Met an absolutely true gentleman tonight during Roselle Park’s National Night Out. We were waiting in line for the water slide with Mariposa and Ezekiel as our youngest gets more excited with each little step that brings us closer to the slide. A bit in front of us some young pre-teen...

After 25 years of faithful service, a quarter of a century, my favorite pair of rollerblades have given me their last glide. Adieu my eight wheelers. You were good.

Some pretty f*$%@ I mean messed up sh*#, I mean stuff, you find out about your mother and father that are terrifying and amazing. Out of all things, it started with her wedding ring falling to the ground. For those who do not know, my mother suffered a pretty severe stroke on January 2nd. She...

Sitting around the dinner table during supper tonight, after talking about our individual days the conversation gets around to the lottery. We all start talking and laughing about the first things we would do if we won: everything from the thoughtful to the outrageous (helping out family...

My friend Marc posted on my wall a show called UNSUB. It was before CSI, Criminal Minds, etc. and was a really good show.  It was so good it actually was of value in real life. There was an episode where the old guy on the team finds out how the serial killer gets children by crouching down...

16,801 days I have been alive. Out of those, I have had my parents in my life all those days. 10,569, Marc has been the one to make me double over gut laughing and made me realize what really good solid writing and friendship is all about. 8,204 I have had Lis in my life and has been my life....

Andreotta, Glenn U., 20 On April 8, 1968, 20-year-old Glenn Andreotta was the door gunner on a Hiller Raven helicopter in Vietnam who was killed while taking enemy fire. He never made it home. His name is on panel 48E, line 50, on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. He is just...

Took ZZ to the doctor today. Nothing more serious than a cold. But checking in to see the doctor, I was asked if I visited any of the countries affected by Ebola. I told the registration clerk ‘yes’, that I live in the country affected by Ebola. She did not find that as funny as I...

What a day! What a life! Yesterday was the first day of my 46th year and we celebrated my 45th birthday! Being a true believer of making every day count, I chalked up another day to make it 16,436 days alive – or 16,733 days if you count conception (We will forego any questions and...

(or “The Passion And Power Of Song”) So during this session of the Qersdyn Weekend Morning Record Review (just made that up) the family got to … Okay, just to back up a little, every weekend morning while making and eating breakfast, the family gets to hear some LPs from...

(Or “I Got The Whole World Wide Web In My Hands”) Okay so who wants to help me with my invention? I found a way to enable brain-mapping by emulating a wifi signal. The electric impulses send out a frequency and tuning that to a signal seems to have worked past the first stage. A...

This is a great example of the difference between being right and doing right. Some people think it is more important to feel good about themselves and sit on their high horse to show how righteous they are instead of doing anything to help.

Okay, so what is a mother? I ask because today is the day to say ‘love you’ to mom. Great mom, best mom, wonderful mom, mommy, mama, mother. But, whether we really think about it or not, these women are people, beyond that title. For me, I just want to take a moment to talk about...

January 13, 1982. So remember that Polar Vortex we experienced last week? Well, imagine being stuck in that with no coat. Add that your clothes (and entire body) are soaked in ice water and that snow is falling hard . . . all this because the plane you were on slammed into a bridge and hit...

Those three words start the piece of paper from which our nation was founded. To be followed by 10 amendments written about a week later plus another 17 throughout two centuries – the last of which was ratified 21 years ago – add to that voluminous Supreme Court cases that have...

My father is the man. Lemme splain . . . Issa too mucha, lemme sum uppa. Tonight’s soccer game was a semi-finals match for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The teams? Honduras vs. USA and my father is an American citizen originally from Honduras. He loves America. He came to the US legally in...

For those who do not know, I volunteer to teach ESL and have done so for almost five years now. It started in Roselle, moved to Roselle Park, and now has expanded to Elizabeth. Tonight at class we started having our dialogue section where people have conversations. It was in question/answer...

Folks, let’s just call it what it is. We’ve all seen it over the past 12+ days but we’ve given it some pretty highfalutin terms: neighborly, friendly, prudent, helpful, kindness, outreach, responsibility, etc. And there are all those examples: a family chainsawing a neighbor’s tree all the...

LIVE THE DASH A father of three . . . words I honestly never thought would be used to describe me. So today is Fathers’ Day. For me, today is a day to reflect on fatherhood and all the joys and responsibility that come with that one word – “Dad”. That one word has been used...

After 13 years as part of our family, we made the decision to give XiXi, our pet cat, rest after she endured through months of labored discomfort which became a consuming pain. This photo of our hands caressing XiXi was taken just after the moment her existence transformed into a memory. She...

Citizen journalism. A term used recently, and most commonly in America, to denote those upset with the government due to taxes they think are so high. In other parts of the world, it means something else. It means speaking a government that does not belong to you. It means reporting on false...

Although there has been no public statement, Councilwoman Chen-Hoerning has decided not to run for a second term. The woman who came from nowhere to win the seat held by Robert Rubilla seems to be leaving the scene with official silence. Bring issues to the forefront in a town which, to put...

A LETTER TO THE NEW PRAGUE HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND It’s amazing how what we do affects others and the things we think are unimportant, end up having the most meaning. Now, visiting New York City is a highlight for everyone and although I live in the Elizabeth area and love where I live,...

To All Concerned, With respect to Ordinance 2294 regarding curfew for juveniles my concerns are with the enforcement of it. Personally, my son, although 18 years old, does not have a driver’s license nor any other form of state issued identification that he carries with him at all times. To...

05:00 Yesterday, Roselle Park’s council amended its by-laws to limit the time that members from the public have to speak during the public portion of a Mayor & Council meeting. Not that big of a problem. There are those who disagree with the time limit as an infringement on free speech....

To start things off, here are the original post by Michael Peterson which is on www.nj.com/forums/rosellepark and my response to him which was removed (by request from someone other than me). Michael Peterson (10729 Gross distortion by Saul by jerryp, 12/27/09) I would like to know just where...

During the Roselle Park Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, November 17, 2009, Board member Alex Balaban spoke on the Holocaust Curriculum and Cultural Enrichment Curriculum that the Roselle Park school district has been pursuing for over a decade. Born out of a state mandate, its goal is...

David Mamet, in his offering, “The Spanish Prisoner” has wonderfully performed what is probably the longest con ever perpetrated on an audience – where the viewers themselves, not the film’s character, were the intended mark all along. One of America’s best...