By Charles Layton. (Blogfinger.net Editor and Writer)
I was up early on the morning of September 11, 2001, because men were coming to paint our house. The two guys who showed up asked me if I’d heard that an airplane had just crashed into one of the World Trade towers.
I flipped on the TV and there it was — a giant flaming wound high up on the building, framed by the purest of bright blue skies. All the New York channels were carrying it live by then. The two painters watched for a couple of minutes and then trooped outside to set up their ladders and start work.
I made some coffee and left the TV on in the living room. And then — to everyone’s astonishment — the second plane struck. Now the coverage was non-stop and commercial-free on all channels, and what we’d assumed was an accident we now knew was something else.
I walked outside and told the painters, “Hey, guys, come in here and see this. A second plane just hit the towers.”
In they came and stood in front of the TV in their dirty painter’s clothes, too stunned to know what to say or do. After a while, they trooped back out and resumed painting. I refilled my coffee cup and stayed on the couch, transfixed. At one point I looked over at the side window — on the side of the house where the painters were at work — and through that window I saw them both, still painting but also peering through the window glass and staring at the TV with stupified expressions.
In some other situation it might have seemed funny. In that moment it was anything but. We were all stupified together.
I was alone in the house; Mary was out of town. I honestly cannot remember what I did for all the rest of that day. But I will never forget the sight of those two men’s faces, like a couple of Kilroys, outside my living room window.
Editors note: The whole world knows what 9/11 was like in New York City. We would like to know what it was like here in Ocean Grove. We invite readers to file comments here, telling us how you heard about that tragic event, your thoughts and feelings at the time, and what you did on that day.
Key West: Bacall moving in Bogie’s direction without any change in the weather to propel her. (Internet photo)
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor @Blogfinger 2020
A Ph.D. psychologist who lives in the Grove, collects seashells, and wears glow-in-the dark chartreuse sneakers, has evolved a hypothesis over 30 years or more having to with the behavior of women in late autumn, as the temperature grows cold.
He prefers to be sort of anonymous, but he is convinced that his observations, which have been consistent over the years, are true and real, even though they have never been subjected to scientific scrutiny. We’ll call him Walter after Walter Reed, MD who helped find a cure for yellow fever.
Walter says that his concept has its roots in human biology, specifically the procreation of the species. He refers to the mechanism as being “of mammalian origin.” Basically the idea is that women are innately understanding that they must survive the winter and do so by finding a mate who can “keep them warm and have sex.”
The behavior reveals itself in a “subtle nuanced manner” since women, by nature, tend to be social and interested in the “other gender.” So what Walter has observed is that women, late in autumn, become more friendly to men. It is an “extension” of how they normally behave, but men will find women to be more attentive to them than usual: to offer to have coffee, or to come visit, or to have conversations. Men may miss this phenomenon unless they are looking for it. I would guess that it would be more apparent to available men.
According to Walter, women become more agreeable, smiling more and being more polite. He sees women as being “warmer” towards men than usual as the weather gets colder. He refers to this behavior as “controlled” but also being “frenetic” beneath the surface, behavior which he describes as “scurrying” while, at the same time, being more sociable and personable.
The end result is often an increase in coupling, relationships, engagements, socializing and dating . Have any of you experienced Walter’s theory?
Re-post from 2012. Charles Layton was a member of the Blogfinger staff when he wrote this marvelous piece. Charles now lives in Philadelphia. He is a professional editor from the Philadelphia Inquirer, now retired.
By Charles Layton
A few years ago we lived for three weeks in Nicaragua, in a house at the edge of a small, very remote fishing village called Casares. It was a spectacular place. Instead of shooshing and murmuring, as they mostly do in Ocean Grove, the waves on that shore towered and crashed and sucked and splattered and spat. They were never subdued.
From our porch, looking out on the Pacific Ocean, we watched pelicans dive bombing for fish. Each afternoon huge flocks – a hundred or more at a time – would fly right past us, headed for their nesting grounds.
But even better was the sky at night. After all the meager lights in that little town went dark, the sky became a light show of blazing stars and star clusters, plunging meteors, wandering planets. Sometimes, very late, when the call of nature roused me from bed, I would walk out on the patio alone and stare and stare at the universe, and especially at the Milky Way, wheeling above me. Stars by the thousands, unbelievably distinct and clear.
In Ocean Grove, on most nights, you can actually count the number of visible stars. Often it’s no more than a dozen. Sometimes it’s none. Living under a permanent scrim of light pollution, we forget how many stars are out there. Many of us have never actually seen the night sky in its true state – as I saw it on the coast of Nicaragua, and as our ancestors knew it.
