As a young child who daily anticipated watching The Mickey Mouse Club on our family’s black and white television console in the late 50’s, I could never have imagined that one day I would be paying more than $100 monthly for the privilege of viewing television programming.  No one could.  In those days, the airwaves […]

Given the state of the world, I think that children of all ages would be prudent to revisit some of the core lessons that our parents taught us when we were younger.  If you were like me, you probably sloughed off much of this advice and only took it to heart when your parents’ fears […]

In his promise to restore fiscal sanity to the State of New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie announced a proposal that would impact the gambling industry.  He proposed to sell off the State’s racetracks and use the resultant funds to reinvest in Atlantic City, whose casinos are struggling to run in the black, and not the […]

I believe that I am not overreaching when I state that everyone likes to win, whether such winning relates to games, contests, arguments, debates, or larger personal or professional developmental challenges.  And, why would anyone not want to win?  Mankind has been conditioned from time immemorial to savor victory – from times both long and […]

According to yahoo.com’s intrepid news hounds, Jellies® are back.  Not the sweet, sticky strawberry jam-like stuff, but the shoes that were wildly popular a few decades ago.  Jellies® gave absolutely no sole support; neither did they allow your feet to breathe.  But this didn’t stop hordes of females of all ages from clearing them off […]

College of Montreal experts recommend cashew seed extract as a means of treating type 2 diabetes. New information published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research proposes that cashew seed extract may play an important role in both the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes. The cashew is a tree in the flowering […]

Most people fantasize about winning the lottery, kissing their jobs goodbye, and flying off to an island to romp carefree under the sun.  Not me.  For the past four and a half years, my fantasy has been to sit somewhere quietly with Taylor Hicks, the monumentally talented singer, songwriter, musician, and arranger. Just as Taylor was […]

How many times has each of us uttered the phrase, “It’s not my job; let someone else do it”?  Upon closer inspection, this is more than an expression.  It is a mindset in which we assume that everything can be fixed, provided someone else takes up the slack.  At the end of World War II, […]

Don’t Turn Your Ticket In, Don’t Get Your Money Back at the Door: Counting Crows, Augustana, and NOTAR at the Starland Ballroom   When an act as stellar as Counting Crows launches its set with a cover of Van Morrison’s Caravan, it speaks volumes about the soul of that band: where it’s been, where it’s […]

For those of us not in the public eye, our brushes with celebrity can provide an escape from the humdrum nature of daily life, as well as a subject of conversation when someone asks us “what’s new?”  During my own life in the greater New Jersey area, I have personally encountered many personalities from the […]