SpeakEasy
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•December 11, 2025
Chegg’s Hot Wings Lead to Case of Writeophobia
When I was in high school, writing an essay or paper was about the worse thing for me to do. My mother used to hound me about getting it done. Somehow, the last evening before it was due, I managed…
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•December 4, 2025
Horizontally Speaking: Sadly Nothing Funny About Hospitals
If you haven’t been in the hospital lately, I am here to report on what’s going on in the antiseptic world of hospital hijinks, in the hopes that my experience might help you, should you find…
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•November 12, 2025
My Cup Runneth Over on Trip to See ‘Moses’
Bus trips are not high on my to-do list in this busy travel age, but I realize they might offer a more pleasant option than driving oneself in certain situations. Three hours on a bus isn’t a long…
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•November 5, 2025
Would You Buy a Pocketknife Without a Blade?
These days I see many headlines that make me think I should have been born in Alaska 100 years ago. The headline not too long ago was in the Wall Street Journal and it read “What Do You Call a Knife…
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•November 5, 2025
Good Luck Trying to Eliminate Those Teeny Red-Eyed Menaces
“Please tell me they’re gone,” I said to my husband, “because I can’t take much more of this.” You might think that this old hen is griping about shoobies again, because in the past, I have called…
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•October 22, 2025
Navigating Pre-Teenage With Raft and Paddle on LBI
It’s the craziest thing how we as human beings want more out of life or dream of something bigger.
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•October 15, 2025
Help! I’m Being Commercialed to Death on TV
If I was really going to write about all aspects of advertising and commercials, I’d have a novel, not a column. So I decided to narrow down my comments.
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•October 13, 2025
Viewing the Last of the Mast – So Personally Meaningful
On Aug. 21 and 22, I was visiting my good friends Laura and Dick Bartlett, who have a home adjacent to the beach at 18th Street in Barnegat Light. Early in the morning of Friday, Aug. 22, I took a…
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•September 11, 2025
Let’s Not Forget a Mosaic of Shore Memories
So ends another season at the Jersey Shore, and you may not be able to store all the memories in a photo album, but let’s not forget …
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•August 13, 2025
Consider the Clouds – Focal Points for the Imagination
There came a day when the clouds drifting along with the wind aroused a wanderlust in me, and I set off on a journey to roam along the sea shores.
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•August 6, 2025
Managing Dining Out Choices: Tasty vs. Healthy
Dining out, for us, is usually done for two purposes. One is for the eating enjoyment for ourselves and our friends (and occasionally when we don’t want to cook). The other is for when we are on a…
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•July 31, 2025
Mother of Teens: How’s That Workin’ Out for You!
Apparently my husband and children are under the mistaken impression that I have a need to always be right. I really don’t need to be right 100% of the time; it just works out that way.
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•July 26, 2025
Memories of 506 Blvd Knocking on My Door
The following is a love letter to my childhood beach house on Long Beach Island.
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•July 16, 2025
What Was Yellow in the Teenie Weenie Bikini?
It’s summer at the Jersey Shore, time for the favorite male pastime on the beach, girl watching! Most people know the song “The Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” but do you know the…
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•July 9, 2025
Playing the 1965 Soundtrack of the Shore
The year was 1965. The month was June, and the place was soon to be LBI. I say “soon to be” because standing in the way of another fantastic summer on LBI was … high school graduation. This…
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•June 26, 2025
Happy as a Clam: Nothing Is Better Than a Day on the Bay
As summer is about to begin, my imagination stirs with thoughts of what lies ahead and wondrous experiences of early season days in past years. This brings me to a mundane Monday in early summer last…
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•June 21, 2025
‘Dah-Duhm. Dah-Duhm’: ‘Jaws’ at 50 Still Terrifies
The kid next door showed it to me. He’d gotten it from his older brother. The book. With a naked girl swimming across the top of the cover, even though the waterline covered her up; a toothful sea…
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•June 4, 2025
Where Reef Meets Rainforest in Land Down Under
Sitting in my Beach Haven study last spring, I reached over and twirled the large world globe that stood next to my desk. It stopped at “the land down under.” I scribbled in my journal, “Plan for a…
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•May 28, 2025
Regina at 102: ‘Get on With Life and Enjoy It’
What a pleasure it has been getting to know Regina Sipple! We met at the Stafford Community Café, located in the Ocean County Southern Service Center on Route 9 in Manahawkin. I know about this…
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•May 26, 2025
Marking a WWII-Era Tragedy Over the Shore
March in Holgate is a quiet time of year. But 80 years ago, the skies would have been full of Navy aircraft on training missions. The throaty roar of 18-cylinder, 46-liter engines – that’s nearly…
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•May 8, 2025
‘French Fries With Eyes’ – Treats From Another Island
French Fries with Eyes – yes, you read it right. It’s just one enticing seafood recipe in The Martha’s Vineyard Cookbook, a new book by Julia Blanter and published by Rizzoli New York. I almost never…
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•April 30, 2025
Big Divide Over Bunnies – Adorable or Deplorable?
Despite living in the bubble that is Long Beach Island, where we’re sheltered from many of societies ills, our little slice o’ heaven is not immune to the stark divisions we face in 2025. I’m not…
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April 24, 2025
Runtley Meets Another Menace Called Milton
This is another story from Runtley, a Harvey Cedars rescue cat, as told to “Mom” Sandi Appleby of Nokomis, Fla., a former long-time resident of Harvey Cedars. For 28 years she and her husband owned…
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•April 16, 2025
‘Were You There?’ – Thoughts on Holy Week Resonate Today
The American folk hymn and Afro-American spiritual asks us, “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” When we consider who were there, and when we are honest with ourselves, we know that we were…
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•April 9, 2025
We Love Our Pampered Pets as Their Food Options Attest
There’s a lot of discussion about the high price of groceries, especially for families with children. One thing I haven’t heard about is the price of pet food. I keep seeing commercials on television…
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•April 3, 2025
State of the Birds Is Suffering – Especially for Shorebirds
Birds are amazing. From the vibrant colors and calls of songbirds to the majestic flight of eagles, these winged creatures have long been a source of wonder and inspiration.
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•March 11, 2025
Riders on the Storm Brave Harshest LBI Weather
The winter season has now been fully thrust upon us with intense storms, high winds and plunging temperatures replete with ice and snow. Real winter living on the Island allows us to experience and…
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•February 19, 2025
Betting Big on That Long Beach Island Breeze
I’m typically not much of a gambling gal. Except for an annual trip to A.C. for some slots fun, an occasional lottery ticket scratcher, or a rare small wager in a family sports pool, I hesitate…
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•February 12, 2025
No Trivial Pursuit: Games Are Seriously Fun
I am a games person. In the summer I play senior softball three days a week. I always come in either first or second place (there are only two teams each day). I play duplicate bridge twice a week.…
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•February 6, 2025
The Folly of February: Can We Wipe It Off the Calendar?
If you’re reading this, you’re frozen. Done. Stranded. It is February, the most dismal, depressing month of the year and here you are, trapped in one of the coldest winters LBI has lived through in…