In a couple of weeks we’ll hear jokes about the Mayan calendar coming to an end, and how that will be the destruction of the earth and all mankind. No need to do your Christmas shopping or pay your taxes now, our doom is written in the stars; har har. What idiots, those Mayans.
But really, the Mayans and all ancient peoples lived their lives in constant communion with the teeming, moving lights in the natural sky. The ancient peoples had no idea what those lights were. They noted that the lights moved in strange ways. Sometimes one could be seen to streak and fall out of the sky. Sometimes a comet would appear, ominously hovering. (What did that portent? Something important, right?) The night sky was those people’s television, fraught with drama and bad news.
The constellation Orion. The three middle stars are his belt
Religions arose to explain all those moving lights. Stories were told. People saw pictures in the sky – a lion, a crab, a hunter named Orion holding a bow in one hand and a club in the other. Because the planets moved independently of the rest of the turning firmament, the ancients associated those special lights with gods – Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.
But because the sky was so brilliant, prominent, ever-present and mysterious, ancient people studied it methodically. They built observatories and took and recorded measurements. They found that the heavenly bodies displayed repeating patterns which, when plotted, yielded information useful to hunters, farmers, nomads and sailors. Astrologers tried to discern when “the stars were right” for planting or marrying or doing business or giving birth.
The Bible says the “wise men” (men who understood signs in the sky) were guided to Bethlehem by a star. If such a beckoning star rose in the sky now, I doubt we’d even see it — unless JCP&L suffered a major blackout.
Hurricane Sandy taught us the value of electricity, and I’m happy to have the power back on; I would never want to do without it. Still, it’s not a trivial thing, our loss of that ancient awareness of the richness of the sky.
Tuscany, Italy. 1996. By Paul Goldfinger. Villa Antinori, near Florence. Tri-X film. Leica M camera. My darkroom print. Photo cards like this one are available, signed, for $10,00. Contact Blogfinger@verizon.net.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net
It is very difficult for one swan to do a pas de deux, but this Italian swan is capable. After all, he (or she?) is the only component in this photo which is in sharp focus. Recently we posted a photograph of a seagull in a boat, misidentified as a duck. But a swan?—–never mistaken for a duck.
Has professional ballet ever been presented in Ocean Grove? I’ve never seen it mentioned in the OG history books. We certainly had a lot of opera, instrumental, and choral music, but classical vocalizing was always emphasized here thanks to Tali Essen Morgan who’s buddy was Caruso. There is no mention of Tali hanging out in the Grove with prima ballerinas.
Swan Lake made its debut in Moscow in 1877 by the Bolshoi. Tchaikovsky wrote it, and it has been almost constantly on tour ever since.
Maybe someday we will have Swan Lake on the stage in the magnificent Great Auditorium of Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
But we can dream.
Here is a pas de deux from Swan Lake Act II, It is called the” Love Duet,” and the star is Ulyana Lopatkina. Can you imagine these two going to Days after the show for hot fudge sundaes?
Tchaikovsky must be kvelling wherever he is.
Video below: Click on the full screen or picture in picture mode to enlarge all these ballerinas hopping on one leg.
The action heated up early on Mt. Hermon Way where there were 7 sales within 2 blocks. All photos by Paul Goldfinger
Despite some intermittent light rain and clouds, the yard sale event on Saturday was successful. Only a few of the 45 families gave up in the face of the weather. Actually, the morning was busy for most sellers, and many buyers, responding to our advertising, came from out of town. By and large, this truly should have been called a “porch sale” because everyone who had a porch made good use of it.
Robin, a pre-K teacher from Ocean Twp, was buying fun and games for a PTO tricky tray event. She scored big on Inskip Ave at the far southern reaches of the Grove.
We were supposed to start at 9 a.m. but there always are early arrivers—often dealers or collectors. We had a vinyl collector show up first. He chose a $1.00 Joni Mitchell album. He said that he owns “thousands” of record albums, but “there’s always room for one more.”
Another guy asked us if we wanted to sell him silver or gold. He said, “I can pay better than other dealers because I have no overhead.” As I told him the bad news—no gold or silver on my porch— I imagined him under the Wesley Lake bridge weighing his gold and silver. Three women named Vicki arrived at our sale at the same time–perhaps a world record unless there is a Vicki Association somewhere.
Artist/actor Carl Swanson (CardsbyCarl.com) loved the action. “Now that spring is here, I have a new color palette.” We’ll show his latest work soon. He once played a father in the Fantasticks.
