Recent Posts:

$10 million to train people for casino jobs? What jobs?

Published: 11/18/09

Can you spend too much public money on training workers for the casino and hospitality industries?

Crime in Atlantic City: Perception vs. reality

Published: 11/16/09

Anthony Marino has been around for a while. He is a retired South Jersey Transportation Authority administrator and an …

Bad storm, a missing boat and no night to be in the Coast Guard

Posted: 11/12/09

3 p.m. update:

Hey, Chris: Just cancel the inaugural parties

Published: 11/11/09

Because of what is being called a legislative oversight, the state’s pay-to-play rules do not apply to inaugural comm…

Fat kids

Published: 11/09/09

When I went to Atlantic City High School in the 1970s, the breakfast of choice in my homeroom seemed to be orange soda …

What's a few dead birds?

Published: 11/06/09

I like birds. I can tell a snowy egret from a glossy ibis. (Yeah, one's white and the other's black, but still ...)

OK, Chris Christie - you got the ball

Published: 11/04/09

I like Jon Corzine. I think his heart is in the right place. I think he is in politics, and has spent millions upon mil…

Question: What percentage of U.S. children will get food stamps at some point in their childhoods?

Posted: 11/03/09

I found this shocking. According to an analysis published in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescen…

The teachers are coming, the teachers are coming

Published: 11/02/09

Yes, it's that time - the annual teachers convention in Atlantic City. Kids get two days off from school, as an estimat…

Pssst ... did you hear about Sasha and Malia and the swine-flu vaccine!

Published: 10/30/09

Can Barack Obama's critics get any meaner?

Baseball and the governor's race: South Jersey gets stiffed

Published: 10/29/09

Phillies? Or Yankees?

Afghanistan ... yes, Afghanistan

Published: 10/28/09

Regular readers (I have some, right?) probably have noticed that I don't take myself too seriously, and I don't often w…

Do the region a favor: Fly out of ACY

Published: 10/26/09

The good news is that

What's the Monopoly World Championship doing in Las Vegas?

Published: 10/23/09

So here's the first paragraph of an Associated Press story on the wire this morning:

Ray Kot, a unique soul

Published: 10/21/09

Nine times out of 10, when someone dies an untimely death, friends, neighbors and coworkers tell reporters what a great…

It's all the DEP's fault? What nonsense

Posted: 10/19/09

Ah, campaign season, the time of year when the leaves turn color and candidates for state Legislature tell you how they…

Speaking of a three-day (or four-day) northeaster, any Hemingway fans out there?

Published: 10/17/09

Well, the fun's over. It's starting to feel like winter. And in the midst of our three-day (or four-day) northeaster he…

Sex and blackmail

Posted: 10/15/09

Sorry about that "Sex and blackmail" headline. This post isn't really about - not directly, anyway - the attempt to bla…

Success? In Atlantic City?

Posted: 10/14/09

Atlantic City can't ...

Health reform, Miami's Dr. Joe (and a guy named Spenser)

Posted: 10/13/09

I get most of my moral instruction from a guy up in Boston by the name of Spenser. True, he's not real. He's a fictiona…

Coaches and child molesters

Published: 10/12/09

Should youth sports leagues perform

An ode to Wawa

Posted: 10/11/09

Today's all-important question: How does Wawa do it?

Biden's trip to Atlantic City

Published: 10/08/09

It didn't bother me at all when Barack and Michelle Obama flew from Washington to New York for dinner and a show in May…

A Nobel Prize ... in Waretown?

Posted: 10/07/09

I love

Suggestion of a mob threat? An update

Posted: 10/05/09

Here's an update to the post below. Check out Donald Wittkowski's

Annoying bicyclists

Posted: 10/04/09

The MS City to Shore Ride goes by my house every year. The organizers do a great job - an excellent job, actually - mar…

Christie, Corzine ... and Bruuuuce!

Posted: 09/30/09

I was never prouder to be a Jersey-shore boy than on Oct. 27, 1975 - the day Bruce Springsteen appeared simultaneously …

Kindles instead of textbooks?

Published: 09/29/09

Note to "the Kindle will change the world" crowd: Maybe not.

Our children are drinking poisonous water!

Published: 09/28/09

Yes,

Who will save the Atlantic City Marathon?

Published: 09/25/09

What a shame about the

See Atlantic City ... in 1951

Published: 09/23/09

I know some people don't get the fascination that a lot of us South Jersey natives have with the old days in Atlantic C…

The 'czar' thing

Posted: 09/22/09

Dick Polman, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, had a great column Sunday on the right's outrage over President Obama's "cza…

Ban smoking on the beach?

Posted: 09/21/09

I'm about as anti-indoor-smoking as you can get. Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose ... and all that.

Sex in the firehouse

Published: 09/18/09

You know what I don't get about the whole sex-in-the-firehouse-with-young girls thing in Atlantic City?

A flag, and a nation, torn in two

Published: 09/17/09

Donna Rothman, of Avalon, sent in this picture. She said she and her husband, Craig, thought it demonstrated the nation…

VLTs for Blockbuster?

Published: 09/16/09

Blockbuster video-rental stores are going out of business.

Ban plastic bags? Fine with me

Published: 09/15/09

Ocean City is the latest town to consider banning the ubiquitous plastic bags used by stores. Of course, it's not clear…

Married to the mob

Posted: 09/14/09

Phyliss Merlino has a point. "Is this like life without parole?"

Corruption and you

Posted: 09/11/09

We have a great package of five guest columns on Sunday's Opinion pages on the issue of public corruption in New Jersey…

A speakeasy? In Pleasantville?

Published: 09/09/09

Damn, a speakeasy - in Pleasantville.

Good for Laura Bush

Published: 09/08/09

I like Laura Bush. Sure, she often seemed to have that deer-in-the-headlights, "Stepford Wives" look. But there have be…

Getting Revel finished

Posted: 09/07/09

Why syringes wash up on beaches

Published: 09/04/09

Let me try to bring some perspective to

The bandana-wearing, bow-and-arrow-toting bicyclist

Published: 09/03/09

Note to self:

Harry Klause: A good guy in my book

Published: 09/02/09

Having a Harry Klause sticker on the back of your car is a sign of being a true local. Many families have been buying c…

State-owned casinos in Kansas: Yo, professor ...

Published: 09/01/09

The state of Kansas plans to open three new casinos in addition to the four Indian casinos already operating in the sta…

Ted Kennedy: Lout or lion? (Or ... the nature of truth)

Published: 08/31/09

Most of what I know, I learned ... not in kindergarten - but by selecting the quotes in the Thought for the Day feature…

Reopen Bader Field? Hmmm ...

Published: 08/28/09

The Press published lots of editorials over the years urging that Bader Field be shut down. Too dangerous. Unnecessary …

Tracking a storm like Danny

Published: 08/27/09

I like weather. All kinds of weather. Good weather, bad weather. In 1984, I took my then 3-year-old son out for a walk …

Ted Kennedy and me: I apologize

Published: 08/26/09

Confession is good for the soul ... right?