Blogfinger

Twinpeaks.…Paul Goldfinger photo.  Click once for a thrill.

MICHAEL JACKSON.   Thriller.  “The Lady in my Life”

A large crowd gets ready for the parade at Firemen’s Park in  OG:   visitors, parents, kids and pets. Costumes and fun.    Paul Goldfinger photo 10/24/26. Ocean Grove, NJ.Blogfinger.net.

Captain Hook and Little Wesley of OG. Blogfinger photos.

Boy Scout dog 2025. Paul Goldfinger photo.

A memory from the 2023 pet event.

This is Chrissy from last year’s event.

2025 Grover  dog who lives on What-The-Heck Avenue. OG is Dog Town USA. Blogfinger photo.  Smile for the camera.

DORIS TROY:

Ocean Grove beach at 5:30 pm. 7/31/22. Click to enlarge.  Paul Goldfinger photo.

THE BEACH BOYS: “Don’t Worry Baby.”

Bagel Talk is in the West Grove Mall, Neptune,  outside the “gates” of Ocean Grove.   All photos by Paul Goldfinger. Click once to enlarge and to request scallion cream cheese.   Blogfinger.net. 7/18/25

By Paul Goldfinger MD.  Editor Blogfinger.net.   2025.  Re-post 2026.

I am a regular most mornings at “Bagel Talk.”   It has been my “go-to” bagel place for some time.   Their bagels are  baked daily in the back.   Jack, the baker, a Russian -Jewish  immigrant, comes in at 3 am.  He says he was in the military in Russia.

We talked bagels one morning when I arrived early enough.  He came to America during the “open border” policy in which the Soviets permitted Jews to leave in the 1970’s.   That emigration has been a miracle for America, Israel and other countries.    My Dad was one American who “adopted a family.”  Jacob was taught bagel baking by the owner of the business here.

Blogfinger has posted many articles about bagel baking and shops, and there is considerable competition around here. “Bagel Talk” bagels are excellent. My favorites  are their  “everything” variety.  I also like onion and garlic.  Eileen prefers plain.

Note :  2026 our favorites are egg-everything scooped and then toasted crispy. We like butter on them.

The shop is clean, and their other items including a variety of salads are delicious and fresh. The coffee is hot and very good.

And the location convenient to the Grove is wonderful, especially when we need to come and go in a hurry to find parking.

Will (right) works here in the summer along with his brother.    He leaves for Arizona State soon to study architecture. Elmer is from Peru and he is a world class bagel scooper and toaster. I call him a “master super-dooper scooper,” and we like to discuss his technique which he refers to as his “recipe.”.

“Z” is Mexican. He deals with the phone orders. The technology is of interest. The “pick up” phone doesn’t actually ring, but the orders are efficiently prepared.  When you arrive and go to the register, the workers are very precise. There are few errors because  they hand you a receipt which details every element of your order…eg “extra scallion cream cheese.”   Each receipt has a number, and they will call out your number when it is ready. The phone orders are ready  on time.

The diversity here is a beautiful thing. These girls have “everything” on theirs..   The customers are polite and friendly. Many speak Spanish as well as perfect English. Click to enlarge.

“Bagel Talk” is a “heimish” *  place.    In the morning there are many customers who are often workers who arrive with their trucks. Rarely does a customer wear a jacket and tie.

Police show up mainly from Neptune and Asbury Park. The customers are friendly and polite,  and a variety of languages are spoken.  I heard two men speaking a language which I did not recognize, so I asked them, and they said it was Georgian—an ancient  country on the Black Sea.

Others who come in are young people who arrive with their friends, all abuzz. There is seating and take out. Even though bagels have their roots among Polish Jews, I can’t identify that fact  among the customers and workers here.

The “ethnic thing” here  reminds me of pizza “parlors.”

“When I was a kid, I never had bagels, and there were no such shops.  Mostly we had “Russian rye” with big black seeds.  (Wegmans has that.).  I recall visiting my Mom’s family in Bayonne where there was a Jewish bakery and restaurant, and we called that “Bayonne Bread.”

Now you don’t have to be Jewish to be in the bagel business or Italian to make pizzas.

The menus in today’s bagel shops are quite  varied—the choices have evolved.

I think that Blogfinger has covered more bagel topics than most media in America.

Heimish (היימיש: pronounced by HAY-mish or HY-mish): Based on the Yiddish word heim, which means “home,” it describes things that are homey or familiar.   From Chabad.org.

BILLY JOEL with “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. ”    I don’t have any bagel music. But Billy Joel is Jewish.

A rendering of the Casino which will feature the “Stone Pony Summer Stage, shops and more.”    OG is not shown to the south. What will that “more” become?  OG needs to plan. Image from the Tri City News. 4/13/23.