A group of 4 antique toy sellers had gathered in front of a garage on Inskip Ave. Because we had itemized the goods for sale on Blogfinger, they were able to connect with antique toy collectors, so they did very well.
Pat, a jewelry maker from Olin Ave, said that everyone who came to her sale wanted something that she didn’t have. “I make jewelry from Swaroski crystals, and some buyers thought my name was Crystal Swaroski,” she said. “I guess I need to bring my jewelry to a craft show.”
Pat Gordon. Ms. Swarosky. Lonely only on Olin.
But Carl Hoffman and I rode around to spot-check the sales, and almost everyone we visited said that they were having a good day. One seller complained that as the day went on, her pants got longer. We were baffled by that one until she explained that the bottoms were getting wet, so her pants were losing altitude. We left before critical mass caused chaos.
Rose Marie Smith and Michael Termni of Stockton Ave. This is what a real garage sale looks like (A rare event in garageless OG)
As a social event, it was really a lot of fun. Grovers who were new in town got to meet neighbors, and neighbors formed partnerships and bonded with the folks next door or down the block.
We had one buyer, a chubby guy with glasses, do an excellent 5 second impression of Rodney Dangerfield (“I don’t get no respect”—-In my mind I heard a rim shot).
A New Yorker named Nick had just blown into town by bus and immediately hit the sale trail. “I read Blogfinger every day at work,” he said. “Thank you for bringing us out-of-towners the OG news. I especially look forward to the crime reports.” (I’m thinking, “I really have to call Chief Adams and tell him we need more crime news.”)
Another New Yorker named Hubert, a young man browsing through my photographs, could not stop smiling because of little Grover Eddie, age almost-two, who was waving his Woody doll around and saying “Giddyup” over and over.
A woman came up on our porch, peered in our living room window and asked Eileen if she could buy an oriental covered dish that she saw on a table inside.
The Ferguson’s–This is what a porch sale should look like!
If any of you had some adventures at the sales yesterday, please click the “comments ” button” and share.
Next year, let’s see if we can get 100 addresses. And don’t forget, we will advertise your garage sale. Just send an email to Blogfinger@verizon.net. It’s free, so let her rip. (Why are we offering this? Yard sales bring people and life into the Grove on Saturday mornings, and then they go home. I remember when OG was a boring place. )
—Paul Goldfinger, MD, editor Blogfinger.net
Dedicated to all the yard sellers who participated and made our event a success:
Are we having fun yet? Paul Goldfinger photo. Long Beach Island. Blogfinger.net
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net. December 17, 2015. Trenton, NJ, USA
The stage was set in a conference room at the Broad Street headquarters of the NJ Department of Community Affairs in Trenton. This was to be an important session of the Parking and Streets Committee which was to consider Neptune Township’s application for a Special Area designation in Ocean Grove.
Joseph E. Doyle, Jr. , Chairman of the Site Improvement Advisory Board (SIAB) was seated around a rectangular table with his colleagues. They began the meeting with some brief business.
Kevin Chambers, Jack Bredin and I were in our seats after having taken a walking tour of historic downtown Trenton as we made our way to the big white building.
Jack Bredin (left) and Kevin Chambers in Trenton, waiting for the SIAB meeting to begin. Dec. 17, 2015. Paul Goldfinger photo. Breaking news.
Sitting with us was Dr. Carol Livingston, the only other Grover to show up.
We noticed that no one from Neptune Township was present, especially the Planner who, we expected, would present the Township’s application for a special RSIS parking area standard.
As the Chairman announced that he was ready to begin the Ocean Grove application, two men entered the room.
One was Vito Gadaleta, the Neptune Twp business manager. The other man was not identified. Gadaleta did not look happy; it seemed clear that he really didn’t want to be there. “Mr. Chairman,” he said, ” We cannot go forward today because our town attorney had to be at another case.”
The Committee looked startled at this revelation. After all, there were other incidences in the past where the Township began this process but each time failed to finish. This time they had jumped through enough DCA hoops to get to this point. This meeting of the Parking and Streets Sub-committee wouldn’t have resolved the matter, but it would have created the groundwork to have Neptune’s request decided upon by the big dog—-ie the SIAB.
Chairman Doyle is a calm, experienced and cheerful Board chairman, and he is very professional—-so he did not react emotionally. After all, the Township was wasting everybody’s time including not only his people’s, but the OG contingent as well. He merely looked at Gadaleta and said, “Your application will not be considered now. You are being denied without prejudice. If you want to continue applying for the special standard, you have to start the process all over again.”
Chairman Doyle struck me as being in the same mold as George Washington who spent time in Trenton. You can’t help but have some 18th century thoughts as you walk around Trenton.
