New Jersey’s Gas Pump Problem
New Jersey has always enjoyed favored status with me because I grew up in the northeastern part of the state – an area known for farmland and as a bedroom community for those who worked in New York but wanted to escape the intensity of life in an urban city. Through the years, numerous jokes about New Jersey – the accent, the “joyzey shore,” the Cherry Hill water tower – have been repeated along with the question that always perplexed me: “What exit are you from?” as if New Jersey was a narrow state where all residents could claim an exit off the New Jersey Turnpike. Read more 
“By Nightfall”
Michael Cunningham, author of “The Hours” (which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1998) published his newest book “By Nightfall” in 2010. The story takes place in New York City and although the summary on the back of the book states the story is about Peter and Rebecca Harris, a couple in living in Manhattan, the real story is about Peter Harris. Throughout the entire book, the reader is privy to every thought Peter has to the effect of feeling like the reader is in the head of the main character. Read more
Raincoast Crisps
Vancouver, Canada is the home of Lesley Stowe’s Fine Foods, maker of some of the most delicious crackers ever made. Crisp crackers made with flour, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, figs, kalamata olives, dates, flax seeds, almonds, milk, hazelnuts, pecans, raisins,brown sugar, sesame seeds, rosemary, honey, baking soda and sea salt, Raincoast crisps are the best thing to happen to cheese in years. Read more
Bequet Caramels
Bozeman, Montana is the home of Béquet Confections, maker of three types of vanilla butter caramels (soft, chewy, and celtic sea salt) and seven butter caramels (chocolate, chipotle, espresso, salt-chocolate, pomegranate, butterscotch, and green apple). Each bite sized caramel is individually wrapped in decorated plastic covers with color twisted ends to unwrap when ready to devour, and devour you will because I have yet to meet anyone who can eat just one Béquet Caramel. Read more
“Olive Kitteridge”
When I was in high school, I worked in a local pharmacy and learned the secrets of everyone in town: the mayor was taking Valium, an overwhelmed mother had a prescription for 100 Percocet tablets filled monthly, a close friend’s parents never paid their bills (this was back when I thought everyone paid their bills), and a young girl voted “best looking” by her fellow classmates in the graduating class of the local high school was trying to break into modeling and getting hooked on diet pills to become the size 4 she would never be. Read more
Gagne’s Cream Cheese Biscuits
There used to be a restaurant called Robinhood Free Meetinghouse Restaurant in Georgetown, Maine, a small town in the southeast part of the state. The restaurant was located in a 19th century church that was restored and converted to a destination dining hall by Michael Gagné, a chef who had a vision: “to create decadent, flavorful biscuits made entirely from scratch, and use only the finest ingredients.” Read more
“Still Alice”
“She liked being reminded of butterflies. She remembers being six or seven and crying over the fates of the butterflies in her yard after learning that they lived for only a few days. Her mother had comforted her and told her not to be sad for the butterflies, that just because their lives were short didn’t mean they were tragic.”
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Papabubble Candy
My daughter was visiting her cousin in New York City when she discovered Papabubble which she pronounced “Papa Booblay,” a candy store that looks more like a chemists storefront from the exterior in Greenwich Village. Inside, the store retains its character with elegant two-tone bags with silver backing and transparent fronts bursting with colorful candies, all neatly lined up in rows along the wall. Read more
Facing Consequences
Several months ago I received an e-mail from my daughter’s school alerting me to contact the school should a pair of crutches turn up. Seems someone stole an injured student’s crutches from the gym. At first I thought this was a prank but then I realized the crutches had to have been missing for a while for the school to send out a community-wide e-mail. Who on earth would steal a pair of crutches from an injured student who couldn’t walk without assistance? Read more
“Immortal Bird”
“Immortal Bird – A Family Memoir” by Doron Weber is the story of Weber’s firstborn son, Damon, who was born without a second ventricle on the right side of his heart which means there was no passageway to pump oxygen rich blood back into his lungs. A blue baby whose organs and tissues could not get enough oxygen, Damon underwent two open heart surgeries, the later called a “Fontan” which alleviated his problem by bypassing his right side altogether and pumping oxygen rich blood directly to his lungs. Read more
Paddock Post 