The view of the Casino from the Asbury side. Imagine what it will all look like with the current OG North End planned project stuck next to it on the other side.  Will  the NERP look ridiculous?    From the Tri-City News…

By  Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net

Source for this article.  The Tri City News.    4/13/23

Blogfinger editorial:

Well, the cat’s out of the bag, and Neptune Township needs to figure out how to protect Ocean Grove from this incredibly ambitious concept on the Asbury side including the Casino and its surroundings.  Remember, Asbury owns the entire Casino and a portion of the boardwalk on the OG side.

This massive proposition will likely render the North End Redevelopment  Plan null and void for a number of reasons including that there is no rational argument* now to justify the redevelopment  zoning changes on the OG side that would have turned our North End into a congested commercial area.  The AP side will be a massive  piece of real estate and  there is now no  rationale to give the OG developers permission to have special zoning*.  Their plan won’t fit.   Would you want to live there?

Aside from the plans for Convention Hall at the AP north end, the south located Casino side will  have a state-of-the-art  Stone Pony  Summer Stage with  an outdoor amphitheater for 5,000.  And Convention Hall will become a 3,500 seat concert hall.

According  to the Tri City News, a developer on the AP side said, “The end game is to have one of the most incredible world-class destinations for everything:  music, art, and other entertainment.”

The Casino project will cost an undisclosed millions of dollars

Pick up this week’s Tri City News for details, but their piece doesn’t even mention Ocean Grove.

Neptune Township should immediately appoint a commission consisting of Grover residents and the one  big player in town—the CMA.   OGNED can do its own juggling.  Neptune must put a halt to the current North End Redevelopment Plan which should immediately be revoked as it should have been years ago, and think about what will be best for  Ocean Grove looking into the future.

My opinion is that the Master Plan for OG should be reconsidered to solidify our town as “historic small town America” and to  maintain our distance physically and culturally from the amazingly  ambitious A. Park.

We should turn that entire North End property into a park with lots of trees.  We should be known in the region as a town of history, neighborhoods, local artists, and local arts and culture.

We should frame ourselves as not a place for exploitive tourism or religiosity, but a place for families, diversity, local color, fresh air, scenic beauty and comfortable and affordable  places to live.   Short term rentals need to be discouraged, because all those ambitious plans to our north will put unbelievable pressure on OG parking, places to stay,  and home prices. How will we remain a town where families will want to live?  And finally cancel all giant events like Flea Markets.  That’s how Bradley Beach maintains its personality without excessive tourism.

And, what evils will these AP projects send our way?

*There never was a rational argument that would have justified turning the North End into a “Zone in Need of Redevelopment.”

GERALD PRICE:  From the off Broadway cast of the Threepenny  Opera:  “The Ballad of Mack the Knife.”

Eileen Goldfinger, an OG Broadway baby, discovers an OG South End  parking lot without cars.  The last time this occurred was when Henry Ford was about to sell cars at the Shore.   Fletcher Lake is to the left,  Broadway on the right.  The OG stables were at the west end  in town.      Blogfinger.net. 10/24/26

Here’s a link on Blogfinger regarding Henry’s car photographed in Ft. Myers, Florida by Paul Goldfinger of Blogfinger.net:

Blogfinger car talk bonus edition: The Model T Ford

CARNEGIE HALL.    Daisy Eagan. At a Sondheim Celebration with Paul Gemignani

Paul Goldfinger. Ocean Grove, NJ

TIMOTHY VALLIER     “A Raisin in the Sun”

Ocean Grove beach. Paul Goldfinger photo. 2022. Click to enlarge.

THE ANGELS.

Paul Goldfinger photo. Movie still. From Hungary. ©

THE INK SPOTS:

By Paul Goldfinger, MD, FACC.  Editor Blogfinger.net    Ocean Grove, NJ, USA:

As a double board certified doctor I  have occasionally given medical advice on Blogfinger, but only when I was sure of that advice.  In the case of vaccination during flu season, I urge you to follow the AMA guidelines. (below).   I almost never post the opinions of others verbatim , but in this case I want you hear it from the horses’ mouths:

AT A GLANCE: Influenza can cause serious illness, but vaccination can help protect you and those around you. Here are key things you will learn about flu vaccination from family physicians Carlos Galindo, MD, and Christopher Zipp, DO, in this AMA article. The CDC has been stifled from 26-27 vaccine recommendations due to law suits, but other medical groups are trying to fill the void, such as the AMA:

• Everyone 6 months or older should get a flu vaccine each year.
• September and October are ideal times to get vaccinated, but it is still worthwhile to get a flu shot later in the season if the virus is still circulating.
• Flu vaccination can lower your risk of illness and help make symptoms less severe if you do get influenza.
• You cannot get flu from an injected influenza vaccine.
• Flu, COVID-19 and RSV vaccines can also be given at the same visit.
• If you develop flu symptoms, contact your doctor the same day, especially if you are at higher risk for complications, because treatment may help shorten the illness.Influenza can be easy to underestimate until flu season arrives—which typically runs from October through May—and illnesses, missed work and school, and hospitalizations begin to climb.
• While some people recover within several days, flu can lead to serious complications, particularly for people who are at higher risk of severe illness. That is why it is important for everyone to use the tools we have available to mitigate infection and illness, including getting the flu vaccination. Everyone six months or older is recommended to get an influenza vaccine to reduce the risk of severe outcomes.
• During the 2025-2026 flu season, influenza caused at least 32 million illnesses, 390,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 deaths in the U.S., according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For the 2024–2025 flu season, the CDC estimated that flu vaccination prevented about 10 million flu-related illnesses in the U.S., 5 million medical visits, 185,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 deaths.However, “you can get the flu any time. You can get it all year round, but people think of it as the beginning of winter with a kickoff sometime between December and February, and then it lasts for a few months,” Dr. Zipp explained. “It is not uncommon for us to continue to vaccinate people all the way through March, even early April because people can still get flu.
• ”When it comes to symptoms of influenza, it often includes “fever, chills and body aches. That’s your classic clinical triad,” Dr. Galindo said. “But you can also have sore throat, runny nose and headache.”Over a couple of hours, all of a sudden you get these systemic symptoms—you get a fever, chills and body aches—and it can lead to pneumonia and hospitalization,” said Dr. Zipp. “That’s what we really worry about quite a bit, especially people with underlying medical conditions. That’s one of the reasons why it is important that everybody gets a flu shot.”It is safe to get the flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19 vaccines at the same visit to your doctor or pharmacy.
• Coadministration of vaccines is common practice. You may experience slightly more localized soreness, mild fatigue, headache, or a low-grade fever when getting more than one vaccine at a time.“There’s no contraindication to getting those all at the same time,” said Dr. Galindo. “I tell patients, ‘If you choose to do that you may want to get them in different arms, but there’s no problem getting them all at the same time.”The general recommendation is to “get vaccinated around September or October,” said Dr. Galindo. “You can get the flu vaccine before then, but you want to time it such that you get it in September or October because from the time of administration of the vaccine to the time you actually have clinical protection is about two weeks.“There’s a little lag time there,” he added. “Then you want to have your defenses ready so that when January, February, March hit, you’re ready to go. If you go too early, those immune antibodies can wane over time, so timing is of the essence.”
• If you miss that September, October window, it’s not too late, though, noted Dr. Galindo. “I always tell patients it’s better to be late than never, especially in older individuals who have comorbid conditions, autoimmune disease, high blood pressure or diabetes. It’s always best to have it even if you’re out of that window.”“Now there are some people who need to get it a little earlier. If you’re immunocompromised or you have chronic health conditions that put you at a higher risk, then I would say be in the earlier cohort,” Dr. Zipp said. “But don’t get it too early because then your immunity wanes.”Ultimately, though, “October is a great month to get your flu shot. Get it done by Halloween,” he recommended.As a general rule, everyone 6 months or older should get the flu vaccine,” Dr. Galindo said, noting it is especially important for “young children, adults over 50, people who are pregnant, individuals with comorbid conditions and people who are caregivers to get a flu shot.”“There are people with some medical conditions that cannot mount an immune response—their immune system doesn’t work. They can’t have it,” Dr. Zipp said. “Otherwise, everyone should have it.”While the flu vaccine is recommended for 6 months or older, the nasal spray is generally recommended for ages 2 through 49 “because those individuals are not very young and they’re not very old,” Dr. Galindo said, noting “there are some caveats in terms of who can get the nasal spray.”“You certainly don’t want to give it to pregnant women, children ages 2 to 4 who have asthma or underlying lung issues, if you’re immunocompromised or taking aspirin, if you have cochlear implants or any type of spinal fluid conditions,” he explained. “There is a theoretical risk that the nasal spray—which technically is a live weakened version of the virus—can be potentially harmful to those populations.”

  “If a patient absolutely refuses the shot because they have a terrible fear of needles, then there’s a nasal spray flu vaccine,” Dr. Zipp added.

  Beyond getting the influenza vaccine, there are other ways to prevent flu and “it’s what our parents taught us: washing our hands,” Dr. Galindo said. “All it takes to inoculate yourself is to touch a doorknob that has viral particle from somebody who may have coughed or sneezed on it before.”

  “You touch your eyes, your nose, and there you go, you’re inoculated,” he said. “So, always wash your hands, cover your coughs and sneezes, and be conservative if you feel sick and just stay home. Not only are you helping yourself, you’re helping others.”

  Additionally, “if you come down with flu, clean the areas that you use that are general to other people in your household. Wipe down the kitchen counters after you use it and the bathroom,” Dr. Galindo said, noting that it is also important to “get plenty of sleep, try to eat a balanced diet and stay hydrated.”

• This link from the American College of Cardiology on Blogfinger one year ago:

The American College of Cardiology advises physicians to promote immunization to reduce risk for heart patients .