Mr. Gadaleta stood there and heard that the Township must resubmit the application, make changes if they wish, again obtain a Township resolution, explain again why they want the exception, and finally they must have public hearings and publicize the hearings so that we can bring a crowd there if we wish. Then he turned and vanished into the gloom (It was a gloomy day outside, matching Gadaleta’s mood.)
Team OG did not despair, because Chairman Doyle and his committee were gracious enough to let us speak to them as they do care what the Ocean Grove citizens have to say. He did not permit any detailed technical discussions about the matter, but we were thrilled to go on the record, in general, about the topics of the day.
Each of us spoke briefly and we also had the chance after the meeting to talk with some members of the Board. We found them to sympathetic and interested. We even got to have coffee and some outrageous baked goods including, gulp, chocolate eclairs.
This is a summary of what the 4 members of Team OG got to say to the Board:
Neptune was secretive when they submitted their application last summer. None of us were given the chance to tell the Neptunites about our concerns, and we want that to change if there is a next time. We want to bring a big crowd to that meeting in Neptune if it occurs.
No one seems to know why Neptune wanted to push their application and then why they failed to show up today. None of us on Team Grove believed Gadaleta’s excuse.
I told the Board that Neptune is “playing them” and “disrespecting” them and our fellow citizens back in the Grove.
We asked that they get a clear answer next time as to the real reason for the application since historical preservation is a ridiculous excuse.
We told them about our Blogfinger poll where 300 people took part, and 86% did not trust the Neptune Committee to do what is “fair and right for Ocean Grove.” I got to explain that Ocean Grove is a special place with our own culture, demographics and concerns. Both Mr. John Lago of the DCA and Chairman Boyle told me that have been following Blogfingerregarding this matter.
Jack Bredin got to review some of our unique history which makes OG a very special case with regards to zoning and RISS standards. He also presented his unique recommendation to exempt the standards for single family homes but not for multi -family buildings such as condominiums. More on this idea later.
Carol Livingston gave a short but powerful description of what she, a grandmother in the Grove, has to go through to deal with parking problems in season. After the meeting we got to tell Mr. Doyle that our “season” now lasts about 6 months. He said that he visits OG often, and he did experience parking trouble when attending a summer event at the Great Auditorium.
Kevin Chambers got to tell the Board about some of his ideas regarding illegal activities involving the Township in relation to zoning and RSIS regulations. He told them about his Main Avenue law suit.
We asked the Chairman to explain how Neptune could ignore State laws about required parking and that such disdain has resulted in the rise of a number of condominiums built without parking. He said that his Board deals with RSIS standards, but they are not an enforcement body. If we in Ocean Grove want something done, we need to go through the courts or to go to other State agencies to complain.
My comments were read by me and then handed to the secretary to make part of the minutes. Jack and Kevin put away their written comments for another day.
Team OG left feeling that we had a successful day despite the no-show crowd from Neptune.
We thanked the SIAB members who were so kind, hospitable and caring. As Jack said, “Democracy in action, even though there wasn’t much action.”
I felt proud to be there, as we actually got to experience representative transparent government, unlike what we get in Neptune.
Boardwalk Empire: A 1920’s Atlantic City nightclub. HBO photo. This series debuted on September 19, 2010.
Boardwalk Empire. A young Al Capone (center) and his two brothers are busy creating the family business, out of Chicago. It’s good I spell his name correctly, because in this episode, Capone makes a personal visit to a newsman who got the spelling wrong. HBO photo.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor, Blogfinger.net
Ocean Grove and its buildings have appeared in a number of movies including Woody Allen’s “Stardust Memories” (1980) and “According to Greta” with Hillary Duff (filmed in 2007). Except for Greta, Ocean Grove has appeared because of it’s unique seaside appearance rather than because it is Ocean Grove.
In Stardust Memories, the town was presented as a generic seaside resort, and the Great Auditorium became the Stardust Hotel. In Greta, the town actually was portrayed as OG.
Which brings me to the opening episode of Boardwalk Empire’s 4th hit season on HBO. This multi-award winning series is film-making at its best. Set in 1920’s Atlantic City, during Prohibition, it is about Nucky Thompson, a gangster who struggles to maintain his hold on the booze trafficking into New Jersey. As many of you know, we at BF are big fans of the production including its music, and we often post songs by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, the Grammy winning group that provides much of the music.
Last Sunday it began again with its usual precise and georgeous portrayal of an era and a place. The costumes and the settings are magnificent. The plots are fascinating.
