corrupt politico types didn't interest me a lot, except to see if I knew anyone on the list, and what local news angle could be uncovered.

Though he’ll always be remembered as the Pulitzer Prize winning author, whose memoir Angela’s Ashes spent over 100 weeks on the bestseller list, Frank McCourt, was primarily, a teacher. For over 30 years, he taught in the New York City school district, and though I first came to know him… Read full post »

This is the 3rd, maybe the 4th -- I’m losing track -- layoff in the past year at my newspaper. The layoff gods have been good to me, and were again once more. I’m happy to say I still have a job, I remain among the employed, still a working journalist.… Read full post »

They took the back roads in a Chevy Impala, arriving mid-weekend for what would turnout to be one of the most memorable music festivals in history.

Little did they know they too would become a part of that history, lovers huddled standing under a blanket in a sea of mud, sleeping bodies… Read full post »

I don’t do conflict. In fact, I do everything to avoid it and that might perhaps be why I have a lot of friends and few enemies – maybe no enemies. I’ve never raised a fist, rarely raise my voice and when I’m angry I might sigh or grunt, but in… Read full post »

It’s kind of sad when the start of a quarter signals a memo from corporate. No need for a rumor mill – though it’s there nonetheless – history’s been the indicator, and the numbers don’t lie. And just as Tuesday always follows Wednesday and July follows June, the 3… Read full post »

There’s not a subject I ponder more than relationships. Not just between men and women – though that’s been my area of obsession since I first read “Betsy and the Boys” at age 6 or so -- but all relationships.

I think about the confused dynamic between parents and childr… Read full post »

They’re all older than me. Walter by many years (like, almost 50 years-- who's not dead but dying), Michael a handful, and Farrah in between.

Farrah’s death today at 62, is the hardest hitting, since it’s she whose hair and body had the biggest impact on my way-younger self. It&rsq… Read full post »