Now it is 1924, and Nucky has carved out his territory which is from Cape May up to Asbury Park and west to Trenton. He is having trouble with rival gangsters from New York City and Chicago, and his marriage has failed. Now he is living in a fancy suite in an Atlantic City hotel.
Late in the episode he steps onto the porch to get some sea air, and this is what we see:
HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, season 4, episode 1. Sept. 8, 2013. This scene is set in Atlantic City. On the porch is Nucky Thompson (foreground) and his personal assistant. Paul Goldfinger still photo from the TV series.
The setting is Atlantic City, but that sure looks like our Albatross Hotel. So I went over to Ocean Pathway to compare, and, as you see, the look is very close—too close to deny. Inside, owner Bill Reilly decided to let the cat out of the bag.
A crew from HBO showed up a couple of months ago. They thought that our Albatross looked like a 1924 seaside hotel. So they took photos and measurements inside and out, and then, somehow, with some modifications, re-created our Albatross in Atlantic City.
The Albatross in Ocean Grove, Sept. 13, 2013. Paul Goldfinger photo.
So once again, OG is shown in a successful film production, but this portrayal is unique because the hotel exterior scene in this episode was not actually filmed in the Grove.
Considering the sex scenes, the booze, the violence and the chorus girls (and the current absence of a boardwalk in the Grove) it is amazing that a part of OG has actually found its way into this production, especially one ironically called “Boardwalk Empire.” But that did happen, and maybe more scenes of the Albatross will show up later.
VINCE GIORDANO AND THE NIGHTHAWKS, From the original soundtrack of Boardwalk Empire: “Margie” Their soundtrack recording won a Grammy. Vince appears regularly in New York City. We met him there. A group of OG citizens were fans, and we joined them one night.
STEPHEN DeROSA as Eddie Cantor with a tune from Boardwalk Empire:
By Charles Layton, Blogfinger.net. Original post 2012.
Could the dividing line between North Jersey and South Jersey be Wesley Lake?
The thought occurred to me the other day during a stroll past Asbury Park’s Civil War memorial on Cookman Avenue. The plaque at the foot of the memorial reads as follows:
That’s pretty bellicose language – or used to be. “The war of rebellion” is a name the North imposed on the conflict, reflecting its own perception of events.
Asbury Park’s memorial to those who fought defending the Union. Photos by Mary Walton
Even though, after the war, Southerners continued to refer to themselves as “rebels,” the Yankee phrase “war of rebellion” rankled them. They also, for obvious reasons, disliked calling the conflict “the war to save the Union” or “the war of Southern aggression.” Another name appearing on Northern war memorials and in Northern textbooks, but not Southern ones, was “the great rebellion.”
Although it never really caught on, “the war for Southern independence” came closer to reflecting the South’s point of view — the white South’s, anyway. Those Southerners who saw the North as the belligerent party also favored the term “war of northern aggression.” Confederate General Joseph Johnston called it the “war against the states,” another sore-loser title that sounds like it could be accompanied by a one-finger salute.
And so it was that, after the war itself was decided, there began a much longer conflict over what the history books ought to call it.
The name Southerners lobbied for was “the war between the states.” Confederate officials and veterans used the term in their memoirs. In the early 20th century, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (as die-hard a group as you’ll ever find) tried unsuccessfully to have that name enacted into federal law, their argument being that the conflict wasn’t really a civil war, but rather a war between two well-defined, separate governments, the word “states” in this case meaning sovereign nations. After all, the Daughters argued, the Confederacy had its own currency, its own army and navy, its own commerce – everything you could ask for in a legitimate nation.
Although the United Daughters didn’t get their way, Southern politicians tried for many decades to sneak that language into law and common parlance. In the 1940s and 1950s, when Southerners held great sway in Congress, the term “war between the states” found its way into at least two federal laws, as well as various Congressional reports. As a schoolboy in Texas, I heard at least one high school teacher argue in favor of the phrase. It was kind of a Southern talking point.
Ocean Grove’s cannon
It even gained currency in parts of the North. Paul Goldfinger, who grew up in North Jersey, says he frequently heard the Civil War referred to as the “war between the states.” But Paul wasn’t aware of the underlying political spin the term carries in the South. Most Northerners probably aren’t, at least not these days.
But now, here’s something interesting: Ocean Grove has its own Civil War memorial — the cannon in Founders Park — and its plaque contains that Southern-friendly phrase “war between the states.” Furthermore, the Ocean Grove memorial is friendlier to the South in another way. While Asbury’s memorial only pays tribute to those on the Union side, Ocean Grove’s honors all of the combatants, no matter which side they fought on.
